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Tutorial PHP

PHP is a server-side scripting language commonly used for web development that allows embedding PHP code into HTML files. It is free, runs on many platforms, and connects to many databases. MySQL is a popular open source database server that works well with PHP. PHP files contain HTML tags, PHP code, and can connect to databases to dynamically output content to web pages. Basic PHP syntax starts code blocks with <?php and ends them with ?>. Variables, comments, and operators allow manipulating strings and performing conditional logic.

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429 views

Tutorial PHP

Uploaded by

Patrick

Available Formats

Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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What is PHP?

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
PHP scripts are executed on the server
PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC,
etc.)
PHP is an open source software
PHP is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts

PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"

What is MySQL?

MySQL
MySQL
MySQL
MySQL
MySQL

is a database server
is ideal for both small and large applications
supports standard SQL
compiles on a number of platforms
is free to download and use

PHP + MySQL

PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (you can develop in Windows and serve on a Unix
platform)

Why PHP?

PHP
PHP
PHP
PHP

runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)

is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side

Where to Start?
To get access to a web server with PHP support, you can:

Install Apache (or IIS) on your own server, install PHP, and MySQL

Or find a web hosting plan with PHP and MySQL support

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:

</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
In PHP, we use // to make a single-line comment or /* and */ to make a large comment block.

Variables in PHP

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;
?>

PHP is a Loosely Typed Language

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.

Naming Rules for Variables

A variable
A variable
A variable
separated

name must start with a letter or an underscore "_"

name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ )
name should not contain spaces. If a variable name is more than one word, it should be
with an underscore ($my_string), or with capitalization ($myString)

String Variables in PHP

String variables are used for values that contains characters.
In this chapter we are going to look at the most common functions and operators used to manipulate strings
in PHP.
After we create a string we can manipulate it. A string can be used directly in a function or it can be stored
in a variable.
Below, the PHP script assigns the text "Hello World" to a string variable called $txt:

<?php
$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;
?>
The output of the code above will be:

Hello World
Now, lets try to use some different functions and operators to manipulate the string.

The Concatenation Operator

There is only one string operator in PHP.
The concatenation operator (.) is used to put two string values together.
To concatenate two string variables together, use the concatenation operator:

<?php
$txt1="Hello World!";
$txt2="What a nice day!";
echo $txt1 . " " . $txt2;
?>
The output of the code above will be:

Hello World! What a nice day!

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.

The strlen() function

The strlen() function is used to return the length of a string.
Let's find the length of a string:

<?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
?>
The output of the code above will be:

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).

The strpos() function

The strpos() function is used to search for character within a string.

If a match is found, this function will return the position of the first match. If no match is found, it will return
FALSE.
Let's see if we can find the string "world" in our string:

<?php
echo strpos("Hello world!","world");
?>
The output of the code above will be:

6
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.

Complete PHP String Reference

For a complete reference of all string functions, go to our complete PHP String Reference.
The reference contains a brief description, and examples of use, for each function!

PHP Operators
This section lists the different operators used in PHP.
Arithmetic Operators
Operator

Description

Example

Result

Addition

x=2
x+2

Subtraction

x=2
5-x

Multiplication

x=4
x*5

Division

15/5
5/2

3
2.5

Modulus (division remainder)

5%2
10%8
10%2

1
2
0

Increment

x=5
x++

x=6

Decrement

x=5
x--

x=4

Assignment Operators
Operator

Example

Is The Same As

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
Operator

Description

Example

is equal to

5==8 returns false

is not equal

5!=8 returns true

is greater than

5>8 returns false

is less than

5<8 returns true

is greater than or equal to

5>=8 returns false

is less than or equal to

5<=8 returns true

Logical Operators
Operator

Descriptio
n

and

Example
x=6
y=3
(x < 10 && y > 1) returns true

x=6
y=3
(x==5 || y==5) returns false

not

x=6
y=3
!(x==y) returns true

PHP If...Else Statements

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
if (condition) code to be executed if condition
is true;

The following example will output "Have a nice weekend!" if the current day is Friday:

</html>

Notice that there is no ..else.. in this syntax. You tell the browser to execute some code 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!":

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>

The if...elseif....else Statement

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!":

The PHP Switch Statement

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>

What is an Array?
You have already learnt that a variable is a storage area holding numbers and text. The problem is, a
variable will hold only one value.
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="Saab";
$cars2="Volvo";
$cars3="BMW";
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 best solution here is to use an array!

An array can hold all your variable values under a single name. And you can access the values by referring
to the array name.
Each element in the array has its own index so that it can be easily accessed.
In PHP, there are three kind of arrays:

Numeric array - An array with a numeric index

Associative array - An array where each ID key is associated with a value
Multidimensional array - An array containing one or more arrays

Numeric Arrays
A numeric array stores each array element with a numeric index.
There are two methods to create a numeric array.
1. In the following example the index are automatically assigned (the index starts at 0):

$cars=array("Saab","Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
2. In the following example we assign the index manually:

$cars[0]="Saab";
$cars[1]="Volvo";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";

Example
In the following example you access the variable values by referring to the array name and index:

<?php
$cars[0]="Saab";
$cars[1]="Volvo";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";
echo $cars[0] . " and " . $cars[1] . " are Swedish cars.";
?>
The code above will output:

Saab and Volvo are Swedish cars.

Associative Arrays
An associative array, each ID key is associated with a value.
When storing data about specific named values, a numerical array is not always the best way to do it.

With associative arrays we can use the values as keys and assign values to them.

Example 1
In this example we use an array to assign ages to the different persons:

$ages = array("Peter"=>32, "Quagmire"=>30, "Joe"=>34);

Example 2
This example is the same as example 1, but shows a different way of creating the array:

$ages['Peter'] = "32";
$ages['Quagmire'] = "30";
$ages['Joe'] = "34";
The ID keys can be used in a script:

<?php
$ages['Peter'] = "32";
$ages['Quagmire'] = "30";
$ages['Joe'] = "34";
echo "Peter is " . $ages['Peter'] . " years old.";
?>
The code above will output:

Peter is 32 years old.

Multidimensional Arrays
In a multidimensional array, each element in the main array can also be an array. And each element in the
sub-array can be an array, and so on.

Example
In this example we create a multidimensional array, with automatically assigned ID keys:

$families = array
(
"Griffin"=>array
(
"Peter",
"Lois",
"Megan"
),
"Quagmire"=>array
(
"Glenn"
),

"Brown"=>array
(
"Cleveland",
"Loretta",
"Junior"
)
);
The array above would look like this if written to the output:

Array
(
[Griffin] => Array
(
[0] => Peter
[1] => Lois
[2] => Megan
)
[Quagmire] => Array
(
[0] => Glenn
)
[Brown] => Array
(
[0] => Cleveland
[1] => Loretta
[2] => Junior
)
)

Example 2
Lets try displaying a single value from the array above:

echo "Is " . $families['Griffin'][2] .

" a part of the Griffin family?";
The code above will output:

Is Megan a part of the Griffin family?

Complete PHP Array Reference

For a complete reference of all array functions, go to our complete PHP Array Reference.
The reference contains a brief description, and examples of use, for each function!

PHP Loops
Often when you write code, you want the same block of code to run over and over again in a row. Instead of
adding several almost equal lines in a script we can use loops to perform a task like this.

In PHP, we have the following looping statements:

while - loops through a block of code while a specified condition is true

do...while - loops through a block of code once, and then repeats the loop as long as a specified
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

The while Loop

The while loop executes a block of code while a condition is true.

Syntax
while (condition)
{
code to be executed;
}

Example
The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as i is less than,
or equal to 5. i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:

<html>
<body>
<?php
$i=1;
while($i<=5)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
$i++;
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:

The
The
The
The
The

number
number
number
number
number

is
is
is
is
is

1
2
3
4
5

The do...while Statement

The do...while statement will always execute the block of code once, it will then check the condition, and
repeat the loop while the condition is true.

Syntax
do
{
code to be executed;
}
while (condition);

Example
The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. It will then increment i with 1, and write some
output. Then the condition is checked, and the loop will continue to run as long as i is less than, or equal to
5:

<html>
<body>
<?php
$i=1;
do
{
$i++;
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
}
while ($i<=5);
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:

The
The
The
The
The

number
number
number
number
number

is
is
is
is
is

2
3
4
5
6

The for loop anThe

for Loop

The for loop is used when you know in advance how many times the script should run.

Syntax
for (init; condition; increment)
{
code to be executed;
}
Parameters:

init: Mostly used to set a counter (but can be any code to be executed once at the beginning of the
loop)
condition: Evaluated for each loop iteration. If it evaluates to TRUE, the loop continues. If it
evaluates to FALSE, the loop ends.

increment: Mostly used to increment a counter (but can be any code to be executed at the end of
the loop)

Note: Each of the parameters above can be empty, or have multiple expressions (separated by commas).

Example
The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as i is less than,
or equal to 5. i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:

<html>
<body>
<?php
for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:

The
The
The
The
The

number
number
number
number
number

is
is
is
is
is

1
2
3
4
5

The foreach Loop

The foreach loop is used to loop through arrays.

Syntax
foreach ($array as $value)
{
code to be executed;
}
For every loop iteration, the value of the current array element is assigned to $value (and the array pointer
is moved by one) - so on the next loop iteration, you'll be looking at the next array value.

Example
The following example demonstrates a loop that will print the values of the given array:

<?php
$x=array("one","two","three");
foreach ($x as $value)
{
echo $value . "<br />";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:

one
two
three
d the foreach loop will be explained in the next chapter

PHP Built-in Functions

For a complete reference and examples of the built-in functions, please visit our PHP Reference.

PHP Functions
In this chapter we will show you how to create your own functions.
To keep the browser from executing a script when the page loads, you can put your script into a function.
A function will be executed by a call to the function.
You may call a function from anywhere within a page.

Create a PHP Function

A function will be executed by a call to the function.

Syntax
function functionName()
{
code to be executed;
}
PHP function guidelines:

Give the function a name that reflects what the function does
The function name can start with a letter or underscore (not a number)

Example
A simple function that writes my name when it is called:

<html>
<body>
<?php
function writeName()
{
echo "Kai Jim Refsnes";
}
echo "My name is ";
writeName();
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:

My name is Kai Jim Refsnes

PHP Functions - Adding parameters

To add more functionality to a function, we can add parameters. A parameter is just like a variable.
Parameters are specified after the function name, inside the parentheses.

Example 1
The following example will write different first names, but equal last name:

<html>
<body>
<?php
function writeName($fname)
{
echo $fname . " Refsnes.<br />";
}
echo "My name is ";
writeName("Kai Jim");
echo "My sister's name is ";
writeName("Hege");
echo "My brother's name is ";
writeName("Stale");
?>
</body>
</html>

Output:

My name is Kai Jim Refsnes.

My sister's name is Hege Refsnes.
My brother's name is Stale Refsnes.

Example 2
The following function has two parameters:

<html>
<body>
<?php
function writeName($fname,$punctuation)
{
echo $fname . " Refsnes" . $punctuation . "<br />";
}
echo "My name is ";
writeName("Kai Jim",".");
echo "My sister's name is ";
writeName("Hege","!");
echo "My brother's name is ";
writeName("Stle","?");
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:

My name is Kai Jim Refsnes.

My sister's name is Hege Refsnes!
My brother's name is Stle Refsnes?

PHP Functions - Return values

To let a function return a value, use the return statement.

Example
<html>
<body>
<?php
function add($x,$y)
{
$total=$x+$y;
return $total;
}
echo "1 + 16 = " . add(1,16);
?>

</body>
</html>
Output:

1 + 16 = 17

The PHP $_GET and $_POST variables are used to retrieve information from forms, like user
input.

PHP Form Handling

The most important thing to notice when dealing with HTML forms and PHP is that any form element in an
HTML page will automatically be available to your PHP scripts.

Example
The example below contains an HTML form with two input fields and a submit button:

<html>
<body>
<form action="welcome.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="fname" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
When a user fills out the form above and click on the submit button, the form data is sent to a PHP file,
called "welcome.php":
"welcome.php" looks like this:

<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_POST["fname"]; ?>!<br />
You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old.
</body>
</html>
Output could be something like this:

Welcome John!
You are 28 years old.

The PHP $_GET and $_POST functions will be explained in the next chapters.

Form Validation
User input should be validated on the browser whenever possible (by client scripts). Browser validation is
faster and reduces the server load.
You should consider server validation if the user input will be inserted into a database. A good way to
validate a form on the server is to post the form to itself, instead of jumping to a different page. The user
will then get the error messages on the same page as the form. This makes it easier to discover the error.

The $_GET Function

The built-in $_GET function is used to collect values from a form sent with method="get".
Information sent from a form with the GET method is visible to everyone (it will be displayed in the
browser's address bar) and has limits on the amount of information to send (max. 100 characters).

Example
<form action="welcome.php" method="get">
Name: <input type="text" name="fname" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
When the user clicks the "Submit" button, the URL sent to the server could look something like this:

http://www.w3schools.com/welcome.php?fname=Peter&age=37
The "welcome.php" file can now use the $_GET function to collect form data (the names of the form fields
will automatically be the keys in the $_GET array):

Welcome <?php echo $_GET["fname"]; ?>.<br />

You are <?php echo $_GET["age"]; ?> years old!

When to use method="get"?

When using method="get" in HTML forms, all variable names and values are displayed in the URL.
Note: This method should not be used when sending passwords or other sensitive information!
However, because the variables are displayed in the URL, it is possible to bookmark the page. This can be
useful in some cases.
Note: The get method is not suitable for large variable values; the value cannot exceed 100 characters.

The built-in $_POST function is used to collect values in a form with method="post".

The $_POST Function

The built-in $_POST function is used to collect values from a form sent with method="post".
Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the amount of
information to send.
Note: However, there is an 8 Mb max size for the POST method, by default (can be changed by setting the
post_max_size in the php.ini file).

Example
<form action="welcome.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="fname" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
When the user clicks the "Submit" button, the URL will look like this:

http://www.w3schools.com/welcome.php
The "welcome.php" file can now use the $_POST function to collect form data (the names of the form fields
will automatically be the keys in the $_POST array):

Welcome <?php echo $_POST["fname"]; ?>!<br />

You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old.

When to use method="post"?

Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the amount of
information to send.
However, because the variables are not displayed in the URL, it is not possible to bookmark the page.

The PHP $_REQUEST Function

The PHP built-in $_REQUEST function contains the contents of both $_GET, $_POST, and $_COOKIE.
The $_REQUEST function can be used to collect form data sent with both the GET and POST methods.

Example
Welcome <?php echo $_REQUEST["fname"]; ?>!<br />

You are <?php echo $_REQUEST["age"]; ?> years old.

The PHP Date() Function

The PHP date() function formats a timestamp to a more readable date and time.
A timestamp is a sequence of characters, denoting the date and/or time at which a certain event occurred.

