In PHP, why does </script> not show a parse error?

Question

I was running the following PHP code:

<?php 
    </script>
?>

There were no parse errors and the output was "?>" (example).

In similar cases I do get a parse error:

<?php 
    </div>
?>

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in ...

Why doesn't <?php </script> ?> give the same error?

Just curious. What were trying to achieve or what was it that you were experimenting on? — asprin
– asprin, Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 8:22
Actually the case was different last night I missed the php closing tag.And after this I had a </script> tag and I spent more than 30 min to figure out why this does not have any error buts still the output is not as desire. — Irfan
– Irfan, Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 8:25

Giulio Muscarello · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-21 17:02:45Z

272

This must be because there are various ways of starting a block of PHP code:

<? ... ?> (known as short_open_tag)
<?php ... ?> (the standard really)
<script language="php"> ... </script> (not recommended)
<% ... %> (deprecated and removed ASP-style tag after 5.3.0)

Apparently, you can open a PHP block one way, and close it the other. Didn't know that.

So in your code, you opened the block using <? but PHP recognizes </script> as the closer. What happened was:

<?php       <----- START PHP
</script>   <----- END PHP
?>          <----- JUST GARBAGE IN THE HTML

edited Nov 21, 2012 at 17:02

Giulio Muscarello

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answered Nov 5, 2012 at 8:23

Pekka

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3 Comments

John Dvorak Over a year ago

Note that using <script language="php"> is not recommended.

CLo Over a year ago

Quick note, because I remembered there was some change with the short_open_tag directive. In PHP 5.4 <?= short for <?php echo no longer requires the short_open_tag. Going between systems where <?= was available and not available always frustrated me. php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.short-open-tag

John Dvorak Over a year ago

@thatmiddleway Note that the official document recommends <?php ... ?> as well: php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.phpmode.php

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 19:39:37Z

37

In PHP, you can use the script tag to open a PHP block.

So you can use

<script language="php">
    echo 'hello world';
</script>

So in your example you have mixed the normal open tag, <?php, with the closing tag, </script>. So the parser assumes that all the text after the closing script tag is normal HTML.

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