PHP

Krishna priya
April 19, 2011
C-DAC, Hyderabad
What is PHP?

PHP == ‘Hypertext Preprocessor’

Open-source, server-side scripting
language

Used to generate dynamic web-pages

PHP scripts reside between reserved PHP
tags

This allows the programmer to embed PHP
scripts within HTML pages
What is PHP (cont’d)

Interpreted language, scripts are parsed at run-
time rather than compiled beforehand

Executed on the server-side

Source-code not visible by client
 ‘View Source’ in browsers does not display the PHP code

Various built-in functions allow for fast
development

Compatible with many popular databases
including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase,
Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server.
Brief History of PHP

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) was created
by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. It was initially
developed for HTTP usage logging and server-
side form generation in Unix.

PHP 2 (1995) transformed the language into a

Server-side embedded scripting language. Added
database support, file uploads, variables, arrays,
recursive functions, conditionals, iteration,
regular expressions, etc.

PHP 3 (1998) added support for ODBC(Open

Database Connectivity) data sources, multiple
platform support, email protocols and new parser
written
Brief History of PHP (cont’d)

PHP 4 (2000) became an independent component
of the web server for added efficiency. The parser
was renamed the Zend Engine. Many security
features were added.

PHP 5 (2004) adds Zend Engine II with object

oriented programming, robust XML support,
SOAP extension for interoperability with Web
Services, SQLite(SQLite is an embedded database
library that implements a large subset of the SQL
92 standard.) has been bundled with PHP
Advantages of selecting PHP for
Web Development
1. It can be easily embedded into the HTML code.
2. There is no need to pay for using PHP to develop web applications and
websites.
3. It provides support to almost all operating systems that include Windows,
Linux, Mac, etc.
4. Implementing PHP is much easier than other programming languages like
Java, Asp.net, C++, etc.
5. PHP provides compatibility to all web browsers. Be it Internet Explorer,
Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Google Chrome, Opera, or any other Web
browser, PHP supports all.
6. PHP is compatible with web servers like Apache, IIS, etc.
7. PHP Web development is highly reliable and secure because of the security
features that PHP offers.
8. Provides support to all database servers, such as MSSQL, Oracle, and
MySQL. Because it provides supports for almost all database servers, it is
highly used in developing dynamic web applications.
9. It is the best choice to develop small as well as large websites like
ecommerce websites, discussion forums, etc.
10. It offers flexibility, scalability, and faster speed in comparison to other
scripting languages being used to develop websites.
PHP Environment Setup

In order to develop and run PHP Web
pages three vital components need to be
installed on your computer system.

Web Server, Database , PHP Parser

Wamp Server is an open source project
http://www.wampserver.com/en/dow
nload.php

Wamp Server Version 2.0

PHP:5.2.5, Apache:2.2.6,

MYSQL:5.0.45
How PHP works

When a user navigates in his/her browser to a page that ends
with a .php extension, the request is sent to a web server, which
directs the request to the PHP interpreter.
What does PHP code look like?

Structurally similar to C/C++

Here some similarities and differences in PHP and
C:
Similarities:

Broadly speaking, PHP syntax is the same as in
C:
 statements are terminated with semicolons,
 function calls have the same structure
(my_function(expression1, expression2)), and curly
braces ({ and }) make statements into blocks.
 PHP supports C and C++-style comments (/* */ as well
as //), and also Perl and shell-script style (#).
Similarities(cont’d)

Operators:
 The assignment operators (=, +=, *=, and so on),
 Boolean operators (&&, ||, !)
 the comparison operators (<,>, <=, >=, ==, !=), and
the basic arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /, %) all behave
in PHP as they do in C.

Control structures:
 The basic control structures (if, switch, while, for)
behave as they do in C, including supporting break and
continue.
 One notable difference is that switch in PHP can accept
strings as case identifiers.
Similarities (cont’d)

Function names:
 As you peruse the documentation, you all see
many function names that seem identical to C
functions.
Differences:

Dollar signs:
 All variables are denoted with a leading $.
Variables do not need to be declared in
advance of assignment
Differences compare to C

Types:
 PHP has only two numerical types: integer
(corresponding to a long in C) and double
(corresponding to a double in C). Strings are of arbitrary
length. There is no separate character type.

Arrays:
 Arrays have a syntax superficially similar to C's array
syntax, but they are implemented completely differently.
They are actually associative arrays or hashes, and the
index can be either a number or a string. They do not
need to be declared or allocated in advance.
Differences compare to C

No structure type:
 There is no struct in PHP

No pointers:
 There are no pointers available in PHP.
 PHP does support variable references. You can
also emulate function pointers to some extent,
in that function names can be stored in
variables and called by using the variable
rather than a literal name.
Differences compare to C

No prototypes:
 Functions do not need to be declared before
their implementation is defined, as long as the
function definition can be found somewhere in
the current code file or included files.
PHP Language Basics

Structurally similar to C/C++

All PHP statements end with a semi-colon

Each PHP script must be enclosed in the reserved
PHP tag

PHP Tag Styles as follows:

<?php
…
short-open tag ASP-style tags
?> <?...?> <%...%>

HTML script tags

<script language="PHP">...</script>
Comments in PHP

There are two commenting formats in
PHP:

1. Single-line comments

2. Multi-lines comments

// C++ and Java-style comment

# This is the second line of the comment

/* C-style comments
These can span multiple lines */
PHP Variables

PHP variables must begin with a “$” sign

Case-sensitive ($Foo != $foo != $fOo)

Certain variable names reserved by PHP

For Example Form variables ($_POST,
$_GET) Etc.
<?php
$foo = 25; // Numerical variable
$bar = “Hello”; // String variable

$foo = ($foo * 7); // Multiplies foo by 7

?>
PHP Variable Naming Conventions

There are a few rules that you need to follow when
choosing a name for your PHP variables.

