Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ',' or ';' in C:\AppServ\www\text.php on line 11

Question

I am new to PHP and have a question about it.

<?php

    echo "Do you like it?";
    echo "<br>";
    echo "My name is:<b><i><div style="text-align:center;">Karthic</div></i></b> ";

?>

When I try to load this script in my browser, I am getting this error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ',' or ';' in C:\AppServ\www\text.php on line 11

Lline 11 is

echo "My name is:<b><i><div style="text-align:center;">Karthic</div></i></b> ";

How can I fix this?

Solution 1

The issue is the inner quotes (") around the style data are ending the string. Either use a single quote ' (this way PHP will look for another single quote to represent the end of the string):

echo 'My name is:<b><i><div style="text-align:center;">Karthic</div></i></b> ';

Or escape the double quotes in the string:

echo "My name is:<b><i><div style=\"text-align:center;\">Karthic</div></i></b>";

This tells PHP to ignore them when parsing the code (and instead place them INSIDE the string itself).

Solution 2

Use single quotes when printing HTML

echo 'My name is:<b><i><div style="text-align:center;">Karthic</div></i></b> ';

Instead of

echo "My name is:<b><i><div style="text-align:center;">Karthic</div></i></b> ";

You were cutting off the HTML string, so it was erroring out.

Solution 3

You will have to escape any double quotes that are contained within double quotes. You escape double quotes using the backslash character.

<?php
echo "Do you like it?";
echo "<br>";
echo "My name is:<b><i><div style=\"text-align:center;\">Karthic</div></i></b> ";
?>

You should also put the bold and italic tags within the div instead of outside of it.

Comments

[Austin]

Or escape your " with slashes.

[Kyle Undefined]

I think it's a matter of preference really, I like single quotes. Either way, both of our answers would do the job :)