I am setting an jQuery array with PHP, like this:
<script type='text/javascript'>
var postQuote = new Array();
postQuote[<?php echo $post['post_id']; ?>] = <?php echo mysql_real_escape_string(html_entity_decode($post['post_text'])); ?>
</script>
My problem is, that $post['post_text']; can literally contain all characters. Therefore, I am getting an unexpected identifier error with jQuery.
My question is: how can I avoid this?
Why don't you do a json_encode. json_encode will convert your PHP variables into a variable that's usable by JavaScript. This also might remove the need to use html_entity_decode on most occasions, since this is not really something you should be doing to convert something that will be used by JavaScript. mysql_real_escape_string is not needed at all.
<script type='text/javascript'>
var postQuote = new Array();
postQuote[<?php echo json_encode($post['post_id']); ?>] = <?php echo json_encode($post['post_text']); ?>
</script>
I would also set them as separate variables so that they're easier to debug and keep track of:
<script type='text/javascript'>
var postQuote = new Array();
var postQuoteKey = <?php echo json_encode($post['post_id']); ?>;
var postQuoteValue = <?php echo json_encode($post['post_text']); ?>;
// See what the key and value are
console.log(postQuoteKey);
console.log(postQuoteValue);
postQuote[postQuoteKey] = postQuoteValue;
</script>
The following example works as expected:
<script>
// Number
console.log(<?php echo json_encode(1); ?>);
// String
console.log(<?php echo json_encode("hello"); ?>);
// Boolean
console.log(<?php echo json_encode(false); ?>);
// Boolean
console.log(<?php echo json_encode(true); ?>);
// Array
console.log(<?php echo json_encode(array(1,2,3)); ?>);
// Outputs a JavaScript object
console.log(<?php echo json_encode(array("a" => 345, "b" => '242', "c" => 'hello')); ?>);
</script>
mysql_real_escape_string, it's deprecated You should instead use prepared statements for maximum portability, safety and speed php.net/manual/en/pdo.prepare.php
postQuote["<?php ... ?>"].mysql_real_escape_stringis for sql, not for javascript. usejson_encode.