Syntax
date(format,timestamp)
Parameter
Format
timesta
mp

Description

Required. Specifies the format of the timestamp

Optional. Specifies a timestamp. Default is the current date and time

PHP Date() - Format the Date

The required format parameter in the date() function specifies how to format the date/time.
Here are some characters that can be used:

d - Represents the day of the month (01 to 31)

m - Represents a month (01 to 12)
Y - Represents a year (in four digits)

A list of all the characters that can be used in the format parameter, can be found in our PHP Date reference.
Other characters, like"/", ".", or "-" can also be inserted between the letters to add additional formatting:

<?php
echo date("Y/m/d") . "<br />";
echo date("Y.m.d") . "<br />";
echo date("Y-m-d")
?>
The output of the code above could be something like this:

2009/05/11
2009.05.11
2009-05-11

PHP Date() - Adding a Timestamp

The optional timestamp parameter in the date() function specifies a timestamp. If you do not specify a
timestamp, the current date and time will be used.
The mktime() function returns the Unix timestamp for a date.

The Unix timestamp contains the number of seconds between the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00
GMT) and the time specified.

Syntax for mktime()

mktime(hour,minute,second,month,day,year,is_dst)
To go one day in the future we simply add one to the day argument of mktime():

<?php
$tomorrow = mktime(0,0,0,date("m"),date("d")+1,date("Y"));
echo "Tomorrow is ".date("Y/m/d", $tomorrow);
?>
The output of the code above could be something like this:

Tomorrow is 2009/05/12

Complete PHP Date Reference

For a complete reference of all date functions, go to our complete PHP Date Reference.
The reference contains a brief description, and examples of use, for each function!

Server Side Includes (SSI)

You can insert the content of one PHP file into another PHP file before the server executes it, with the
include() or require() function.
The two functions are identical in every way, except how they handle errors:

include() generates a warning, but the script will continue execution

require() generates a fatal error, and the script will stop

These two functions are used to create functions, headers, footers, or elements that will be reused on
multiple pages.
Server side includes saves a lot of work. This means that you can create a standard header, footer, or menu
file for all your web pages. When the header needs to be updated, you can only update the include file, or
when you add a new page to your site, you can simply change the menu file (instead of updating the links
on all your web pages).

PHP include() Function

The include() function takes all the content in a specified file and includes it in the current file.
If an error occurs, the include() function generates a warning, but the script will continue execution.

Example 1
Assume that you have a standard header file, called "header.php". To include the header file in a page, use
the include() function:

<html>
<body>
<?php include("header.php"); ?>
<h1>Welcome to my home page!</h1>
<p>Some text.</p>
</body>
</html>

Example 2
Assume we have a standard menu file, called "menu.php", that should be used on all pages:

<a
<a
<a
<a
<a
<a

href="/default.php">Home</a>
href="/tutorials.php">Tutorials</a>
href="/references.php">References</a>
href="/examples.php">Examples</a>
href="/about.php">About Us</a>
href="/contact.php">Contact Us</a>

All pages in the Web site should include this menu file. Here is how it can be done:

<html>
<body>
<div class="leftmenu">
<?php include("menu.php"); ?>
</div>
<h1>Welcome to my home page.</h1>
<p>Some text.</p>
</body>
</html>
If you look at the source code of the page above (in a browser), it will look like this:

<html>
<body>
<div class="leftmenu">
<a href="/default.php">Home</a>
<a href="/tutorials.php">Tutorials</a>
<a href="/references.php">References</a>
<a href="/examples.php">Examples</a>
<a href="/about.php">About Us</a>
<a href="/contact.php">Contact Us</a>
</div>

<h1>Welcome to my home page!</h1>

PHP require() Function

The require() function is identical to include(), except that it handles errors differently.
If an error occurs, the include() function generates a warning, but the script will continue execution. The
require() generates a fatal error, and the script will stop.

Error Example include() Function

<html>
<body>
<?php
include("wrongFile.php");
echo "Hello World!";
?>
</body>
</html>
Error message:

Warning: include(wrongFile.php) [function.include]:

failed to open stream:
No such file or directory in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5
Warning: include() [function.include]:
Failed opening 'wrongFile.php' for inclusion
(include_path='.;C:\php5\pear')
in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5
Hello World!
Notice that the echo statement is executed! This is because a Warning does not stop the script execution.

Error Example require() Function

Now, let's run the same example with the require() function.

</body>
</html>
Error message:

Warning: require(wrongFile.php) [function.require]:

failed to open stream:
No such file or directory in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5
Fatal error: require() [function.require]:
Failed opening required 'wrongFile.php'
(include_path='.;C:\php5\pear')
in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5
The echo statement is not executed, because the script execution stopped after the fatal error.
It is recommended to use the require() function instead of include(), because scripts should not continue
after an erThe fopen() function is used to open files in PHP.

Opening a File
The fopen() function is used to open files in PHP.
The first parameter of this function contains the name of the file to be opened and the second parameter
specifies in which mode the file should be opened:

<html>
<body>
<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r");
?>
</body>
</html>
The file may be opened in one of the following modes:
Modes
R
r+
W
w+
A
a+
X
x+

Description
Read only. Starts at the beginning of the file
Read/Write. Starts at the beginning of the file
Write only. Opens and clears the contents of file; or creates a new file if it doesn't exist
Read/Write. Opens and clears the contents of file; or creates a new file if it doesn't exist
Append. Opens and writes to the end of the file or creates a new file if it doesn't exist
Read/Append. Preserves file content by writing to the end of the file
Write only. Creates a new file. Returns FALSE and an error if file already exists
Read/Write. Creates a new file. Returns FALSE and an error if file already exists

Note: If the fopen() function is unable to open the specified file, it returns 0 (false).

Example
The following example generates a message if the fopen() function is unable to open the specified file:

Closing a File
The fclose() function is used to close an open file:

<?php
$file = fopen("test.txt","r");
//some code to be executed
fclose($file);
?>

Check End-of-file
The feof() function checks if the "end-of-file" (EOF) has been reached.
The feof() function is useful for looping through data of unknown length.
Note: You cannot read from files opened in w, a, and x mode!

if (feof($file)) echo "End of file";

Reading a File Line by Line

The fgets() function is used to read a single line from a file.
Note: After a call to this function the file pointer has moved to the next line.

Example
The example below reads a file line by line, until the end of file is reached:

<?php
$file = fopen("welcome.txt", "r") or exit("Unable to open file!");

//Output a line of the file until the end is reached

while(!feof($file))
{
echo fgets($file). "<br />";
}
fclose($file);
?>

Reading a File Character by Character

The fgetc() function is used to read a single character from a file.
Note: After a call to this function the file pointer moves to the next character.

Example
The example below reads a file character by character, until the end of file is reached:

<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
while (!feof($file))
{
echo fgetc($file);
}
fclose($file);
?>

PHP Filesystem Reference

For a full reference of the PHP filesystem functions, visit our PHP Filesystem Reference.

Create an Upload-File Form

To allow users to upload files from a form can be very useful.
Look at the following HTML form for uploading files:

<html>
<body>
<form action="upload_file.php" method="post"
enctype="multipart/form-data">
<label for="file">Filename:</label>
<input type="file" name="file" id="file" />
<br />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
Notice the following about the HTML form above:

The enctype attribute of the <form> tag specifies which content-type to use when submitting the
form. "multipart/form-data" is used when a form requires binary data, like the contents of a file, to
be uploaded

The type="file" attribute of the <input> tag specifies that the input should be processed as a file.
For example, when viewed in a browser, there will be a browse-button next to the input field
Note: Allowing users to upload files is a big security risk. Only permit trusted users to perform file uploads.

Create The Upload Script

The "upload_file.php" file contains the code for uploading a file:

<?php
if ($_FILES["file"]["error"] > 0)
{
echo "Error: " . $_FILES["file"]["error"] . "<br />";
}
else
{
echo "Upload: " . $_FILES["file"]["name"] . "<br />";
echo "Type: " . $_FILES["file"]["type"] . "<br />";
echo "Size: " . ($_FILES["file"]["size"] / 1024) . " Kb<br />";
echo "Stored in: " . $_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"];
}
?>
By using the global PHP $_FILES array you can upload files from a client computer to the remote server.
The first parameter is the form's input name and the second index can be either "name", "type", "size",
"tmp_name" or "error". Like this:

$_FILES["file"]["name"] - the name of the uploaded file

$_FILES["file"]["type"] - the type of the uploaded file

$_FILES["file"]["size"] - the size in bytes of the uploaded file

$_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"] - the name of the temporary copy of the file stored on the server

$_FILES["file"]["error"] - the error code resulting from the file upload

This is a very simple way of uploading files. For security reasons, you should add restrictions on what the
user is allowed to upload.

Restrictions on Upload
In this script we add some restrictions to the file upload. The user may only upload .gif or .jpeg files and the
file size must be under 20 kb:

Saving the Uploaded File

The examples above create a temporary copy of the uploaded files in the PHP temp folder on the server.
The temporary copied files disappears when the script ends. To store the uploaded file we need to copy it to
a different location:

<?php
if ((($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/gif")
|| ($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/jpeg")
|| ($_FILES["file"]["type"] == "image/pjpeg"))
&& ($_FILES["file"]["size"] < 20000))
{
if ($_FILES["file"]["error"] > 0)
{
echo "Return Code: " . $_FILES["file"]["error"] . "<br />";
}
else
{
echo "Upload: " . $_FILES["file"]["name"] . "<br />";
echo "Type: " . $_FILES["file"]["type"] . "<br />";
echo "Size: " . ($_FILES["file"]["size"] / 1024) . " Kb<br />";
echo "Temp file: " . $_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"] . "<br />";
if (file_exists("upload/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"]))
{
echo $_FILES["file"]["name"] . " already exists. ";
}
else
{
move_uploaded_file($_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"],
"upload/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"]);
echo "Stored in: " . "upload/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"];
}
}
}
else
{
echo "Invalid file";
}
?>
The script above checks if the file already exists, if it does not, it copies the file to the specified folder.
Note: This example saves the file to a new folder called "upload"

What is a Cookie?
A cookie is often used to identify a user. A cookie is a small file that the server embeds on the user's
computer. Each time the same computer requests a page with a browser, it will send the cookie too. With
PHP, you can both create and retrieve cookie values.

How to Create a Cookie?

The setcookie() function is used to set a cookie.
Note: The setcookie() function must appear BEFORE the <html> tag.

Syntax
setcookie(name, value, expire, path, domain);

Example 1
In the example below, we will create a cookie named "user" and assign the value "Alex Porter" to it. We also
specify that the cookie should expire after one hour:

<?php
setcookie("user", "Alex Porter", time()+3600);
?>
<html>
.....
Note: The value of the cookie is automatically URLencoded when sending the cookie, and automatically
decoded when received (to prevent URLencoding, use setrawcookie() instead).

Example 2
You can also set the expiration time of the cookie in another way. It may be easier than using seconds.

<?php
$expire=time()+60*60*24*30;
setcookie("user", "Alex Porter", $expire);
?>
<html>
.....
In the example above the expiration time is set to a month (60 sec * 60 min * 24 hours * 30 days).

How to Retrieve a Cookie Value?

The PHP $_COOKIE variable is used to retrieve a cookie value.
In the example below, we retrieve the value of the cookie named "user" and display it on a page:

<?php
// Print a cookie
echo $_COOKIE["user"];
// A way to view all cookies
print_r($_COOKIE);
?>
In the following example we use the isset() function to find out if a cookie has been set:

<?php
if (isset($_COOKIE["user"]))
echo "Welcome " . $_COOKIE["user"] . "!<br />";
else
echo "Welcome guest!<br />";
?>
</body>
</html>

How to Delete a Cookie?

When deleting a cookie you should assure that the expiration date is in the past.
Delete example:

<?php
// set the expiration date to one hour ago
setcookie("user", "", time()-3600);
?>

What if a Browser Does NOT Support Cookies?

If your application deals with browsers that do not support cookies, you will have to use other methods to
pass information from one page to another in your application. One method is to pass the data through
forms (forms and user input are described earlier in this tutorial).
The form below passes the user input to "welcome.php" when the user clicks on the "Submit" button:

<html>
<body>
<form action="welcome.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="name" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
Retrieve the values in the "welcome.php" file like this:

<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_POST["name"]; ?>.<br />
You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old.
</body>

</html>

A PHP session variable is used to store information about, or change settings for a user
session. Session variables hold information about one single user, and are available to all
pages in one application.

PHP Session Variables

When you are working with an application, you open it, do some changes and then you close it. This is much
like a Session. The computer knows who you are. It knows when you start the application and when you
end. But on the internet there is one problem: the web server does not know who you are and what you do
because the HTTP address doesn't maintain state.
A PHP session solves this problem by allowing you to store user information on the server for later use (i.e.
username, shopping items, etc). However, session information is temporary and will be deleted after the
user has left the website. If you need a permanent storage you may want to store the data in a database.
Sessions work by creating a unique id (UID) for each visitor and store variables based on this UID. The UID
is either stored in a cookie or is propagated in the URL.

Starting a PHP Session

Before you can store user information in your PHP session, you must first start up the session.
Note: The session_start() function must appear BEFORE the <html> tag:

<?php session_start(); ?>

<html>
<body>
</body>
</html>
The code above will register the user's session with the server, allow you to start saving user information,
and assign a UID for that user's session.

Storing a Session Variable

The correct way to store and retrieve session variables is to use the PHP $_SESSION variable:

<?php
session_start();
// store session data
$_SESSION['views']=1;
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php
//retrieve session data
echo "Pageviews=". $_SESSION['views'];
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:

Pageviews=1
In the example below, we create a simple page-views counter. The isset() function checks if the "views"
variable has already been set. If "views" has been set, we can increment our counter. If "views" doesn't
exist, we create a "views" variable, and set it to 1:

<?php
session_start();

if(isset($_SESSION['views']))
$_SESSION['views']=$_SESSION['views']+1;
else
$_SESSION['views']=1;
echo "Views=". $_SESSION['views'];
?>

Destroying a Session
If you wish to delete some session data, you can use the unset() or the session_destroy() function.
The unset() function is used to free the specified session variable:

<?php
unset($_SESSION['views']);
?>
You can also completely destroy the session by calling the session_destroy() function:

<?php
session_destroy();
?>
Note: session_destroy() will reset your session and you will lose all your stored session data.

The PHP mail() Function

The PHP mail() function is used to send emails from inside a script.
Syntax

mail(to,subject,message,headers,parameters)
Parameter

Description

Required. Specifies the receiver / receivers of the email

Subject

Required. Specifies the subject of the email. Note: This parameter cannot contain any
newline characters

message

Required. Defines the message to be sent. Each line should be separated with a LF
(\n). Lines should not exceed 70 characters

headers

Optional. Specifies additional headers, like From, Cc, and Bcc. The additional headers
should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n)

parameters

Optional. Specifies an additional parameter to the sendmail program

Note: For the mail functions to be available, PHP requires an installed and working email system. The
program to be used is defined by the configuration settings in the php.ini file. Read more in our PHP Mail
reference.

