Unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM

20070524, filed on funny, php

In almost every programming language, parsing errors tend to be boring, and PHP is not going to be an exception… unless you get one of these:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM

If you aren't aware, what it means is "Oh, there's an unexpected double colon where it shouldn't have appeared".

But even if it's a bit obscure, sometimes it's funny to get this error. Just for contrasting with all the plainly boring rest, like unexpected '}', unexpected ',' … all that. Even more funny is that those characters ('::') are also defined as T_DOUBLE_COLON. But why did the programmers decide to use the cryptic error message is something of a mistery for me yet.

The first time I got the error I thought I had found an easter egg! Either that, or the php interpreter had gone nuts…

// 7 responses to Unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM

Madieta
20070524

It's hebrew!

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum88/5127.htm

paladin:
"it IS Hebrew, written in English letters. Remember that the current PHP is based on the ZEND engine. I don't remember off thge top of my head the names of the 2 developers (Zeev and Andy I think), but I remember that they are Jewish/Hebrew names."

JerryOdom:
"Its written by Israelis. Guess they missed that one in translation."

ps
20070527

its just the way compilers/interpreters are built..

dust
20070611

Yep got that egg too lol.

I was stunt and sad i could not call my function using "::" i hate that "->"

shaunxcode
20080623

I managed to get it with a foreach loop setting the value to reference but forgetting the $. i.e.: foreach($items as &item){} will yield said error.

Valery Buchinsky
20080825

The first time I saw this error year or two ago I thought "Damn! What would that be" and … called my collegues arround the office to come and see that. :) Then after a lot of laughing I Googled and found the answer. :)

Another good error is Apache's default "The server made a boo boo!", don't you think? :)