Can't declare even the most simple class in PHP - Am I going insane?

Question

I'm getting this error whenever I attempt to declare a class:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or
T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home3/foundloc/public_html/booka/page2.php
on line 7 (line 7 is the class declaration by the way).

Here's the incredibly simple class I am attempting to declare:

Class abc
{

$a = “Hello!”;

} 

Is there some setting on PHP that i need to turn on? I feel like this is one of those 'did you check if the TV is plugged in' type of issues....

Answer 1

Try

class abc {
  public $a = "Hello!";
} 

or

class abc {
  var $a = "Hello!";
} 

Answer 2

try

<?php
Class abc {
   var $a = "Hello!";
}
?>

Should work. You have to state the visibility of the member with var or public or private combined with static keyword.

Should find more info in the php man page describing the properties (php terminology for member)

Answer 3

You can't declare properties in classes like that. Members of a class can be either data members (constants and properties) or methods. In the PHP 5 way of doing things, this is basically how it works:

// de facto best practice: class names start with uppercase letter
class Abc
{
    // de facto best practice: ALL UPPERCASE letters for constants
    const SOME_COSTANT = 'this value is immutable'; // accessible outside and inside this class like Abc::SOME_CONSTANT or inside this class like self::SOME_CONSTANT

    public $a = 'Hello'; // a data member that is accessible to all
    protected $b = 'Hi'; // a data membet that is accessible to this class, and classes that extend this class
    private $c = 'Howdy'; // a data member that is accessible only to this class

    // visibility keywords apply here also
    public function aMethod( $with, $some, $parameters ) // a method
    {
        /* do something */
    }
}

You should really not consider using the php 4 practice of declaring data members with the var keyword, unless you are still developing for php 4 of course.