Akhuwat College

Spring 2023
CC-215L Database Systems-Lab
Lab-13 Manual

Introduction to PHP
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Introduction to Lab:
This lab introduces students the server-side scripting language. In the previous lab we have
studied the client-side scripting language. This Lab introduces the basic and fundamentals
of this programming language. The purpose of studying php in database course is to make
interactive and dynamic web pages. So, let’s get started!

The main topics cover in this lab includes:

1. Introduction to PHP
2. Request Response Cycle
3. PHP Syntax
4. PHP echo and Print statement
5. PHP variables
6. PHP Super Globals
7. PHP Arrays
8. PHP if/else/elseif Statement
9. PHP Loops
10. PHP User defined Functions
11. PHP Built-in Functions
12. PHP Include and Require
13. PHP Form Validation

Objective of this Lab

At the end of this lab students shall be able to learn

 Understand how server-side programming works on the web.

 PHP Basic syntax for variable types and calculations.
 Creating conditional structures
 Storing data in arrays
 Using PHP built-in functions and creating custom functions
 Understanding POST and GET in form submission.
 How to receive and process form submission data.

1. Introduction to PHP

PHP, an acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor, is a widely-used open source general-

purpose scripting language. It is a cross-platform, HTML-embedded server-side scripting
language and is especially suited for web development.

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Where

 Server-side means that PHP scripts execute on the Web server, not within the
browser on your local machine.
 Cross-platform means that PHP scripts can run on many different operating systems
and Web servers. PHP is available for the two most popular Web server
configurations IIS and Apache.
 HTML embedded scripting language means that PHP statements and commands are
actually embedded in your HTML documents. When the Web server sees the PHP
statements in the Web page, the server executes the statements and sends the
resulting output along with the rest of the HTML. PHP commands are parsed by the
server much like Active Server Pages or Cold Fusion tags.

The basic syntax of PHP is similar to C, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn. PHP is used for
creating interactive and dynamic web pages quickly, but you can do much more with PHP.

2. Request Response Cycle

3. PHP Syntax

The default syntax starts with "<? php" and ends with "?>". A PHP scripting block can be
placed anywhere in the document.

Example:

<?php

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Code here……

?>

A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, just like an HTML file, and some PHP scripting code.

4. PHP echo and Print Statement

In PHP the two basic constructs to get outputs are echo and print. Actually, echo() is not a
function, it is a language construct, therefore, you can use it without parentheses.

Syntax

echo (arg1, arg2... )

Example: Simple string display:

<?php
echo “One line simple string.<br>”;
echo “Two line simple string example<br>”;
echo “Tomorrow I \'ll learn PHP global variables.<br>”;
echo “This is a bad command : del c:\\*.* <br>”;
?>

All the above echo commands simply display the corresponding string, here we have used
an additional html command <br> at the end of each echo statement to generate a line
break as \n cannot generate a line break in browser.

Output of above example in web browser:

4.1. PHP echo and HTML paragraph element:

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We can display string, variables with echo function, additionally, we can embedded html
commands into echo command. Here we have attached html paragraph element in various
form into echo.

Example:

<?php
// simple html statement.
echo 'One line simple string.<br>';
// display strings within paragraph with different color.
echo "<p> <font color=blue>One line simple string in
blue color</font> </p>";
echo "<p> <font color=red>One line simple string in red
color</font> </p>";
echo "<p> <font color=green> One line simple string in
green color</font> </p>";
?>

Output of above example in Web Browser:

4.2. PHP echo and HTML table element:

We can display string, variables with echo function, additionally, we can embedded html
elements into echo command. Here we have attached html table elements into echo.

Example:

<?php
$a=1000;
$b=1200;
$c=1400;
echo "<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpading=0>
<tr> <td><font color=blue>Salary of Mr. A is</td>
<td>$a$</font></td></tr>

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<tr> <td><font color=blue>Salary of Mr. B is</td>

<td>$b$</font></td></tr>
<tr> <td><font color=blue>Salary of Mr. C is</td>
<td>$c$</font></td></tr>
</table>";
?>

Output of above example in Web Browser:

4.3. PHP Print

Print is used to display a string.

Syntax:

print(string $val)

Parameters:

val: The input data.

Return Values:

Returns 1, always.

print() is not actually a real function, it is a language construct like echo. There is some
difference between the two, echo is marginally faster compare to print as echo does not
return any value. echo can accept multiple parameters without parentheses but print can
accept only one parameter.

Example to display simple string with print():

<?php
print 'One line simple string.<br>';
print 'Two lines simple
string example<br>';
print 'Tomorrow I \'ll learn PHP global variables.<br>';

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print 'This is a bad command : del c:\\*.* <br>';

?>

All the above print commands simply display the corresponding string, here we have used
an additional html command <br> at end of each print statement to generate a line break.