PHP Simple E-Mail

The simplest way to send an email with PHP is to send a text email.
In the example below we first declare the variables ($to, $subject, $message, $from, $headers), then we
use the variables in the mail() function to send an e-mail:

<?php
$to = "[email protected]";
$subject = "Test mail";
$message = "Hello! This is a simple email message.";
$from = "[email protected]";
$headers = "From: $from";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
echo "Mail Sent.";

PHP Mail Form

With PHP, you can create a feedback-form on your website. The example below sends a text message to a
specified e-mail address:

<html>
<body>
<?php
if (isset($_REQUEST['email']))
//if "email" is filled out, send email
{
//send email
$email = $_REQUEST['email'] ;
$subject = $_REQUEST['subject'] ;
$message = $_REQUEST['message'] ;
mail( "[email protected]", "Subject: $subject",
$message, "From: $email" );
echo "Thank you for using our mail form";
}
else
//if "email" is not filled out, display the form
{
echo "<form method='post' action='mailform.php'>
Email: <input name='email' type='text' /><br />
Subject: <input name='subject' type='text' /><br />
Message:<br />
<textarea name='message' rows='15' cols='40'>
</textarea><br />
<input type='submit' />
</form>";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
This is how the example above works:

First, check if the email input field is filled out

If it is not set (like when the page is first visited); output the HTML form

If it is set (after the form is filled out); send the email from the form

When submit is pressed after the form is filled out, the page reloads, sees that the email input is
set, and sends the email
Note: This is the simplest way to send e-mail, but it is not secure. In the next chapter of this tutorial you
can read more about vulnerabilities in e-mail scripts, and how to validate user input to make it more secure.

PHP Mail Reference

For more information about the PHP mail() function, visit our PHP Mail Reference.

PHP E-mail Injections

First, look at the PHP code from the previous chapter:

<html>
<body>
<?php

if (isset($_REQUEST['email']))
//if "email" is filled out, send email
{
//send email
$email = $_REQUEST['email'] ;
$subject = $_REQUEST['subject'] ;
$message = $_REQUEST['message'] ;
mail("[email protected]", "Subject: $subject",
$message, "From: $email" );
echo "Thank you for using our mail form";
}
else
//if "email" is not filled out, display the form
{
echo "<form method='post' action='mailform.php'>
Email: <input name='email' type='text' /><br />
Subject: <input name='subject' type='text' /><br />
Message:<br />
<textarea name='message' rows='15' cols='40'>
</textarea><br />
<input type='submit' />
</form>";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
The problem with the code above is that unauthorized users can insert data into the mail headers via the
input form.
What happens if the user adds the following text to the email input field in the form?

[email protected]%0ACc:[email protected]
%0ABcc:[email protected],[email protected],
[email protected],[email protected]
%0ABTo:[email protected]
The mail() function puts the text above into the mail headers as usual, and now the header has an extra
Cc:, Bcc:, and To: field. When the user clicks the submit button, the e-mail will be sent to all of the
addresses above!

PHP Stopping E-mail Injections

The best way to stop e-mail injections is to validate the input.

The code below is the same as in the previous chapter, but now we have added an input validator that
checks the email field in the form:

<html>
<body>
<?php
function spamcheck($field)
{
//filter_var() sanitizes the e-mail
//address using FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL
$field=filter_var($field, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
//filter_var() validates the e-mail
//address using FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL
if(filter_var($field, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))
{
return TRUE;
}

else
{
return FALSE;
}
}
if (isset($_REQUEST['email']))
{//if "email" is filled out, proceed
//check if the email address is invalid
$mailcheck = spamcheck($_REQUEST['email']);
if ($mailcheck==FALSE)
{
echo "Invalid input";
}
else
{//send email
$email = $_REQUEST['email'] ;
$subject = $_REQUEST['subject'] ;
$message = $_REQUEST['message'] ;
mail("[email protected]", "Subject: $subject",
$message, "From: $email" );
echo "Thank you for using our mail form";
}
}
else
{//if "email" is not filled out, display the form
echo "<form method='post' action='mailform.php'>
Email: <input name='email' type='text' /><br />
Subject: <input name='subject' type='text' /><br />
Message:<br />
<textarea name='message' rows='15' cols='40'>
</textarea><br />
<input type='submit' />
</form>";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
In the code above we use PHP filters to validate input:

The FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL filter removes all illegal e-mail characters from a string

The FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL filter validates value as an e-mail address

You can read more about filters in our PHP Filter chapter.

The default error handling in PHP is very simple. An error message with filename, line
number and a message describing the error is sent to the browser.

PHP Error Handling

When creating scripts and web applications, error handling is an important part. If your code lacks error
checking code, your program may look very unprofessional and you may be open to security risks.
This tutorial contains some of the most common error checking methods in PHP.
We will show different error handling methods:

Simple "die()" statements

Custom errors and error triggers

Error reporting

Basic Error Handling: Using the die() function

The first example shows a simple script that opens a text file:

<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r");
?>
If the file does not exist you might get an error like this:

Warning: fopen(welcome.txt) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream:

No such file or directory in C:\webfolder\test.php on line 2
To avoid that the user gets an error message like the one above, we test if the file exist before we try to
access it:

<?php
if(!file_exists("welcome.txt"))
{
die("File not found");
}
else
{
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r");
}
?>
Now if the file does not exist you get an error like this:

File not found

The code above is more efficient than the earlier code, because it uses a simple error handling mechanism
to stop the script after the error.
However, simply stopping the script is not always the right way to go. Let's take a look at alternative PHP
functions for handling errors.

Creating a Custom Error Handler

Creating a custom error handler is quite simple. We simply create a special function that can be called when
an error occurs in PHP.
This function must be able to handle a minimum of two parameters (error level and error message) but can
accept up to five parameters (optionally: file, line-number, and the error context):

Syntax
error_function(error_level,error_message,
error_file,error_line,error_context)
Parameter
error_level
error_message
error_file
error_line
error_context

Description
Required. Specifies the error report level for the user-defined error. Must be a value
number. See table below for possible error report levels
Required. Specifies the error message for the user-defined error
Optional. Specifies the filename in which the error occurred
Optional. Specifies the line number in which the error occurred
Optional. Specifies an array containing every variable, and their values, in use when the
error occurred

Error Report levels

These error report levels are the different types of error the user-defined error handler can be used for:
Value Constant

Description

E_WARNING

Non-fatal run-time errors. Execution of the script is not halted

E_NOTICE

Run-time notices. The script found something that might be an error, but could
also happen when running a script normally

E_USER_ERRO
R

Fatal user-generated error. This is like an E_ERROR set by the programmer using
the PHP function trigger_error()

8
256
512

E_USER_WARNIN

Non-fatal

1024
4096
8191

usergenerated
warning. This
is like an
E_WARNING
set by the
programmer
using the PHP
function
trigger_error(
)

E_USER_NOTICE

User-generated notice. This is like an E_NOTICE set by the programmer

using the PHP function trigger_error()

E_RECOVERABLE_ERRO
R

Catchable fatal error. This is like an E_ERROR but can be caught by a

user defined handle (see also set_error_handler())

E_ALL

All errors and warnings, except level E_STRICT (E_STRICT will be part of
E_ALL as of PHP 6.0)

Now lets create a function to handle errors:

function customError($errno, $errstr)

{
echo "<b>Error:</b> [$errno] $errstr<br />";
echo "Ending Script";
die();
}
The code above is a simple error handling function. When it is triggered, it gets the error level and an error
message. It then outputs the error level and message and terminates the script.
Now that we have created an error handling function we need to decide when it should be triggered.

Set Error Handler

The default error handler for PHP is the built in error handler. We are going to make the function above the
default error handler for the duration of the script.
It is possible to change the error handler to apply for only some errors, that way the script can handle
different errors in different ways. However, in this example we are going to use our custom error handler for
all errors:

set_error_handler("customError");
Since we want our custom function to handle all errors, the set_error_handler() only needed one parameter,
a second parameter could be added to specify an error level.

Example

Testing the error handler by trying to output variable that does not exist:

<?php
//error handler function
function customError($errno, $errstr)
{
echo "<b>Error:</b> [$errno] $errstr";
}
//set error handler
set_error_handler("customError");
//trigger error
echo($test);
?>
The output of the code above should be something like this:

Error: [8] Undefined variable: test

Trigger an Error

In a script where users can input data it is useful to trigger errors when an illegal input occurs. In PHP, this
is done by the trigger_error() function.

Example

In this example an error occurs if the "test" variable is bigger than "1":

<?php
$test=2;
if ($test>1)
{
trigger_error("Value must be 1 or below");
}
?>
The output of the code above should be something like this:

Notice: Value must be 1 or below

in C:\webfolder\test.php on line 6
An error can be triggered anywhere you wish in a script, and by adding a second parameter, you can specify
what error level is triggered.
Possible error types:

E_USER_ERROR - Fatal user-generated run-time error. Errors that can not be recovered from.
Execution of the script is halted

E_USER_WARNING - Non-fatal user-generated run-time warning. Execution of the script is not

halted

E_USER_NOTICE - Default. User-generated run-time notice. The script found something that might
be an error, but could also happen when running a script normally

Example

In this example an E_USER_WARNING occurs if the "test" variable is bigger than "1". If an
E_USER_WARNING occurs we will use our custom error handler and end the script:

<?php
//error handler function
function customError($errno, $errstr)
{
echo "<b>Error:</b> [$errno] $errstr<br />";
echo "Ending Script";
die();
}
//set error handler
set_error_handler("customError",E_USER_WARNING);
//trigger error
$test=2;
if ($test>1)
{
trigger_error("Value must be 1 or below",E_USER_WARNING);
}
?>
The output of the code above should be something like this:

Error: [512] Value must be 1 or below

Ending Script
Now that we have learned to create our own errors and how to trigger them, lets take a look at error
logging.

Error Logging

By default, PHP sends an error log to the servers logging system or a file, depending on how the error_log
configuration is set in the php.ini file. By using the error_log() function you can send error logs to a specified
file or a remote destination.
Sending errors messages to yourself by e-mail can be a good way of getting notified of specific errors.

Send an Error Message by E-Mail

In the example below we will send an e-mail with an error message and end the script, if a specific error
occurs:

<?php
//error handler function
function customError($errno, $errstr)
{
echo "<b>Error:</b> [$errno] $errstr<br />";
echo "Webmaster has been notified";
error_log("Error: [$errno] $errstr",1,
"[email protected]","From: [email protected]");
}
//set error handler
set_error_handler("customError",E_USER_WARNING);
//trigger error
$test=2;
if ($test>1)
{
trigger_error("Value must be 1 or below",E_USER_WARNING);
}
?>
The output of the code above should be something like this:

Error: [512] Value must be 1 or below

Webmaster has been notified
And the mail received from the code above looks like this:

Error: [512] Value must be 1 or below

This should not be used with all errors. Regular errors should be logged on the server using the default PHP
logging system.

What is an Exception
With PHP 5 came a new object oriented way of dealing with errors.
Exception handling is used to change the normal flow of the code execution if a specified error (exceptional)
condition occurs. This condition is called an exception.
This is what normally happens when an exception is triggered:

The current code state is saved

The code execution will switch to a predefined (custom) exception handler function

Depending on the situation, the handler may then resume the execution from the saved code state,
terminate the script execution or continue the script from a different location in the code
We will show different error handling methods:

Basic use of Exceptions

Creating a custom exception handler

Multiple exceptions

Re-throwing an exception

Setting a top level exception handler

Note: Exceptions should only be used with error conditions, and should not be used to jump to another
place in the code at a specified point.

Basic Use of Exceptions

When an exception is thrown, the code following it will not be executed, and PHP will try to find the
matching "catch" block.
If an exception is not caught, a fatal error will be issued with an "Uncaught Exception" message.

Lets try to throw an exception without catching it:

<?php
//create function with an exception
function checkNum($number)
{
if($number>1)
{
throw new Exception("Value must be 1 or below");
}
return true;
}
//trigger exception
checkNum(2);
?>
The code above will get an error like this:

Fatal error:
with message
Stack trace:
checkNum(28)

Uncaught exception 'Exception'

'Value must be 1 or below' in C:\webfolder\test.php:6
#0 C:\webfolder\test.php(12):
#1 {main} thrown in C:\webfolder\test.php on line 6

Try, throw and catch

To avoid the error from the example above, we need to create the proper code to handle an exception.
Proper exception code should include:
1. Try - A function using an exception should be in a "try" block. If the exception does not trigger, the
code will continue as normal. However if the exception triggers, an exception is "thrown"
2. Throw - This is how you trigger an exception. Each "throw" must have at least one "catch"
3. Catch - A "catch" block retrieves an exception and creates an object containing the exception
information
Lets try to trigger an exception with valid code:

<?php
//create function with an exception
function checkNum($number)
{
if($number>1)
{
throw new Exception("Value must be 1 or below");
}
return true;
}
//trigger exception in a "try" block
try
{
checkNum(2);
//If the exception is thrown, this text will not be shown
echo 'If you see this, the number is 1 or below';
}
//catch exception
catch(Exception $e)
{
echo 'Message: ' .$e->getMessage();
}
?>
The code above will get an error like this:

Message: Value must be 1 or below

Example explained:
The code above throws an exception and catches it:
1. The checkNum() function is created. It checks if a number is greater than 1. If it is, an exception is
thrown
2. The checkNum() function is called in a "try" block
3. The exception within the checkNum() function is thrown
4. The "catch" block retrives the exception and creates an object ($e) containing the exception
information
5. The error message from the exception is echoed by calling $e->getMessage() from the exception
object
However, one way to get around the "every throw must have a catch" rule is to set a top level exception
handler to handle errors that slip through.

Creating a Custom Exception Class

Creating a custom exception handler is quite simple. We simply create a special class with functions that can
be called when an exception occurs in PHP. The class must be an extension of the exception class.
The custom exception class inherits the properties from PHP's exception class and you can add custom
functions to it.
Lets create an exception class:

<?php
class customException extends Exception
{
public function errorMessage()
{
//error message
$errorMsg = 'Error on line '.$this->getLine().' in '.$this->getFile()
.': <b>'.$this->getMessage().'</b> is not a valid E-Mail address';
return $errorMsg;
}
}
$email = "[email protected]";
try
{
//check if
if(filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) === FALSE)
{
//throw exception if email is not valid
throw new customException($email);
}
}
catch (customException $e)
{
//display custom message
echo $e->errorMessage();
}
?>
The new class is a copy of the old exception class with an addition of the errorMessage() function. Since it is
a copy of the old class, and it inherits the properties and methods from the old class, we can use the
exception class methods like getLine() and getFile() and getMessage().

Example explained:
The code above throws an exception and catches it with a custom exception class:
1. The customException() class is created as an extension of the old exception class. This way it
inherits all methods and properties from the old exception class
2. The errorMessage() function is created. This function returns an error message if an e-mail address
is invalid

3.
4.
5.

