PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '' - php

Question

At the risk of getting a down vote I am going to ask this question to see if anyone can help me. I have been staring at this for a while and I can't figure it out.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE), expecting identifier (T_STRING) or variable (T_VARIABLE) or number (T_NUM_STRING) on line 130
function pdf($type=null){
//get default or create a type
$data = $this->storeSessionData(
array(),
'SalesComp',
$this->variables
);
$type = ($type)? $type : $data['type']; //this is line 130
$this->set('data', $this->report('store', 'year', 3, $type));
$this->set(
'districtTitle',
array('N' => 'North', 'S' => 'South')
);
$districts = $this->Store->find(
'list',
array(
'fields' => array('Store', 'District'),
'conditions' => array('NOT' => array('District'=> 'O')
)
)
);
$this->set('districts', $districts);
$supervisor = $this->Store->find(
'list',
array('fields' => array('Store','Supervisor'),
'conditions' => array('NOT' => array('District'=> 'O')
)
)
);
$this->set('supervisor', $supervisor);
$this->set(
'supervisors',
$this->Supervisor->find(
'list',
array('fields' => array('Supervisor','ShortName')
)
)
);
$title = ($type == 'sales')?
'Sales Comparison Report':'Fuel Comparison Report';
$this->set('title', $title);
$this->layout = 'pdf';
$this->render();
}

Answer 1

The error suggests mismatched quotes or brackets somewhere. Unfortunately, when this happens, the line number in the error message may be some totally unrelated line -- it's just the first place where the compiler notices that the syntax is no longer valid. The error is actually somewhere before the code snippet in the question, so it's impossible for me to pinpoint it. Syntax highlighting in code editors can help in finding the mismatch.

Answer 2

You can find all php tokens here:
http://php.net/manual/en/tokens.php
There's 2 things about the marked line:
PHP is a scripted language with a VERY complicated syntax in reality. It might look simple, but in comparison to C or the like it's very complicated, and only because there where so many small (and many times incoherent) changes made over the years, and some things can't be changed anymore without breaking backwards compatibility. One of those things is handling of parantheses - PHP does not handle these in a mathematical way, but treat them specially depending on context. This means you should get rid of them in the marked line (there is no need for them in the first place either way)
"Invisible" (i.e. UTF8) whitespaces - these are source for many "strange" problems, especially if you develop on a mac (press alt + space). Easiest way to fix them: Retype the line. And DON'T try copy & pasting it, because you will copy the whitespace as well.
Also I would change the line to
if (! $type) $type = $data['type'];
I hope you know which values evaluate falsy in php, because it's not only NULL (you can find a list here: http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.boolean.php )
On a sidenote: PHP was developed as a simple way to write templates, so maybe you might want to have a look at some compiled programming languages if you want to build complex logic (C for example, which is by far simpler than PHP, and I've been doing PHP for more than 6 years now)

Answer 3

Try replacing
$type = ($type)? $type : $data['type'];
With
$type = $type ? $type : $data['type'];
I doubt that it makes any difference, but maybe a space between the variable named $type and the question mark is needed. For more information about this, check the PHP docs on the ternary operator.