Some Important Practical Questions

• Login and Registration with Authentication in PHP & MySql?

• CRUD operation using PHP & MySQL?
• CRUD operation using PHP OOP?
• CRUD opration using PHP PDO?
• CRUD operation using AJAX & MySql?
• Multiple File Upload in PHP & MySql?
• Pagination using PHP & MySql?
• How will you manage nested categories in PHP & MySql?
• Recursion Example of PHP & MySql?
• How to create Dynamic Pages using PHP & MySql?
 Q1.What is PHP?
Ans: PHP is a server side scripting language. that is used to develop Dynamic websites or Web
applications. PHP stands for Hypertext Pre-processor, that earlier stood for Personal Home Pages.
PHP scripts can only be interpreted on a server that has PHP installed.

What is a Scripting Language?

A script is a set of programming instructions that is interpreted at runtime.
A scripting language is a language that interprets scripts at runtime. Scripts are usually embedded into
other software environments.

The purpose of the scripts is usually to enhance the performance or perform routine tasks for an
application.

Server side scripts are interpreted on the server while client side scripts are interpreted by the client
application.

PHP is a server side script that is interpreted on the server while JavaScript is an example of a client
side script that is interpreted by the client browser. Both PHP and JavaScript can be embedded into
HTML pages.
 Programming Language Vs Scripting Language
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE SCRIPTING LANGUAGE
Has all the features needed to develop Mostly used for routine tasks
complete applications.
The code has to be compiled before it can The code is usually executed without
be executed compiling
Does not need to be embedded into Is usually embedded into other languages.
other languages
 Q2. PHP Advantages and Disadvantages?
Ans:
Advantages of PHP:

• It’s easy to learn and use: One of the main reasons PHP became so commonplace is that it is
relatively simple to get started with. Even without extensive knowledge or experience in web
development, most people could create a web page with a single PHP file in a relatively short period
of time. The syntax is simple and command functions are easy to learn, meaning the barriers to entry
with PHP are lower than with many other languages.

• It’s open source (and therefore free!): This also helps developers get started with PHP - it can be
installed quickly and at zero cost. There is also open access to a wide range of PHP frameworks, such
as Laravel and Symfony. This feature is also appealing to companies as it helps control the costs of
web development.

• It’s versatile: One of the major benefits of PHP is that it is platform independent, meaning it can be
used on Mac OS, Windows, Linux and supports most web browsers. It also supports all the major
web servers, making it easy to deploy on different systems and platforms at minimal additional cost.

• It enjoys strong community support: As a veteran scripting language that is widely used, PHP now
has a large and loyal community base to support it. There are tons of tutorials, FAQs, and tips to help
new PHP developers and to continue pushing the boundaries of what the language can achieve
through regular updates.
• It’s fast and secure: Two things that every organization wants their website or application to
be are fast and secure. PHP uses its own memory and competes well on speed, especially
when using the newer versions. There have been questions in the past about PHP security,
though it is important to note that it is not inherently more or less secure than other
programming languages. One important benefit is that because of its widespread use and
community support there are now many tools, frameworks and best practices to help fix
vulnerabilities and protect against cyberattacks.

• It is well connected with databases: PHP makes it easy to connect securely with almost any
kind of database. This gives developers more freedom when choosing which database is best
suited for the application being built.
Disadvantages of PHP?
• Declining Popularity: While PHP is a powerful tool supported by a large community and
plentiful reference documentation, there are easier programming languages for web apps.
For this reason, novice developers prefer learning Python as their first language and rarely
consider adding PHP to their skillset. Currently, PHP dominates the web development
segment, but this most likely will change in the future. The number of specialists will decline
eventually, and there will be a lack of novice developers that offer basic skills at a low price,
so the costs of products built on PHP will probably rise.

• Lack of dedicated libraries for modern needs: For example, machine learning is a hot trend
nowadays, and it is definitely going to keep its popularity in the near future. While PHP has its
set of libraries, it cannot compete with Python in developing web applications empowered by
machine learning. Currently, PHP cannot offer equally fast and effective alternatives to
Python’s TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, Theano, and Keras. This way, if your app requires ML
functionality or may require it in the future when your business scales up, PHP is not the best
choice.

• Security is not the best: Since PHP is open source code, it also means that it has an ASCII text
file, which is easily accessible. This basically means that whatever code you write, the general
public can easily view it, along with all the bugs your code has. This also means that they can
use those bugs against you. Ergo, security is not the best.

