PHP putting "if" in header and "else" in footer

Question

I am a programmer and I am picking up PHP, I cannot seem to search for this so I hope this is not a duplicate. Currently this is giving me an error at line 4 on header.php which says: unexpected $end

I know that it is complaining about the syntax but I don't fully understand how the files are parsed processed and get executed at runtime (hence creating this error). I would be grateful if somebody can fill me in if I have missed any core concept in PHP, thanks.

header.php

<?php
if(true){
    echo "Helloworld";
?>

body.php

<?php
include('header.php');

echo "The great brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";

include('footer.php');
?>

footer.php

<?php
}else{
    echo "bye bye";
}
?>

and in the real world your doing what? hypothetical questions get hypothetical answers!. — user557846
– user557846, Commented Feb 8, 2012 at 3:21
@JohnB Indeed! I felt something wasn't right when I typed that lol — Gapton
– Gapton, Commented Feb 8, 2012 at 3:39
@Dagon I was implementing SESSION so any not-logged-in users will have no access to the page, however I didn't want to add to every file (although just around 10 at this point) an if-else clause where the else would redirect the non-logged-in users to the login page. Perhaps this is a silly way of doing it, if it is, I didn't know better, and would love to hear from experienced guys like you some proper common practices in PHP, thanks. — Gapton
– Gapton, Commented Feb 8, 2012 at 3:39

Michael Berkowski · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-08 03:21:14Z

3

Each file included must be able to be parsed on its own without a syntax error. Your header has a syntax error of an unclosed if block. Likewise, the footer has a syntax error of an else block coming out of nowhere. You cannot do it this way.

Instead you can use something like:

// Global variable defined above includes:
$condition = TRUE;
include('header.php');
echo "The great brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";
include('footer.php');


// header.php
if ($condition) {
  echo "hello world";
}

// footer.php
if (!$condition) {
  echo "bye";
}

answered Feb 8, 2012 at 3:21

Michael Berkowski

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2 Comments

Gapton Over a year ago

But within ONE SINGLE FILE, I can indeed have an if-else clause that spans across multiple <?php ?> , right? So this would work if everything is in one file but not three (using include)?

Michael Berkowski Over a year ago

@Gapton Yes you can open an if(), go through many <?php ?> and close the else later at the end, as long as it all works in one file.

Lawrence Cherone · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-08 03:52:00Z

0

Also using output buffing to grab content is way better then just including raw html into your code flow.

<?php 

function get_page_section($path){
    if(file_exists($path)){
        //grab "output" to the return variable
        ob_start();
        require($path);
        $return = ob_get_contents();
        ob_end_clean();
        return $return;
    }else{
        //path not found
        throw new Exception('get_page_section('.$path.') not found');
    }
}

$header = get_page_section('header.php');
$footer = get_page_section('footer.php');


echo $header.
     "The great brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.".
     $footer;

?>

answered Feb 8, 2012 at 3:52

Lawrence Cherone

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Comments

Muhannad A.Alhariri · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-08 05:26:30Z

0

in header.php type the following code

<?php
if(true){
    echo "Helloworld";
 }else{
     echo "bye bye";
     exit();
  }
?>

in the body.php continue as you wrote before

<?php
include('header.php');

echo "The great brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";

this is the simplest way you can solve the probelm and hope this would help

answered Feb 8, 2012 at 5:26

Muhannad A.Alhariri

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