title: Using ucfirst() function in php 5.3 returning a parse error
body: <p>I'm trying to add a ucfirst() function in my codeigniter controller so I'll get back a string with a first upper case letter. For some reason I keep getting a parse error:</p>
  
  <p>Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting ',' or ';' in ... on line 7 (the line where my ucfirst is). </p>
  
  <p>Trying to change ucfirst() to ucfirst(strtolower($database)) or to ucwords($database) returning the same result. </p>
  
  <p>My code is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
  
  class Somecontroller extends CI_Controller {
      private $database = "some_database";
      private $model = ucfirst($this-&gt;database)."_model";
      ...
  }
  </code></pre>