• Poor Error Handling: Error handling is the process of identifying errors in a program and
optimizing it. However, It is a popular belief among developers that PHP has a poor quality of
errors handling. It lacks good debugging tools that are essential to identify errors and debug,
results in poor application maintenance.
 Q3. What do you mean by databases?
Ans: A database is a structured collection of data stored in a computer system and organized in a way to
be quickly searched. With databases, information can be rapidly retrieved.
 Q4. What is MySQL?

Ans: MySQL is an open-source Database Management System (DBMS) for managing and
organizing the data in a tabular format, These data can be manipulated using MySQL
programming language. It supported and distributed by MySQL AB (now acquired by Oracle).
 Q5. What is SESSION and use of SESSION in PHP?
Ans:
• PHP session is used to store and pass information from one page to another temporarily (until user
close the website).
• PHP session technique is widely used in shopping websites where we need to store and pass cart
information e.g. username, product code, product name, product price etc from one page to
another.

PHP session_start() function

PHP session_start() function is used to start the session. It starts a new or resumes existing session. It
returns existing session if session is created already. If session is not available, it creates and
returns new session.

How to store and access Session Data?

To store and get session data we use $_SESSION[] superglobal.
Example:
$_SESSION["user"] = “the-digital-oceans";

To Get Session data :

Example:
echo $_SESSION["user"];
 Q6. What is an Array? Types of Arrays in PHP
Ans:
An array is a special variable, which can hold more than one value at a time.

If you have a list of items (a list of car names, for example), storing the cars in single variables could
look like this:

$cars1 = "Volvo";
$cars2 = "BMW";
$cars3 = "Toyota";

However, what if you want to loop through the cars and find a specific one? And what if you had not 3
cars, but 300?

The solution is to create an array!

An array can hold many values under a single name, and you can access the values by referring to an
index number.
 Types of Arrays
• Indexed arrays - Arrays with a numeric index
• Associative arrays - Arrays with named keys
• Multidimensional arrays - Arrays containing one or more arrays

Indexed Arrays: The array which is accessed by indexed number.

Example:
$cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");

$cars[0] = "Volvo";
$cars[1] = "BMW";
$cars[2] = "Toyota";

Associative Arrays: The array which is accessed by key.

Example:
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");

$age['Peter'] = "35";
$age['Ben'] = "37";
$age['Joe'] = "43";
Multidimensional Array
• A multidimensional array is an array containing one or more arrays.
• PHP supports multidimensional arrays that are two, three, four, five, or more levels
deep. However, arrays more than three levels deep are hard to manage for most
people.

Example:
$cars = array (
array("Volvo",22,18),
array("BMW",15,13),
array("Saab",5,2),
array("Land Rover",17,15)
);

<?php
echo $cars[0][0].": In stock: ".$cars[0][1].", sold: ".$cars[0][2].".<br>";
echo $cars[1][0].": In stock: ".$cars[1][1].", sold: ".$cars[1][2].".<br>";
echo $cars[2][0].": In stock: ".$cars[2][1].", sold: ".$cars[2][2].".<br>";
echo $cars[3][0].": In stock: ".$cars[3][1].", sold: ".$cars[3][2].".<br>";
?>
 Q7. Commonly used Array functions in PHP?
Ans:
1. count() : Returns the number of elements in an array
2. sort(): Sorts an indexed array in ascending order
3. rsort(): Sorts an indexed array in descending order
4. ksort(): Sorts an associative array in ascending order, according to the key
5. krsort(): Sorts an associative array in descending order, according to the key
6. in_array(): Checks if a specified value exists in an array
7. asort(): Sorts an associative array in ascending order, according to the value
8. arsort(): Sorts an associative array in descending order, according to the value
9. array_key_exists(): Checks if the specified key exists in the array
10. array_keys(): Returns all the keys of an array
11. array_reverse(): Returns an array in the reverse order
12. array_search(): Searches an array for a given value and returns the key
13. array_unique(): Removes duplicate values from an array
14. array_merge(): Merges one or more arrays into one array
 Q8. Commonly used String functions in PHP?
Ans:
1. strlen() : to find the length of strings.
2. str_replace(): is used to replace one string with another string.
3. substr(): is used to extract the string.
4. strtolower(): is used to convert string into lower case.
5. strtoupper(): is used to convert string into uppercase.
6. str_word_count() : is used to count words from the string.
7. strrev(): is used to reverse the string.
8. strpos(): to locate a string’s initial position within another string.
9. ucwords(): is used to convert the first letter of the word in upper case.
10. ucfirst(): to convert the first letter in upper case of string or sentence.
11. lcfirst(): to convert the first letter in lower case of string or sentence.
12. wordwrap(): to wrap a given string to a certain number of characters.
13. trim(): is used for trimming the white space from the start and end of the strings.
14. strip_tags(): to clear/remove the HTML tags from the string.
 Q9. Data Types in MySql?

