PLEASE HELP - Very odd problem

[cpptutor2000]

I am new to PHP and I am having a very odd problem. Could some PHP
guru please help.

I am passing some variables from one page to the next, and in the
starting page, I have:

<div id="navigation " align="center">
<form NAME="addnewpoe tpoemform" METHOD="GET"
ACTION="addpoet poem.php">
<table align="center">
<tr>
<td width="20%">Poe t Name:</td>
<td width="80%"><in put TYPE="text" NAME="newpoet" SIZE="30"
MAXLENGTH="30"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="20%">Poe m Name:</td>
<td width="80%"><in put TYPE="text" NAME="newpoem" SIZE="30"
MAXLENGTH="30"> <$
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> <input TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Add Poet and
Poem"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

When the receiving page opens I can see, in the URL text box the
values that have been passed in.
However, I am unable to echo these values. If I have:
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<?php
// import_request_ variables(gP,"" );
$recdpoet=$_GET['newpoet']
$recdpoem=$_GET['newpoem'];
if(isset($recdp oet) and strlen($recdpoe t) 0)
echo $recdpoet;
?>
</td>
</tr>

The page opens completely blank. What might be
going wrong? I have tried uncommenting the above line, but it does not
work.
Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Rik]

cp**********@ya hoo.com <cp**********@y ahoo.comwrote:

I am new to PHP and I am having a very odd problem. Could some PHP
guru please help.

I am passing some variables from one page to the next, and in the
starting page, I have:
However, I am unable to echo these values. If I have:

$recdpoet=$_GET['newpoet']

You forgot to close it with ';'

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

While developing, setting display_errors on and error_reporting to all is
a great help. If you had this on top of your page, you'd have spotted it
almost immediately:

<?php
ini_set('displa y_errors',true) ;
error_reporting (E_ALL);
?>
--
Rik Wasmus

[Martin Mandl - m2m tech support]

On Mar 4, 1:05 am, Rik <luiheidsgoe... @hotmail.comwro te:

cpptutor2...@ya hoo.com <cpptutor2...@y ahoo.comwrote:

I am new to PHP and I am having a very odd problem. Could some PHP
guru please help.

I am passing some variables from one page to the next, and in the
starting page, I have:
However, I am unable to echo these values. If I have:
$recdpoet=$_GET['newpoet']

You forgot to close it with ';'

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

While developing, setting display_errors on and error_reporting to all is
a great help. If you had this on top of your page, you'd have spotted it
almost immediately:

<?php
ini_set('displa y_errors',true) ;
error_reporting (E_ALL);
?>
--
Rik Wasmus

and if develop for php5 the following line might also be of interest
for your:

error_reporting (E_ALL | E_STRICT);

Cheers
Martin

------------------------------------------------
online accounting on bash bases
Online Einnahmen-Ausgaben-Rechnung
http://www.ea-geier.at
------------------------------------------------
m2m server software gmbh
http://www.m2m.at

[Mike Russell]

You are missing the semi-colon after $_GET['newpoet']

To find problems like this, turn on diagnostics by adding this to the start
of your php files:
<?
ini_set("displa y_errors","1");
error_reporting (E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
?>

Big suggestion: consider using a debug environment - life will be much more
pleasant. It will take several days to set up, but I think you will find it
is well worth it. After looking at several, I use Eclipse with XDebug:

Bug 169408 - Support for XDebug:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=169408
(be sure to locate the pdf with detailed install instructions)

Eclipse PHP Project (PDT)
http://www.eclipse.org/php

--
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
<cp**********@y ahoo.comwrote in message
news:11******** **************@ z35g2000cwz.goo glegroups.com.. .

>I am new to PHP and I am having a very odd problem. Could some PHP
guru please help.

