In PHP, and most other programming languages, variables cannot start with a number. The first character must be alphabetic or an underscore.

$1   // Bad
$_1  // Good

The token T_LNUMBER refers to a "long" / number.

1. Invalid variable names

   In PHP, and most other programming languages, variables cannot start with a number. The first character must be alphabetic or an underscore.

    $1   // Bad
    $_1  // Good
   

* Quite often [comes up](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9571559/syntax-error-unexpected-t-lnumber-expecting-t-variable-or) for using `preg_replace`-placeholders `"$1"` in PHP context:

        #                         ↓            ⇓  ↓
        preg_replace("/#(\w+)/e",  strtopupper($1) )

   Where the callback should have been quoted. (Now the `/e` regex flag has been deprecated. But it's sometimes still misused in `preg_replace_callback` functions.)

• The same identifier constraint applies to object properties, btw.

            ↓
     $json->0->value
  

• While the tokenizer/parser does not allow a literal $1 as variable name, one could use ${1} or ${"1"}. Which is a syntactic workaround for non-standard identifiers. (It's best to think of it as a local scope lookup. But generally: prefer plain arrays for such cases!)

• Amusingly, but very much not recommended, PHPs parser allows Unicode-identifiers; such that $➊ would be valid. (Unlike a literal 1).

2. Stray array entry

   An unexpected long can also occur for array declarations - when missing , commas:

    #            ↓ ↓
    $xy = array(1 2 3);
   

   Or likewise function calls and declarations, and other constructs:

   • func(1, 2 3);
   • function xy($z 2);
   • for ($i=2 3<$z)
     
     

   So usually there's one of ; or , missing for separating lists or expressions.

3. Misquoted HTML

   And again, misquoted strings are a frequent source of stray numbers:

    #                 ↓ ↓          
    echo "<td colspan="3">something bad</td>";
   

   Such cases should be treated more or less like Unexpected T_STRING errors.

4. Other identifiers

   Neither functions, classes, nor namespaces can be named beginning with a number either:

             ↓
    function 123shop() {
   

   Pretty much the same as for variable names.

##Unexpected T_LNUMBER

IN PHP, and most other programming languages, variables cannot start with a number. The first character must be alphabetic or an underscore.

$1   // bad
$_1  // good

##Unexpected T_LNUMBER

In PHP, and most other programming languages, variables cannot start with a number. The first character must be alphabetic or an underscore.

$1   // Bad
$_1  // Good