a (stupid) problem with functions..

pck76

I have a file (test.php) that includes another file (includes/test.inc.php) to perform a function.
I have never used funtions before so must some stupid reason that i can't figure out..
😕:mad:
the directory structure is:
htdocs
|--test.php
|--includes
|--|--test.inc.php

test.php:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>TEST</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php
  include("includes/test.inc.php")
  $a = test();
  echo $a;
?>

</body>
</html>

include.inc.php

<?php
function test(){
echo "function test called.";
$value = "function test result";
return $value; 
}

The resulting page is blank. the first file works (eg if i remove the include etc, and just put echo "something"; it will print on the screen normally.
there must be something wrong in the way I call the function or the way I include the file, but can't understand what!

Can you help me please?

Arryn

include 'includes/test.inc.php';

xhcsurge

you say the second file is called include.inc.php but your including test.inc.php?

pck76

just a typo... the file is called test.inc.php...

xhcsurge

Arryn;10926851 wrote:
include 'includes/test.inc.php';

does it work now?

pck76

no, still doesn't work.

quite strangely, i've changed the first file to:

<?php
  //include("includes/test.inc.php")
  //$a = test();
  //echo $a;
 echo "new test";
?>

and it works, but if I remove the commented lines, nothing appears in the page (although "new test" should always appear...i guess??)

maybe there's an error that doesn't show, i'll try and make them visible (if they aren't)

xhcsurge

pck76;10926858 wrote:
no, still doesn't work.

quite strangely, i've changed the first file to:
<?php
//include("includes/test.inc.php")
//$a = test();
//echo $a;

?>

why did you do that?

xhcsurge

aaaaaaaah 😃

i found it

add and ';' at the end of the include line 🙂

pck76

...not that easy unfortunately! 🙂

still doesn't work!
i'm getting frustrated..

xhcsurge

thats funny

i just tried it. just copied your files, and it works with me..

have you changed the

include('includes/test.inc.php')

into

include 'includes/test.inc.php';

pck76

very strange!

yes, i've tried with include 'includes/test.inc.php';
but didn't work..

Arryn

Why not just echo the string in the function and just call the function in the main script (although what you're doing may ultimately be far more detailed that what you show here...)?

xhcsurge

as i said it works with me

here's a pic of the 2 files: test.inc.php is inside the folder 'map'

pck76

i've just deleted everything in the htdocs folder and started from scratch. i've even deleted the site (i'm working with dreamweaver).

and you know what? now it works!
I really don't get it....!?

pck76

i've created two new files:

test1.php

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>

<?php
include("includes/test.php");
?>

</body>
</html>

and the included one:

<?php
echo "hello";

function new() {
	echo " new hello.";
}

now, with the function included in the file, it doesn't work (the page is blank)
...BUT if I remove the function, leaving only echo "hello";, it works! Am I missing something really stupid here!??!

xhcsurge

yes you are

when you put the function around it, its not gonna execute the code inside, until you call the function

pck76

sorry, it was probably a bit confused
what I wanted to say was that when I remove the function declaration, the first echo command works and the page displays "hello", but if the function is there, the first echo command doesn't work!

xhcsurge

did you end the second file with

?>

pck76

no, didn't use the closing tag as I've read that include files shouldn't include it.
Anyway, I've tried adding it but didn't change..

anyway, i've deleted everything again and recreated the files, and this time it works.

Obviously it's very frustrating, as it seems an unpredictable behaviour. I'm using MAMP on mac 10.5, and dreamweaver.

NogDog

"new" is a PHP keyword, you cannot use it as a function name (generates a parse error).

PS: This sort of thing makes an editor/IDE with built-in PHP syntax-checking worth its weight in gold.