The $email variable is set to a string that is not a valid e-mail address
The "try" block is executed and an exception is thrown since the e-mail address is invalid
The "catch" block catches the exception and displays the error message

Multiple Exceptions
It is possible for a script to use multiple exceptions to check for multiple conditions.
It is possible to use several if..else blocks, a switch, or nest multiple exceptions. These exceptions can use
different exception classes and return different error messages:

<?php
class customException extends Exception
{
public function errorMessage()
{
//error message
$errorMsg = 'Error on line '.$this->getLine().' in '.$this->getFile()
.': <b>'.$this->getMessage().'</b> is not a valid E-Mail address';
return $errorMsg;
}
}
$email = "[email protected]";
try
{
//check if
if(filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) === FALSE)
{
//throw exception if email is not valid
throw new customException($email);
}
//check for "example" in mail address
if(strpos($email, "example") !== FALSE)
{
throw new Exception("$email is an example e-mail");
}
}
catch (customException $e)
{
echo $e->errorMessage();
}
catch(Exception $e)
{
echo $e->getMessage();
}
?>

Example explained:

The code above tests two conditions and throws an exception if any of the conditions are not met:
1. The customException() class is created as an extension of the old exception class. This way it
inherits all methods and properties from the old exception class
2. The errorMessage() function is created. This function returns an error message if an e-mail address
is invalid
3. The $email variable is set to a string that is a valid e-mail address, but contains the string
"example"
4. The "try" block is executed and an exception is not thrown on the first condition
5. The second condition triggers an exception since the e-mail contains the string "example"
6. The "catch" block catches the exception and displays the correct error message
If there was no customException catch, only the base exception catch, the exception would be handled there

Re-throwing Exceptions

Sometimes, when an exception is thrown, you may wish to handle it differently than the standard way. It is
possible to throw an exception a second time within a "catch" block.
A script should hide system errors from users. System errors may be important for the coder, but is of no
interest to the user. To make things easier for the user you can re-throw the exception with a user friendly
message:

<?php
class customException extends Exception
{
public function errorMessage()
{
//error message
$errorMsg = $this->getMessage().' is not a valid E-Mail address.';
return $errorMsg;
}
}
$email = "[email protected]";
try
{
try
{
//check for "example" in mail address
if(strpos($email, "example") !== FALSE)
{
//throw exception if email is not valid
throw new Exception($email);
}
}
catch(Exception $e)
{
//re-throw exception
throw new customException($email);
}
}
catch (customException $e)
{
//display custom message
echo $e->errorMessage();
}
?>

Example explained:
The code above tests if the email-address contains the string "example" in it, if it does, the exception is rethrown:
1. The customException() class is created as an extension of the old exception class. This way it
inherits all methods and properties from the old exception class
2. The errorMessage() function is created. This function returns an error message if an e-mail address
is invalid
3. The $email variable is set to a string that is a valid e-mail address, but contains the string
"example"
4. The "try" block contains another "try" block to make it possible to re-throw the exception
5. The exception is triggered since the e-mail contains the string "example"
6. The "catch" block catches the exception and re-throws a "customException"
7. The "customException" is caught and displays an error message
If the exception is not caught in its current "try" block, it will search for a catch block on "higher levels".

Set a Top Level Exception Handler

The set_exception_handler() function sets a user-defined function to handle all uncaught exceptions.

<?php
function myException($exception)
{
echo "<b>Exception:</b> " , $exception->getMessage();
}
set_exception_handler('myException');
throw new Exception('Uncaught Exception occurred');
?>
The output of the code above should be something like this:

Exception: Uncaught Exception occurred

In the code above there was no "catch" block. Instead, the top level exception handler triggered. This
function should be used to catch uncaught exceptions.

Rules for exceptions

Code may be surrounded in a try block, to help catch potential exceptions

Each try block or "throw" must have at least one corresponding catch block

Multiple catch blocks can be used to catch different classes of exceptions

Exceptions can be thrown (or re-thrown) in a catch block within a try block
A simple rule: If you throw something, you have to catch it.

What is a PHP Filter?

A PHP filter is used to validate and filter data coming from insecure sources.
To test, validate and filter user input or custom data is an important part of any web application.
The PHP filter extension is designed to make data filtering easier and quicker.

Why use a Filter?

Almost all web applications depend on external input. Usually this comes from a user or another application
(like a web service). By using filters you can be sure your application gets the correct input type.
You should always filter all external data!
Input filtering is one of the most important application security issues.
What is external data?

Input data from a form

Web services data

Server variables

Database query results

Functions and Filters

To filter a variable, use one of the following filter functions:

filter_var() - Filters a single variable with a specified filter

filter_var_array() - Filter several variables with the same or different filters

filter_input - Get one input variable and filter it

filter_input_array - Get several input variables and filter them with the same or different filters
In the example below, we validate an integer using the filter_var() function:

<?php
$int = 123;
if(!filter_var($int, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT))
{
echo("Integer is not valid");
}

else
{
echo("Integer is valid");
}
?>
The code above uses the "FILTER_VALIDATE_INT" filter to filter the variable. Since the integer is valid, the
output of the code above will be: "Integer is valid".
If we try with a variable that is not an integer (like "123abc"), the output will be: "Integer is not valid".
For a complete list of functions and filters, visit our PHP Filter Reference.

Validating and Sanitizing

There are two kinds of filters:

Validating filters:

Are used to validate user input

Strict format rules (like URL or E-Mail validating)

Returns the expected type on success or FALSE on failure

Sanitizing filters:

Are used to allow or disallow specified characters in a string

No data format rules

Always return the string

Options and Flags

Options and flags are used to add additional filtering options to the specified filters.
Different filters have different options and flags.
In the example below, we validate an integer using the filter_var() and the "min_range" and "max_range"
options:

<?php
$var=300;
$int_options = array(
"options"=>array
(
"min_range"=>0,
"max_range"=>256
)
);
if(!filter_var($var, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $int_options))
{
echo("Integer is not valid");
}
else
{
echo("Integer is valid");
}
?>
Like the code above, options must be put in an associative array with the name "options". If a flag is used it
does not need to be in an array.
Since the integer is "300" it is not in the specified range, and the output of the code above will be: "Integer
is not valid".
For a complete list of functions and filters, visit our PHP Filter Reference. Check each filter to see what
options and flags are available.

Validate Input
Let's try validating input from a form.
The first thing we need to do is to confirm that the input data we are looking for exists.
Then we filter the input data using the filter_input() function.

In the example below, the input variable "email" is sent to the PHP page:

<?php
if(!filter_has_var(INPUT_GET, "email"))
{
echo("Input type does not exist");
}
else
{
if (!filter_input(INPUT_GET, "email", FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))
{
echo "E-Mail is not valid";
}
else
{
echo "E-Mail is valid";
}
}
?>

Example Explained

The example above has an input (email) sent to it using the "GET" method:
1. Check if an "email" input variable of the "GET" type exist
2. If the input variable exists, check if it is a valid e-mail address

Sanitize Input

Let's try cleaning up an URL sent from a form.

First we confirm that the input data we are looking for exists.
Then we sanitize the input data using the filter_input() function.
In the example below, the input variable "url" is sent to the PHP page:

<?php
if(!filter_has_var(INPUT_POST, "url"))
{
echo("Input type does not exist");
}
else
{
$url = filter_input(INPUT_POST,
"url", FILTER_SANITIZE_URL);
}
?>

Example Explained

The example above has an input (url) sent to it using the "POST" method:
1. Check if the "url" input of the "POST" type exists
2. If the input variable exists, sanitize (take away invalid characters) and store it in the $url variable
If the input variable is a string like this "http://www.W3Schools.com/", the $url variable after the
sanitizing will look like this:

http://www.W3Schools.com/

Filter Multiple Inputs

A form almost always consist of more than one input field. To avoid calling the filter_var or filter_input
functions over and over, we can use the filter_var_array or the filter_input_array functions.
In this example we use the filter_input_array() function to filter three GET variables. The received GET
variables is a name, an age and an e-mail address:

<?php
$filters = array

(
"name" => array
(
"filter"=>FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING
),
"age" => array
(
"filter"=>FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
"options"=>array
(
"min_range"=>1,
"max_range"=>120
)
),
"email"=> FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL,
);
$result = filter_input_array(INPUT_GET, $filters);
if (!$result["age"])
{
echo("Age must be a number between 1 and 120.<br />");
}
elseif(!$result["email"])
{
echo("E-Mail is not valid.<br />");
}
else
{
echo("User input is valid");
}
?>

Example Explained
The example above has three inputs (name, age and email) sent to it using the "GET" method:
1. Set an array containing the name of input variables and the filters used on the specified input
variables
2. Call the filter_input_array() function with the GET input variables and the array we just set
3. Check the "age" and "email" variables in the $result variable for invalid inputs. (If any of the input
variables are invalid, that input variable will be FALSE after the filter_input_array() function)
The second parameter of the filter_input_array() function can be an array or a single filter ID.
If the parameter is a single filter ID all values in the input array are filtered by the specified filter.
If the parameter is an array it must follow these rules:

Must be an associative array containing an input variable as an array key (like the "age" input
variable)

The array value must be a filter ID or an array specifying the filter, flags and options

Using Filter Callback

It is possible to call a user defined function and use it as a filter using the FILTER_CALLBACK filter. This way,
we have full control of the data filtering.
You can create your own user defined function or use an existing PHP function
The function you wish to use to filter is specified the same way as an option is specified. In an associative
array with the name "options"
In the example below, we use a user created function to convert all "_" to whitespaces:

<?php
function convertSpace($string)
{
return str_replace("_", " ", $string);
}

$string = "Peter_is_a_great_guy!";
echo filter_var($string, FILTER_CALLBACK,
array("options"=>"convertSpace"));
?>
The result from the code above should look like this:

Peter is a great guy!

Example Explained

The example above converts all "_" to whitespaces:

1. Create a function to replace "_" to whitespaces
2. Call the filter_var() function with the FILTER_CALLBACK filter and an array containing our function

3. What is MySQL?
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

MySQL is a database.
The data in MySQL is stored in database objects called tables.
A table is a collections of related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.
Databases are useful when storing information categorically. A company may have a database with
the following tables: "Employees", "Products", "Customers" and "Orders".

9. Database Tables
10. A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g.
"Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows) with data.
11. Below is an example of a table called "Persons":
LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

12. The table above contains three records (one for each person) and four columns (LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City).

13. Queries

14. A query is a question or a request.

15. With MySQL, we can query a database for specific information and have a recordset returned.
16. Look at the following query:

SELECT LastName FROM Persons

17. The query above selects all the data in the "LastName" column from the "Persons" table, and will
return a recordset like this:
LastName
Hansen
Svendson
Pettersen
Before you can access data in a database, you must create a connection to the database.

In PHP, this is done with the mysql_connect() function.

Syntax
mysql_connect(servername,username,password);
Parameter
servername
Username
password

Description
Optional. Specifies the server to connect to. Default value is "localhost:3306"
Optional. Specifies the username to log in with. Default value is the name of the user
that owns the server process
Optional. Specifies the password to log in with. Default is ""

Note: There are more available parameters, but the ones listed above are the most important. Visit our full
PHP MySQL Reference for more details.

Example
In the following example we store the connection in a variable ($con) for later use in the script. The "die"
part will be executed if the connection fails:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
// some code
?>

Closing a Connection
The connection will be closed automatically when the script ends. To close the connection before, use the
mysql_close() function:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
// some code
mysql_close($con);
?>

Create a Database
The CREATE DATABASE statement is used to create a database in MySQL.

Syntax
CREATE DATABASE database_name

To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to
send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example
The following example creates a database called "my_db":

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
if (mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE my_db",$con))
{
echo "Database created";
}
else
{
echo "Error creating database: " . mysql_error();
}
mysql_close($con);
?>

Create a Table
The CREATE TABLE statement is used to create a table in MySQL.

Syntax
CREATE TABLE
(
column_name1
column_name2
column_name3
....
)

table_name
data_type,
data_type,
data_type,

To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

We must add the CREATE TABLE statement to the mysql_query() function to execute the command.

Example
The following example creates a table named "Persons", with three columns. The column names will be
"FirstName", "LastName" and "Age":

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
// Create database
if (mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE my_db",$con))
{
echo "Database created";
}
else
{
echo "Error creating database: " . mysql_error();
}
// Create table
mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);
$sql = "CREATE TABLE Persons
(
FirstName varchar(15),
LastName varchar(15),
Age int
)";
// Execute query
mysql_query($sql,$con);
mysql_close($con);
?>
Important: A database must be selected before a table can be created. The database is selected with the
mysql_select_db() function.
Note: When you create a database field of type varchar, you must specify the maximum length of the field,
e.g. varchar(15).
The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a complete reference of all the data
types available in MySQL, go to our complete Data Types reference.

Primary Keys and Auto Increment Fields

Each table should have a primary key field.
A primary key is used to uniquely identify the rows in a table. Each primary key value must be unique within
the table. Furthermore, the primary key field cannot be null because the database engine requires a value to
locate the record.
The following example sets the personID field as the primary key field. The primary key field is often an ID
number, and is often used with the AUTO_INCREMENT setting. AUTO_INCREMENT automatically increases
the value of the field by 1 each time a new record is added. To ensure that the primary key field cannot be
null, we must add the NOT NULL setting to the field.

Example
$sql = "CREATE TABLE Persons
(
personID int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY(personID),
FirstName varchar(15),
LastName varchar(15),
Age int
)";
mysql_query($sql,$con);

Insert Data Into a Database Table

The INSERT INTO statement is used to add new records to a database table.

Syntax
It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two forms.
The first form doesn't specify the column names where the data will be inserted, only their values:

INSERT INTO table_name

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)
The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be inserted:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3,...)

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)
To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.
To get PHP to execute the statements above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used
to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example
In the previous chapter we created a table named "Persons", with three columns; "Firstname", "Lastname"
and "Age". We will use the same table in this example. The following example adds two new records to the
"Persons" table:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);
mysql_query("INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)
VALUES ('Peter', 'Griffin', '35')");

mysql_query("INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)

VALUES ('Glenn', 'Quagmire', '33')");
mysql_close($con);
?>

Insert Data From a Form Into a Database

Now we will create an HTML form that can be used to add new records to the "Persons" table.
Here is the HTML form:

<html>
<body>
<form action="insert.php" method="post">
Firstname: <input type="text" name="firstname" />
Lastname: <input type="text" name="lastname" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
When a user clicks the submit button in the HTML form in the example above, the form data is sent to
"insert.php".
The "insert.php" file connects to a database, and retrieves the values from the form with the PHP $_POST
variables.
Then, the mysql_query() function executes the INSERT INTO statement, and a new record will be added to
the "Persons" table.
Here is the "insert.php" page:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);
$sql="INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)
VALUES
('$_POST[firstname]','$_POST[lastname]','$_POST[age]')";
if (!mysql_query($sql,$con))
{
die('Error: ' . mysql_error());

}
echo "1 record added";
mysql_close($con)
?>

Select Data From a Database Table

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.
To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to
send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example
The following example selects all the data stored in the "Persons" table (The * character selects all the data
in the table):

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM Persons");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo $row['FirstName'] . " " . $row['LastName'];
echo "<br />";
}
mysql_close($con);
?>
The example above stores the data returned by the mysql_query() function in the $result variable.
Next, we use the mysql_fetch_array() function to return the first row from the recordset as an array. Each
call to mysql_fetch_array() returns the next row in the recordset. The while loop loops through all the
records in the recordset. To print the value of each row, we use the PHP $row variable ($row['FirstName']
and $row['LastName']).
The output of the code above will be:

Peter Griffin
Glenn Quagmire

Display the Result in an HTML Table

The following example selects the same data as the example above, but will display the data in an HTML
table:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM Persons");
echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
</tr>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['LastName'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
mysql_close($con);
?>
The output of the code above will be:

Glenn
Peter

Firstname

Quagmire
Griffin

Lastname

The WHERE clause

The WHERE clause is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified criterion.

Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value

To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to
send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example
The following example selects all rows from the "Persons" table where "FirstName='Peter':

Peter Griffin

The ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the data in a recordset.
The ORDER BY keyword sort the records in ascending order by default.
If you want to sort the records in a descending order, you can use the DESC keyword.

Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name(s) ASC|DESC
To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

Example
The following example selects all the data stored in the "Persons" table, and sorts the result by the "Age"
column:

Glenn Quagmire 33
Peter Griffin 35

Order by Two Columns

It is also possible to order by more than one column. When ordering by more than one column, the second
column is only used if the values in the first column are equal:

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2

Update Data In a Database

The UPDATE statement is used to update existing records in a table.

Syntax
UPDATE table_name
SET column1=value, column2=value2,...
WHERE some_column=some_value
Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which record or records
that should be updated. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be updated!
To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.
To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to
send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example
Earlier in the tutorial we created a table named "Persons". Here is how it looks:
FirstName

LastName

Age

Peter

Griffin

Glenn

Quagmire

The following example updates some data in the "Persons" table:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);
mysql_query("UPDATE Persons SET Age = '36'
WHERE FirstName = 'Peter' AND LastName = 'Griffin'");
mysql_close($con);
?>
After the update, the "Persons" table will look like this:
FirstName

LastName

Age

Peter

Griffin

Glenn

Quagmire

Delete Data In a Database

The DELETE FROM statement is used to delete records from a database table.

Syntax
DELETE FROM table_name
WHERE some_column = some_value
Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which record or records
that should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be deleted!
To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.
To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to
send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example
Look at the following "Persons" table:

FirstName

LastName

Age

Peter

Griffin

Glenn

Quagmire

The following example deletes all the records in the "Persons" table where LastName='Griffin':

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);
mysql_query("DELETE FROM Persons WHERE LastName='Griffin'");
mysql_close($con);
?>
After the deletion, the table will look like this:
FirstName

LastName

Age

Glenn

Quagmire

Create an ODBC Connection

With an ODBC connection, you can connect to any database, on any computer in your network, as long as
an ODBC connection is available.
Here is how to create an ODBC connection to a MS Access Database:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Open the Administrative Tools icon in your Control Panel.

Double-click on the Data Sources (ODBC) icon inside.
Choose the System DSN tab.
Click on Add in the System DSN tab.
Select the Microsoft Access Driver. Click Finish.
In the next screen, click Select to locate the database.
Give the database a Data Source Name (DSN).
Click OK.

Note that this configuration has to be done on the computer where your web site is located. If you are
running Internet Information Server (IIS) on your own computer, the instructions above will work, but if
your web site is located on a remote server, you have to have physical access to that server, or ask your web
host to to set up a DSN for you to use.

Connecting to an ODBC
The odbc_connect() function is used to connect to an ODBC data source. The function takes four
parameters: the data source name, username, password, and an optional cursor type.

The odbc_exec() function is used to execute an SQL statement.

Example
The following example creates a connection to a DSN called northwind, with no username and no password.
It then creates an SQL and executes it:

$conn=odbc_connect('northwind','','');
$sql="SELECT * FROM customers";
$rs=odbc_exec($conn,$sql);

Retrieving Records
The odbc_fetch_row() function is used to return records from the result-set. This function returns true if it is
able to return rows, otherwise false.
The function takes two parameters: the ODBC result identifier and an optional row number:

odbc_fetch_row($rs)

Retrieving Fields from a Record

The odbc_result() function is used to read fields from a record. This function takes two parameters: the
ODBC result identifier and a field number or name.
The code line below returns the value of the first field from the record:

$compname=odbc_result($rs,1);
The code line below returns the value of a field called "CompanyName":

$compname=odbc_result($rs,"CompanyName");

Closing an ODBC Connection

The odbc_close() function is used to close an ODBC connection.

odbc_close($conn);

An ODBC Example
The following example shows how to first create a database connection, then a result-set, and then display
the data in an HTML table.

<html>
<body>
<?php
$conn=odbc_connect('northwind','','');
if (!$conn)
{exit("Connection Failed: " . $conn);}
$sql="SELECT * FROM customers";
$rs=odbc_exec($conn,$sql);
if (!$rs)
{exit("Error in SQL");}
echo "<table><tr>";
echo "<th>Companyname</th>";
echo "<th>Contactname</th></tr>";
while (odbc_fetch_row($rs))
{
$compname=odbc_result($rs,"CompanyName");
$conname=odbc_result($rs,"ContactName");
echo "<tr><td>$compname</td>";
echo "<td>$conname</td></tr>";
}
odbc_close($conn);
echo "</table>";
?>
</body>
</html>

What is XML?
XML is used to describe data and to focus on what data is. An XML file describes the structure of the data.
In XML, no tags are predefined. You must define your own tags.
If you want to learn more about XML, please visit our XML tutorial.

What is Expat?
To read and update - create and manipulate - an XML document, you will need an XML parser.
There are two basic types of XML parsers:

Tree-based parser: This parser transforms an XML document into a tree structure. It analyzes the
whole document, and provides access to the tree elements. e.g. the Document Object Model (DOM)
Event-based parser: Views an XML document as a series of events. When a specific event occurs, it
calls a function to handle it

The Expat parser is an event-based parser.

Event-based parsers focus on the content of the XML documents, not their structure. Because of this, eventbased parsers can access data faster than tree-based parsers.
Look at the following XML fraction:

<from>Jani</from>
An event-based parser reports the XML above as a series of three events:

Start element: from

Start CDATA section, value: Jani
Close element: from

The XML example above contains well-formed XML. However, the example is not valid XML, because there is
no Document Type Definition (DTD) associated with it.
However, this makes no difference when using the Expat parser. Expat is a non-validating parser, and
ignores any DTDs.
As an event-based, non-validating XML parser, Expat is fast and small, and a perfect match for PHP web
applications.
Note: XML documents must be well-formed or Expat will generate an error.

Installation
The XML Expat parser functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these
functions.

An XML File
The XML file below will be used in our example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Initializing the XML Parser

We want to initialize the XML parser in PHP, define some handlers for different XML events, and then parse
the XML file.

Example
<?php
//Initialize the XML parser
$parser=xml_parser_create();
//Function to use at the start of an element

-- Note -To: Tove

From: Jani
Heading: Reminder
Message: Don't forget me this weekend!
How it works:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Initialize the XML parser with the xml_parser_create() function

Create functions to use with the different event handlers
Add the xml_set_element_handler() function to specify which function will be executed when the
parser encounters the opening and closing tags
Add the xml_set_character_data_handler() function to specify which function will execute when the
parser encounters character data
Parse the file "test.xml" with the xml_parse() function
In case of an error, add xml_error_string() function to convert an XML error to a textual description
Call the xml_parser_free() function to release the memory allocated with the xml_parser_create()
function

More PHP Expat Parser

For more information about the PHP Expat functions, visit our PHP XML Parser Reference.

What is DOM?
The W3C DOM provides a standard set of objects for HTML and XML documents, and a standard interface for
accessing and manipulating them.
The W3C DOM is separated into different parts (Core, XML, and HTML) and different levels (DOM Level
1/2/3):
* Core DOM - defines a standard set of objects for any structured document
* XML DOM - defines a standard set of objects for XML documents
* HTML DOM - defines a standard set of objects for HTML documents
If you want to learn more about the XML DOM, please visit our XML DOM tutorial.

XML Parsing
To read and update - create and manipulate - an XML document, you will need an XML parser.
There are two basic types of XML parsers:

Tree-based parser: This parser transforms an XML document into a tree structure. It analyzes the
whole document, and provides access to the tree elements
Event-based parser: Views an XML document as a series of events. When a specific event occurs, it
calls a function to handle it

The DOM parser is an tree-based parser.

Look at the following XML document fraction:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<from>Jani</from>
The XML DOM sees the XML above as a tree structure:

Level 1: XML Document

Level 2: Root element: <from>
Level 3: Text element: "Jani"

Installation
The DOM XML parser functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these
functions.

An XML File
The XML file below will be used in our example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Load and Output XML

We want to initialize the XML parser, load the xml, and output it:

Example
<?php
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("note.xml");
print $xmlDoc->saveXML();
?>
The output of the code above will be:

Tove Jani Reminder Don't forget me this weekend!

If you select "View source" in the browser window, you will see the following HTML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
The example above creates a DOMDocument-Object and loads the XML from "note.xml" into it.
Then the saveXML() function to puts the internal XML document into a string, so we can output it.

Looping through XML

We want to initialize the XML parser, load the XML, and loop through all elements of the <note> element:

Example
<?php
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("note.xml");
$x = $xmlDoc->documentElement;
foreach ($x->childNodes AS $item)
{
print $item->nodeName . " = " . $item->nodeValue . "<br />";
}
?>
The output of the code above will be:

#text =
to = Tove
#text =
from = Jani
#text =
heading = Reminder
#text =
body = Don't forget me this weekend!
#text =
In the example above you see that there are empty text nodes between each element.
When XML generates, it often contains white-spaces between the nodes. The XML DOM parser treats these
as ordinary elements, and if you are not aware of them, they sometimes cause problems.

If you want to learn more about the XML DOM, please visit our XML DOM tutorial

What is SimpleXML?

SimpleXML is new in PHP 5. It is an easy way of getting an element's attributes and text, if you know the
XML document's layout.

Compared to DOM or the Expat parser, SimpleXML just takes a few lines of code to read text data from an
element.
SimpleXML converts the XML document into an object, like this:

Elements - Are converted to single attributes of the SimpleXMLElement object. When there's more
than one element on one level, they're placed inside an array

Attributes - Are accessed using associative arrays, where an index corresponds to the attribute
name

Element Data - Text data from elements are converted to strings. If an element has more than one
text node, they will be arranged in the order they are found
SimpleXML is fast and easy to use when performing basic tasks like:

Reading XML files

Extracting data from XML strings

Editing text nodes or attributes

However, when dealing with advanced XML, like namespaces, you are better off using the Expat parser or
the XML DOM.

Installation
As of PHP 5.0, the SimpleXML functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use
these functions.

Using SimpleXML
Below is an XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
We want to output the element names and data from the XML file above.
Here's what to do:
1. Load the XML file
2. Get the name of the first element
3. Create a loop that will trigger on each child node, using the children() function
4. Output the element name and data for each child node
Example

<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_file("test.xml");
echo $xml->getName() . "<br />";
foreach($xml->children() as $child)
{
echo $child->getName() . ": " . $child . "<br />";
}
?>
The output of the code above will be:

note
to: Tove
from: Jani
heading: Reminder
body: Don't forget me this weekend!

More PHP SimpleXML

For more iAJAX = Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

AJAX is not a new programming language, but a new technique for creating better, faster, and more
interactive web applications.
With AJAX, a JavaScript can communicate directly with the server, with the XMLHttpRequest object. With
this object, a JavaScript can trade data with a web server, without reloading the page.
AJAX uses asynchronous data transfer (HTTP requests) between the browser and the web server, allowing
web pages to request small bits of information from the server instead of whole pages.
The AJAX technique makes Internet applications smaller, faster and more user-friendly.

AJAX is based on Internet standards

AJAX is based on the following web standards:

JavaScript

XML

HTML

CSS
AJAX applications are browser- and platform-independent.

AJAX is about better Internet-applications

Internet-applications have many benefits over desktop applications; they can reach a larger audience, they
are easier to install and support, and easier to develop.
However, Internet-applications are not always as "rich" and user-friendly as traditional desktop applications.
With AJAX, Internet applications can be made richer and more user-friendly.

Start using AJAX today

There is nothing new to learn.
AJAX is based on existing standards. These standards have been used by developers for several years.

PHP and AJAX

There is no such thing as an AJAX server. AJAX runs in your browser. AJAX uses HTTP requests to request
small pieces of information from the server, instead of whole pages.
In our PHP tutorial we will demonstrate how a web page can communicate with a PHP web server online.
nformation about the PHP SimpleXML functions, visit our PHP SimpleXML Reference.

AJAX uses the XMLHttpRequest object

To get or send information from/to a database or a file on the server with traditional JavaScript, you will
have to make an HTML form, and a user will have to click the "Submit" button to send/get the information,
wait for the server to respond, then a new page will load with the results. Because the server returns a new
page each time the user submits input, traditional web applications can run slowly and tend to be less userfriendly.
With AJAX, your JavaScript communicates directly with the server, through the JavaScript XMLHttpRequest
object.
With the XMLHttpRequest object, a web page can make a request to, and get a response from a web server
- without reloading the page. The user will stay on the same page, and he or she will not notice that scripts
request pages, or send data to a server in the background.
The XMLHttpRequest object is supported in all major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera,
and Safari).

AJAX - Browser support

All new browsers use the built-in JavaScript XMLHttpRequest object to create an XMLHttpRequest object
(IE5 and IE6 uses an ActiveXObject).
The JavaScript code for creating an XMLHttpRequest object:

if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
}
if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
// code for IE6, IE5

return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");

}
The next chapter shows how to use the XMLHttpRequest object to communicate with a PHP server.

More about the XMLHttpRequest object

If you want to read more about the XMLHttpRequest, visit our AJAX tutorial.

AJAX Suggest example

The following AJAX example will demonstrate how a web page can communicate with a web server while a
user enters data into an HTML form.
Type a name in the input field below:
First name:

Suggestions:

Example explained - The HTML page

The HTML page contains a link to an external JavaScript, a simple HTML form, and a span element:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="clienthint.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
First Name: <input type="text" id="txt1" onkeyup="showHint(this.value)" />
</form>
<p>Suggestions: <span id="txtHint"></span></p>
</body>
</html>
The HTML form above has an input field called "txt1". An event attribute for this field defines a function to
be triggered by the onkeyup event.
The paragraph below the form contains a span called "txtHint". The span is used as a placeholder for data
retrieved from the web server.
When a user inputs data, the function called "showHint()" is executed. The execution of the function is
triggered by the "onkeyup" event. In other words: Each time a user moves the finger away from a keyboard
key inside the input field, the function showHint is called.

