Javascript Error "Missing ; before statement"

Question

I am having a very weird error on this block:

<script type="text/javascript">
  var captions = new Array();
  captions[0] = "";
  captions[1] = '<div class="cap-desc"><h3>No Win - No Fee</h3><span class="captionSubhead">Performance Guarantee</span><br /><span style="color:#636363; font-size:13px;">Ask Today. We are very confident<br />you'll be impressed with our results! </span></div><br /><a href="http://#" class="rmore" target="_blank">read more</a>';
</script>

The error tells me that I am missing a ';' before captions[1] but I am pretty sure that captions[0] has a semi-colon!

The whole site is here: http://katron.sourcefit.com/cms02/a&a/

It has 5 captions now, but same error nonetheless. I tried changing the contents of the caption in question. In this case, it's captions[1] and it works. What is wrong with the caption? I am sure I am closing all tags and quotes and escaping \n to

Quintin Robinson · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-03 06:31:43Z

7

You are not escaping a single quote properly...

captions[1] = '<div class="cap-desc"><h3>No Win - No Fee</h3><span class="captionSubhead">Performance Guarantee</span><br /><span style="color:#636363; font-size:13px;">Ask Today. We are very confident<br />you\'ll be impressed with our results! </span></div><br /><a href="http://#" class="rmore" target="_blank">read more</a>';

This just escapes the apostrophe in

you'll

answered Aug 3, 2011 at 6:31

Quintin Robinson

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1 Comment

pete Over a year ago

it's funny because stack overflow syntax highlighting already highlighted his error

jkeesh · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-03 06:31:53Z

5

The problem is you'll has an apostrophe and ends the code block. Make sure to escape it.

answered Aug 3, 2011 at 6:31

jkeesh

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Comments

Ben · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-20 02:47:42Z

2

Found this question when I was googling the error.

My solution is not relevant to the original post but may help someone anyway.

I had forgotten the word function after a declaration:

Foo.bar(evt) {
    ...
}

should have been

Foo.bar = function(evt) {
    ...
}

Took me a little while to find this bug, so hopefully it helps someone.

answered Sep 20, 2012 at 2:47

Ben

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Comments

NathanOliver · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-02 13:51:28Z

1

The same error can occur if you are trying to add a property to an existing object prefixing with a var. For example

var existingObject = {};

var existingObject.property1 = {}; //will throw the same error

The solution is:

var existingObject = {};

existingObject.property1 = {}; //without prefixing with var

edited Jun 2, 2015 at 13:51

NathanOliver

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answered Jun 2, 2015 at 13:44

Rajesh Kumar K V

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1 Comment

chaoskreator Over a year ago

Ha! This was the reason for my error! Good to know.

Prashant Lakhlani · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-03 06:32:31Z

0

That is because of single quote in last line at confident you'll be impressed repalce it with \' and it think that will fix it

answered Aug 3, 2011 at 6:32

Prashant Lakhlani

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BZink · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-03 06:33:26Z

0

you'll be impressed with our results!

That apostrophe (') in you'll is ending your string. So the javascript engine is looking for a semicolon there.

replace with \' to escape it

answered Aug 3, 2011 at 6:33

BZink

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Comments

Ravi Vanapalli · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-03 06:33:45Z

0

Check "you'll be impressed with our results! " in your captions[1] it has ' character which does not have escape character.

answered Aug 3, 2011 at 6:33

Ravi Vanapalli

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