Why do I get an parse error in the first line? Please help. Thanks in advance.

[silvergost]

<?php

int DMYToExcelSerialDate(int nDay, int nMonth, int nYear)
{
    // Excel/Lotus 123 have a bug with 29-02-1900. 1900 is not a
    // leap year, but Excel/Lotus 123 think it is...
    if (nDay == 29 && nMonth == 02 && nYear==1900)
        return 60;

    // DMY to Modified Julian calculatie with an extra substraction of 2415019.
    long nSerialDate =
            int(( 1461 * ( nYear + 4800 + int(( nMonth - 14 ) / 12) ) ) / 4) +
            int(( 367 * ( nMonth - 2 - 12 * ( ( nMonth - 14 ) / 12 ) ) ) / 12) -
            int(( 3 * ( int(( nYear + 4900 + int(( nMonth - 14 ) / 12) ) / 100) ) ) / 4) +
            nDay - 2415019 - 32075;

    if (nSerialDate < 60)
    {
        // Because of the 29-02-1900 bug, any serial date
        // under 60 is one off... Compensate.
        nSerialDate--;
    }

    return (int)nSerialDate;
}


print (nSerialDate);

?>

[Markus]

Because that is not PHP code. PHP is not a strongly type language, ergo variables and functions do not need (cannot have) their types declared.

Consider the following:

// valid way of declaring a function - notice the 'function' keyword.
function my_function($param1, $param2) {}
// invalid way of declaring a function - lacks the 'function' keyword and also specifies return type of function
int my_function($param1, $param2) {}
// also invalid, same as above, but also specifies type of parameters (please see next example also)
int my_function(int $param1, int $param2) {}
// you can 'type-hint' certain values for your parameters, such as 'array'
// and classes
function my_function(array $param1, my_class $param2) {}

// correct way to define a variable
$my_variable = 1;
// incorrect
int $my_variable = 1;

Hope this helps,
Mark.

P.S. Welcome to the forum!
P.P.S Please use code tags when posting code to the forum. That can be done as [code] your code here [/code].

[silvergost]

Thanks for the reply Mark,
I simply just wanted to convert a Date YYYYMMDD to an Excel serial date, using .php code. I'm not having much success as I am new to .php.

[Markus]

Thanks for the reply Mark,
I simply just wanted to convert a Date YYYYMMDD to an Excel serial date, using .php code. I'm not having much success as I am new to .php.

Read some tutorials, and you'll be able to do it yourself based on the above algorithm.

[silvergost]

Thanks for the confidence in me. At least I can gather from your reply that what I whant to do is possible.

[Markus]

Thanks for the confidence in me. At least I can gather from your reply that what I whant to do is possible.

Sure it is - all you're really doing is some math, which PHP handles just like any other language. I would give you a head start, but I have to run out.

Mark.