Question

I created a user model in Code Igniter.

class User extends CI_Model {
    function __construct() {
        parent::__construct();
    }

    public function new($username, $email, $password, $studentID="") {
        $this->db->query("INSERT INTO user VALUES (0, '$username', '$email', '$password', '$studentID')");
    }
}

However, I am getting this PHP error.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NEW, expecting T_STRING in /home/davidfaux/testApp/application/models/user.php on line 12

Line 12, by the way, is this line.

public function new($username, $email, $password, $studentID="") {

What is a T_NEW? Why am I getting the error?

Answer 1

new is a reserved word for creating new objects, like new Person('Joe').
You should rename your function.

See http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.keywords.php for reference.

These words have special meaning in PHP. Some of them represent things
which look like functions, some look like constants, and so on–but
they’re not, really: they are language constructs. You cannot use any
of the following words as constants, class names, function or method
names. Using them as variable names is generally OK, but could lead to
confusion.