Getting : Fatal error while I am trying to use the declare(strict_types=1) on my PHP file

Question

I have created a php test script test.php with the following code :

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

function sum(int $a, int $b) : int {
      return $a + $b ;
}

print(sum(2, 3));

Then when I try to run it, I am getting this fatal error:

Fatal error: strict_types declaration must be the very first statement in the script in C:\wamp\www\test.php on line 2

I am using PHP 7.2.4 on Wampserver 3.1.3 and I am accessing the script through my browser.

This is weird, I'm using the same versions, php 7.2.4 on wamp 3.1.3 and I have no issue — Cid, Nov 19 '18 at 14:20
The only way I could throw that exception using that code was using spaces before ` — Cid, Nov 19 '18 at 14:22
The server Software is: Apache/2.4.33 (Win32) PHP/7.2.4 - Port defined for Apache: 80 — karthzDIGI, Nov 19 '18 at 14:32
I am using exactly the same versions. Give a try to restart wamp — Cid, Nov 19 '18 at 14:33
Thank you @cid, sadly the issue still exist after the restart. Also I made sure that there is no space before the php tag. — karthzDIGI, Nov 19 '18 at 14:39
I checked auto_prepend_file, No value set for this, not even space there. Now I tried with 'none' then restarted apache. Still the same issue exist — karthzDIGI, Nov 21 '18 at 17:08

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 07 '18 at 18:44

11

Did you save it in an editor that outputs a UTF-8 BOM? It's a few invisible bytes at the start of the file which mark it as Unicode, but PHP doesn't recognise it.

Try opening the file in Notepad, going to Save As and choosing the ANSI encoding.

Also make very sure there are no lines before the opening tag. It sounds like there is one.

answered Dec 07 '18 at 18:44

Andrea

19,134
4
43
65

Thank you! This was the problem using php 7.1 – AwesomeUserName Dec 18 '19 at 21:45
Glad to help :) – Andrea Dec 18 '19 at 23:00
for me it work with UTF-8 also. – Jeffery White Mar 07 '23 at 08:29
Things might have changed since 2018. – Andrea Mar 08 '23 at 21:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 16 '21 at 07:23

1

It also gives this error when extra spaces at the beginning. Should remove spaces specially before <?php

answered Aug 16 '21 at 07:23

Alam Zaib

187
1
11

and also the first line of the php file ` – V H Mar 30 '22 at 14:48

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 08 '22 at 15:50

1

I used the script tag to solve that. <script>declare(strict_types=1);</script>. Remember this, put it in the first of body.

answered Apr 08 '22 at 15:50

Khoa MinHi

11
3

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 12 '23 at 13:26

0

I used utf-8 like that to solve:

<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset='UTF-8' />
    </head>
    <body>
    ...

answered Jul 12 '23 at 13:26

koalatree

25
1
9

Getting : Fatal error while I am trying to use the declare(strict_types=1) on my PHP file

4 Answers4