Issue with heredoc and PHP

Question

I am following The book "Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL web development" by Wrox. I have been following it verbatim and for some reason I am having a issue with the code. The editor says that there are no errors in my code. but when I run it gives me the following message: "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 3" here is the following code

<?php
//take in the id of a director and return his/her full name
function get_director() {

global $db;

$query = 'SELECT people_fullname
          FROM people
          WHERE  people_id = ' . $director_id;
$result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die(mysql_error($db));

$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
extract($row);

return $people_fullname;
}

//take in the id of a lead actor and return his/her full name
function get_leadactor($leadactor_id) {

global $db;

$query = 'SELECT people_fullname
          FROM people
          WHERE people_id = ' . $leadactor_id;
$result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die (mysql_error($db));
$extract($row);

return $people_fullname;
}

// take in the id of a movie type 
// and return the meaningful textual description
function get_movietype($type_id) {

global $db;

$query = 'SELECT movietype_label
          FROM movietype
          WHERE movietype_id = ' . $type_id;
          $result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die (mysql_error($db));

          $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
          extract($row);

          return $movietype_label;
 }
   // conect to MySQL
   $db = mysql_connect('localhost', 'root', 'root') or 
   die ('unable to connect. Check your parameters');

    // make sure you are yousing the right database
    mysql_select_db('moviesite', $db) or die(mysql_error($db) );

    // retrieve information
    $query = 'SELECT movie_name, movie_year, movie_director, movie_leadactor, movie_type
           FROM movie
           ORDER BY movie_name ASC, movie_year DESC';
    $result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die ($mysql_error($db) );

    // determine number of rows in returned result
    $num_movies = mysql_num_rows($result);


    $table = <<<ENDHTML
    <div style ="text-align: center;">
    <h2>Movie Review Database</h2>
      <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width: 70%; margin-left: auto;     margin-right:auto;">
     <tr>
       <th>Movie Title</th>
       <th>Year of the release</th>
       <th>Movie Director</th>
       <th>Movie Lead Actor</th>
       <th>Movie Type</th>
     </tr>
     ENDHTML;

      //loop throught the results
      while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result) ) {
      extract($row);
      $director = get_director($movie_director);
      $leadactor = get_leadactor($movie_leadactor);
      $movietype = get_movietype($movie_type);

      $table .= <<<ENDHTML
      <tr>
         <td>$movie_name</td>
         <td>$movie_year</td>
         <td>$director</td>
         <td>$leadactor</td>
         <td>$movietype</td>
     </tr>
     ENDHTML;

  }

  $table .= <<<ENDHTML
  </table>
  <p>$num_movies Movies</p>
  </div>
  ENDHTML;

  echo $table
  ?>

After that I tried copying and pasting the exact code thinking maybe I did something wrong and here it is the following code:

 <?php
 // take in the id of a director and return his/her full name
 function get_director($director_id) {
 global $db;
 $query = 'SELECT
 people_fullname
 FROM people
 WHERE
 people_id = ' . $director_id;
 $result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die(mysql_error($db));
 $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
 extract($row);
 return $people_fullname;
 }
 // take in the id of a lead actor and return his/her full name
 function get_leadactor($leadactor_id) {
 global $db;
 $query = 'SELECT
 FROM
 people WHERE
 people_id = ' . $leadactor_id;
 $result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die(mysql_error($db));
 $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
 extract($row);
 return $people_fullname;
 }
 // take in the id of a movie type and return the meaningful textual
 // description
 function get_movietype($type_id) {
 global $db;
 $query = 'SELECT
 movietype_label
 FROM
 movietype
 WHERE
 movietype_id = ' . $type_id;
 $result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die(mysql_error($db));
 $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
 extract($row);
 return $movietype_label;
 }

 //connect to MySQL
 $db = mysql_connect('localhost', 'root', 'root') or
 die ('Unable to connect. Check your connection parameters.');
 // make sure you’re using the right database
 mysql_select_db('moviesite', $db) or die(mysql_error($db));
 // retrieve information
 $query = 'SELECT
 movie_name, movie_year, movie_director, movie_leadactor,
 movie_type
 FROM
 movie
 ORDER BY
 movie_name ASC,
 movie_year DESC';
 $result = mysql_query($query, $db) or die(mysql_error($db));
 // determine number of rows in returned result
 $num_movies = mysql_num_rows($result);

 $table = <<<ENDHTML

 <div style="text-align: center;">
 <h2>Movie Review Database</h2>
 <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"
 style="width: 70%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
 <tr>
  <th>Movie Title</th>
  <th>Year of Release</th>
  <th>Movie Director</th>
  <th>Movie Lead Actor</th>
  <th>Movie Type</th>
 </tr>

 ENDHTML;
  // loop through the results
  while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
  extract($row);
  $director = get_director($movie_director);
  $leadactor = get_leadactor($movie_leadactor);
  $movietype = get_movietype($movie_type);
  $table .= <<<ENDHTML
  <tr>
   <td>$movie_name</td>
   <td>$movie_year</td>
   <td>$director</td>
   <td>$leadactor</td>
   <td>$movietype</td>
  </tr>
   ENDHTML;
 }
 $table .= <<<ENDHTML
 </table>
 <p>$num_movies Movies</p>
 </div>
 ENDHTML;

 echo $table;
 ?> 

when I ran the code this time, the table header shows but part of the code is also displayed on the browser. It looks like this: ENDHTML; // loop through the results while ( = mysql_fetch_assoc(Resource id #3)) { extract(); = get_director(); = get_leadactor(); = get_movietype(); .= << ENDHTML; } .= <<

any help will be appreciated I am new to programming thanks

Answer 1

Closing heredoc statement must be at the very first position in the string:

ENDHTML;    // works
  ENDHTML;  // won’t work

Answer 2

When you end an heredoc you must not put any char at the begining of the line. In your code there are heredocs with spaces or tabs before them. Delete the spaces and put your heredoc at the begining of the line.

• More info on heredoc.