Output of above example in Web Browser:

5. PHP Variables
Variable is a symbol or name that stands for a value. Variables are used for storing values
such as numeric values, characters, character strings, or memory addresses so that they
can be used in any part of the program.

5.1. Declaring PHP variables:

All variables in PHP start with a $ (dollar) sign followed by the name of the variable

A valid variable name starts with a letter (A-Z, a-z) or underscore (_), followed by any
number of letters, numbers, or underscores.

If a variable name is more than one word, it can be separated with an underscore (for
example $employee_code instead of $employeecode).

‘$' is a special variable that cannot be assigned.

5.2. Pictorial presentation of PHP variable naming:

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Example: Valid and invalid PHP variables:

<?php
$abc = 'Welcome'; //valid
$Abc = 'daraz.pk'; //valid
$9xyz = 'Hello world'; //invalid; starts with a number
$_xyz = 'Hello world'; //valid; starts with an underscore
$_9xyz = 'Hello world'; //valid
$aäa = 'Hello world'; //valid; 'ä' is (Extended) ASCII 228.
?>

6. PHP Super Globals

Some predefined variables in PHP are "superglobals", which means that they
are always accessible, regardless of scope - and you can access them from any
function, class or file without having to do anything special.

The PHP superglobal variables are:

 $_REQUEST

 $_POST

 $_GET

6.1. PHP: $_REQUEST

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$_REQUEST is a super global variable which is widely used to collect data after submitting
html forms.

Here is an example:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>

<html>

<head>

<title>HTML form example </title>

</head>

<body>

<form name="signin" action="demo.php" method="POST" >

Name: <input type="text" name="fname" id="name" size="30" placeholder="Enter

your name" /><br /><br />

Email: <input type="email" name="email" id="email" size="30"

placeholder="Enter your email" /><br /><br />

Roll No: <input type="text" name="rollno" id="rollno" size="28"

placeholder="Enter 4 digit Roll No" /><br /><br />

<input type="submit" value="Sign in" / >

</form>

</body>

</html>

we can collect the data entered by the user in different fields using $_RQUEST. Suppose we
want to see what data have been entered by the user in the name field, then code to do that
will be:

<?php

$name=$_REQUEST['fname'];

echo “Your name is: ”.$name;

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?>

Output of above Example in Web browser:

Note: when you hit the sign in button, you are redirected to the php file you have
mentioned in the action attribute of the form.

6.2. PHP: $_GET and $_POST

Both GET and POST create an array (e.g. array( key1 => value1, key2 => value2, key3 =>
value3, ...)). This array holds key/value pairs, where keys are the names of the form
controls and values are the input data from the user.

Both GET and POST are treated as $_GET and $_POST. These are superglobals, which means
that they are always accessible, regardless of scope - and you can access them from any
function, class or file without having to do anything special.

$_GET is an array of variables passed to the current script via the URL parameters.

$_POST is an array of variables passed to the current script via the HTTP POST method.

Here is the Example of Get method:

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HTML CODE:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>

<html>

<head>

<title>HTML form example </title>

</head>

<body>

<form name="signin" action="demo.php" method="GET" >

Name: <input type="text" name="fname" id="name" size="30" placeholder="Enter

your name" /><br /><br />

Email: <input type="email" name="email" id="email" size="30"

placeholder="Enter your email" /><br /><br />

Roll No: <input type="text" name="rollno" id="rollno" size="28"

placeholder="Enter 4 digit Roll No" /><br /><br />

<input type="submit" value="Sign in" / >

</form>

</body>

</html>

PHP CODE:

<?php

$name = $_REQUEST['fname'];

echo "Your name is: ".$name.'<br>';

$email = $_REQUEST['email'];

echo "Your email is: ".$email.'<br>';

$rollno = $_REQUEST['rollno'];

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echo "Your Roll NO is: ".$rollno.'<br>';

?>

Output of above Example in Web Browser:

Here is the Example of POST method:

HTML CODE:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>

<html>

<head>

<title>HTML form example </title>

</head>

<body>

<form name="signin" action="demo.php" method="POST" >

Name: <input type="text" name="fname" id="name" size="30" placeholder="Enter

your name" /><br /><br />

Email: <input type="email" name="email" id="email" size="30"

placeholder="Enter your email" /><br /><br />

Roll No: <input type="text" name="rollno" id="rollno" size="28"

placeholder="Enter 4 digit Roll No" /><br /><br />

<input type="submit" value="Sign in" / >

</form>

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</body>

</html>

PHP CODE:

<?php

$name = $_REQUEST['fname'];

echo "Your name is: ".$name.'<br>';

$email = $_REQUEST['email'];

echo "Your email is: ".$email.'<br>';

$rollno = $_REQUEST['rollno'];

echo "Your Roll NO is: ".$rollno.'<br>';

?>

Output of above example in Web Browser:

Note: GET should NEVER be used for sending passwords or other sensitive information! So,
Developers prefer POST for sending the form data.

