PHP Parse error: parse error, unexpected '*', expecting '}'

Question

I am getting the following error:

PHP Parse error:  parse error, unexpected '*', expecting '}' in /var/www/html/dev/562.ajax.php on line 278, referer: 562.shp.php?cut=8161

If we go to line 278 in file 562.ajax.php we see the following:

$sql = 'insert into NKW.EDI_CARTON_LI ' .
    '(EDI_SHIPMENT, EDI_CARTON, CORP_CODE, EDI_TOTALQTY, EDI_PRICE, ' .
    'EDI_AMOUNT, EDI_UNITWEIGHT, EDI_WEIGHT, PICKTKT_NO, SEQ_ORDER_NO, ' .
    'ORDER_NO, CUST_NO, RECORD_NO, STYLE, COLOR_NO, ' .
    'COLOR_ABBR, SIZE_NO, SIZE_NAME) ' .
    "values ($shipment, $carton, '$division', $quantity, '$price', " .
    "'{$quantity * $price}', '{$weight / $quantity}', '$weight', $ticket, $sequence, " .
    "'$order', '$customer', NKW.SEQ_EDI_CARTON_LI.nextval, '$style', '$color', " .
    "'$abbr', '$ratio', 'ALL')";
error_log($sql);
if (SQLExec($dbc, $sql))
    return array(1, 'System error in ' . __FILE__ . ' @ ' . __LINE__);

The code in question is (line 278): "'{$quantity * $price}',

Now he is obviously trying to generate a price total based on quantity, why doesn't PHP like this? It looks correct to me. I suspect I will have a similar error though with the division for the weight immediately after that. Is there some escape character or something I need to add here?

Answer 1

PHP doesn't allow variable arithmetic with a simple in-string substitution. Here is the same code without generating a syntax error:

$sql = 'insert into NKW.EDI_CARTON_LI ' .
'(EDI_SHIPMENT, EDI_CARTON, CORP_CODE, EDI_TOTALQTY, EDI_PRICE, ' .
'EDI_AMOUNT, EDI_UNITWEIGHT, EDI_WEIGHT, PICKTKT_NO, SEQ_ORDER_NO, ' .
'ORDER_NO, CUST_NO, RECORD_NO, STYLE, COLOR_NO, ' .
'COLOR_ABBR, SIZE_NO, SIZE_NAME) ' .
"values ($shipment, $carton, '$division', $quantity, '$price', " .
"'" . $quantity * $price ."', '" . $weight / $quantity . "', '$weight', $ticket, $sequence, " .
"'$order', '$customer', NKW.SEQ_EDI_CARTON_LI.nextval, '$style', '$color', " .
"'$abbr', '$ratio', 'ALL')";

Observe:

"'" . $quantity * $price ."', '" . $weight / $quantity . 

I ended the quote to have PHP directly evaluate the expression. Yes, it's messy with a big SQL query like this.

Answer 2

I tested out the code you posted and saw the same error. This should work:

$sql = 'insert into NKW.EDI_CARTON_LI ' .
'(EDI_SHIPMENT, EDI_CARTON, CORP_CODE, EDI_TOTALQTY, EDI_PRICE, ' .
'EDI_AMOUNT, EDI_UNITWEIGHT, EDI_WEIGHT, PICKTKT_NO, SEQ_ORDER_NO, ' .
'ORDER_NO, CUST_NO, RECORD_NO, STYLE, COLOR_NO, ' .
'COLOR_ABBR, SIZE_NO, SIZE_NAME) ' .
"values ($shipment, $carton, '$division', $quantity, '$price', '" .
$quantity * $price ."', '" . $weight / $quantity . "', '$weight', $ticket, $sequence, " .
"'$order', '$customer', NKW.SEQ_EDI_CARTON_LI.nextval, '$style', '$color', " .
"'$abbr', '$ratio', 'ALL')";
error_log($sql);

Answer 3

You can save the result into one 'outside of string' variable and then use dhe value of that result inside the string

$total = $quantity * $price
"{$total}...