[SOLVED] echo a link

[markvaughn2006]

How do you echo a link in a variable form while? Thanks guys!!

 

<?php

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM locations

WHERE owned='$_SESSION[myusername]'")

  or die(mysql_error());

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {

  echo "<a href="$row['link']">$row['title']</a>";

  echo "<br/>";

 

  }

?>

 

ERROR is...

 

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in /home/properties.php on line 175

 

[jon23d]

echo "<a href="$row['link']">$row['title']</a>";

 

should be

 

echo "<a href="{$row['link']}">{$row['title']}</a>";

[thebadbad]

jon23d almost had it;

 

echo "<a href=\"{$row['link']}\">{$row['title']}</a>";

You should also wrap myusername in single quotes (it's not a constant, am I right?), and then wrap the whole session variable in curly brackets.

 

mysql_query("SELECT * FROM locations
WHERE owned = '{$_SESSION['myusername']}'")

[mikesta707]

you could also do this

echo "<a href='".$row['link']."'>".$row['title']."</a>";

 

 

[markvaughn2006]

cool it worked! thanks a lot!!

 

Whats the reason for..

"You should also wrap myusername in single quotes (it's not a constant, am I right?), and then wrap the whole session variable in curly brackets."??

 

and no it is not a constant

 

[mikesta707]

because you are supposed to surround associative array strings with single quotes. a string that isn't surrounded by quotes is assumed to be a constant. For example

DEFINE("MY_CONST", "SOME VALUE");

//if i want to use this constant

echo MY_CONST;

 

PHP is smart enough to realize that if a constant doesn't exist, you probably meant a string, but if you have a case where you want to say the string MY_CONST, instead of his value, when you do this

echo MY_CONST

 

when you meant

echo "MY_CONST";

you  will run into problems

 

in your case, saying

$myARR[mykey];

 

is technically OK as long as you dont have a constant named mykey, but its best practice to avoid instances when this could be a problem by surrounding your array keys with single quotes.

 

oh and you surround it with curly brackets, because thats how you output associative arrays without concatenating strings

[thebadbad]

mikesta707 beat me to it, but here's my (pretty identical) explanation.

 

Whats the reason for..

"You should also wrap myusername in single quotes (it's not a constant, am I right?), and then wrap the whole session variable in curly brackets."??

 

and no it is not a constant

 

myusername in your case is a key in an associative array (meaning the keys are string, not integers), and therefore it should be in quotes. Just like you would write

 

$key = 'myusername';
echo $_SESSION[$key];

and not

 

$key = myusername;
echo $_SESSION[$key];

Without quotes PHP thinks it's a constant, and looks for one with that particular name. If it doesn't exist, PHP assumes it's a string (while issuing a notice), and that's why your syntax works.

 

Note: When testing it, it seems no notices are issued when the "$array[key]" syntax is used though.

 

The curly brackets are just the correct syntax when using array values of associative arrays inside double quoted strings.

[markvaughn2006]

cool thanks!