Example explained - The JavaScript code

This is the JavaScript code, stored in the file "clienthint.js":

var xmlhttp
function showHint(str)
{
if (str.length==0)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML="";
return;
}
xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlhttp==null)
{
alert ("Your browser does not support XMLHTTP!");
return;
}
var url="gethint.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
}
if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
// code for IE6, IE5
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return null;
}

The showHint() function

The showHint() function above is executed every time a character is entered in the "txt1" input field.
If there is input in the input field (str.length > 0), the showHint() function executes the following:

Calls the GetXmlHttpObject() function to create an XMLHTTP object

Defines the URL (filename) to send to the server
Adds a parameter (q) to the URL with the content of the input field
Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file

Each time the readyState property changes, the stateChanged() function will be executed
Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given URL
Sends an HTTP request to the server

If the input field is empty, the function simply clears the content of the txtHint placeholder.

The GetXmlHttpObject() function

The showHint() function above calls a function named GetXmlHttpObject().
The purpose of the GetXmlHttpObject() function is to solve the problem of creating different XMLHTTP
objects for different browsers.

The stateChanged() function

The stateChanged() function executes every time the state of the XMLHTTP object changes.
When the state changes to 4 ("complete"), the content of the txtHint placeholder is filled with the response
text.

Example explained - The PHP page

The code in the "gethint.php" checks an array of names and returns the corresponding names to the client:

<?php
// Fill up array with names
$a[]="Anna";
$a[]="Brittany";
$a[]="Cinderella";
$a[]="Diana";
$a[]="Eva";
$a[]="Fiona";
$a[]="Gunda";
$a[]="Hege";
$a[]="Inga";
$a[]="Johanna";
$a[]="Kitty";
$a[]="Linda";
$a[]="Nina";
$a[]="Ophelia";
$a[]="Petunia";
$a[]="Amanda";
$a[]="Raquel";
$a[]="Cindy";
$a[]="Doris";
$a[]="Eve";
$a[]="Evita";
$a[]="Sunniva";
$a[]="Tove";
$a[]="Unni";
$a[]="Violet";
$a[]="Liza";
$a[]="Elizabeth";

$a[]="Ellen";
$a[]="Wenche";
$a[]="Vicky";
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];
//lookup all hints from array if length of q>0
if (strlen($q) > 0)
{
$hint="";
for($i=0; $i<count($a); $i++)
{
if (strtolower($q)==strtolower(substr($a[$i],0,strlen($q))))
{
if ($hint=="")
{
$hint=$a[$i];
}
else
{
$hint=$hint." , ".$a[$i];
}
}
}
}
// Set output to "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or to the correct values
if ($hint == "")
{
$response="no suggestion";
}
else
{
$response=$hint;
}
//output the response
echo $response;
?>
If there is any text sent from the JavaScript (strlen($q) > 0), the following happens:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Find a name matching the characters sent from the JavaScript

If no match were found, set the response string to "no suggestion"
If one or more matching names were found, set the response string to all these names
The response is sent to the "txtHint" placeholder

AJAX XML example

The following example will demonstrate how a web page can fetch information from an XML file with AJAX
technology.
Select a CD:
Bob Dylan
CD info will be listed here...

Example explained - The HTML page

The HTML page contains a link to an external JavaScript, an HTML form, and a div element:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="selectcd.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
Select a CD:
<select name="cds" onchange="showCD(this.value)">
<option value="Bob Dylan">Bob Dylan</option>
<option value="Bonnie Tyler">Bonnie Tyler</option>
<option value="Dolly Parton">Dolly Parton</option>
</select>
</form>
<div id="txtHint"><b>CD info will be listed here...</b></div>
</body>
</html>
As you can see it is just a simple HTML form with a simple drop down box called "cds".
The <div> below the form will be used as a placeholder for info retrieved from the web server.
When the user selects data, a function called "showCD" is executed. The execution of the function is
triggered by the "onchange" event. In other words: Each time the user change the value in the drop down
box, the function showCD is called.

Example explained - The JavaScript code

This is the JavaScript code stored in the file "selectcd.js":

var xmlhttp
function showCD(str)
{
xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlhttp==null)
{
alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!");
return;
}
var url="getcd.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)

{
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
}
if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
// code for IE6, IE5
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return null;
}
The stateChanged() and GetXmlHttpObject functions are the same as in the PHP AJAX Suggest chapter, you
can go to there for an explanation of those.
The showCD() Function
When a CD in the drop-down box is selected, the showCD() function executes the following:
1. Calls the GetXmlHttpObject() function to create an XMLHTTP object
2. Defines an URL (filename) to send to the server
3. Adds a parameter (q) to the URL with the content of the drop-down box
4. Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
5. Each time the readyState property changes, the stateChanged() function will be executed
6. Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given URL
7. Sends an HTTP request to the server

Example explained - The PHP Page

The server paged called by the JavaScript, is a PHP file called "getcd.php".
The PHP script loads an XML document, "cd_catalog.xml", runs a query against the XML file, and returns the
result as HTML:

<?php
$q=$_GET["q"];
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("cd_catalog.xml");
$x=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('ARTIST');
for ($i=0; $i<=$x->length-1; $i++)
{
//Process only element nodes
if ($x->item($i)->nodeType==1)
{
if ($x->item($i)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue == $q)
{
$y=($x->item($i)->parentNode);
}
}
}
$cd=($y->childNodes);
for ($i=0;$i<$cd->length;$i++)
{
//Process only element nodes
if ($cd->item($i)->nodeType==1)
{
echo($cd->item($i)->nodeName);
echo(": ");
echo($cd->item($i)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue);
echo("<br />");

}
}
?>
When the CD query is sent from the JavaScript to the PHP page, the following happens:
1. PHP creates an XML DOM object
2. Find all <artist> elements that matches the name sent from the JavaScript
3. Output the album information (send to the "txtHint" placeholder)

AJAX database example

The following example will demonstrate how a web page can fetch information from a database with AJAX
technology.
Select a person:
Peter Griffin
Person info will be listed here.

Example explained - The MySQL Database

The database table we use in this example looks like this:
id Firs Las Ag Ho Job
tNa tNa e me
me me
to
wn
1

Peter

Griffin

Quahog

Brewery

Lois

Griffin

Newport

Piano Teacher

Joseph

Swanson

Quahog

Police Officer

Glenn

Quagmire

Quahog

Pilot

Example explained - The HTML page

The HTML page contains a link to an external JavaScript, an HTML form, and a div element:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="selectuser.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
Select a User:
<select name="users" onchange="showUser(this.value)">
<option value="1">Peter Griffin</option>
<option value="2">Lois Griffin</option>
<option value="3">Glenn Quagmire</option>
<option value="4">Joseph Swanson</option>
</select>
</form>
<br />
<div id="txtHint"><b>Person info will be listed here.</b></div>
</body>
</html>
As you can see it is just a simple HTML form with a drop down box called "customers".
The <div> below the form will be used as a placeholder for info retrieved from the web server.
When the user selects data, a function called "showUser()" is executed. The execution of the function is
triggered by the "onchange" event. In other words: Each time the user change the value in the drop down
box, the function showUser() is called.

Example explained - The JavaScript code

This is the JavaScript code stored in the file "selectuser.js":

var xmlhttp;
function showUser(str)
{
xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlhttp==null)
{
alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request");
return;
}
var url="getuser.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
}
if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
// code for IE6, IE5
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return null;
}
The stateChanged() and GetXmlHttpObject functions are the same as in the PHP AJAX Suggest chapter, you
can go to there for an explanation of those.
The showUser() Function
When a person in the drop-down box is selected, the showUser() function executes the following:
1. Calls the GetXmlHttpObject() function to create an XMLHTTP object
2. Defines an URL (filename) to send to the server
3. Adds a parameter (q) to the URL with the content of the drop-down box
4. Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
5. Each time the readyState property changes, the stateChanged() function will be executed
6. Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given URL
7. Sends an HTTP request to the server

Example explained - The PHP Page

The PHP page called by the JavaScript, is called "getuser.php".
The PHP script runs an SQL query against a MySQL database, and returns the result as HTML:

<?php
$q=$_GET["q"];
$con = mysql_connect('localhost', 'peter', 'abc123');
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("ajax_demo", $con);
$sql="SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = '".$q."'";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Hometown</th>
<th>Job</th>
</tr>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['LastName'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['Age'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['Hometown'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['Job'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
mysql_close($con);
?>
When the query is sent from the JavaScript to the PHP page, the following happens:
1. PHP opens a connection to a MySQL server
2. The correct person is found
3. An HTML table is created, and filled with data, and sent back to the "txtHint" placeholder

AJAX ResponseXML example

The ResponseXML property returns an XML document object, which can be examined and parsed using the
DOM.
The following example will demonstrate how a web page can fetch information from a database with AJAX
technology. The selected data from the database will this time be converted to an XML document, and then
we will use the DOM to extract the values to be displayed.
This example might look equal to the "PHP AJAX and MySQL" example in the previous chapter. However,
there is a big difference: this time we get the data from the PHP page as XML, with the responseXML
function.
Receiving the response as an XML document allows us to update this page several places, instead of just
receiving an HTML output, and displaying it.
In this example we will update several <span> elements with the information we receive from the database.
Select a User:
Peter Griffin

Example explained - The MySQL Database

The database table we use in this example looks like this:
id

FirstName

LastName

Age Hometown

Job

Lois

Griffin

Newport Piano Teacher

Joseph

Swanson

Quahog Police Officer

Glenn

Quagmire 41

Peter

Griffin

41 Quahog

Brewery

Quahog Pilot

Example explained - The HTML page

The HTML page contains a link to an external JavaScript, an HTML form, and several <span> elements:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="responsexml.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
Select a User:
<select name="users" onchange="showUser(this.value)">
<option value="1">Peter Griffin</option>
<option value="2">Lois Griffin</option>
<option value="3">Glenn Quagmire</option>
<option value="4">Joseph Swanson</option>
</select>
</form>
<h2><span id="firstname"></span> <span id="lastname"></span></h2>
<span id="job"></span>
<div style="text-align: right">
<span id="age_text"></span>
<span id="age"></span>
<span id="hometown_text"></span>
<span id="hometown"></span>
</div>
</body>
</html>

The HTML form contains a drop-down box called "users", with id and names from the database
table, as options

The <span> elements are placeholders for the values we will receive

When a user is selected, a function called "showUser()" is executed (triggered by the "onchange"
event)
In other words: Each time a user changes the value in the drop-down box, the function showUser() is
called, and outputs the result in the <span> elements.

Example explained - The JavaScript code

This is the JavaScript code stored in the file "responsexml.js":

var xmlhttp;
function showUser(str)
{
xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlhttp==null)
{

alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request");

return;
}
var url="responsexml.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
xmlDoc=xmlhttp.responseXML;
document.getElementById("firstname").innerHTML=
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("firstname")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("lastname").innerHTML=
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("lastname")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("job").innerHTML=
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("job")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("age_text").innerHTML="Age: ";
document.getElementById("age").innerHTML=
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("age")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("hometown_text").innerHTML="<br/>From: ";
document.getElementById("hometown").innerHTML=
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("hometown")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
}
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
}
if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
// code for IE6, IE5
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return null;
}
The showUser() and GetXmlHttpObject functions are the same as in the PHP AJAX and MySQL chapter, you
can go to there for an explanation of those.
The stateChanged() Function
When an option in the drop-down box is selected, the function executes the following:
1. Sets xmlDoc variable as an XML document, using the responseXML function
2. Retrieves data from the XML document, and place it in the correct <span> element

Example explained - The PHP Page

The PHP page called by the JavaScript, is called "responsexml.php".

The PHP script runs an SQL query against a MySQL database, and returns the result an XML document:

<?php
$q=$_GET["q"];

$con = mysql_connect('localhost', 'peter', 'abc123');

if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("ajax_demo", $con);
$sql="SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = ".$q."";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<person>';
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<firstname>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</firstname>";
echo "<lastname>" . $row['LastName'] . "</lastname>";
echo "<age>" . $row['Age'] . "</age>";
echo "<hometown>" . $row['Hometown'] . "</hometown>";
echo "<job>" . $row['Job'] . "</job>";
}
echo "</person>";
mysql_close($con);
?>
When the query is sent from the JavaScript to the PHP page, the following happens:
1. Set the $q variable to the data sent in the q parameter
2. Open a connection to a MySQL server
3. The "user" with the specified id is found
TAJAX Live Search
In this example we will demonstrate a live search, where you get search results while you type.
Live search has many benefits compared to traditional searching:

Results are shown as you type

Results narrow as you continue typing

If results become too narrow, remove characters to see a broader result

Search for a W3Schools page in the input field below:
In the example above, the results are found in an XML document (links.xml). To make this example small
and simple, only eight results are available.

Example Explained - The HTML page

The HTML page contains a link to an external JavaScript, some style definitions, an HTML form, and a div
element:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="livesearch.js"></script>
<style type="text/css">
#livesearch
{
margin:0px;
width:194px;
}
#txt1
{
margin:0px;
}

</style>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input type="text" id="txt1" size="30" onkeyup="showResult(this.value)" />
<div id="livesearch"></div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
The HTML form works like this:
1. An event is triggered when the user presses, and releases a key in the input field
2. When the event is triggered, the function showResult() is executed
3. The <div id="livesearch"> is a placeholder for the data returned from the showResult() function

Example Explained - The JavaScript code

This is the JavaScript code stored in the file "livesearch.js":

var xmlhttp;
function showResult(str)
{
if (str.length==0)
{
document.getElementById("livesearch").innerHTML="";
document.getElementById("livesearch").style.border="0px";
return;
}
xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject()
if (xmlhttp==null)
{
alert ("Your browser does not support XML HTTP Request");
return;
}
var url="livesearch.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged ;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("livesearch").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
document.getElementById("livesearch").style.border="1px solid #A5ACB2";
}
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
}

if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
// code for IE6, IE5
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return null;
}
The GetXmlHttpObject() function is the same as in the PHP AJAX Suggest chapter.
The showResult() Function
This function executes every time a character is entered in the input field. If there is no input in the text
field (str.length == 0), the function sets the return field to empty and removes the border around it.
However, if there is any input in the text field, the function executes the following:
1. Calls the GetXmlHttpObject() function to create an XMLHTTP object
2. Defines the URL (filename) to send to the server
3. Adds a parameter (q) to the URL with the content of the input field
4. Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
5. Each time the readyState property changes, the stateChanged() function will be executed
6. Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given URL
7. Sends an HTTP request to the server
The stateChanged() Function
This function executes every time the state of the XMLHTTP object changes. When the state changes to 4
("complete"), the content of the txtHint placeholder is filled with the response text, and a border is set
around the field.

Example Explained - The PHP page

The PHP page called by the JavaScript code is called "livesearch.php".

