“Cannot use string offset as an array”

Question

I am theming a node for a specific content type and split the theme into whether the node is being displayed as a teaser or full. This error only comes up when you view the full node.

Error: Cannot use string offset as an array in XXXXXX/node--event.tpl.php on line 100

The node displays fine as a teaser, which makes this error even more confusing as the problematic line is used during teaser display. The code below is the one for the teaser part of the template.

  <?php if ($teaser): ?>
  <div id="node-<?php print $node->nid; ?>" class="<?php print $classes; ?> clearfix"<?php print $attributes; ?>>

        <h2<?php print $title_attributes; ?>>
      <a href="<?php print $node_url; ?>"><?php print $title; ?> - 

        <span class="eventdate"><?php print(substr($node->field_date[und][0][value], 0, -9));?></span>
        </a></h2>
  <div class="content clearfix"<?php print $content_attributes; ?>>
     <?php
      // We hide the comments and links now so that we can render them later.
      hide($content['comments']);
      hide($content['links']);
      //*********LINE100**************
print($node->body[und][0][safe_value]);
    ?>
  </div>

    <div class="link-wrapper">
      <?php print $links; ?>
    </div>
    </div>
  <?php endif; ?>

Answer 1

If you get that error, it means that $node->body is not an array, but a string. In that case, PHP would take $node->body[und] as a string offset, and you could not use $node->body[und][0][safe_value].

To notice that both und, and safe_value are considered from PHP two constants, but Drupal doesn't define those constants. In that case, PHP would use as value of the constants und, and safe_value, the values of the strings 'und', and 'safe_value', but you should not rely on that.

Answer 2

In Drupal 7, you should be utilizing the render() function rather than directly printing a node field's value. So, line 100 of your node.tpl.php file should read:

print render($content['body']);

If you need to make changes to the data in the $content['body'] variable for teaser views, that sort of processing should be done in an implementation of template_preprocess_node(), not in the node template.

More information about your motivation behind the code on line 100 and your desired result would help me to provide a solution more specific to your situation.

Answer 3

I don't know if this helps, but I encountered this error because I declared an array as a string earlier in my own code.

https://php.net/manual/en/migration71.incompatible.php#migration71.incompatible.empty-string-index-operator (in PHP 7.0 this is allowed, but PHP 7.1+ will not covert stings to arrays)

I can't see enough of your code to inspect the issue, but it's possible something similar maybe happening.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1873970/cannot-use-string-offset-as-an-array-in-php