PHP Basic
PHP Basic
PHP code is executed on the server, and the plain HTML result is sent to the browser.
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
<html>
<body>
<?php
//This is a comment
/*
This is
a comment
block
*/
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Variables
Variables are used for storing a 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;
?>
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.
<?php
$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;
?>
Hello World
Now, lets try to use some different functions and operators to manipulate the string.
<?php
$txt1="Hello World!";
$txt2="What a nice day!";
echo $txt1 . " " . $txt2;
?>
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.
<?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
?>
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).
<?php
echo strpos("Hello world!","world");
?>
The output of the code above will be:
The position of the string "world" in our string is position 6. The reason that it is 6 (and not
7), is that the first position in the string is 0, and not 1.
PHP Operators
Operators are used to operate on values.
Arithmetic Operators
+ Addition x=2 4
x+2
- Subtraction x=2 3
5-x
* Multiplication x=4 20
x*5
/ Division 15/5 3
5/2 2.5
Assignment Operators
= x=y x=y
+= x+=y x=x+y
-= x-=y x=x-y
*= x*=y x=x*y
/= x/=y x=x/y
.= x.=y x=x.y
%= x%=y x=x%y
Comparison Operators
Logical Operators
|| or x=6
y=3
! not x=6
y=3
Conditional statements are used to perform different actions based on different conditions.
Conditional Statements
Very often when you write code, you want to perform different actions for different
decisions.
You can use conditional statements in your code to do this.
In PHP we have the following conditional statements:
if statement - use this statement to execute some code only if a specified condition
is true
if...else statement - use this statement to execute some code if a condition is true
and another code if the condition is false
if...elseif....else statement - use this statement to select one of several blocks of
code to be executed
switch statement - use this statement to select one of many blocks of code to be
executed
The if Statement
Use the if statement to execute some code only if a specified condition is true.
Syntax
The following example will output "Have a nice weekend!" if the current day is Friday:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri") echo "Have a nice weekend!";
?>
</body>
</html>
Notice that there is no ..else.. in this syntax. The code is executed only if the specified
condition is true.
The if...else Statement
Use the if....else statement to execute some code if a condition is true and another code if a
condition is false.
Syntax
if (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
else
code to be executed if condition is false;
Example
The following example will output "Have a nice weekend!" if the current day is Friday,
otherwise it will output "Have a nice day!":
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
else
echo "Have a nice day!";
?>
</body>
</html>
If more than one line should be executed if a condition is true/false, the lines should be
enclosed within curly braces:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
{
echo "Hello!<br />";
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
echo "See you on Monday!";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Use the if....elseif...else statement to select one of several blocks of code to be executed.
Syntax
if (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
elseif (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
else
code to be executed if condition is false;
Example
The following example will output "Have a nice weekend!" if the current day is Friday, and
"Have a nice Sunday!" if the current day is Sunday. Otherwise it will output "Have a nice
day!":
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
elseif ($d=="Sun")
echo "Have a nice Sunday!";
else
echo "Have a nice day!";
?>
</body>
</html>
Use the switch statement to select one of many blocks of code to be executed.
Syntax
switch (n)
{
case label1:
code to be executed if n=label1;
break;
case label2:
code to be executed if n=label2;
break;
default:
code to be executed if n is different from both label1 and label2;
}
This is how it works: First we have a single expression n (most often a variable), that is
evaluated once. The value of the expression is then compared with the values for each case
in the structure. If there is a match, the block of code associated with that case is executed.
Use break to prevent the code from running into the next case automatically. The default
statement is used if no match is found.
Example
<html>
<body>
<?php
switch ($x)
{
case 1:
echo "Number 1";
break;
case 2:
echo "Number 2";
break;
case 3:
echo "Number 3";
break;
default:
echo "No number between 1 and 3";
}
?>
</body>
</html>