Req help with Parse Error on VERY simple PHP code

SoraAgrees

I'm literally JUST starting out with PHP and i was looking at the tutorial on php.net. They give you a code to set up your "first php enabled page" which just prints "Hello World". Here is the code:

<html>
 <head>
  <title>PHP Test</title>
 </head>
 <body>
 <?php
   echo '<p>Hello World</p>';
 ?> 
 </body>
</html>

I made my php file in TextEdit on my Macbook, making sure to set the document to plain text and save it with the ".php" extention. I'm hosting at my domain with DreamHost, which is php enabled. However, I keep getting this error when I try to access the page:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING in /home/soraAgrees1/pjcorso.com/PHPtest.php on line 7

I can't figure out what's wrong. I tried changing the single quotes around Hello World to double quotes, but I get the same error. I am sad.

paulnaj

Hi SoraAgrees,

That would make me sad too ... the code is completely ok.

The only thing I can think of is that, even though you have been careful to save as plain text, somehow something odd is still happening. Since I don't use macs I can't help directly, but I quickly googled 'textedit plain text php' and found these two pages ... http://php.about.com/od/programs/qt/TextEdit_PHP.htm and http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20406.

Maybe there was something you missed.

Paul

PS Welcome to the forum

bradgrafelman

If you still can't spot the problem, try renaming the file to have a .txt file extension and uploading it here for us to examine.

nevvermind

Try using another plain text editor.
I don't do macs, so i wouldn't know.

It's too simple for php to even start its intepreter (joke), so my guess is that the problem resides in some other part. Try local testing. Check your host's server setup.

Try some other codes, but stick with your original code. Try this:

<?php

echo 'Hey, PHP, are you there?';

?>

jeremyphphaven

This would not be good... but try changing <?php to just <?... so the code would look like:

<? 

echo 'Hey, PHP, are you there?'; 

?>

Again, not good, but a hunch... what happens?

nevvermind

jeremyphphaven;10960169 wrote:
This would not be good... but try changing <?php to just <?

Why?

bradgrafelman

jeremyphphaven;10960169 wrote:
try changing <?php to just <?

Considering that you can't disable the full "<?php" tag whereas the "<?" short tag has been deprecated and disabled by default, that seems like very confusing (to say the last) advice. :p

johanafm

What does "making sure to set the document to plain text" mean?

As far as I know, plain text only tells whatever program is handling the file contents not to interpret the data at all, and simply display whatever is in there. As such, the character encoding has no connection at all to plain text. It may still be Mac OS Roman, iso-8859-1, utf-8...

Utf-8 with BOM (byte order mark) can (or perhaps will) screw up your files. Make sure you save as some other format.

Another possibility is that your webserver doesn't like the line-ending character(s) used. Traditionally Mac used \r (Carriage Return), while *nix (not sure if this goes for OS X) uses \n (Line Feed), and Windows uses \r\n. See if your text editor supports changing this as well.

Desdinova

I have a mac too and I do not trust textEdit at all. It's a default rich text editor and has screwed up on me on so many ways.

Try getting Komodo Edit (free) or look into Netbeans or Eclipse. Additionally you can try to find a different simple text editor. I have one called Really Simple Text. I think it was free. Or well I got it for free.

TextEdit might hide chars from you, because it's a rich text editor.

johanafm

emacs is also free

wowstrats

text wrangler for macs is another really good text editor for this kind of thing... as far as the problem itself... id say it would be with your host as your code is perfectly ... perfect

try another php script:

<?php

$var = 1;
echo $var + $var;

?>

if that doesnt work , try it in html tags:

<html>
<body>
<?php

$var = 1;
echo $var + $var;

?>
</body>
</html>

and if that doesnt work. i dont know what to tell you. as im running mac but for scripting i use virtual box with a windows XP (Black Edition) installed as a guest OS

maybe that could be something worth looking into?

best of luck