PHP Forum

**magicvw** · 11-12-2008, 08:43 AM

I am using the "PHP & MYSQL for Dummies" book to learn PHP. Just starting out and I have come unstuck already.

I have copied/pasted the following code from the book

<html>
<head><title>Hello World Program</title></head>
<body>
<?php
echo “<p>Hello World!”
?>
</body>
</html>

as the book says, but when I view the page I get

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '>' in /home/mymusic/public_html/php-practice/helloworld.php on line 5

Am I missing something really obvious here? I am really fed up as I can't even do the 1st, simplest step in this language!!

**CouponGuy** · 11-12-2008, 08:50 AM

Missing a semi-colon at the end of the line starting with echo

**magicvw** · 11-12-2008, 08:55 AM

OK I put the semicolon in:

<html>
<head><title>Hello World Program</title></head>
<body>
<?php
echo “<p>Hello World!”;
?>
</body>
</html>

I'm still getting the same error message. Any other ideas?

**magicvw** · 11-12-2008, 09:05 AM

OK I sorted it!

I got the wrong sort of quotes due to copying and pasting from the pdf of the book. That'll teach me to be lazy and not type out the code myself!

Thanks for the tip about the semi-colon though - it is not included in the book. (Glad I got it as a free download and didn't part with my hard-earned cash!)

**CouponGuy** · 11-12-2008, 09:14 AM

Good work! Don't give up. It only gets easier from here.

**colbyt** · 11-12-2008, 07:52 PM

Quote:

OK I sorted it!

I got the wrong sort of quotes due to copying and pasting from the pdf of the book. That'll teach me to be lazy and not type out the code myself!

The wrong quotation marks, commas, and semi-colons will keep you entertained for many hours. At least they did it for me.