[RESOLVED] Total newbie – ECHO problem

@jfherringSep 11.2007

Hello all,
Just trying to translate a project I recently had into PHP as a learning experience, and everything has worked pretty well so far, but I’m having a problem with one piece. I don’t know if I’ve been looking at this too long and am missing the obvious, or what. Anyway, here is the code:

[CODE] <?php

session_start();

$sScaleTotal = 90; $cScaleTotal = 2; $affScaleTotal = 3; $acScaleTotal = 4; $fScaleTotal = 5; $pScaleTotal = 6;

echo ‘<html><body>’;

echo ‘ <table class=”sectioniiis” cellspacing=”0″> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiiheader” colspan=”6″>Section III Norm-Referenced Interpretation</td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiiheader”> </td> <td class=”sectioniiiheader”>Raw score</td> <td class=”sectioniiiheader”>Standard score</td> <td class=”sectioniiiheader”>Confidence Interval</td> <td class=”sectioniiiheader”>Classification</td> <td class=”sectioniiiheader”>Percentile rank</td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiileft”>Social</td> <td class=”sectioniii”>’ . $sScaleTotal . ‘</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiileft”>Competence</td> <td class=”sectioniii”>’ . $cScaleTotal . ‘</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiileft”>Affect</td> <td class=”sectioniii”>’ . $affScaleTotal . ‘</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiileft”>Academic</td> <td class=”sectioniii”>’ . $acScaleTotal . ‘</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiileft”>Family</td> <td class=”sectioniii”>’ . $fScaleTotal . ‘</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiileft”>Physical</td> <td class=”sectioniii”>’ . $pScaleTotal . ‘</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class=”sectioniiileft”>Total</td> <td class=”sectioniii”>’ . $sScaleTotal+$cScaleTotal+$affScaleTotal+$acScaleTotal+$fScaleTotal+$pScaleTotal . ‘</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> </table> ‘ ;

echo ‘</body></html>’;

?> [/CODE]

and here is the html output:

[CODE] <html><body>20</td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> <td class=”sectioniii”> </td> </tr> </table>

</body></html> [/CODE]

I’ve stripped out the template stuff and the query stuff and anything else not causing the problem. I’ve got it down to just this table. For some reason, it is not echoing anything until the last table row, and it is also not adding the first variable value to the total in that row. Sorry if this is a waste of your time, but like I said, I’m totally new to this and am a little confused. Thanks a lot,

jfherring

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4 Comments(s) _↴

@pgreggSep 12.2007 — #I believe the problem is this: $sScaleTotal+$cScaleTotal+$affScaleTotal+$acScaleTotal+$fScaleTotal+$pScaleTotal

Both . and + operators have equal precedence which means PHP will parse them left to right... so you'll have string.$sScaleTotal then + $cScaleTotal ,etc which isn't what you want.

Either wrap the math in brackets ($sScaleTotal+$cScaleTotal+$affScaleTotal+$acScaleTotal+$fScaleTotal+$pScaleTotal

) or you could use a , instead of . as an argument separator for echo - that way PHP processes them separately without first having to concatenate all the strings together.

A final alternative is to use heredoc syntax: e.g.

$total = $sScaleTotal+$cScaleTotal+$affScaleTotal+$acScaleTotal+$fScaleTotal+$pScaleTotal

;

echo <<<EOWHATEVER

<table class="sectioniiis" cellspacing="0">

...

<tr>

<td class="sectioniiileft">Social</td>

<td class="sectioniii">$sScaleTotal</td>

<td class="sectioniii"> </td>

<td class="sectioniii"> </td>

<td class="sectioniii"> </td>

<td class="sectioniii"> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td class="sectioniiileft">Competence</td>

<td class="sectioniii">$cScaleTotal</td>

<td class="sectioniii"> </td>

...

<td class="sectioniiileft">Total</td>

<td class="sectioniii">$total</td>

<td class="sectioniii"> </td>

...

</tr>

</table>

EOWHATEVER;

Hope this helps,

PG

http://www.pgregg.com/projects/

@jfherringauthorSep 12.2007 — #PGREGG,

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I tried all 3, just to try them out. Personally, based on code I've written in other, I like using the parentheses option. For reference, though, what is the preferred standard for PHP dev, or is there a standard? Thanks again,

jfherring

@pgreggSep 12.2007 — #In your example the preferred method would be to use comma separated args to echo. e.g. echo 'foo', $var, 'bar', $etc; That is the most efficient (cpu wise).

However, I realise sometimes that is cumbersome - and its better to have simpler code than efficient code (for ease of maintenance, updating, understanding 3 years down the line) and so the <<<EOTEXT heredoc syntax may look to be the easier to use solution because you don't need to worry about escaping quotation marks in the text.

@jfherringauthorSep 12.2007 — #Thanks PGREGG,

I ended up using the heredoc solution, but I may change to comma's after reading your response. Interesting that comma's are the most efficient...

Thanks again,

jfherring

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