"Cannot use assign-op" error

[Catfish]

Hi there,

 

I'm writing some PHP scripts and I have structured my code to have a file that holds common variables that most of my scripts need access to.

 

The variablesCommon.php file is loaded by my other PHP files using a 'require' call.

 

When I use one script (called "addExpense.php") I receive the following error:

 

Fatal error: Cannot use assign-op operators with overloaded objects nor string offsets in /var/www/hisb/data/variablesCommon.php on line 82

 

editing line 82 brings for the same error complaining about line 84. Line 82 and 84 of variablesCommon.php are:

 

$financeType['additional']     .= "<option value=\"".$key."\" #DEFAULTTYPE#>".$value."</option>";
$financeType['additional']             .= "</select>";

 

Changing the operators from .= to just . fixes this problem when I access addExpense.php but then if I use another script (called modifyRecord.php) the values of the $financeType['additional'] array index are not set correctly and the modifyRecord.php functionality is not correct.

 

So in summary:

If I use .= operator, modifyRecord.php works fine and no fatal errors but if I use .= for addExpense.php file it fails with the fatal error.

If I use . instead of .= then addExpense.php works fine but the functionality of modifyRecord.php is incorrect because the value of $financeType['additional'] is not correct.

 

Also note that variablesCommon.php is "required" by a number of other scripts I have and they don't complain about the two lines, it only happens with the addExpense.php page.

 

Please help as this error doesn't seem very logical to me and I can't determine why it is appearing.

[Catfish]

Ok, I'm not sure if I fixed this completely because I didn't know what I was doing wrong to start with, but I looked up some google on overloaded objects and I vaguely remember that stuff from when I did OOP during my small stint at uni a few years ago.

 

Anyhow, I figured that maybe the name of the array in variablesCommon.php ($financeType[]) might be conflicting or overloading with the variable passed by the addExpense.php ($_POST['financeType']) so I changed $financeType[] to $financeTypes[] and it seems to have fixed it.

 

 

The only thing is... I looked for $financeType[] in the other files that would use it and couldn't find it. Heh heh heh... I know what I use the array for but i can't remember where exactly I use it. Anyway, looks like everything is working for now.

[cooldude832]

you can't use connotation on what it thinks is an object so your initial creation of this item must make it not a string but an object.

 

 

[Catfish]

I simply make the associative array using:

 

$financeTypes['indexName'] = "Text to Output";

 

each index I make is done in that fashion (there are only 3 indices), but only the 'additional' index's value is appended to and was the one making the fatal error.

 

It seems to be working now since renaming the array.