PHP variables must start with a letter or underscore "_".

PHP variables may only be comprised of alpha-numeric

characters and underscores. a-z, A-Z, 0-9, or _ .

Variables with more than one word should be separated

with underscores. $my_variable

Variables with more than one word can also be

distinguished with capitalization. $myVariable
Echo

The PHP command ‘echo’ is used to output the parameters passed
to it

Strings in single quotes (‘ ’) are not interpreted or evaluated by
PHP
<?php
$foo = 25; // Numerical variable
$bar = “Hello”; // String variable

echo $bar; // Outputs Hello

echo $foo,$bar; // Outputs 25Hello
echo “5x5=”,$foo; // Outputs 5x5=25
echo “5x5=$foo”; // Outputs 5x5=25
echo ‘5x5=$foo’; // Outputs 5x5=$foo
?>

Notice how echo ‘5x5=$foo’ outputs $foo rather than replacing it with 25
Strings in single quotes (‘ ’) are not interpreted or evaluated by PHP
 Concatenation

Use a period to join strings into one.
<?php
$string1=“Hello”;
$string2=“PHP”; Hello PHP
$string3=$string1 . “ ” . $string2;
echo $string3;
?>

Escaping the Character

If the string has a set of double quotation marks that must remain visible, use
the \ [backslash] before the quotation marks to ignore and display them.

<?php
$heading=“\”Computer Science\””;
“Computer Science”
Print $heading;
?>
Operators Examples

Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20 then:

Type Operator Description Example

Arithmetic + Adds two operands A + B will give 30
Comparision == Checks if the value of two (A == B) is not
operands are equal or not, true.
if yes then condition
becomes true.
Logical (or Relational) and If both the operands are (A and B) is true.
Operators true then then condition
becomes true.
Assignment Operators += It adds right operand to C += A is
the left operand and equivalent to C =
assign the result to left C+A
operand
Conditional (or ternary) ?: Conditional Expression If Condition is
Operators true ? Then value
X : Otherwise
value Y
PHP Decision Making

The if, else …elseif and switch statements
are used to take decision based on the
different condition.
<?php <?php
$my_name = "someguy"; If($user==“John”)
{
if ( $my_name == "someguy" ) Print “Hello John.”;
{ }
echo "Your name is Else
someguy!<br />"; {
} Print “You are not
echo "Welcome to my John.”;
homepage!"; }
?> ?>

No THEN in PHP
PHP Loop Types

Loops in PHP are used to execute the same block of code a
specified number of times. PHP supports following four loop
types.
While while - loops through a block of code if and as
long as a specified condition is true.
do...while do...while - loops through a block of code once,
and then repeats the loop as long as a special
condition is true.

for – loop for - loops through a block of code a specified

number of times.

foreach foreach - loops through a block of code for each

element in an array.
PHP Arrays

An array stores one or more similar type of
values in a single value.

An array is a special variable, which can store
multiple values in one single variable.
In PHP, there are three kind of arrays:

Numeric array - An array with a numeric index

Associative array - An array where each ID key is
associated with a value

Multidimensional array - An array containing one
or more arrays
Looping through Arrays

Looping through element values

Looping through keys and values

foreach ( $array as $value ) { foreach ( $array as $key => $value ) {

// Do stuff with $value // Do stuff with $key and/or $value
} }

Sorting an Array in PHP

You can sort an array in PHP by using two functions:

sort(), to sort an array in ascending order

rsort(), to sort an array in the reverse order, or descending order

Date Display
$datedisplay=date(“yyyy/m/d”);
2011/4/19 echo $datedisplay;

$datedisplay=date(“l, F m, Y”);
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 echo $datedisplay;

$date display=date(“D”);
Tue
echo $d
Functions

PHP functions are similar to other programming languages. A
function is a piece of code which takes one more input in the form
of parameter and does some processing and returns a value.
There are two parts which should be clear to you:
Creating a PHP Function
Calling a PHP Function

function functionName()
{
code to be executed;
}
PHP File Inclusion

You can include the content of a PHP file into another PHP
file before the server executes it. There are two PHP
functions which can be used to included one PHP file into
another PHP file.

The include() Function

The require() Function

This is a strong point of PHP which helps in creating functions,

headers, footers, or elements that can be reused on multiple pages.
This will help developers to make it easy to change
the layout of complete website with minimal effort.
If there is any change required then instead of changing
thausand of files just change included file.