Hey Jay,
It seems like the PHP version your Xampp is using is PHP 8 . This error occurs when you are using PHP 8 . Elgg currently does not support PHP 8 , so I recommend you to install a lower version [PHP 7.4] and the problem will go :)
Thank you. I came across that info on Github and thought for sure I was on 7, but you are correct. I just started with an older version of xampp, the process went smoothly at more steps, and I am up and running.
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