i keep on getting this error message:
Parse error: parse error, expecting `','' or `';'' in c:\apache\htdocs\labms\member_search_process1.php on line 54

line 54:
echo "<td width="100"><div align="center"><strong>$username</strong></div></td>\n";

can anyone tell me what's wrong with this? did i miss anything?


i'm am total newbie

__________________
i\'m am total newbie

you have to escape all of your " .try this:

echo '<td width="100"><div align="center"><strong>';
echo $username;
echo '</strong></div></td>\\n';

OR do this:
echo "<td width=\"100\"><div align=\"center\"><strong>$username</strong></div></td>\\n";


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Never bother to learn something not knowing which does not do you any harm, and never neglect to learn something whose negligence will increase your ignorance - Imam Jafar Sadeq

thanks Gotaka4. it works.

but i don't understand what does <<<you have to escape all of your ">>> means?

why do i need to put \"100\" ?

i'm am total newbie

you can enclose strings either between ' ' or between " "; so the following is equal.

echo 'This is a string';
echo "This is a string";

the only difference between the two is that strings a between the double quotations (" ") are evaluated. so if you had a stuck a variable between the double quotes, it would read the value of the variable: e.g.

$some_var = "this is another string";

echo "Here is a string and $some_var";
prints //here is a string and this is another string

but if you had. Notice the single quote.

echo 'Here is a string and $some_var';
prints //Here is a string and $some_var;

because anything between single quote is regarded as string and is not evaluated by PHP. So if you know you have nothing but string, it is recommended to use the single quote as it is faster than double quotes.

----------so now to your question.
why would you escape your double quotes. Think about this line of quote for one sec:

echo "<td width="100">.......";

what PHP sees is that it is supposed to print (aka echo) the string between the double quotes which would be "<td width="

There are two things wrong here:
the statement echo is not terminated with the semi-colon ; .
and 100 is left out in the open. PHP has no idea where it came from and what it is.

to avoid this, you have to escape the double quotes that you want PHP to consider as plain string.


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Never bother to learn something not knowing which does not do you any harm, and never neglect to learn something whose negligence will increase your ignorance - Imam Jafar Sadeq

now i get it. thanks Gotaka4 for making it clear for me.

i'm am total newbie