I am passing some variables from one page to the next, and in the
starting page, I have:

<div id="navigation " align="center">
<form NAME="addnewpoe tpoemform" METHOD="GET"
ACTION="addpoet poem.php">
<table align="center">
<tr>
<td width="20%">Poe t Name:</td>
<td width="80%"><in put TYPE="text" NAME="newpoet" SIZE="30"
MAXLENGTH="30"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="20%">Poe m Name:</td>
<td width="80%"><in put TYPE="text" NAME="newpoem" SIZE="30"
MAXLENGTH="30"> <$
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> <input TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Add Poet and
Poem"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

When the receiving page opens I can see, in the URL text box the
values that have been passed in.
However, I am unable to echo these values. If I have:
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<?php
// import_request_ variables(gP,"" );
$recdpoet=$_GET['newpoet']
$recdpoem=$_GET['newpoem'];
if(isset($recdp oet) and strlen($recdpoe t) 0)
echo $recdpoet;
?>
</td>
</tr>

The page opens completely blank. What might be
going wrong? I have tried uncommenting the above line, but it does not
work.
Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Mike Russell wrote:

You are missing the semi-colon after $_GET['newpoet']

To find problems like this, turn on diagnostics by adding this to the start
of your php files:
<?
ini_set("displa y_errors","1");
error_reporting (E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
?>

Since this is a syntax error, these will have absolutely no effect. The
error occurs during during parsing and before any statements are executed.

--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

[Mike Russell]

"Jerry Stuckle" <js*******@attg lobal.netwrote in message
news:D7******** *************** *******@comcast .com...

Mike Russell wrote:

>You are missing the semi-colon after $_GET['newpoet']

To find problems like this, turn on diagnostics by adding this to the
start of your php files:
<?
ini_set("displ ay_errors","1") ;
error_reportin g(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
?>

Since this is a syntax error, these will have absolutely no effect. The
error occurs during during parsing and before any statements are executed.

Well, then perhaps the part of my post that you deleted would be useful :-)
A debug environment will find errors like this instantly.
--
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

[Jerry Stuckle]

Mike Russell wrote:

"Jerry Stuckle" <js*******@attg lobal.netwrote in message
news:D7******** *************** *******@comcast .com...

>Mike Russell wrote:

>>You are missing the semi-colon after $_GET['newpoet']

To find problems like this, turn on diagnostics by adding this to the
start of your php files:
<?
ini_set("disp lay_errors","1" );
error_reporti ng(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
?>

Since this is a syntax error, these will have absolutely no effect. The
error occurs during during parsing and before any statements are executed.

Well, then perhaps the part of my post that you deleted would be useful :-)
A debug environment will find errors like this instantly.

One doesn't need a debug environment to find errors like this. Simply
enabling error displays in the php.ini or .htaccess will do it just as well.

--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

[Toby A Inkster]

Mike Russell wrote:

Big suggestion: consider using a debug environment - life will be much more
pleasant. It will take several days to set up, but I think you will find it
is well worth it.

I considered this, but then decided the best way to avoid those long hours
of bug hunting was to just write code that doesn't have any bugs in it. I
don't know why I never thought of that before -- all those years of
writing code with bugs in it and then debugging it -- much easier just not
to write the bugs in the first place. ;-)

More seriously, no matter how good you get at PHP, these silly little
syntax errors like misplaced brackets and missing semicolons are always
the ones that come back to bite you.

If you (not you in particular, Mike; I am referring to the general "you")
don't already have the command line version of PHP, then get it, and run
"php -l filename" on any file before you try using it. It will catch any
parsing errors in the file.

After that, enabling PHP's normal error reporting should provide fairly
helpful error messages, such as when you don't provide enough parameters
for a particular function, or if you've not implemented a particular
interface correctly, and so forth. When relevant, it tells you the exact
file and line number where the problem is. These bugs are usually fairly
simple to fix.

Then you "only" have to deal with logic errors. :-)

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
Geek of ~ HTML/SQL/Perl/PHP/Python*/Apache/Linux

* = I'm getting there!

[Jerry Stuckle]

Toby A Inkster wrote:

Mike Russell wrote:

>Big suggestion: consider using a debug environment - life will be much more
pleasant. It will take several days to set up, but I think you will find it
is well worth it.

