Member Avatar for sanus

I have the following code 

<a href="<'. Url::to(['site/campaign']) .'" class="pull-right text-green"> '. HtmlPurifier::process($camp['CampaignStatus'] < 1 ? 'Intiated' : (($camp['CampaignStatus'] < 2 ? 'Drafted' )))  . '</a>

but it's giving me the following error:

ParseError syntax error, unexpected ')'

Can anyone see what's going wrong here or how to fix it?

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Dani AI

Generated

posted a snippet that produced "ParseError syntax error, unexpected ')'", and correctly pointed out the root cause: the inner ternary in the expression was missing its "false" branch. A PHP ternary always needs both the true and false expressions (the part after ? and the part after :). Leaving the false branch out makes the parser hit a ) where it was still expecting an expression.

A minimal broken example (same class of error) looks like:

$label = $status < 1 ? 'Started' : ($status < 2 ? 'Pending');

The inner conditional has no : alternative, so PHP throws the parse error. Fix it by supplying the final value:

$label = $status < 1 ? 'Started' : ($status < 2 ? 'Pending' : 'Complete');

For clarity and maintainability prefer moving logic out of a long inline expression. An equivalent, easier-to-read approach:

if ($status < 1) {
    $label = 'Started';
} elseif ($status < 2) {
    $label = 'Pending';
} else {
    $label = 'Complete';
}

echo \yii\helpers\Html::a(\yii\helpers\HtmlPurifier::process($label), ['site/campaign'], ['class' => 'pull-right text-green']);

Quick troubleshooting tips: run php -l filename.php to lint the file; temporarily assign subexpressions to variables to isolate the error; and watch for missing colons, quotes or parentheses. Also avoid nesting ternaries for more than two branches—use if/elseif/else or switch for readability. Finally, correct small typos in labels (for example, "Initiated") so the output is clean.

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Member Avatar for hericles

You're missing your second option in the second ternary operator:

($camp['CampaignStatus'] < 2 ? 'Drafted' : <SHOULD BE SOMETHING HERE> )

Member Avatar for sanus

Thanks for your help hericle . I just a newbie into programming world. It would really helpful if you can give me an example what you mean by <SHOULD BE SOMETHING HERE>

Member Avatar for sanus

Solved it.

Member Avatar for hericles

Good to hear.
For clarification for any others that find this, the initial code was an if statement without an elseif.
$camp['CampaignStatus'] < 2 ? 'Drafted'

It was incomplete as it asked 

if ($camp['CampaignStatus']  < 2 ) {
        return 'Drafted';
} else if() {

}

which won't compile in any language.

commented: Always good to see an explanation for the benefit of others. +1 +15
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