SyntaxError: unterminated string literal strange error

Question

I have this strange unterminated string literal error in JavaScript. When I output only a single word like "php" (in the cache_open.handler variable). There is no error. This is the script and below works fine:

        <script>
        var cache_open = {};
        var cache_name_open={};         
        var handler='open';
        cache_open.handler='<pre class="brush: html;">php</pre>';           
        cache_name_open.handler='PHP prepared statement';           
        </script>

However when I output a code (html entity outputted source code) to the culprit variable cache_open.handler, it returns unterminated string literal error in the console.

This is the sample output where it returns an error:

        <script>
        var cache_open = {};
        var cache_name_open={};         
        var handler='open';
       cacheObj_open.handler='<pre class="brush: html;">
       &lt;?php
       $stmt = $dbh-&gt;prepare(&quot;SELECT * FROM REGISTRY where name = ?&quot;);
       if ($stmt-&gt;execute(array($_GET['name']))) {
       while ($row = $stmt-&gt;fetch()) {
       print_r($row);
       }
       }
       ?&gt;</pre>';            
    cache_name_open.handler='PHP prepared statement';           
        </script>

At first I thought it was just the complexity of the code returned (for example containing quotes, etc.). But even a simple HTML code also returns an error:

        <script>
        var cache_open = {};
        var cache_name_open={};         
        var handler='open';
        cacheObj_open.handler='<pre class="brush: html;">&lt;html&gt;
        &lt;body&gt;
        &lt;p&gt;Hello world.&lt;/p&gt;
        &lt;/body&gt;
        &lt;/html&gt;</pre>';           
    cache_name_open.handler='PHP prepared statement';           
        </script>

Any ideas what is causing the error? Any suggestions for modifications is highly appreciated thanks!

Answer 1

Javascript strings can't break across newlines without an escape (\). See this question for detailed answers:

• How do I break a string across more than one line of code in JavaScript?