The code searches an XML file for titles matching the search string and returns the result as HTML:

<?php
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("links.xml");
$x=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('link');
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];
//lookup all links from the xml file if length of q>0
if (strlen($q) > 0)
{
$hint="";
for($i=0; $i<($x->length); $i++)
{
$y=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('title');
$z=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('url');
if ($y->item(0)->nodeType==1)
{
//find a link matching the search text
if (stristr($y->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue,$q))
{
if ($hint=="")
{
$hint="<a href='" .
$z->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue .
"' target='_blank'>" .
$y->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue . "</a>";
}
else
{

$hint=$hint . "<br /><a href='" .

$z->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue .
"' target='_blank'>" .
$y->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue . "</a>";
}
}
}
}
}
// Set output to "no suggestion" if no hint were found
// or to the correct values
if ($hint == "")
{
$response="no suggestion";
}
else
{
$response=$hint;
}
//output the response
echo $response;
?>
If there
1.
2.
3.

is any text sent from the JavaScript (strlen($q) > 0), the following happens:
PHP creates an XML DOM object of the "links.xml" file
Loops through all <title> elements to find titles that match the text sent from the JavaScript
Sets the correct link and title in the "$response" variable. If more than one match is found, all
matches are added to the variable
4. If no matches are found, the $response variable is set to "no suggestion"
5. Output the $respone variable to the "livesearch" placeholder
4.

he data is outputted as an XML document

AJAX RSS Reader

In this example we will demonstrate an RSS reader, where the content from the RSS is loaded into a
webpage without refreshing.
Select an RSS-feed:
Google New s
RSS-feed will be listed here...

Example Explained - The HTML page

The HTML page contains a link to an external JavaScript, an HTML form, and a div element:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="getrss.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
Select an RSS-feed:
<select onchange="showRSS(this.value)">
<option value="Google">Google News</option>
<option value="MSNBC">MSNBC News</option>

</select>
</form>
<p><div id="rssOutput">
<b>RSS-feed will be listed here...</b></div></p>
</body>
</html>
The HTML form works like this:
1. An event is triggered when a user selects an option in the drop-down box
2. When the event is triggered, the function showRSS() is executed
3. The <div id="rssOutput"> is a placeholder for the data returned from the showRSS() function

Example Explained - The JavaScript code

This is the JavaScript code stored in the file "getrss.js":

var xmlhttp;
function showRSS(str)
{
xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlhttp==null)
{
alert ("Your browser does not support XML HTTP Request");
return;
}
var url="getrss.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("rssOutput").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{
// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
return new XMLHttpRequest();
}
if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
// code for IE6, IE5
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return null;
}
The stateChanged() and GetXmlHttpObject functions are the same as in the PHP AJAX Suggest chapter.
The showRSS() Function
Every time an option is selected in the input field, this function executes the following:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Calls the GetXmlHttpObject() function to create an XMLHTTP object

Defines the URL (filename) to send to the server
Adds a parameter (q) to the URL with the selected option from the drop-down list
Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
Each time the readyState property changes, the stateChanged() function will be executed
Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given URL
Sends an HTTP request to the server

Example Explained - The PHP page

The PHP page called by the JavaScript code is called "getrss.php":

<?php
//get the q parameter from URL
$q=$_GET["q"];
//find out which feed was selected
if($q=="Google")
{
$xml=("http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&topic=h&output=rss");
}
elseif($q=="MSNBC")
{
$xml=("http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032091/device/rss/rss.xml");
}
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load($xml);
//get elements from "<channel>"
$channel=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('channel')->item(0);
$channel_title = $channel->getElementsByTagName('title')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
$channel_link = $channel->getElementsByTagName('link')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
$channel_desc = $channel->getElementsByTagName('description')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
//output elements from "<channel>"
echo("<p><a href='" . $channel_link
. "'>" . $channel_title . "</a>");
echo("<br />");
echo($channel_desc . "</p>");
//get and output "<item>" elements
$x=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('item');
for ($i=0; $i<=2; $i++)
{
$item_title=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('title')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
$item_link=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('link')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
$item_desc=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('description')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
echo ("<p><a href='" . $item_link
. "'>" . $item_title . "</a>");
echo ("<br />");
echo ($item_desc . "</p>");
}
?>

When an option is sent from the JavaScript, the following happens:

1. PHP finds out which RSS feed was selected
2. An XML DOM object is created for the selected RSS feed
3. The elements from the RSS channel are found and outputted
4. Loops through the first three elements and output result

AJAX Poll
This example will demonstrate a poll where a web page can get results without reloading.

Do you like PHP and AJAX so far?

Yes:
No:

Example Explained - The HTML page

The HTML page contains a link to an external JavaScript, an HTML form, and a div element:

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="poll.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="poll">
<h3>Do you like PHP and AJAX so far?</h3>
<form>
Yes:
<input type="radio" name="vote" value="0" onclick="getVote(this.value)" />
<br />No:
<input type="radio" name="vote" value="1" onclick="getVote(this.value)" />
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>
The HTML form works like this:
1.
2.
3.

An event is triggered when the user selects the "yes" or "no" option
When the event is triggered, the function getVote() is executed
The data returned from the getVote() function will replace the form, in the <div> tag

Example Explained - The JavaScript code

This is the JavaScript code stored in the file "poll.js":

var xmlhttp;
function getVote(int)
{

xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlhttp==null)
{
alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request");
return;
}
var url="poll_vote.php";
url=url+"?vote="+int;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged;
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
function stateChanged()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById("poll").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
var objXMLHttp=null;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{
objXMLHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
objXMLHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
return objXMLHttp;
}
The stateChanged() and GetXmlHttpObject functions are the same as in the PHP AJAX Suggest chapter.
The getVote() Function
This function executes when "yes" or "no" is selected in the HTML form.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Calls the GetXmlHttpObject() function to create an XMLHTTP object

Defines the URL (filename) to send to the server
Adds a parameter (vote) to the URL with the content of the input field
Adds a random number to prevent the server from using a cached file
Each time the readyState property changes, the stateChanged() function will be executed
Opens the XMLHTTP object with the given url.
Sends an HTTP request to the server

The PHP Page

The server page called by the JavaScript code is a simple PHP file called "poll_vote.php".

<?php
$vote = $_REQUEST['vote'];

//get content of textfile

$filename = "poll_result.txt";
$content = file($filename);
//put content in array
$array = explode("||", $content[0]);
$yes = $array[0];
$no = $array[1];
if ($vote == 0)
{
$yes = $yes + 1;
}
if ($vote == 1)
{
$no = $no + 1;
}
//insert votes to txt file
$insertvote = $yes."||".$no;
$fp = fopen($filename,"w");
fputs($fp,$insertvote);
fclose($fp);
?>
<h2>Result:</h2>
<table>
<tr>
<td>Yes:</td>
<td>
<img src="poll.gif"
width='<?php echo(100*round($yes/($no+$yes),2)); ?>'
height='20'>
<?php echo(100*round($yes/($no+$yes),2)); ?>%
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>No:</td>
<td>
<img src="poll.gif"
width='<?php echo(100*round($no/($no+$yes),2)); ?>'
height='20'>
<?php echo(100*round($no/($no+$yes),2)); ?>%
</td>
</tr>
</table>
The selected value is sent from the JavaScript and the following happens:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Get the content of the "poll_result.txt" file

Put the content of the file in variables and add one to the selected variable
Write the result to the "poll_result.txt" file
Output a graphical representation of the poll result

The Text File

The text file (poll_result.txt) is where we store the data from the poll.
It is stored like this:

0||0
Description

PH
P

array()

Creates an array

array_change_key_case()

Returns an array with all keys in lowercase or

uppercase

array_chunk()

Splits an array into chunks of arrays

array_combine()

Creates an array by using one array for keys and

another for its values

array_count_values()

Returns an array with the number of occurrences for

each value

array_diff()

Compares array values, and returns the differences

array_diff_assoc()

Compares array keys and values, and returns the

differences

array_diff_key()

Compares array keys, and returns the differences

array_diff_uassoc()

Compares array keys and values, with an additional

user-made function check, and returns the differences

array_diff_ukey()

Compares array keys, with an additional user-made

function check, and returns the differences

array_fill()

Fills an array with values

array_filter()

Filters elements of an array using a user-made

The first number represents the "Yes" votes,

the second number represents the "No"
votes.
Note: Remember to allow your web server to
edit the text file. Do NOT give everyone
access, just the web server (PHP).

PHP Array Introduction

The array functions allow you to manipulate

arrays.
PHP supports both simple and multidimensional arrays. There are also specific
functions for populating arrays from database
queries.

Installation
The array functions are part of the PHP core.
There is no installation needed to use these
functions.

PHP Array Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP
that supports the function.
Function

function
array_flip()

Exchanges all keys with their associated values in an

array

array_intersect()

Compares array values, and returns the matches

array_intersect_assoc()

Compares array keys and values, and returns the

matches

array_intersect_key()

Compares array keys, and returns the matches

array_intersect_uassoc()

Compares array keys and values, with an additional

user-made function check, and returns the matches

array_intersect_ukey()

Compares array keys, with an additional user-made

function check, and returns the matches

array_key_exists()

Checks if the specified key exists in the array

array_keys()

Returns all the keys of an array

array_map()

Sends each value of an array to a user-made function,

which returns new values

array_merge()

Merges one or more arrays into one array

array_merge_recursive()

Merges one or more arrays into one array

array_pad()

Inserts a specified number of items, with a specified

value, to an array

array_pop()

Deletes the last element of an array

array_product()

Calculates the product of the values in an array

array_push()

Inserts one or more elements to the end of an array

array_rand()

Returns one or more random keys from an array

array_reduce()

Returns an array as a string, using a user-defined

function

array_reverse()

Returns an array in the reverse order

array_search()

Searches an array for a given value and returns the

key

array_shift()

Removes the first element from an array, and returns

the value of the removed element

array_slice()

Returns selected parts of an array

array_splice()

Removes and replaces specified elements of an array

array_sum()

Returns the sum of the values in an array

array_udiff()

Compares array values in a user-made function and

returns an array

array_udiff_assoc()

Compares array keys, and compares array values in a

user-made function, and returns an array

array_udiff_uassoc()

Compares array keys and array values in user-made

functions, and returns an array

array_uintersect()

Compares array values in a user-made function and

returns an array

array_uintersect_assoc()

Compares array keys, and compares array values in a

user-made function, and returns an array

array_multisort( Sorts
4
)
multiple or
multidimensiona
l arrays

array_uintersect_uassoc()

Compares array keys and array values in user-made

functions, and returns an array

array_unique()

Removes duplicate values from an array

array_unshift()

Adds one or more elements to the beginning of an

array

array_values()

Returns all the values of an array

array_walk()

Applies a user function to every member of an array

array_walk_recursive()

Applies a user function recursively to every member of 5

an array

arsort()

Sorts an array in reverse order and maintain index

association

asort()

Sorts an array and maintain index association

compact()

Create array containing variables and their values

count()

Counts elements in an array, or properties in an object 3

current()

Returns the current element in an array

each()

Returns the current key and value pair from an array

end()

Sets the internal pointer of an array to its last element 3

extract()

Imports variables into the current symbol table from

an array

in_array()

Checks if a specified value exists in an array

key()

Fetches a key from an array

krsort()

Sorts an array by key in reverse order

ksort()

Sorts an array by key

list()

Assigns variables as if they were an array

natcasesort()

Sorts an array using a case insensitive "natural order"

algorithm

natsort()

Sorts an array 4
using a
"natural order"
algorithm

next()

Advance the 3
internal array
pointer of an
array

pos()

Alias of
current()

prev()

Rewinds the
3
internal array
pointer

range()

Creates an
array
containing a
range of
elements

reset()

Sets the
internal
pointer of an
array to its
first element

rsort()

Sorts an
3
array in
reverse order

shuffle()

Shuffles an
array

sizeof()

Alias of
count()

sort()

Sorts an array

uasort()

Sorts an array with a user-defined function and maintain index

association

uksort()

Sorts an array by keys using a user-defined function

usort()

Sorts an array by values using a user-defined function

PHP Array Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

CASE_LOWER

Used with array_change_key_case() to convert array keys to lower

case

CASE_UPPER

Used with array_change_key_case() to convert array keys to upper

case

SORT_ASC

Used with array_multisort() to sort in ascending order

SORT_DESC

Used with array_multisort() to sort in descending order

SORT_REGULAR

Used to compare items normally

SORT_NUMERIC

Used to compare items numerically

SORT_STRING

Used to compare items as strings

SORT_LOCALE_STRING

Used to compare items as strings, based on the current locale

PH
P

COUNT_NORMAL
COUNT_RECURSIVE
EXTR_OVERWRITE
EXTR_SKIP
EXTR_PREFIX_SAME
EXTR_PREFIX_ALL
EXTR_PREFIX_INVALID
EXTR_PREFIX_IF_EXISTS
EXTR_IF_EXISTS
EXTR_REFS

PHP Calendar Introduction

The calendar functions are useful when working with different calendar formats. The standard it is based on
is the Julian day count (Julian day count is a count of days starting from January 1, 4713 B.C.). Note that
the Julian day count is not the same as the Julian calendar!
Note: To convert between calendar formats, you must first convert to Julian day count, then to the calendar
format.

Installation

The windows version of PHP has built-in support for the calendar extension. So, the calendar functions will
work automatically.
However, if you are running the Linux version of PHP, you will have to compile PHP with --enable-calendar to
get the calendar functions to work.

PHP Calendar Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

cal_days_in_month()

Returns the number of days in a month for a specified year and

calendar

cal_from_jd()

Converts a Julian day count into a date of a specified calendar

cal_info()

Returns information about a given calendar

cal_to_jd()

Converts a date to Julian day count

easter_date()

Returns the Unix timestamp for midnight on Easter of a specified

year

easter_days()

Returns the number of days after March 21, on which Easter falls for
a specified year

FrenchToJD()

Converts a French Republican date to a Julian day count

GregorianToJD()

Converts a Gregorian date to a Julian day count

JDDayOfWeek()

Returns the day of a week

JDMonthName()

Returns a month name

JDToFrench()

Converts a Julian day count to a French Republican date

JDToGregorian()

Converts a Julian day count to a Gregorian date

jdtojewish()

Converts a Julian day count to a Jewish date

JDToJulian()

Converts a Julian day count to a Julian date

jdtounix()

Converts a Julian day count to a Unix timestamp

JewishToJD()

Converts a Jewish date to a Julian day count

JulianToJD()

Converts a Julian date to a Julian day count

unixtojd()

Converts a Unix timestamp to a Julian day count

PHP Calendar Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

PH
P

CAL_GREGORIAN

Gregorian calendar

CAL_JULIAN

Julian calendar

CAL_JEWISH

Jewish calendar

CAL_FRENCH

French Republican calendar

CAL_NUM_CALS

CAL_DOW_DAYNO

CAL_DOW_SHORT

CAL_DOW_LONG

CAL_MONTH_GREGORIAN_SHORT

CAL_MONTH_GREGORIAN_LONG

CAL_MONTH_JULIAN_SHORT

CAL_MONTH_JULIAN_LONG

CAL_MONTH_JEWISH

CAL_MONTH_FRENCH

CAL_EASTER_DEFAULT

CAL_EASTER_ROMAN

CAL_EASTER_ALWAYS_GREGORIAN

CAL_EASTER_ALWAYS_JULIAN

CAL_JEWISH_ADD_ALAFIM_GERES
H

CAL_JEWISH_ADD_ALAFIM

CAL_JEWISH_ADD_GERESHAYIM

PHP Date / Time Introduction

The date/time functions allow you to extract and format the date and time on the server.
Note: These functions depend on the locale settings of the server!

