when doing something like
$date = mktime();
$xxx = 'if ( date("N",$date ) == 1 ) { return TRUE; } else { return FALSE; }';
$yyy = eval( $xxx );
echo $yyy;
it works.
But when doing something like
$date = mktime();
$xxx = '( date("N",$date) == 1 ? return TRUE : return FALSE );';
$yyy = eval( $xxx );
echo $yyy;
I get an error like
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_RETURN in /my_path/my_file.php(107) : eval()'d code on line 1
Why ?
This has nothing at all to do with eval.
Let's create the real testcase:
<?php
function foo()
{
$date = mktime();
( date("N",$date) == 1 ? return TRUE : return FALSE );
}
foo();
?>
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_RETURN on line 5
return is a statement, not an expression, so you can't nest it into an expression which is what you're trying to do here. The conditional operator is not a one-line replacement for if/else.
To use the conditional operator properly:
return (date("N",$date) == 1 ? TRUE : FALSE);
which simplifies to just:
return (date("N",$date) == 1);
In your code, that looks like this:
$date = mktime();
$xxx = 'return (date("N",$date) == 1);';
$yyy = eval($xxx);
echo $yyy;
I'm pretty certain that should be
$xxx = 'return ( date("N",$date) == 1 ? TRUE : FALSE );';
The things generated by a ternary operator are values (expressions) rather than commands.
