Why is my PHP code wrong?

C

CorrieDeBeer

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I'm trying to teach myself PHP, but something seems to not be working


HTML: 
<html>
<head>
<title> 305 Using the TextArea tag</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/basic_2.css" />
</head>
<body>
<h3>Using the Text Area tag</h3>
<form method="post" action="0305_Using_TextArea.php">
<p>
First Name:<br  />
<input type="text" name="firstname" size="35"
</p>
<p>
Comments:<br  />
<textarea name="comments" rows="8" cols="65">
</textarea>
</p>
<p>
<input type="submit" Value="Submit Information">
</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>

The second part is.

HTML: 
<html>
<head>
<title> 305 Using the TextArea tag</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/basic_2.css" />
</head>
<?php
$firstname = S_POST['firstname']
$comments = $_POST['comments']
print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'> "$firstname" . </span> and";
print "your comments about the College are </p>"
print "<p> <span class='textblue'>. "$comments"</span></p>";
?>
</html>

The first menu works fine, but the second one gives me this...

bandicam 2016-07-20 14-02-43-626.jpg
 
You are missing . to combine the strings.

Eg $string3 = $string1." ".$string2
 
PHP: 
print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'>".$firstname."</span> and";
print "your comments about the College are </p>";
print "<p><span class='textblue'>".$comments."</span></p>";
 
CrazyBob said:
PHP: 
print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'>".$firstname."</span> and";
print "your comments about the College are </p>";
print "<p><span class='textblue'>".$comments."</span></p>";
Click to expand...

You can also do:
PHP: 
<p>You are <span class='textblue'><?php echo $firstname;?></span> 
and your comments about the College are </p>
<p><span class='textblue'><?php echo $comments;?></span></p>
 
rward said:
You can also do:
PHP: 
<p>You are <span class='textblue'><?php echo $firstname;?></span> 
and your comments about the College are </p>
<p><span class='textblue'><?php echo $comments;?></span></p>
Click to expand...

I do the
PHP: 
<?php echo $var; ?>
Otherwise it ends up like a site I saw that is basically just:

PHP: 
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>

500 lines later

print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>
print <html stuff>

Hurts my brain.
 
if you are using php 5.4+ you can use

PHP: 
<?= $var ?>

without enabling short tags
 
<?php
$firstname = S_POST['firstname'];
$comments = $_POST['comments'];
print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'> ".$firstname." . </span> and";
print "your comments about the College are </p>";
print "<p> <span class='textblue'>. ".$comments."</span></p>";
?>
 
Or

print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'> " . $firstname . " . </span> and";

To

print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'> $firstname . </span> and";

Variables inside a double quoted string are replaced with the values.
 
biometrics said:
Or

print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'> " . $firstname . " . </span> and";

To

print "<p>You are <span class='textblue'> $firstname . </span> and";

Variables inside a double quoted string are replaced with the values.
Click to expand...

I use echo mosty, apparently there's a small difference. Only realized that now..
Also I tend to use single quotes and break up the line.

Essentially does the same, but just reads differently.
Code: 
echo '<p>You are <span class="textblue">' . $firstname .  '</span> and';
 
Just to avoid confusion, the last posts are correct. Gregorgy pointed out the real problem of the line endings missing. And Biometrics is correct: "text $variable more text". Only in single quotes do you need to do: 'text ' . $variable . ' more text'. But you can do the same with double quotes, no harm done.

Edit: another error: $firstname = S_POST['firstname'] should be $firstname = $_POST['firstname']

Tip. Get yourself an IDE like Netbeans or Eclipse etc. , it will highlight errors.
 
Last edited:
I know it's a bit off topic here and your question has been resolved but I thought it might be worth mentioning now while you're learning.

Clean your inputs

Code: 
$firstname = striptags(stripslashes($_POST['firstname']));

or put it into a function:

Code: 
function clean($var){
   return striptags(stripslashes($var));
}

$firstname = clean($_POST['firstname']);
$comments = clean($_POST['comments']);

There are other ways and more advanced things/ways you can do it but it's best to get used to cleaning everything from the start.
 
Last edited:
Why doesn't anyone use a framework? Functions already written for you to do all of the basic stuff
 
Could be something small that doesn't need a framework?
 
creeper said:
Why doesn't anyone use a framework? Functions already written for you to do all of the basic stuff
Click to expand...

When last did you fire up laravel for a a little brochure site.

I use a framework only if it's a scalable project

Otherwise I make my thing as streamlined as possible no need to have 500 functions if I need two.
 
Thor187 said:
When last did you fire up laravel for a a little brochure site.

I use a framework only if it's a scalable project

Otherwise I make my thing as streamlined as possible no need to have 500 functions if I need two.
Click to expand...
CodeIgniter ftw!
 
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