Ans: MySQL data types are important to understand before you start creating and
working with a MySQL database. If you properly assign each column, you ensure
that the database is optimized and data is safely stored.

A name and a data type define each column in a database table. The specified data
type tells MySQL what kind of values it will store, how much space they require,
and what type of operations it can perform with this type of data.

There many different data types you can store in a MySQL table.

They are grouped into five main categories:

• Numeric data types
• Date and time data types
• String data types
• Spatial data types
• JSON data types
 Q10. Difference between Primary Key and Unique Key?

Ans:
Primary Key can be only one in a table whereas unique key can be multiple.
Example of Unique Key: email,mobile,
 Q11. What is a foreign key?
Ans: A foreign key is used to connect two tables. A FOREIGN KEY is a field (or
assortment of it) in one table that alludes to the PRIMARY KEY in another
table. The FOREIGN KEY requirement is utilised to forestall activities that
would crush joins between tables.
 Q12. Joins in MySQL?
Ans: Joins help retrieving data from two or more tables. The tables are mutually related
using primary and foreign keys.

Types of joins

1. Cross JOIN
• Cross JOIN is a simplest form of JOINs which matches each row from one database table
to all rows of another.
• In other words it gives us combinations of each row of first table with all records in
second table.

2. INNER JOIN
• The inner JOIN is used to return rows from both tables that satisfy the given condition.
• Suppose , you want to get list of members who have rented movies together with titles
of movies rented by them. You can simply use an INNER JOIN for that, which returns
rows from both tables that satisfy with given conditions.
3. Outer JOINs
• MySQL Outer JOINs return all records matching from both tables .
• It can detect records having no match in joined table. It returns NULL values for records
of joined table if no match is found.

4. LEFT JOIN
• Assume now you want to get titles of all movies together with names of members who
have rented them. It is clear that some movies have not being rented by any one. We
can simply use LEFT JOIN for the purpose.
• The LEFT JOIN returns all the rows from the table on the left even if no matching rows
have been found in the table on the right. Where no matches have been found in the
table on the right, NULL is returned.

5. RIGHT JOIN
• RIGHT JOIN is obviously the opposite of LEFT JOIN. The RIGHT JOIN returns all the
columns from the table on the right even if no matching rows have been found in the
table on the left. Where no matches have been found in the table on the left, NULL is
returned.
• In our example, let’s assume that you need to get names of members and movies
rented by them. Now we have a new member who has not rented any movie yet
 Q13. Form Validation in PHP?
Ans: Form validation is crucial part of our web development , there are two types of form validation:
• Client side validation: In this we use JavaScript or jQuery to validate our form.
• Server side validation: In this we use PHP to validate our form.

<?php $nameErr = $emailErr = $mobileErr =""; $name = $email = $mobile = "";

if (isset($_POST["submit"])) {
if (empty($_POST["name"])) {
$nameErr = "Name is required";
}
else {
$name = $_POST["name"]; // check if name only contains letters and whitespace
if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z-' ]*$/",$name))
{
$nameErr = "Only letters and white space allowed";
}
}

if (empty($_POST["email"])) {
$emailErr = "Email is required"; }
else { $email = $_POST["email"];
if (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) { $emailErr = "Invalid email format"; } }
if (empty($_POST["mobile"])) {
$mobileErr = "Mobile is required";
}
else { $mobile = $_POST["mobile"];
if (!preg_match('/^[0-9]{10}+$/', $mobile)) {
$mobileErr = "Only letters and white space allowed"; } }

} ?>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Form Validation</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@4.6.1/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/jquery@3.5.1/dist/jquery.slim.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/popper.js@1.16.1/dist/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@4.6.1/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js"></script>
<style>
.error { color:#f00; }
</style>
</head>
<div class="container">
<h2 class="text-center mt-5 text-primary">CONTACT US</h2>
<form method="post" class="needs-validation" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="uname">NAME:</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="Enter username" name="name" value="<?php
if(isset($_POST['name'])){echo $_POST['name'];} ?>" >
<span class="error">* <?php echo $nameErr;?></span>
</div>

