PHP not displaying correctly in HTML

Question

I'm trying to create a drop down box that is populated by an array. When I view my code the browser just displays pieces of the php code.

Here is what the browser displays:

'; foreach ($array as $value) { $html .= '
$value
'; } $html .= ''; return $html; } ?>

Here is my code:

<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
<?php

$cities = array( 'San Francisco', 'San Diego', 'Los Angeles');

function createDropDown($name, $array) {

  $html = '<select name=$name>';

  foreach ($array as $value) {
    $html .= '<option value="$value">$value</option>';
  }
  $html .= '</select>';
  return $html;
}
?>
</head>
<body>
<form>

<?php
createDropDown("cities", $cities);
?>

</form>
</body>
</html>

Future reference: you can only embed variables in strings if you use double quotes. Otherwise, you'll need to concatenate like @AlienWebguy did below. — wanovak
– wanovak, Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 19:54

Jared · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-15 19:52:17Z

2

You need to echo your output as well. You build the string but never output.

<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
<?php

$cities = array( 'San Francisco', 'San Diego', 'Los Angeles');

function createDropDown($name, $array) {

  $html = '<select name="' . $name . '">';

  foreach ($array as $value) {
    $html .= '<option value="' . $value . '">' . $value . '</option>';
  }
  $html .= '</select>';
  return $html;
}
?>
</head>
<body>
<form>

<?php
echo createDropDown("cities", $cities);
?>

</form>
</body>
</html>

answered Jul 15, 2011 at 19:52

Jared

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Comments

Marc B · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-15 19:51:42Z

1

Most likely your server isn't configured to treat .php files as PHP scripts, and is serving them up as html/plaintext. If you view-source the page this is happening on, you'll probably get the full PHP source code. The <?php is seen as an opening HTML tag, which isn't closed until just before the foreach loop, so all the intermediate text/code is "hidden" in HTML view.

answered Jul 15, 2011 at 19:51

Marc B

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Comments

SeanCannon · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-15 19:50:28Z

1

Change

$html = '<select name=$name>';

to

$html = '<select name="' . $name. '">';

Change

$html .= '<option value="$value">$value</option>';

to

$html .= '<option value="' . $value . '">' . $value. '</option>';

answered Jul 15, 2011 at 19:50

SeanCannon

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Comments

joakimdahlstrom · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-15 19:52:41Z

0

' doesn't parse, but " does.

 $html = "<select name=$name>";

will do it.

answered Jul 15, 2011 at 19:52

joakimdahlstrom

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