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PHP PHP Basics Daily Exercise Program String Manipulation

Andrew G
Andrew G
7,541 Points
Posted by Andrew G
Andrew G
7,541 Points

Hi there, I think there may be a bug in the PHP basics challenge. I get an error when adding $firstName = 'Rasmus ';

Hi there, I think there may be a bug in this PHP basics challenge. I get an error when adding $firstName = 'Rasmus ', with the space in order to ensure that $fullName is correct. My code: 

<?php
$firstName = 'Rasmus ';
$lastName = 'Lerdorf';

$fullName = $firstName . $lastName;

echo $fullName;
?>
index.php 
<?php

$firstName = 'Rasmus ';
$lastName = 'Lerdorf';


?>

1 Answer

Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points
Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points

This is not a bug. The challenge specifies that $firstName should be set to the string "Rasmus", not "Rasmus ". The space at the end of the way you have it now shouldn't be there

Andrew G
Andrew G
7,541 Points
Andrew G
Andrew G
7,541 Points

Thanks Mod, but it is confusing, as Alina uses that strategy for adding a space in between names in the lesson, so it's the first thing that comes to mind, and from memory she doesn't use the concatenation technique required to solve it at all in that context: .' '.

Also, I'm only a beginner at PHP, but isn't the value still Rasmus, even if the string is 'Rasmus '? The question requests that the value be set to Rasmus.

Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points
Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points

No, the value is different if there's a space at the end of the string. A space is an extra character, and a string with more characters is intrinsically different from another string with fewer. The challenge doesn't ask you to worry about combining names until the 2nd step. In the first step, it just asks you to make $firstName be "Rasmus" (not "Rasmus "), and remember that each step of a challenge must pass all the tests of the previous step, so modifying variables from the previous step is not an option here

Andrew G
Andrew G
7,541 Points
Andrew G
Andrew G
7,541 Points

Awesome, thanks for clarifying. I'm really enjoying the beginner php track, and Alina's clear and precise teaching style.:)