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Unexpected '?'

If you are trying to use the null coalescing operator ?? in a version of PHP prior to PHP 7 you will get this error.

<?= $a ?? 2; // works in PHP 7+
<?= (!empty($a)) ? $a : 2; // All versions of PHP

Unexpected '?', expecting variable

A similar error can occur for nullable types, as in:

function add(?int $sum): ?int {

Which again indicates an outdated PHP version being used (either the CLI version php -v or the webserver bound one phpinfo();).

Unexpected '?'

If you are trying to use <?php within <?php this error will be given*.

$var = 'hello '<?php echo 'world'; ?>;

^{* For PHP versions 4.3.1, 4.3.5 - 4.3.11, 4.4.0 - 4.4.1, 5.0.0 - 5.0.5, 4.4.2 - 4.4.9, 5.1.0 - 5.1.6, 5.2.0 - 5.2.17, 5.3.0 - 5.3.29, 5.4.0 - 5.4.45, 5.5.0 - 5.5.38, 5.6.0 - 5.6.40, 7.0.0 - 7.0.33, 7.1.0 - 7.1.33, 7.2.0 - 7.2.34, 7.3.0 - 7.3.31, 7.4.0 - 7.4.24}

If you are trying to use the null coalescing operator ?? in a version of PHP prior to PHP 7 you will get this error.

<?= $a ?? 2; // works in PHP 7+
<?= (!empty($a)) ? $a : 2; // All versions of PHP

Unexpected '?', expecting variable

A similar error can occur for nullable types, as in:

function add(?int $sum): ?int {

Which again indicates an outdated PHP version being used (either the CLI version php -v or the webserver bound one phpinfo();).

##Unexpected '?'

If you are trying to use the null coalescing operator ?? in a version of PHP prior to PHP 7 you will get this error.

<?= $a ?? 2; // works in PHP 7+
<?= (!empty($a)) ? $a : 2; // All versions of PHP

Unexpected '?', expecting variable

A similar error can occur for nullable types, as in:

function add(?int $sum): ?int {

Which again indicates an outdated PHP version being used (either the CLI version php -v or the webserver bound one phpinfo();).

Unexpected '?'

If you are trying to use the null coalescing operator ?? in a version of PHP prior to PHP 7 you will get this error.

<?= $a ?? 2; // works in PHP 7+
<?= (!empty($a)) ? $a : 2; // All versions of PHP

Unexpected '?', expecting variable

A similar error can occur for nullable types, as in:

function add(?int $sum): ?int {

Which again indicates an outdated PHP version being used (either the CLI version php -v or the webserver bound one phpinfo();).

##Unexpected '?'

If you are trying to use the null coalescing operator ?? in a version of PHP prior to PHP 7 you will get this error.

<?= $a ?? 2; // works in PHP 7+
<?= (!empty($a)) ? $a : 2; // All versions of PHP

##Unexpected '?'

If you are trying to use the null coalescing operator ?? in a version of PHP prior to PHP 7 you will get this error.

<?= $a ?? 2; // works in PHP 7+
<?= (!empty($a)) ? $a : 2; // All versions of PHP

Unexpected '?', expecting variable

A similar error can occur for nullable types, as in:

function add(?int $sum): ?int {

Which again indicates an outdated PHP version being used (either the CLI version php -v or the webserver bound one phpinfo();).