Getting an Unrecognized Expression when Performing an Email Preview

Question

I get the following error when attempting to run an email preview:

The subscriber preview failed to generate. Review the details, correct all issues, and try again.
An unrecognized expression appears in a script block.
Script Expression: “1993”
MemberID: 7273990
JobID: 0

The following AMPScript code was used:

%%[Var @dyr<br>
SET @dyr=[Reunion Year]%%<br>
%%[IF @dyr==“1993” THEN]%%<br> 
   SET @FromName="name1"<br? 
%%[ELSEIF @dyr==“2016” THEN]%%<br>
  SET @FromName="name2"<br>
%%[ELSE]%%<br>
  SET @FromName="default name"<br>
%[ENDIF]%%<br>

what am I doing wrong? How can I fix it?

Answer 1

Your code was a mess of syntax issues and a hot mess in general.

• You had HTML break tags inside the script - which is unnecessary
• You open/closed the AMPScript brackets multiple times for no reason
• You did not correctly label the open/close tags for AMPScript - somtimes using %[ or ]% instead of the full %%[ or ]%% syntax.
• You used the 'magic quotes' as mentioned by @AdrianLarson - which will break inside AMPscript.

Try the below that I rewrote based on your above script:

%%[Var @dyr

   SET @dyr= [Reunion Year]

   IF @dyr=="1993" THEN 

     SET @FromName = "name1"

   ELSEIF @dyr== "2016" THEN

    SET @FromName="name2"

   ELSE

    SET @FromName = "default name"

  ENDIF
]%%

Answer 2

Don't use magic quotes (“...”). Use double quotes ("...") or single quotes ('...') instead.