7. PHP Arrays

An array in PHP is a collection of key/value pairs. This means that it maps values to
keys. Array keys (or indexes) may be either integers or string whereas values can be any
type.

7.1. Indexed and Associative Arrays

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In PHP there is two kinds of arrays : indexed array and associative array. The only
difference is that numeric values are used as 'keys' in indexed array start from zero (0) and
in associative array, strings are used as 'keys'. PHP does not differentiate between indexed
and associative arrays, therefore a PHP array may contain strings as well as integers as
'keys'.

Example: Indexed arrays without key

<?php
$courses = array("Database Systems", "SDA", "SQA");
var_dump($courses);
?>

Here var_dump() function is used to display structured information of an array.

Output of above example in Web browser:

Example: Associative arrays with key

There are two ways to create an associative array:

<?php

$course_teacher = array('Ahmed'
=>'SDA' ,'Zunaina'=>'SQA','Tayabba'=>'Database Systems' );

var_dump($course_teacher);

?>

or:

<?php

$course_teacher = array();

$course_teacher['Ahmed'] = "SDA";

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$course_teacher['Zunaina'] = 'SQA';

$course_teacher['Tayabba'] = 'Database Systems';

var_dump($course_teacher);

?>

In the above example, Ahmed, Zunaina and Tayabba are the keys and SDA, SQA and
Database Systems are the values of the array $course_teacher.

8. PHP if / else / elseif Statement

The if statement executes a single statement or a group of statements if a certain condition

is met. It cannot do anything if the condition is false. For this purpose, else is used.

Syntax:
if (condition)
execute statement(s) if condition is true;
else
execute statement(s) if condition is false;

9. PHP Loops
Looping statements in PHP are used to execute the same block of code a specified number of
times.
In PHP we have the following looping statements:
• while - loops through a block of code if and as long as a specified condition is true
• do...while - loops through a block of code once, and then repeats the loop as long as a
special condition is true
• for - loops through a block of code a specified number of times
• foreach - loops through a block of code for each element in an array

9.1. The While Statement

The while statement will execute a block of code if and as long as a condition is true.

Syntax:

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while (condition) code to

be executed;

Example:
<?php
$courses = array("DB" , "SQA" , "SDA");
$i = 0;
$arrLength = count($courses);
while ($i < $arrLength) {
# code...
echo $courses[$i]."<br>";
$i++;
}
?>
Output of above Example in Web Browser:

9.2. The For Statement

The for statement is the most advanced of the loops in PHP.

Syntax:

for (init; cond; incr)

{
code to be executed;

In its simplest form, the for statement is used when you know how many times you want to
execute a statement or a list of statements.

Parameters:

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 init: Is mostly used to set a counter, but can be any code to be executed once at the
beginning of the loop statement.
 cond: Is evaluated at beginning of each loop iteration. If the condition evaluates to
TRUE, the loop continues and the code executes. If it evaluates to FALSE, the execution
of the loop ends.
 incr: Is mostly used to increment a counter, but can be any code to be executed at the
end of each loop.
Note: Each of the parameters can be empty or have multiple expressions separated by
commas.

 cond: All expressions separated by a comma are evaluated but the result is taken from
the last part. This parameter being empty means the loop should be run indefinitely.
This is useful when using a conditional break statement inside the loop for ending the
loop.

Example:

<?php

$courses = array("DB" , "SQA" , "SDA" , "Algorithms");

for ($i=0; $i < count($courses) ; $i++) {

# code...

echo $courses[$i]."<br>";

?>

Output of above Example in Web Browser:

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9.3. The Foreach Statement

The foreach statement is used to loop through arrays.

For every loop, the value of the current array element is assigned to $value (and the array
pointer is moved by one) - so on the next loop, you'll be looking at the next element.

Syntax:
foreach (array as value)
{
code to be executed;

Example:
<?php
$course_teacher = array('Ahmed' =>'SDA' ,'Zunaina'=>'SQA','Tayabba'=>'Database
Systems' );

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

# code...
echo "Key:".$key."="." Value: ".$value."<br>";
}

?>

Output of above Example in Web Browser:

10. PHP User Defined Function

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In all programming and scripting language, a function is a block of statements that can be
used repeatedly in a program. In PHP, the concept of the function is the same as in another
language like 'C'. There are more than 1,000 in-built functions into the standard PHP
distribution. Besides these, we can define functions as per our requirements. These are
called 'User Defined Function'.

