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Asked: 2026-05-29T05:40:04+00:00

I have a website with a white space problem. I am including a few

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I have a website with a white space problem. I am including a few files before the doctype
and this is causing a white space to be outputted.

After searching I have found this solution:
Problem with whitespace before doctype

However after removing ?> I am still getting the problem. Below is the code:

<?php
include ("include/session.php");
include ("include/updatestage.php");                                        
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>....

Here is session.php:

<?php session_start();

// if a team name has been assigned to a session...
if ( isset($_SESSION ['teamName']))
{

//create "global variable $teamName that can be used across all pages as long as the function "session_start(); is present"
$teamName = $_SESSION ['teamName'];

}
else{

die ( "You are not logged in! Redirecting to login page...<meta http-equiv='REFRESH' content='2; url = index.php'>");

}

Here is updatestage.php:

<?php
include("config.php");
//update stage

$inserted="n";
mysql_query ("UPDATE `team` SET `inserted`='$inserted' WHERE teamName = '$teamName' ");

$advance="n";
mysql_query ("UPDATE `game` SET `advance`='$advance' ");

Here is getstageinfo.php:

<?php
include("include/config.php");
//Select the slogan from the current user
$currentStage = mysql_query("
SELECT `currentStage` FROM `team` WHERE `teamName` = '$teamName'
");
//assign the text located at the logo field (the path of the logo) to a variable $slogan
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($currentStage);
$currentStage= $row['currentStage'];
?>

And finally here is config.php:

<?php
// connect to database
$con = mysql_connect("xxxxxxx","xxxxxxx","xxxxxxx"); 

if (!$con)
      {
      die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
      }

// select database 
mysql_select_db ("xxxxxxx");          
?>

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Ok so I have added back in the ?> and tried the suggestions below:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<?php
include("include/session.php");
include("include/updatestage.php");
?>

Or trying: 

<?php

echo "<!DOCTYPE HTML>\n";

include ("include/session.php");
include ("include/updatestage.php");

?>

Produces: 

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at public_html/period1.php:2) in public_html/include/session.php on line 1

Trying:

<?php
include("include/session.php");
include("include/updatestage.php");
?><!DOCTYPE HTML>

Or:

<?php

  ob_start();

  echo "<!DOCTYPE HTML>\n";

  include ("include/session.php");
  include ("include/updatestage.php");

  ob_end_flush();

?>

Still produces the white space.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You may be able to fix the problem like this:

    <?php
include ("include/session.php");
include ("include/updatestage.php");                                        
?><!DOCTYPE HTML>

    But I have observed buggy behaviour in this respect (although not since PHP4), so the easiest solution that guarantees a fix is to put the <!DOCTYPE> before the include – since neither included file outputs anything, and would break your document if it did.

    <!DOCTYPE HTML>
<?php

  include ("include/session.php");
  include ("include/updatestage.php");

?>
<!-- Rest of HTML -->

    Or this:

    <?php

  echo "<!DOCTYPE HTML>\n";

  include ("include/session.php");
  include ("include/updatestage.php");

?>
<!-- Rest of HTML -->

    Remember to make sure that the < in the opening <?php tag is the first character in all files if you go with the second option.

    EDIT Having in the first place completely failed to take into account the session/cookies problem that has reared it’s ugly head, here is a working solution:

    <?php

  ob_start();

  echo "<!DOCTYPE HTML>\n";

  include ("include/session.php");
  include ("include/updatestage.php");

  ob_end_flush();

?>
<!-- Rest of HTML -->
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