PHP & MySQL Help

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[TD="class: alt1, bgcolor: #FCFCFC"]I keep getting this error. I am working through an assignment in a PHP MySQL book and new to this. If anyone could help that would be great.

I inserted dummy words for the password and host name for privacy reasons

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /home/content/21/8794321/html/report.php on line 26

<?php
$first_name = $_POST['firstname'];
$last_name = $_POST['lastname'];
$when_it_happened = $_POST['whenithappened'];
$how_long = $_POST['howlong'];
$how_many = $_POST['howmany'];
$alien_description = $_POST['aliendescription'];
$what_they_did = $_POST['whattheydid'];
$fang_spotted = $_POST['fangspotted'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$other = $_POST['other'];

$dbc = mysqli_connect('hostname','owenfang1','password',' aliendatabase')
or die('Error connecting to MySQL server.')

$query = "INSERT INTO aliens_abduction (first_name, last_name, when_it_happened, how_long, " .
"how_many, alien_description, what_they_did, fang_spotted, other, email) " .
"VALUES ('$first_name', '$last_name', '$when_it_happened', '$how_long', '$how_many', " .
"'$alien_description', '$what_they_did', '$fang_spotted', '$other', '$email')";

$result = mysqli_query($dbc, $query)
or die('Error querying database.');

mysqli_close($dbc);

echo 'Thanks for submitting the form.<br />';
echo 'You were abducted ' . $when_it_happened;
echo ' and were gone for ' . $how_long . '<br />';
echo 'Number of aliens: ' . $how_many . '<br />';
echo 'Describe them: ' . $alien_description . '<br />';
echo 'The aliens did this: ' . $what_they_did . '<br />';
echo 'Was Fang there? ' . $fang_spotted . '<br />';
echo 'Other comments: ' . $other . '<br />';
echo 'Your email address is ' . $email;
?>
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I think your error is about the variables inside single quotes in your query. If you need the quotes you'll have to do it like this: VALUES ('".$first_name."', '"...

 

Change:
or die('Error connecting to MySQL server.')

to:
or die('Error connecting to MySQL server.');

Need to close the line with a semicolon.

Try using netbeans (http://netbeans.org/downloads/index.html) or another IDE to write code with. They will quickly show you any errors in your code.

 

Thanks jestep always the little things.

 

your db connection is failure chek it and then load this code

 

$dbc = mysqli_connect('hostname','owenfang1','password',' aliendatabase')

correct
$dbc = mysql_connect('hostname','owenfang1','password',' aliendatabase')

 

JinGKing mysqli_connect is still a proper function. Anyways the problem was already solved and it was with a missing ';'