What causes unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING error?

Question

I have a simple PHP script that keeps throwing this bizarre error message:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '"string' (T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING) in /script.php

 <?php
    error_reporting(-1);
    require_once "PHPMailer/PHPMailerAutoload.php";

    $api_key = "string"; // this line causes the error
    $payload = file_get_contents("php://input");

    $new_booking = json_decode($payload, true);
    $schedule_id = "123456";
    $schedule_link = "http://example.com";
    $passwd = "passwd";

    // email config
    $admin = [
        "name" => "Joe White", 
        "user" => "user@gmail.com", 
        "passwd" => "passwd"
    ];

    $max_time = 3; // hours
    $max_dist = 200; // miles

    /*
    Code goes on, but is commented out and therefore not included here
    */
    ?>

I saw somebody mention in another SO question that the issue might be CRLF line endings instead of CF, but I'm not sure.

And what line number does the error message tell you this error is on? — Mark Baker, Jan 23 '16 at 14:58
Stop using closing php tags (`?>`) at the end of files. They serve no purpose at all and cause trouble all the time. — arkascha, Jan 23 '16 at 15:08
Read the answers from PHP Parse/Syntax Errors, removed `?>`, no change. — Pancake_M0nster, Jan 23 '16 at 15:14
@u_mulder In the answers you referred to, only simple typos and such are mentioned(incorrect concenation, mixed use of quotes, etc), I didn't find anything that'd help me, maybe you'd point it out. — Pancake_M0nster, Jan 23 '16 at 15:34
If u r not getting any thing than how json decode will work? — devpro, Jan 23 '16 at 15:55
OK, I figured out what was the issue, it was corrupted whitespace characters that can't be seen in an IDE. I don't want to make a new question, can anybody suggest a way to replace whitespace throughout the entire file? — Pancake_M0nster, Jan 23 '16 at 16:17
php_strip_whitespace ( string $filename ); and let me knw if its work — devpro, Jan 23 '16 at 16:37
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/101475/discussion-between-devpro-and-pancake-m0nster). — devpro, Jan 23 '16 at 17:08

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 23 '16 at 17:54

Well, I ended up finding a solution myself, the error was due to some corrupt whitespace/linefeed characters, and since I didn't want to go through the entire file, I used those tools:

http://www.textfixer.com/tools/remove-line-breaks.php http://www.textfixer.com/tools/remove-white-spaces.php

This to verify the code: http://phpcodechecker.com

And this to beautify the code again: http://www.cleancss.com/php-beautify/

Make sure you remove all single line comments before the process.

What causes unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING error?

1 Answers1

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