<div class="form-group">
<label for="uname">EMAIL:</label>
<input type="email" class="form-control" placeholder="Enter Email" name="email" value="<?php
if(isset($_POST['email'])){echo $_POST['email'];} ?>">
<span class="error">* <?php echo $emailErr;?></span> </div>

<div class="form-group">
<label for="uname">MOBILE NUMBER:</label>
<input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="Enter Mobile no" name="mobile" value="<?php
if(isset($_POST['mobile'])){echo $_POST['mobile'];} ?>" >
<span class="error">* <?php echo $mobileErr;?></span> </div>

<button type="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-primary p-3 btn-block my-5">Submit</button>

</form>

</div> </body> </html>

 Q14. File Upload in PHP?
Ans:

if(isset($_POST[‘submit’]))
{
$filename = $_FILES[‘doc’][‘name’];
$tempfile = $_FILES[‘doc’][‘tmp_name’];
move_uploaded_file($tempfile,"images/".$filename);
}

<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

<div class="form-group">
<label for="email">Document:</label>
<input type="file" class="form-control" name="doc">
</div>
<button type="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
</form>
 Q15. How to Upload only pdf file with 2MB size?
Ans:
if(isset($_FILES['image'])) {
$upload="";
$file_name = $_FILES['image']['name'];
$file_size =$_FILES['image']['size'];
$file_tmp=$_FILES['image']['tmp_name'];
$file_type=$_FILES['image']['type'];
$file_ext=end(explode('.',$_FILES['image']['name']));

if($file_ext!="pdf" && $file_size < 2097152)

{
move_uploaded_file($file_tmp,"uploads/".$file_name);
$upload='<div class="alert alert-success">
<strong>Success!</strong> File Upload Successfully. </div>';
}
else
{
$upload=' <div class="alert alert-danger"> <strong>Error:</strong> File Extension should be .pdf or File Size
less than 2MB. </div>';
}
}
 Q16. Multiple File Upload in PHP?
Ans:
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{

$length= count($_FILES['doc']['name']); for($i=0;$i<$length;$i++)

{
$file_name = $_FILES['doc']['name'][$i];
$file_tmp = $_FILES['doc']['tmp_name'][$i];
move_uploaded_file($file_tmp,"uploads/".$file_name);
}

<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

<input type="file" name="doc[]" multiple> <input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
 Q17. What are the common mysql functions?

Ans:
1. AVG()
2. MAX()
3. MIN()
4. GREATEST()
5. LEAST()
6. DATEDIFF()
7. INSTR()
8. ROUND()
9. COUNT()
10. SUM()
 Q18. How can you filter the duplicate data while retrieving
records from the table?

Ans: Using DISTINCT we can filter duplicate data from the

database.
 Q19. How can you improve the performance of mysql query?

Ans: There are some points to improve the performance of mysql query,
which are following:

• Do Not Use * In Select Statement

• Use Join Instead Of Subquery
• Use “Where” Instead Of “Having” A Clause
• Apply Index On Necessary Columns
• Avoid Query In A Loop
• Apply Valid Data type On The Column
 Q20. PHPMailer in PHP?
Ans: PHPMailer is a library which is used to send mail in PHP, It has some extra features as compared to
mail() function of PHP.

By Using PHPMailer we can:

• Send mail by using local server

• Send mail by using SMTP like Gsuit, Microsoft office 365 mail.
 Q21. How to send html email in PHP?
Ans: By using PHP mail() function we can easily send HTML email with using headers.

Example:
$to = “clientmailid";
$subject = "HTML email";
$message = "
<html>
<head>
<title>HTML email</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This email contains HTML Tags!</p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>John</td>
<td>Doe</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
";
// Always set content-type when sending HTML email
$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=UTF-8" . "\r\n";
// More headers
$headers .= 'From: <webmaster@example.com>' . "\r\n";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
 Q22. Implode() and explode() in PHP?
Ans: Implode and Explode function of PHP is very useful to convert the array into string and string into
an array for example when we collect data by using checkbox input then we receive data in an array
format then we have two choices to get checkbox value either by using a loop or we can convert the
array into a string by using implode function.

Implode() function
Implode() function is used to convert the array into a string, it uses any symbol to join an array. It is
commonly used to convert checkbox values into strings to store easily in a database.

