Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

PHP PHP Arrays and Control Structures PHP Arrays Multidimensional Arrays

The solution should work but it doesn't

My solution fires the error of unexpected ", IMO it should work though.

echo "<li> $contacts[ 0 ][ 'name' ]:  $contacts[ 0 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";
echo "<li> $contacts[ 1 ][ 'name' ]: $contacts[ 1 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";
echo "<li> $contacts[ 2 ][ 'name' ]: $contacts[ 2 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";
echo "<li> $contacts[ 3 ][ 'name' ]: $contacts[ 3 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";

Here is the error message:

Bummer: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE), expecting identifier (T_STRING) or variable (T_VARIABLE) or number (T_NUM_STRING)
index.php
<?php
//edit this array
$contacts = array(
  array( 'name' => 'Alena Holligan', 'email' => 'alena.holligan@teamtreehouse.com' ),
  array( 'name' => 'Dave McFarland', 'email' => 'dave.mcfarland@teamtreehouse.com' ),
  array( 'name' => 'Treasure Porth', 'email' => 'treasure.porth@teamtreehouse.com' ),
  array( 'name' => 'Andrew Chalkley', 'email' => 'andrew.chalkley@teamtreehouse.com' ),
);

echo "<ul>\n";
//$contacts[0] will return 'Alena Holligan' in our simple array of names.
echo "<li> $contacts[ 0 ][ 'name' ]:  $contacts[ 0 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";
echo "<li> $contacts[ 1 ][ 'name' ]: $contacts[ 1 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";
echo "<li> $contacts[ 2 ][ 'name' ]: $contacts[ 2 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";
echo "<li> $contacts[ 3 ][ 'name' ]: $contacts[ 3 ][ 'email' ] </li>\n";
echo "</ul>\n";

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points

There are some syntax issues and differences between the original and new outputs:

  • there is extra whitespace around the indexes and keys
  • complex array variables and key(s) should be enclosed in {}'s
  • there is extra whitespace before the name and after the email
  • there should be a space between the name and the colon
<?php
// ...
echo "<li>{$contacts[0]['name']} : {$contacts[0]['email']}</li>\n";
echo "<li>{$contacts[1]['name']} : {$contacts[1]['email']}</li>\n";
echo "<li>{$contacts[2]['name']} : {$contacts[2]['email']}</li>\n";
echo "<li>{$contacts[3]['name']} : {$contacts[3]['email']}</li>\n";

This could also be done without the {}'s using concatenation.

Hey, Steven Parker! Thank you! I didn't know about curly braces trick.

This could also be done without the {}'s using concatenation.

I tried, but the answer wasn't accepted :-)

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points

You may have had another issue, I'm sure most folks use concatenation to solve this challenge.