PHP 7 and WordPress: How to FIX unexpected ‘new’ (T_NEW) error

Posted by on 28. December 2015
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Hey,

after I’ve upgraded my PHP to version 7 I found the following error being displayed for one plugin I was using:

Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘new’ (T_NEW) in /var/www/vhosts/wp-content/plugins/smilies-themer/smilies-themer.php on line 80

The solution was pretty easy. Just open an editor on the file and line PHP tells you. Now you should see something like

$this->smilies =& new smilies_package($this->current_smilies);

Here they made some changes in PHP 7. You can’t assign classes with a & symbol anymore. So just remove that & symbol and the plugin will work fine again (search for multiple occurences).

Here you go, have fun with very fast working new PHP 7 and your (old) WordPress !

Everything, Tips
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31 Comments.

  2. jerlon 8. July 2016 at 14:43

    thanks. works for me (so far)

    Reply
  3. Anonymous 19. July 2016 at 8:57

    Thanks that was a great help about removing the & from &new when using php 7.0.

    Regards: Graeme

    Reply
  4. GoogleMe 23. September 2016 at 5:49

    Thanks, i’m examining some old plugins and this really helped me!

    Reply
  6. Anonymous 24. March 2017 at 9:34

    Thanks dude, to thepoint and correct!

    Reply
  7. JonesMedia 15. May 2017 at 22:44

    :twisted: Awesome, thanks for the easy fix.

    Reply
  8. Paul 16. August 2017 at 16:07

    Great!! Thank you. I have fixed a WEBSVN issue using diff

    Reply
  9. Abhishek 6. September 2017 at 7:17

    Thanks, it was helpfull.

    Reply
  10. River 13. October 2017 at 8:14

    Sweet, exactly what I needed :D

    Reply
  11. Praxis 26. October 2017 at 3:11

    Thanks! Checked many sites and yours was the only solution that actually worked!!

    Reply
  13. Lão Còi 13. November 2017 at 5:56

    Thank you, it’s work

    Reply
  14. [J]oules 19. January 2018 at 4:52

    Removing the ‘&’ in the php file worked.
    Thank you!

    Reply
  15. bob 30. January 2018 at 3:37

    Thanks for the & thing. Worked for me. (so far :cool: )

    Reply
  16. shady 24. April 2018 at 12:13

    thanks a ton. works like a charm. :D

    Reply
  17. shadygunit 24. April 2018 at 12:15

    Thanks man. Works like a charm

    Reply
  18. JonR 10. May 2018 at 21:38

    Thank you! This sorted a lot of problems for me. Excellent.

    Reply
  19. Don 16. June 2018 at 13:36

    THANK YOU FOR POSTING! This could have wasted hours. Much appreciated!

    Reply
  20. visit these guys 16. September 2018 at 0:51

    Oh my goodness! Incredible article dude! Thank you, However I am having problems with your RSS.
    I don’t know the reason why I am unable to subscribe to it.
    Is there anyone else having the same RSS issues? Anybody who knows the solution will you kindly respond?
    Thanx!!

    Reply
  21. Brock 18. September 2018 at 18:30

    Thanks a lot! You just saved my life (and my wife’s Website). :)

    Reply
  22. recarv 23. September 2018 at 17:46

    Thanks. For those wanting to search for files where this might be a problem, here is a decent grep: grep -rn -i –include \*.php ‘= &new’ .

    Reply
  23. mrrssy 2. October 2018 at 18:46

    Thank you so much for this easy solution..

    Reply
  24. neildd 13. November 2018 at 15:36

    Brilliant, helped me solve and fix a site search issue I was having. Thanks for this!

    Reply
  25. Thomas 3. December 2018 at 14:55

    Worked for me too – Thanks!

    Reply
  26. Octopus 31. January 2019 at 8:01

    Thanks! That fixed it.

    Reply
  27. Bodo 1. February 2019 at 10:28

    :*
    Thanks!!!! Big Help

    Reply
  28. Pete 2. April 2019 at 5:17

    Thanks – perfect solution

    Reply
  29. milos 18. June 2019 at 8:38

    THANKS!!!

    Reply
  30. Anonymous 1. October 2019 at 17:35

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

    Reply
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