Introduction to PHP

PHP(PHP Hypertext pre-processor) – Embedded Scripting Language

Two types of HTML

• Static
• Dynamic

Two Types of Tags

• Empty - doesn’t require a closing tag

• Container – requires closing tag

Attribute – option that affects or enhance ho the tags display its contents on the
webpage.

1. name

2. value

3. sign

Rasmus Lerdorf – conceptualize the php in 1994

Features of PHP

• Simplicity
• Portabilty
• Speed
• Open Source
• Extensive
• Database Support

Comments – use for greater readability

// - single line comment

# - single line comment

/* - multiline comment

Variable – the basic building blocks of any programming languages, use to store
values
 • All variable names should be pre preceeded by a dollar sign($)
• Variable name must begin with letter(A-Z) or underscore. It cant begin
with a number
• No spaces
• Case sensitive
• Make a habbit of naming variable with sense of their own

Variable Naming Conventions

1. Camel Hump
2. Underscore

echo() & print()– function use to print data to standard output device.

Variable Types

1. Integer – whole numbers

2. Floating point – decimal points
3. Strings – character, combination of letters and numbers, symbols and spaces
enclosed in past of single(‘ ‘) or double (“ “) quotation marks.
4. 4 Boolean – true or false
5. Objects – Special Type of variables
6. array – an indexed collection of data
7. Null – a variable that has no values.

gettype() – used to findout what type a particular variable is.

settype() – us to explicity mark a variable as numeric or string.

Using Operators

= assignment operators === equal to and to the same type

+ addition !== not equal and not same data type

- subtraction <> or ! mpt eqia;

* multiplication < less than

/ division <= less than or equal

% modulo > greater than

== identical/equal to > = greater than or equal

. concatenation

GET method - sends all the gathered information along as part of the URL
POST method – method transmute the information invisible to the users.

NOTE : with the get method, a limited amount of information can be passed.

The get method sends the input to the head line of the script publicy.

A page generated by a form that used the get methodcan be bookmarked but one
based on POST.

ini_set() function – allows a script to temporarily override a setting in PHP is

configuration.

Error Reporting:

error_reporting() – determine what errors. PHP reports on.

PHP Error Types

Notice – non-fatal error that may or may not be indicative of a problem

Example: Refering to a variable that has no value.

Warning – non-fatal error that is not likely problematic

Example: Passing the wrong type mo parameters to a function.

Parse Error – fatal error caused by a syntactical mistake

Example: Omission of semicolon or imbalance of quotation marks, braces or

parenthesis.

Error – a general fatal error

Example: Memory allocation problem