[RESOLVED] commenting a working line of code throws an error and php comment formats

cretaceous

trivial query really:

why does commenting out a line of code have unexpected behaviour?

earlier today I commented out a line of script that was doing a string replace on a mysql row value - so it had brackets, square brackets and a few quotes

but no ifs, other conditionals or curly braces

it worked fine uncommented - I just wanted to comment it out for testing

but when commented out with a double slash I got a T encapsed error

where you would pin the blame: xammp??

So is there an official php commenting format?

// for single lines
or

another comment

/
removes a block
/

so what's the need for this format:
/**
ksort($variables);
$pg_dbtbl='agnt';
$pg_idname='agnt_id';
/

NogDog

Without seeing the actual code in question, it's pretty hard to answer the first question. My guess is that the line commented out was actually part of a 2-or-more line command; but that's pure speculation for now.

With regard to the last type of commenting you showed, as far as PHP is concerned that's just the normal / . . . / type of comment, with the extra asterisks being treated as just another character. However, PHPDocumentor (and maybe some other documentation programs) treats it as a special type of comment that it uses to create program documentation.

nrg_alpha

This would be akin to going under knife in an operating room, and the 'surgeon' removes something random (without knowing what it is), and starts questioning why you are having 'unexpected behavior' once you come around (if you come around).. is xampp at blame for that?

(by the way, no, xampp is not to blame - it's basically a local server setup with Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl).
Unless the line of code you commented out is just there for kicks / space filler (which would denote bad code to begin with), odds are that almost any line would have some form of impact.. There might be a few safe lines to comment out (like say establishing a blank array):

$arr = array();

Once you start using $arr[] = .... PHP will automatically handle it accordingly (despite that initial variable declaration being commented out for example). But overall, I would suspect that more often than not, commenting something out will invariable cause 'unexpected behaviour' as you put it.

If anyone's to blame, I would pin it on the user.

Weedpacket

NogDog wrote:
and maybe some other documentation programs

Such comments are also available through the reflection API (when it spits out a whole bunch of methods for a class, it's nice to know what they're all supposed to be for).

cretaceous

hey nrg alpha, I'm no idiot - please dont patronise me

I clearly specified it had no conditionals
I was not randomly fiddling, its all my own code
I know what xammp is
I thought my description implied I was not a novice

the line in question was somewhat like this:

$t_oview=parse_links('ADDLINK:',$t_oview,1,'|',$urlrt.'/'.$secturlname);

that value $t_oview was previously defined, so that line of code only performed some str_replace type functions on it ,so whether it was active or not should have made no difference

(the line bit the dust anyway so exact code is gone)

I've never experienced this in my 'x' years of coding php professionally - I thought someone might have a useful insight

my guess was the commenting was faulty in some way or some other weirdness

like I said it was a trivial query- but I expected considered replies like the ones I got from the Weed and NogDog.. to whom thanks

phew..

NogDog

First, I'd suggest developing at least a slightly thicker skin. If NRG misinterpreted your "n00bness", so be it. No big deal. (Easy for me to say, right? 🙂 ) He has helped many people on this forum and you have much to gain by encouraging him to want to help you again in the future.

Anyway, the following code runs fine for me:

<?php
$t_oview = 'test';
echo $t_oview;
// $t_oview=parse_links('ADDLINK:',$t_oview,1,'|',$urlrt.'/'.$secturlname);
echo "<br />Got here.";
?>

Does it also run OK for you? If so, then there's still something in your specific situation that we do not know about. If not, then there may be something screwy in your environment. However my suspicion at that point would first be the editor being used and whether it's doing something non-standard in terms of character sets, line endings, etc. before I would look for bugs in the PHP parser. That's not to say there might not be such a bug, but a lot of people have been creating a lot of PHP code with "//" comments for many years now, so I would think the likelihood of such a bug would be very small (but always non-zero).

If you can create a short PHP script that will replicate that error, post it here, and any of us can get the same error, then we can go post it at http://bugs.php.net (after seeing if there's already an open bug).

cretaceous

orignal line of code got deleted and that's the rewrite so too many differences for test

I apologise to nrg but I do think his first paragraph is condescending to anyone, noob or not noob

gonna mark this resolved..

nrg_alpha

cretaceous;10915477 wrote:
orignal line of code got deleted and that's the
I apologise to nrg but I do think his first paragraph is condescending to anyone, noob or not noob

I felt it was a noob question to be honest, as I couldn't perceive it any other way - given the wording of how it was asked.. so my apologies for coming off as condescending.
To me, it stands to reason that if you comment out a line, something in all likelihood will be altered. Whether it is part of conditional code or not, the odds of something being effected is there.

Nothing wrong with commenting something out, mind you. It can be useful for trouble shooting for example, but in all honesty, I wouldn't pin the blame on the server / interpreter or the like.. it only follows instructions, right? So if something is commented out, the interpreter has no choice but to calculate what it's given. Whether the results are what you expected or not is another matter entirely.

cretaceous

yup, I can see what I wrote could be understood that way

I should have written the bit about commenting 'standards' first as that was more what I was interested in