How to debug: unexpected T_IF / T_FOREACH / T_FOR / T_WHILE / T_DO / T_PRINT / T_ECHO PHP

Semicolon; where you at?

Pretty universally have you missed a semicolon in the previous line if the parser complains about if or foreach, for, while, list, global, return, do, print, echo etc. being misplaced:

             ⇓
$x = myfunc()
if (true) {

Solution: look into the previous line; add semicolon.

Class declarations

Another location where this occurs is in class declarations. In the class section you can only list property variable initializations and function/method sections. No code may reside there.

class xyz {
    if (true) {}
    foreach ($var) {}

Commonly happens if one of the contained methods got } closed too early, due to wrongly nested code blocks. (Solution: use code indentation and an IDE to check!)

Language statements in expression context

Many language constructs can only be used as statements. They are not to be placed inside other expressions:

                   ⇓
$var = array(1, 2, foreach($else as $_), 5, 6);

PHP doesn't have list comprehensions, nor $_, and foreach wouldn't be used either.

Likewise can't you use an if in strings, math expressions or elsewhere:

               ⇓
print "Oh, " . if (true) { "you!" } . " won't work";
// Use a ternary statement here instead, when versed enough.

Same applies to for, while, global, echo and a lesser extend list.

          ⇓
echo 123, echo 567, "huh?";

Whereas print() is a language construct that could be used in expression context.

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