Things to check before you post (The Ultimate PHP Checlist)

Hi. Since the list is beeing flooded with the same questions over and over again, some of them about simple syntax errors the poster could have fixed him/herself instead of writing a mail, I hereby start a new checklist. (In no particular order - we can edit it later - please contribute): (and yes - there may be typos in this document too =) P H P C O D I N G C H E C K L I S T (Print this out and glue it to your wall) 1. Check the (),[] and {}'s. They should be a pair. 2. Check the strings. "" inside a "" string doesn't work unless you use \" instead. 3a. Check for typos in reserved words. myslq_num_rows() doesn't work. mysql_num_rows() does. 3b. Use the manual at www.php.net/manual, a local mirror etc, to check your syntax, not the mailing-list. 4. Remember to include global statements if you want to use global variables in a function. 5. If you want to set cookies with setCookie() or equal, ensure that you have not outputed ANY characters. That includes whitespace before your starting <? or <?php too. 6a. If SQL queries fail, write them out with echo or print, and check the syntax. Especially if you have included $variables in the statement. 6b. If the statement looks all right, try the query with your DB query tool. (Like mysql commandline tool). 6c. If it still won't work - check if you have granted the db user the right access. 7. If your getting "can't redeclare foo()" you've probably included a file twice. use include_once() to prevent it. 8. Remember the case-sensitivity. $Foo may not be the same as $FOO. 9. It's $this->foo() and $this->variable. Not $this->$foo() and $this->$variable. 10. Even if your not an IRC geek, try #php on EFNet, there's always a bunch of helpfull guys around. n. [Extend here.] Regards, -larsw- -- Lars Wilhelmsen <lw@ez.no>, developer @ eZ systems <www.ez.no>