how to locate a line of code appearing on the site?

Can you show us a page with the problem?

Hi Andrew, thank you so much for your reply. The whole thing is offline, on localhost, because as I am a beginner I am not confident to do it in the real website, so I am not sure how could I show you, nor I see how can I send a screenshot.
All I can say is that I have been customizing an already custom template and at some point, I didnt notice, this line started to appear at the bottom of the content in every page.

I did modifications in files header, functions, style following several tips for different things I have been trying out. Now I want to finally export the whole new thing and cannot have this line removed.
I am not so OK with applying a code to hide those warnings, cause I suppose they have a reason to appear.. but don’t know where this comes from!

To be precise:
in the container area, at the bottom of each content, this appears:

‘header-menu’, ‘container_class’ => ‘header_menu_class’ ) ); ?>

Is there any tool I could use to locate where this comes from?

UPDATE:
WP_DEBUG is already set to ‘false’ in my config file, so that means this is not a php notice? What is this actually? I don’t even know how to call what I am looking for…. ??

It’s not a PHP notice you’re right.

Are you using a caching plugin? A caching plugin will save old versions of the website, so it could be showing the bug even if you’ve fixed it.

HI Andrew,
no, I don’t have any caching plugin.

Weeks ago I followed a tutorial on how to create a new menu area, which I have done to create a Header menu. The code inserted looks fine, since now wordpress indeed shows it.

It took me so much work to figure out how to create a menu for that area that I am not ok with the idea of deleting this piece of code which was inserted in functions.php file. I am afraid of messing the whole thing but I will give a try, since apparently there is no way to know the source of this line… I don’t even know what it means, but thanks!

Where does it appear in the functions.php file? Can you paste here the line above where it appears, as well as the code itself?
E.g.:

?>
‘header-menu’, ‘container_class’ => ‘header_menu_class’ ) ); ?>

nonon, this does not appear anywhere! that is my problem! I don’t know where it comes from!

It is not written in any of the files (cause I search ALL) and it appears on my frond end, at the bottom of every content area of every page.

The only thing related to ‘header menu’ I have done was to create and register such an area, following a tutorial, I have inserted

function register_my_menu() {
register_nav_menu(‘header-menu’,__( ‘Header Menu’ ));
}
add_action( ‘init’, ‘register_my_menu’ );

This have indeed created this option of menu, that is all. now I have this appearing written in all my pages. And I have not noticed before, so I don’t know what have cause this to appear.

And if I go in functions and delete this, the menu are will disappear and everything I put there will disappear, I suppose..

I have now tried to selected this text and right click ‘view page source’. There I see:

<div id=”comments”>

</div><!– #comments –>

<?wp_nav_menu( array( ‘theme_location’ => ‘header-menu’, ‘container_class’ => ‘header_menu_class’ ) ); ?>

</div><!– #content –>
</div><!– #container –>

So, that means this is a comment? But what is generating this comment? and How to remove it?

Just deleted the created menu area. nothing happens.
I still get this line on my front end, so it does not come from functions.php!

So, that means this is a comment? But what is generating this comment? and How to remove it?

It’s not a comment, it has just been jumbled with an opening PHP tag.
It’s probably meant to look like this:

<? wp_nav_menu( array( ‘theme_location’ => ‘header-menu’, ‘container_class’ => ‘header_menu_class’ ) ); ?>

What may be happening is your local installation not recognising the shorthand PHP tag (“<?”). PHP that is not recognised by the server will be output as plain text on the browser.

Try the answer in this topic: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/880150/why-would-shorthand-php-opening-statements-not-be-working

just posted a screenshot of it, if that helps to understand…

Hi Andrew, thank you very much I will follow that lead, I will post back if I solve as it might help other beginners! Greetings from Berlin!

I see. Does the problem persist when switching to the Twenty Sixteen theme? Just to make sure it’s definitely coming from your theme.

Great idea1 yes, I have just changed and the line disappear. Back to my customized template, it is showing there in every page… I am reading the posts regarding php tags to see if I understand first before messing up even more.

SOLVED!!!!

Indeed, I just had to change <? to <?php at the opening and it disappeared!
I didn’t even have to write anything about short_open_tag on a php.ini file, nothing,
I just located finally the line and added 3 miraculous letters
Thank you soo much, Andrew! All the best!