Syntax:
function function-name()
{
statement 1 :
statement 2 :
statement 3 :
......
}

Elements of a function:

function: A function declaration starts with the special word 'function'.

Name of the function:

The function name is defined by the user.

A valid function name starts with a letter or underscore, followed by any number of letters,
numbers, or underscores.

Remember that function names are case-insensitive.

Opening and Closing curly braces ({ } )

The function body enclosed within a pair of braces which may contain variable names an
actual function code. The opening curly brace ( { ) indicates the beginning of the function
code and the closing curly ( } ) brace indicates the termination of the function.

Example: PHP function

<?php
function myfunction()
{
echo "Welcome to Database Systems Lab";
}
myfunction();

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?>

When we call the above function, it will print Welcome to Database Systems Lab

11. PHP Built-in Functions

PHP has over 1000 built-in functions that can be called directly, from within a script, to
perform a specific task.

11.1. PHP Variable Handling Functions

The PHP variable handling functions are part of the PHP core. No installation is required to
use these functions.

Function Description

boolval() Returns the boolean value of a variable

debug_zval_dump() Dumps a string representation of an

internal zend value to output

doubleval() Alias of floatval()

empty() Checks whether a variable is empty

floatval() Returns the float value of a variable

get_defined_vars() Returns all defined variables, as an array

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get_resource_type() Returns the type of a resource

gettype() Returns the type of a variable

intval() Returns the integer value of a variable

is_array() Checks whether a variable is an array

is_bool() Checks whether a variable is a boolean

is_callable() Checks whether the contents of a variable

can be called as a function

is_countable() Checks whether the contents of a variable

is a countable value

is_double() Alias of is_float()

is_float() Checks whether a variable is of type float

is_int() Checks whether a variable is of type

integer

gettype() Returns the type of a variable

intval() Returns the integer value of a variable

is_array() Checks whether a variable is an array

is_integer() Alias of is_int()

is_iterable() Checks whether the contents of a variable

is an iterable value

is_long() Alias of is_int()

is_null() Checks whether a variable is NULL

is_numeric() Checks whether a variable is a number or a

numeric string

is_object() Checks whether a variable is an object

is_real() Alias of is_float()

is_resource() Checks whether a variable is a resource

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is_scalar() Checks whether a variable is a scalar

is_string() Checks whether a variable is of type string

isset() Checks whether a variable is set (declared

and not NULL)

print_r() Prints the information about a variable in a

human-readable way

serialize() Converts a storable representation of a

value

settype() Converts a variable to a specific type

strval() Returns the string value of a variable

unserialize() Converts serialized data back into actual

data

var_dump() Dumps information about one or more

variables

var_export() Returns structured information (valid PHP

code) about a variable

var_dump() Dumps information about one or more

variables

var_export() Returns structured information (valid PHP

code) about a variable

var_dump() Dumps information about one or more

variables

12. PHP Include and Require

It is possible to insert the content of one PHP file into another PHP file (before the server
executes it), with the include or require statement.

The include and require statements are identical, except upon failure:

 require will produce a fatal error (E_COMPILE_ERROR) and stop the script

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 include will only produce a warning (E_WARNING) and the script will continue

So, if you want the execution to go on and show users the output, even if the include file is
missing, use the include statement. Otherwise, in case of FrameWork, CMS, or a complex
PHP application coding, always use the require statement to include a key file to the flow of
execution. This will help avoid compromising your application's security and integrity, just
in-case one key file is accidentally missing.

Including files saves a lot of work. This means that you can create a standard header, footer,
or menu file for all your web pages. Then, when the header needs to be updated, you can
only update the header include file.

Syntax:
include('name of the php file with path');
or
require(‘name of the php file with path’);
Example:

File header.php:

<?php

echo "Hello! Welcome to Database Systems Lab."."<br>";

?>

File demo.php, which includes header.php :

<?php

include ('header.php');

echo "We are studying PHP Includes.";

?>

Output of above Example in Web Browser:

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13. PHP Form Validation

The example below displays a simple sign up form with six input fields and a
sign-up button:

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When the user fills out the form above and clicks the submit button, the form
data is sent for processing to a PHP file named "validation.php". The form data
is sent with the HTTP POST method.

To validation the submitted data you can simply use the PHP built-in functions
that we discussed earlier.

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To display the submitted data you could simply echo all the variables. The
"validation.php" looks like this:

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Output of above example in the Web Browser:

The End

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