Introduction about PHP [PHP 7]

In this article we are going to cover Introduction about PHP, What is PHP, Why We Use PHP, Features Of PHP, Different ways to Install PHP and PHP Programming Basics.

Table of Contents

Introduction about PHP

What is PHP ?

Php is an acronym for “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is a server-side scripting languages. PHP is an open-source, interpreted, and object-oriented scripting language that can be executed at the server-side. PHP is well suited for web development.

PHP stands for Hypertext pre-processor.
PHP is an interpreted language
PHP is server-side scripting language.
PHP is faster than other scripting language.
PHP is an object-oriented language.
PHP is an open-source scripting language.
PHP is easy and simple to learn.

What is PHP File?

PHP files can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP code.
PHP code is executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML
PHP files have extension “.php”

Why We Use PHP?

PHP runs on various platform.
PHP handles dynamic content, which is used to design the dynamic web applications.
It helps to encrypt the data and apply validation.
You can create session in PHP
PHP is free. Download it from the official PHP resource
PHP is easy to learn and rules efficiently on the server side.
PHP can create, open, read, write, delete, and close files on the server.
PHP can collect form data.
PHP can add, delete, modify data in your database.
PHP can encrypt data.
PHP can send and receive cookies.

Features Of PHP:

Performance
Open-source
Familiarity
Embedded
Platform Independent
Database Support
Web Servers Support
Security
Control

Different ways to Install PHP:

WAMP for Windows
LAMP for Linux
MAMP for Mac
SAMP for Solaris
XAMPP (Cross, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl)for Cross Platform)

Once you complete installation open server Control panel and start Apache and MySQL.

PHP Programming Basics:

Full Tags:

<?php
PHP code
?>

Short Tags:

<?
PHP code
?>

Comments in php:

(//): for Single Line

 (/*…*/): for multiple lines

Hello World php program:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<h1>Welcome to FOSSTechNix</h1>

<?php
echo "Hello World!";
?>

</body>
</html>

Output:

Note: PHP statements ends with semicolon(;).

Hello World PHP program with Case Sensitivity:

In PHP, keywords (e.g. if, else, while, echo, etc.), classes, functions, and user-defined functions are not case-sensitive.

Example of Echo in PHP:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<?php
ECHO "Hello World!<br>";
echo "Hello World!<br>";
EcHo "Hello World!<br>";
?>

</body>
</html>

Output:

Example of color in php (case Sensitivity):

Look at the example below; only the first statement will display the value of the $color variable! This is because $color, $COLOR, and $coLOR are treated as three different variables:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<?php
$color = "red";
echo "My dress color is " . $color . "<br>";
echo "My top color is " . $COLOR . "<br>";
echo "My shoes color is " . $coLOR . "<br>";
?>

</body>
</html>

Output: