13-04-2012, 09:34 AM
Php: The Complete Reference
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What is PHP?
• PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
• PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
• PHP scripts are executed on the server
• PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
• PHP is an open source software
• PHP is free to download and use
What is a PHP File?
• PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts
• PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
• PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"
What is MySQL?
• MySQL is a database server
• MySQL is ideal for both small and large applications
• MySQL supports standard SQL
• MySQL compiles on a number of platforms
• MySQL is free to download and use
PHP + MySQL
• PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (you can develop in Windows and serve on a Unix platform)
Why PHP?
• PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
• PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
• PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
• PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side
Where to Start?
To get access to a web server with PHP support, you can:
• Install Apache (or IIS) on your own server, install PHP, and MySQL
• Or find a web hosting plan with PHP and MySQL support
Basic PHP Syntax
A PHP scripting block always starts with <?php and ends with ?>. A PHP scripting block can be placed anywhere in the document.
On servers with shorthand support enabled you can start a scripting block with <? and end with ?>.
For maximum compatibility, we recommend that you use the standard form (<?php) rather than the shorthand form.
<?php
?>
A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, just like an HTML file, and some PHP scripting code.
Below, we have an example of a simple PHP script which sends the text "Hello World" to the browser:
<html>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hello World";
?>
</body>
</html>
Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon. The semicolon is a separator and is used to distinguish one set of instructions from another.
There are two basic statements to output text with PHP: echo and print. In the example above we have used the echo statement to output the text "Hello World".
Note: The file must have a .php extension. If the file has a .html extension, the PHP code will not be executed.
________________________________________
Comments in PHP
In PHP, we use // to make a single-line comment or /* and */ to make a large comment block.
<html>
<body>
<?php
//This is a comment
/*
This is
a comment
block
*/
?>
</body>
</html>
A variable is used to store information.
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Variables in PHP
Variables are used for storing values, like text strings, numbers or arrays.
When a variable is declared, it can be used over and over again in your script.
All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol.
The correct way of declaring a variable in PHP:
$var_name = value;
New PHP programmers often forget the $ sign at the beginning of the variable. In that case it will not work.
Let's try creating a variable containing a string, and a variable containing a number:
<?php
$txt="Hello World!";
$x=16;
?>
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PHP is a Loosely Typed Language
In PHP, a variable does not need to be declared before adding a value to it.
In the example above, you see that you do not have to tell PHP which data type the variable is.
PHP automatically converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on its value.
In a strongly typed programming language, you have to declare (define) the type and name of the variable before using it.
In PHP, the variable is declared automatically when you use it.
________________________________________
Naming Rules for Variables
• A variable name must start with a letter or an underscore "_"
• A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ )
• A variable name should not contain spaces. If a variable name is more than one word, it should be separated with an underscore ($my_string), or with capitalization ($myString)
• A string variable is used to store and manipulate text.
• ________________________________________
• String Variables in PHP
• String variables are used for values that contain characters.
• In this chapter we are going to look at the most common functions and operators used to manipulate strings in PHP.
• After we create a string we can manipulate it. A string can be used directly in a function or it can be stored in a variable.
• Below, the PHP script assigns the text "Hello World" to a string variable called $txt:
• <?php
$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;
?>
• The output of the code above will be:
• Hello World
• Now, lets try to use some different functions and operators to manipulate the string.
• ________________________________________
• The Concatenation Operator
• There is only one string operator in PHP.
• The concatenation operator (.) is used to put two string values together.
• To concatenate two string variables together, use the concatenation operator:
• <?php
$txt1="Hello World!";
$txt2="What a nice day!";
echo $txt1 . " " . $txt2;
?>
• The output of the code above will be:
• Hello World! What a nice day!
• If we look at the code above you see that we used the concatenation operator two times. This is because we had to insert a third string (a space character), to separate the two strings.
• ________________________________________
• The strlen() function
• The strlen() function is used to return the length of a string.
• Let's find the length of a string:
• <?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
?>
• The output of the code above will be:
• 12
• The length of a string is often used in loops or other functions, when it is important to know when the string ends. (i.e. in a loop, we would want to stop the loop after the last character in the string).
• ________________________________________
• The strpos() function
• The strpos() function is used to search for a character/text within a string.
• If a match is found, this function will return the character position of the first match. If no match is found, it will return FALSE.
• Let's see if we can find the string "world" in our string:
• <?php
echo strpos("Hello world!","world");
?>
• The output of the code above will be:
• 6
• The position of the string "world" in the example above is 6. The reason that it is 6 (and not 7), is that the first character position in the string is 0, and not 1.