PHP version differences of arrays

Question

I am having some problems with the different versions of PHP arrays. I am creating a custom portfolio page for a wordpress theme and it works perfectly on localhost using the latest PHP version. However when I wanted to try it online I got an error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[', expecting ',' or ';' in /wordpress/wp-content/themes/theme/functions.php on line 72

The server is running a PHP version 4.0.10.14 and I need to install the portfolio to there. Is there any way to convert this line to be compatible with the old PHP version however still possible to use it in latest PHP versions?

<img src="<?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'portfolio_imgs', 
 true)[$i]['url']; ?>" width="96" height="54"/>

Here is the complete section of the code:

$portfolio_array = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'portfolio_imgs', true);
$arrlength = count($portfolio_array);
for ($i=0; $i<$arrlength; $i++) {
?>
<div class="uploaded_images" id="image_<?php echo "$i" ?>" 
            onClick="delete_image(<?php echo $i; ?>)">
    <img src="<?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'portfolio_imgs', 
             true)[$i]['url']; ?>" width="96" height="54"/>
    <input type="hidden" id="id<?php echo $i ?>" name="selection[]" value="keep"/>
</div>
<?php
}
?>

You're kidding that it's running `PHP version 4.0.10.14`, right? — Jonnix, Jul 01 '16 at 16:04
Try accessing the index from the variable instead of the function (you already called `get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'portfolio_imgs', true);` into `$portfolio_array`, so try ``) — FirstOne, Jul 01 '16 at 16:06
@iwan If that's true, you _need_ new hosting. I mean 4.0 died *15 years* ago. Also, I'm not even sure that version existed, last released version of 4.0 appears to have been 4.0.6. — Jonnix, Jul 01 '16 at 16:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 01 '16 at 16:08

1

PHP before 5.5 (or 5.4 I'm not sure) do not allow to index array immediately after function call.

Your code can be rewritten this way:

<?php
$src = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'portfolio_imgs', true);
$src = $src[$i]['url'];
?>
<img src="<?php echo $src; ?>" width="96" height="54" />

edited Jul 01 '16 at 16:08

Martin

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answered Jul 01 '16 at 16:06

Arnial

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '16 at 16:08

Assuming your get_post_meta() function returns a valid array, then the following should work:

$result = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), 'portfolio_imgs', true);
<img src="<?php echo $result[$i]['url']; ?>" width="96" height="54"/>

Your current version is using what is called "Function array dereferencing" which was introduced in PHP 5.4.

PHP version differences of arrays

2 Answers2