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rob111
8,379 PointsHere's my version but it's not letting me pass
Here's my version but it's not letting me pass
<?php
//Place your code below this comment
$firstName = Rasmus;
$lastName = Lerdorf;
$fullname = "$firstName $lastName";
echo "$fullname was the original creator of PHP \n";
?>
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsJennifer Nordell Did you delete your answer or did I somehow accidentally delete it? I was fixing the code formatting here and then noticed it was gone.
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherJason Anello, I did delete it. I found the answer, which in my opinion, is a little odd. I feel like that answer (barring the lack of quotation marks around the strings) should have passed. No, you didn't delete my answer on accident!
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsTagging Alena Holligan
Task 1 and 2 are allowing the code to pass with notices in the output but task 3 seems to be catching it and not allowing it to pass.
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsThis is the code challenge: https://teamtreehouse.com/library/php-basics-2/daily-exercise-program/string-manipulation
3 Answers
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherHi there! Ok this is odd I know. And your code does look like it outputs the correct string. However, I found the part that is making it fail. For some reason, it really wants you to use concatenation to put together the fullname.
Take a look:
<?php
//Place your code below this comment
$firstName = "Rasmus";
$lastName = "Lerdorf";
$fullname = $firstName . " " . $lastName;
echo "$fullname was the original creator of PHP\n";
?>
If I do it this way, instead of assigning a string with expanded variable values in it, it suddenly passes! Hope this helps!
On a side note, on step 3 if the names are not included in quotes you will get back a compiler error saying something about usage of an undeclared constant.
Good luck!
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsHi Jennifer,
I think there were a few different things going on here that made this more confusing.
One was the unquoted strings and it seems that task 1 and task 2 were letting the notice errors slip by but task 3 is catching it.
The other issue was the space before the line return. That can't be present. The challenge will let you pass with a double quoted string as long as the extra space before the newline isn't there.
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherJason Anello yes, but that's not quite what I mean. And this is when everything else is otherwise correct with the newline character without the space and the strings in quotation marks.
On step two you can give this code, and it passes step 2.
$fullname = "$firstName $lastName";
But, if you then try to use that variable $fullname in the echo statement in step 3, it fails.
However, if you do this in step 2:
$fullname = $firstName . " " . $lastName;
And without changing anything else about the echo, it passes step 3.
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsMaybe the challenge is having some kind of problem them.
I just tried again and I'm able to pass without any concatenation.
$firstName = 'Rasmus';
$lastName = 'Lerdorf';
$fullname = "$firstName $lastName";
echo "$fullname was the original creator of PHP\n";
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherThat code does now pass for me also. But it didn't, and I swear it was exactly the same except that I used double quotes on my strings. I wish I had taken a screenshot and sent it to support now.
rob111
8,379 PointsI don't know what Alena has to do with this but ok.
Rasmus and Lerdorf are not inside quote marks but shouldn't PHP just by default think this is a string? I thought that was the behaviour especially since it's not a number like SIX for example.
I put my code into my editor and run it, my results are:
Rasmus Lerdorf was the original creator of PHP
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherIt's not a default behavior that I know of. But again, you are correct in that I can see when I put in my code (and yes, I've passed this challenge before) that it Previews the correct string. To the letter. But, it simply will not pass.
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsHi Rob,
Alena is the teacher for this course.
When you don't put quotes around those strings then php thinks it's a constant. In this case, an undefined constant. The way that php handles undefined constants is that it assumes you meant a string of the same name but it also issues a notice error in the output warning you about the use of an undefined constant.
If you check your preview you'll notice that there are some notice errors that are part of the output.
Even though it got you past task 1 and 2 you definitely should not be relying on this behavior. Create a string with quotes if that's what you really intend to do.
Alena Holligan
Treehouse TeacherI added some extra checks and suggestions to help figure things out. You should no longer be able to pass task 1 & 2 without quoting your string. You can use either of the following lines for concatenation.
$fullname = "$firstName $lastName";
OR
$fullname = $firstName . " " . $lastName;
I also included a hint that would let you know that you have extra space in your final string, you have a space between PHP and \n.
Let me know how things work for you now and if there are any improvements I can make :)
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsThanks!
I ran through it again and everything seems to test out ok.
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsJason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 Pointsfixed code formatting