# PHP Unexpected T\_VARIABLE?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-unexpected-t-variable/13742>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [February 17, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-unexpected-t-variable/13742 "2003-02-17T18:14:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vip3r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c2a13f/32.png) [@vip3r](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/vip3r)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-unexpected-t-variable/13742/1 "2003-02-17T18:14:03Z")

</div>

I’m new to PHP and creating a shoutbox for my site, but I keep getting this:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T\_VARIABLE in /home/vip3r/public\_html/scripts/shoutbox/submit.php on line 14

here’s my code:

```php
 <?
$db = mysql_connect("localhost","vip3r","password");
//the host, name, and password for your mysql
mysql_select_db("vip3r",$db);
if($submit)
{
	$sql = "INSERT INTO shoutbox (id,name,message) VALUES_('NULL','$name', '$message')";
____ $result=MYSQL_QUERY($sql);
// inserting it into the shoutbox table which we made in the mysql statements before
}
?> 

<form action="<? echo $php_self ?>" method="post"> 
<INPUT TYPE='TEXT' value='name' NAME='name' SIZE=30 maxlength='100'><br> 
<INPUT TYPE='TEXT' value='message' NAME='message' SIZE=30 maxlength='100'> 
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"> 
</form> 

```

I googled it, and all the causes seem to be careless mistakes. I can’t find any in mine, but I’ve probably overlooked something. Any ideas?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-unexpected-t-variable/13742/2 "2003-02-17T18:19:14Z")

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well the only thing I really see is that in line 14 you start using single quotes instead of double quotes. change all of your single quotes to double quotes that might help…I’m not sure…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-unexpected-t-variable/13742/3 "2003-02-17T21:31:31Z")

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but that would interfere with the variable decleration 🙂

hmmm…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-unexpected-t-variable/13742/4 "2003-02-17T23:05:15Z")

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I meant from line 14 on.

oh, and I don’t get that error when I run the same script on my machine… Do you have the file uploaded on your server? Maybe it has something to do with your database…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-unexpected-t-variable/13742/5 "2003-02-18T00:57:06Z")

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Ya, I’ve got PHP 4 loaded with MySQL 3 or something.  
[http://www.vip3r.com/scripts/shoutbox/submit.php](http://www.vip3r.com/scripts/shoutbox/submit.php)

My database is made up of those three values, and I created it with PHPMyAdmin. But if it were a problem with the database, would it return a parse error?