Example:
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
$price=implode("#",$_POST['price']);
echo $price;
}
<input type="checkbox" class="form-control" name="price[]">1000
<input type="checkbox" class="form-control" name="price[]">2000
<input type="checkbox" class="form-control" name="price[]">3000
Explode() function
Explode() function is used to convert a string into an array or we can say that show implode() function
value individually then we use explode.

Example:
<?php $number = '1,2,3,4,5';
$arr = explode(',',$number);
foreach($arr as $i) echo($i.'<br>');
?>
 Q23. What is a trigger in MySQL?

Ans: A trigger is a table-associated database object in MySQL. It is activated when a specified

action takes place.
A trigger can be invoked after or before the event takes place. It can be used on INSERT,
DELETE, and
UPDATE. It uses the respective syntax to define the triggers. For example, BEFORE INSERT,
AFTER DELETE,
etc.
 Q24. What is an index? How can an index be declared in MySQL?

Ans:
An index is a data structure that allows us to add indexes in the existing table. It enables you to
Improve the faster retrieval of records on a database table. We use it to quickly find the record without
searching each row in a database table whenever the table is accessed. We can create an index by using
one or more columns of the table for efficient access to the records.

When a table is created with a primary key or unique key, it automatically creates a special index
named PRIMARY. We called this index as a clustered index. All indexes other than PRIMARY indexes are
known as a non-clustered index or secondary index.

How to Create Index

CREATE INDEX [index_name] ON [table_name] (column names)

How to see index on table

SHOW INDEXES FROM student;

 Q25. Difference between unset session and session destroy?
Ans: Sometimes web developers want to destroy a particular session of the website and sometimes they
want to destroy all sessions of the website but they got confused between
the session_destory() and session_unset() method. So this blog has a solution for you:

session_destroy()
session_destroy() function is used to destroy all the sessions of the website.

Example:
<?php session_destroy(); ?>

session_unset()
session_unset() function is used to destroy specific sessions of the website, it does not destroy all the
sessions like session_destory().

Example:
<?php session_unset($_SESSION[‘username’]); ?>
 Q26. Cookie in PHP?
Ans: PHP cookie is a small piece of information which is stored at client browser. It is used to recognize
the user.
Cookie is created at server side and saved to client browser. Each time when client sends request to the
server, cookie is embedded with request. Such way, cookie can be received at the server side.

setcookie() function

PHP setcookie() function is used to set cookie with HTTP response. Once cookie is set, you can access it
by $_COOKIE superglobal variable.

Example:
setcookie("CookieName", "CookieValue");/* defining name and value only*/
setcookie("CookieName", "CookieValue", time()+1*60*60);//using expiry in 1 hour(1*60*60 seconds or
3600 seconds)

$_COOKIE
PHP $_COOKIE superglobal variable is used to get cookie.

Example:
$_COOKIE["CookieName"];
 Q27. TYPES OF COOKIE IN PHP?
Ans: There are two types of cookies, they are:

• Session Cookie: This type of cookies are temporary and are expire as soon as the session ends or
the browser is closed.

Example:
setcookie("CookieName", "CookieValue");

• Persistent Cookie: To make a cookie persistent we must provide it with an expiration time. Then
the cookie will only expire after the given expiration time, until then it will be a valid cookie.

Example:
setcookie("CookieName", "CookieValue", time()+1*60*60);
 Q28. What is the most used method for password hashing?
Ans: Back in the day, passwords were stored using an MD5 or SHA1 hash.
For two reasons:
• MD5 and SHA algorithms are too weak for today’s computational power.
• Simple, not-salted hashes are vulnerable to “rainbow tables” and dictionary attacks.

If an attacker steals an MD5 or SHA hash, he or she can easily find out the original password too.
In other words, these hashes are almost as insecure as plain text passwords.
The solution is to use a secure hashing function: password_hash().

Example:
$password = “thedigitaloceans@@123";
password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);

To verify the hashed password: PHP provides an inbuilt function called password_verify() to match the
hashed password to the original passwords.
Example:
$password = " thedigitaloceans@@123";

$hashed_password =
'$2y$10$MQU3vDgoN10.JxyJ1m9UQOEqFy.Jg3D8tmHdZUAAkcpGFRwkbbLfi';

if (password_verify($password, $hashed_password)) {
echo 'Password is valid!';
} else {
echo 'Invalid password.';
}
Q29. Little Bit Knowledge of OOP Concepts & PDO in PHP?