I considered this, but then decided the best way to avoid those long hours
of bug hunting was to just write code that doesn't have any bugs in it. I
don't know why I never thought of that before -- all those years of
writing code with bugs in it and then debugging it -- much easier just not
to write the bugs in the first place. ;-)

More seriously, no matter how good you get at PHP, these silly little
syntax errors like misplaced brackets and missing semicolons are always
the ones that come back to bite you.

If you (not you in particular, Mike; I am referring to the general "you")
don't already have the command line version of PHP, then get it, and run
"php -l filename" on any file before you try using it. It will catch any
parsing errors in the file.

After that, enabling PHP's normal error reporting should provide fairly
helpful error messages, such as when you don't provide enough parameters
for a particular function, or if you've not implemented a particular
interface correctly, and so forth. When relevant, it tells you the exact
file and line number where the problem is. These bugs are usually fairly
simple to fix.

Then you "only" have to deal with logic errors. :-)

I agree, Tony. I always keep a test server (not available to the
outside world) with all error reporting enabled. It really saves a lot
of time!

I've tried debug environments before, and they're nice. But they're
also slow and cumbersome. I haven't found one I like well other than
Zend - but I'm not going to spend the money for it as little as I need
it. echo statements work quite well.

--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

[Mike Russell]

"Toby A Inkster" <us**********@t obyinkster.co.u kwrote in message
news:dq******** ****@ophelia.g5 n.co.uk...

Mike Russell wrote:

>Big suggestion: consider using a debug environment - life will be much
more
pleasant. It will take several days to set up, but I think you will find
it
is well worth it.

I considered this, but then decided the best way to avoid those long hours
of bug hunting was to just write code that doesn't have any bugs in it. I
don't know why I never thought of that before -- all those years of
writing code with bugs in it and then debugging it -- much easier just not
to write the bugs in the first place. ;-)

Hi Toby,

I understand you are being tongue in cheek here, but it does touch on one of
the reasons that I believe people reject using debuggers and development
environment. Being able to type accurately and quickly write code with few
or no bugs is a high level of skill, and rightfully a source of pride. That
pride seems to be undercut by the suggestion that using a debugger would
help in any way.

More seriously, no matter how good you get at PHP, these silly little
syntax errors like misplaced brackets and missing semicolons are always
the ones that come back to bite you.

Absolutely - a nickle for the number of times I've left the single quotes
off a field name, or had a backwards if.

If you (not you in particular, Mike; I am referring to the general "you")
don't already have the command line version of PHP, then get it, and run
"php -l filename" on any file before you try using it. It will catch any
parsing errors in the file.

I appreciate your consideration, as well as your useful suggestion re the -l
option. It's nice, too, to have a red wavy line appear under the syntax
error immediately as you type it, or xtrl-space give you a selection of
function names.

After that, enabling PHP's normal error reporting should provide fairly
helpful error messages, such as when you don't provide enough parameters
for a particular function, or if you've not implemented a particular
interface correctly, and so forth. When relevant, it tells you the exact
file and line number where the problem is. These bugs are usually fairly
simple to fix.

Then you "only" have to deal with logic errors. :-)

There you go - I sense a universe of hard-earned knowledge in your use of
the word "only". Logic errors do not produce syntax errors, and knowing
where to place the echo statement often means knowing where the bug is.

Another example is learning about PHP itself, or dealing with a large
existing body of code. For example, I'm about to dive into a mature forum
system that includes 306 source files, and dozens of database tables. With
a debug environment, I can set a breakpoint at a piece of code I'm wondering
about, see all the variables (not just the ones I think I might be
interested in), and follow the chain of execution arbitrarily. These are
all very powerful abilities that I have learned are necessary for me to work
efficiently.

For me the decision of whether to use a debug environment is not even a
close call. If it's available I want it. If it's not, I'll slog along with
embedded echo's.

If you work well without a debugger, more power to you. IDE's and debug
environments are used by skilled professionals all the time, and I hope you
will forgive me if I suggest that, as experienced and productive as you are,
you would be even more productive with a *good* debug environment.
--
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/