PHP Syntax Error - php

Question

I am trying to figure out why I'm getting this error
"Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ',' or ';' in /home/idgcca/public_html/web-design-samples-testing.php on line 64"
echo '
<div style="float:left; width: 180px; margin: 20px 0px 10px 0px;"><a rel="lightbox[web]" title="'. $post->title .'" onmousedown="this.title='<a target=\'_blank/\' href=\'http:www.google.ca/\'>Google</a>';" onmouseout="this.title='';" href="'. $post->url . '">
<img src="' . $post->thumb . '" border="0"/></a> <div class="design-sample-txt">'. $post->author.'</div></div>
';
im a PHP newb just trying to understand it on my own but my head is turning. A help would be pretty much appreciated...

Answer 1

here is your problem:
this.title='<
you should escape this quote. and the one at the closing a tag too. like this:
echo '<div style="float:left; width: 180px; margin: 20px 0px 10px 0px;">
<a rel="lightbox[web]" title="'. $post->title .'"
onmousedown="this.title=\'<a target=\'_blank/\' href=\'http:www.google.ca/\'>Google</a>\';"
onmouseout="this.title=\'\';" href="'. $post->url . '">
<img src="' . $post->thumb . '" border="0"/></a>
<div class="design-sample-txt">'. $post->author.'</div>
</div>';

Answer 2

You have an unterminated string on that line. You should escape your quotes with a slash like this \"
echo "<div style=**\"**float:left;.....";

Answer 3

You need to escape single-quotes in a single-quote-string.
echo '<div style="float:left; width: 180px; margin: 20px 0px 10px 0px;"><a rel="lightbox[web]" title="'. $post->title .'" onmousedown="this.title=\'<a target=\'_blank/\' href=\'http:www.google.ca/\'>Google</a>\';" onmouseout="this.title=\'\';" href="'. $post->url . '">';

Answer 4

I would advise you to split your code in multiple lines for readability.
It'll help to debug this kind of line.
Take a look at the echo operator examples
To answer to your question, there are some quotes misused in your code. You need to escape them.
echo '<div style="float:left; width: 180px; margin: 20px 0px 10px 0px;">
<a rel="lightbox[web]" title="'. $post->title .'" onmousedown="this.title=\'<a
target=\'_blank/\' href=\'http:www.google.ca/\'>Google</a>\';"
onmouseout="this.title=\'\';" href="'. $post->url . '"><img src="' . $post->thumb . '"
border="0"/></a> <div class="design-sample-txt">'. $post->author.'</div></div>';

Answer 5

Assuming you pasted the code exactly, the first error is right at the beginning, when you end the first quote. It expects that to read:
echo ' title .';
The two quotes next to each other don't make any sense.

Answer 6

You got your answer from SilentGhost.
I would use HEREDOC for such things.

Answer 7

You should use htmlspecialchars on those attribute values:
function html($str, $charset=null) {
if (!is_null($charset)) {
return htmlspecialchars($str, ENT_QUOTES, $charset);
} else {
return htmlspecialchars($str, ENT_QUOTES);
}
}
echo '
<div style="float:left; width: 180px; margin: 20px 0px 10px 0px;">
<a rel="lightbox[web]"
title="' . html($post->title) . '"
onmousedown="' . html('this.title=\'<a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.ca/">Google</a>\'') . '"
onmouseout="' . html('this.title=""') . '"
href="' . html($post->url) . '">
<img src="' . html($post->thumb) . '" border="0"/></a>
<div class="design-sample-txt">' . html($post->author) . '</div>
</div>
';