PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. It is a widely-used, open-source scripting language with scripts that run on the server. PHP is free to download and use.
PHP is designed for creating dynamic and interactive web pages. It is a popular, cost-free, and effective alternative to other technologies like Microsoft's ASP.
PHP code is usually processed by the web server in the background and the resulting output is shown on the front end to the user in any form of data like HTML code or binary image data.
PHP is a free software released under the PHP License. PHP has been widely ported and can be deployed on most web servers on almost every operating system and platform, free of charge.
Prerequisites
Before proceeding, you should have a basic understanding of:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
A Sample PHP Code
<?php
echo "This is generated using the PHP code.";
?>The opening PHP tag is <?php and the closing PHP tag is ?>.
The PHP statement is echo "This is generated using the PHP code.";. Each PHP statement ends with ;.
The above code shows the text "This is generated using the PHP code." to the user.
Basic usage of PHP in an HTML page is given below.
A Sample PHP Page
<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<title>My PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "This is a PHP page.";
?>
</body>
</html>The above code will show the text "This is a PHP page." in an HTML page in a web browser.
PHP is Advanced and Popular
- Powerful enough to be the foundation of many popular CMS on the web (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.).
- Robust enough to support large social networks.
- Easy enough for beginners to use as their first server-side language.
PHP File
PHP files can include text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code. The PHP code is executed on the server, and the output is sent to the browser as plain HTML. PHP files use the .php extension.
PHP Functions
PHP can generate dynamic page content, manage files on the server (create, open, read, write, delete, and close), collect form data, send and receive cookies, and interact with your database (add, delete, modify data). Additionally, PHP can control user access and encrypt data. Beyond outputting HTML, PHP can also output images, PDF files, and any text format, such as XHTML and XML.
Why PHP?
PHP operates on various platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X. It is compatible with nearly all current servers, such as Apache and IIS, and supports a wide range of databases. PHP is free to download from the official PHP website: www.php.net. It is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side.
PHP Latest Version (PHP 8)
PHP 8 is significantly faster than the previous popular stable release (PHP 7).
PHP Version
You can utilize the phpversion() function to check your PHP version.
<?php echo phpversion(); ?>PHP Configuration
You can utilize the phpinfo() function to check your PHP configuration.
<?php echo phpinfo(); ?>