Installation

The date/time functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

Runtime Configuration

The behavior of the date/time functions is affected by settings in php.ini.

Date/Time configuration options:
Name
date.default_latitude

Default
"31.7667"

Description

Changeable

Specifies the default latitude (available

since PHP 5). This option is used by
date_sunrise() and date_sunset()

PHP_INI_ALL

date.default_longitud
e

"35.2333"

Specifies the default longitude (available

since PHP 5). This option is used by
date_sunrise() and date_sunset()

PHP_INI_ALL

date.sunrise_zenith

"90.83"

Specifies the default sunrise zenith

(available since PHP 5). This option is used
by date_sunrise() and date_sunset()

PHP_INI_ALL

date.sunset_zenith

"90.83"

Specifies the default sunset zenith

(available since PHP 5). This option is used
by date_sunrise() and date_sunset()

PHP_INI_ALL

date.timezone

Specifies the default timezone (available

since PHP 5.1)

PHP_INI_ALL

PHP Date / Time Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

checkdate()

Validates a Gregorian date

date_default_timezone_get()

Returns the default time zone

date_default_timezone_set()

Sets the default time zone

date_sunrise()

Returns the time of sunrise for a given day / location

date_sunset()

Returns the time of sunset for a given day / location

date()

Formats a local time/date

getdate()

Returns an array that contains date and time information for a

Unix timestamp

gettimeofday()

Returns an array that contains current time information

gmdate()

Formats a GMT/UTC date/time

gmmktime()

Returns the Unix timestamp for a GMT date

gmstrftime()

Formats a GMT/UTC time/date according to locale settings

idate()

Formats a local time/date as integer

localtime()

Returns an array that contains the time components of a Unix

timestamp

microtime()

Returns the microseconds for the current time

mktime()

Returns the Unix timestamp for a date

strftime()

Formats a local time/date according to locale settings

strptime()

Parses a time/date generated with strftime()

strtotime()

Parses an English textual date or time into a Unix timestamp

time()

Returns the current time as a Unix timestamp

PHP Date / Time Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

PHP

DATE_ATOM

Atom (example: 2005-08-15T16:13:03+0000)

DATE_COOKIE

HTTP Cookies (example: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:13:03 UTC)

DATE_ISO8601

ISO-8601 (example: 2005-0814T16:13:03+0000)

DATE_RFC822

RFC 822 (example: Sun, 14 Aug 2005

16:13:03 UTC)

DATE_RFC850

RFC 850 (example: Sunday, 14-Aug05 16:13:03 UTC)

DATE_RFC1036

RFC 1036 (example: Sunday, 14-Aug05 16:13:03 UTC)

DATE_RFC1123

RFC 1123 (example: Sun, 14 Aug

2005 16:13:03 UTC)

DATE_RFC2822

RFC 2822 (Sun, 14 Aug 2005

16:13:03 +0000)

DATE_RSS

RSS (Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:13:03

UTC)

DATE_W3C

World Wide Web Consortium

(example: 2005-0814T16:13:03+0000)

PHP Directory Introduction

The directory functions allow you to retrieve information about directories and their contents.

Installation
The directory functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

PHP Directory Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PHP

chdir()

Changes the current directory

chroot()

Changes the root directory of the current process

dir()

Opens a directory handle and returns an object

closedir()

Closes a directory handle

getcwd()

Returns the current directory

opendir()

Opens a directory handle

readdir()

Returns an 3
entry from a
directory
handle

rewinddir()

Resets a directory handle

scandir()

Lists files and directories inside a specified path

PHP Directory Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

PH
P

DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR

PATH_SEPARATOR

PHP Error and Logging Introduction

The error and logging functions allows error handling and logging.
The error functions allow users to define error handling rules, and modify the way the errors can be logged.
The logging functions allow users to log applications and send log messages to email, system logs or other
machines.

Installation
The error and logging functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these
functions.

PHP Error and Logging Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

debug_backtrace()

Generates a backtrace

debug_print_backtrace()

Prints a backtrace

error_get_last()

Gets the last error occurred

error_log()

Sends an error to the server error-log, to a file or to a remote

destination

error_reporting()

Specifies which errors are reported

restore_error_handler()

Restores the previous error handler

restore_exception_handler()

Restores the previous exception handler

set_error_handler()

Sets a user-defined function to handle errors

set_exception_handler()

Sets a user-defined function to handle exceptions

trigger_error()

Creates a user-defined error message

Alias of trigger_error()

user_error()

PHP Error and Logging Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Valu
e

Constant

Description

PH
P

E_ERROR

Fatal run-time errors. Errors that cannot be recovered

from. Execution of the script is halted

E_WARNING

Non-fatal run-time errors. Execution of the script is not

halted

E_PARSE

Compile-time parse errors. Parse errors should only be

generated by the parser

E_NOTICE

Run-time notices. The script found something that might

be an error, but could also happen when running a script
normally

E_CORE_ERROR

Fatal errors at PHP startup. This is like an E_ERROR in the 4

PHP core

E_CORE_WARNING

Non-fatal errors at PHP startup. This is like an

E_WARNING in the PHP core

E_COMPILE_ERROR

Fatal compile-time errors. This is like an E_ERROR

generated by the Zend Scripting Engine

128

E_COMPILE_WARNING

Non-fatal compile-time errors. This is like an E_WARNING 4

generated by the Zend Scripting Engine

256

E_USER_ERROR

Fatal user-generated error. This is like an E_ERROR set by 4

the programmer using the PHP function trigger_error()

512

E_USER_WARNING

Non-fatal user-generated warning. This is like an

E_WARNING set by the programmer using the PHP
function trigger_error()

1024

E_USER_NOTICE

User-generated notice. This is like an E_NOTICE set by

the programmer using the PHP function trigger_error()

2048

E_STRICT

Run-time notices. PHP suggest changes to your code to

help interoperability and compatibility of the code

4096

E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR

Catchable fatal error. This is like an E_ERROR but can be

caught by a user defined handle (see also
set_error_handler())

8191

E_ALL

All errors and warnings, except of level E_STRICT

PHP Filesystem Introduction

The filesystem functions allow you to access and manipulate the filesystem.

Installation

The filesystem functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

Runtime Configuration

The behavior of the filesystem functions is affected by settings in php.ini.

Filesystem configuration options:
Name

Default

Description

Changeable

allow_url_fopen

"1"

Allows fopen()-type functions to work with PHP_INI_SYSTEM

URLs (available since PHP 4.0.4)

user_agent

NULL

Defines the user agent for PHP to send

PHP_INI_ALL

(available since PHP 4.3)

default_socket_timeout

"60"

Sets the default timeout, in seconds, for

socket based streams (available since PHP
4.3)

PHP_INI_ALL

from

Defines the anonymous FTP password

(your email address)

PHP_INI_ALL

auto_detect_line_ending "0"
s

When set to "1", PHP will examine the data PHP_INI_ALL

read by fgets() and file() to see if it is
using Unix, MS-Dos or Mac line-ending
characters (available since PHP 4.3)

Unix / Windows Compatibility

When specifying a path on Unix platforms, the forward slash (/) is used as directory separator. However, on
Windows platforms, both forward slash (/) and backslash (\) can be used.

PHP Filesystem Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

basename()

Returns the filename component of a path

chgrp()

Changes the file group

chmod()

Changes the file mode

chown()

Changes the file owner

clearstatcache()

Clears the file status cache

copy()

Copies a file

delete()

See unlink() or unset()

dirname()

Returns the directory name component of a path

disk_free_space()

Returns the free space of a directory

disk_total_space()

Returns the total size of a directory

diskfreespace()

Alias of disk_free_space()

fclose()

Closes an open file

feof()

Tests for end-of-file on an open file

fflush()

Flushes buffered output to an open file

fgetc()

Returns a character from an open file

fgetcsv()

Parses a line from an open file, checking for CSV fields

fgets()

Returns a line from an open file

fgetss()

Returns a line, with HTML and PHP tags removed, from an open 3
file

file()

Reads a file into an array

file_exists()

Checks whether or not a file or directory exists

file_get_contents()

Reads a file into a string

file_put_contents

Writes a string to a file

fileatime()

Returns the last access time of a file

filectime()

Returns the last change time of a file

filegroup()

Returns the group ID of a file

fileinode()

Returns the inode number of a file

filemtime()

Returns the last modification time of a file

fileowner()

Returns the user ID (owner) of a file

fileperms()

Returns the permissions of a file

filesize()

Returns the file size

filetype()

Returns the file type

flock()

Locks or releases a file

fnmatch()

Matches a filename or string against a specified pattern

fopen()

Opens a file or URL

fpassthru()

Reads from an open file, until EOF, and writes the result to the
output buffer

fputcsv()

Formats a line as CSV and writes it to an open file

fputs()

Alias of fwrite()

fread()

Reads from an open file

Parses input from an open file according to a specified format

fscanf()
fseek()

Seeks in an open 3
file

fstat()

Returns
information
about an open
file

ftell()

Returns the
current position
in an open file

ftruncate()

Truncates an
open file to a
specified length

fwrite()

Writes to an
open file

glob()

Returns an array 4
of filenames /
directories
matching a
specified pattern

is_dir()

Checks whether
a file is a
directory

is_executable()

Checks whether a file is executable

is_file()

Checks whether a file is a regular file

is_link()

Checks whether a file is a link

is_readable()

Checks whether a file is readable

is_uploaded_file()

Checks whether a file was uploaded via HTTP POST

is_writable()

Checks whether a file is writeable

is_writeable()

Alias of is_writable()

link()

Creates a hard link

linkinfo()

Returns information about a hard link

lstat()

Returns information about a file or symbolic link

mkdir()

Creates a directory

move_uploaded_file()

Moves an uploaded file to a new location

parse_ini_file()

Parses a configuration file

pathinfo()

Returns information about a file path

pclose()

Closes a pipe opened by popen()

popen()

Opens a pipe

readfile()

Reads a file and writes it to the output buffer

readlink()

Returns the target of a symbolic link

realpath()

Returns the absolute pathname

rename()

Renames a file or directory

rewind()

Rewinds a file pointer

rmdir()

Removes an empty directory

set_file_buffer()

Sets the buffer size of an open file

stat()

Returns information about a file

symlink()

Creates a symbolic link

tempnam()

Creates a unique temporary file

tmpfile()

Creates a unique temporary file

touch()

Sets access and modification time of a file

umask()

Changes file permissions for files

unlink()

Deletes a file

PHP Filesystem Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

GLOB_BRACE
GLOB_ONLYDIR
GLOB_MARK
GLOB_NOSORT
GLOB_NOCHECK
GLOB_NOESCAPE
PATHINFO_DIRNAME
PATHINFO_BASENAME
PATHINFO_EXTENSION
FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH
FILE_APPEND
FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES
FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES

PHP Filter Introduction

This PHP filters is used to validate and filter data coming from insecure sources, like user input.

Installation

PH
P

The filter functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

PHP Filter Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

filter_has_var()

Checks if a variable of a specified input type exist

filter_id()

Returns the ID number of a specified filter

filter_input()

Get input from outside the script and filter it

filter_input_array()

Get multiple inputs from outside the script and filters them

filter_list()

Returns an array of all supported filters

filter_var_array()

Get multiple variables and filter them

filter_var()

Get a variable and filter it

PHP Filters

ID Name
FILTER_CALLBACK
FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING
FILTER_SANITIZE_STRIPPED
FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED
FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS
FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL
FILTER_SANITIZE_URL
FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT
FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_FLOAT
FILTER_SANITIZE_MAGIC_QUOTES
FILTER_UNSAFE_RAW
FILTER_VALIDATE_INT
FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN
FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT
FILTER_VALIDATE_REGEXP
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL
FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL
FILTER_VALIDATE_IP

Description
Call a user-defined function to filter data
Strip tags, optionally strip or encode special characters
Alias of "string" filter
URL-encode string, optionally strip or encode special characters
HTML-escape '"<>& and characters with ASCII value less than 32
Remove all characters, except letters, digits and !#$%&'*+-/=?
^_`{|}~@.[]
Remove all characters, except letters, digits and $-_.+!*'(),
{}|\\^~[]`<>#%";/?:@&=
Remove all characters, except digits and +Remove all characters, except digits, +- and optionally .,eE
Apply addslashes()
Do nothing, optionally strip or encode special characters
Validate value as integer, optionally from the specified range
Return TRUE for "1", "true", "on" and "yes", FALSE for "0", "false",
"off", "no", and "", NULL otherwise
Validate value as float
Validate value against regexp, a Perl-compatible regular expression
Validate value as URL, optionally with required components
Validate value as e-mail
Validate value as IP address, optionally only IPv4 or IPv6 or not from
private or reserved ranges

PHP FTP Introduction

The FTP functions give client access to file servers through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
The FTP functions are used to open, login and close connections, as well as upload, download, rename,
delete, and get information on files from file servers. Not all of the FTP functions will work with every server
or return the same results. The FTP functions became available with PHP 3.
These functions are meant for detailed access to an FTP server. If you only wish to read from or write to a
file on an FTP server, consider using the ftp:// wrapper with the Filesystem functions.

Installation

The windows version of PHP has built-in support for the FTP extension. So, the FTP functions will work
automatically.
However, if you are running the Linux version of PHP, you will have to compile PHP with --enable-ftp (PHP
4+) or --with-ftp (PHP 3) to get the FTP functions to work.

PHP FTP Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

ftp_alloc()

Allocates space for a file to be uploaded to the FTP server

ftp_cdup()

Changes the current directory to the parent directory on the FTP

server

ftp_chdir()

Changes the current directory on the FTP server

ftp_chmod()

Sets permissions on a file via FTP

ftp_close()

Closes an FTP connection

ftp_connect()

Opens an FTP connection

ftp_delete()

Deletes a file on the FTP server

ftp_exec()

Executes a program/command on the FTP server

ftp_fget()

Downloads a file from the FTP server and saves it to an open file

ftp_fput()

Uploads from an open file and saves it to a file on the FTP server

ftp_get_option()
ftp_get()

Downloads a file from the FTP server

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PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that
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PHP HTTP Introduction

The HTTP functions let you manipulate information sent to the browser by the Web server, before any other
output has been sent.

Installation
The directory functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

PHP HTTP Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.

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The libxml
t
e
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and
constants
are used
together
with
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functions.

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ation
These
functions
require
the libxml
package.
Download
at
xmlsoft.or
g

PHP
libxml
Functi
ons
PHP:
indicates
the
earliest
version of
PHP that
supports
the
function.
Function
libxml_clear_errors()

Clear libxml error

buffer

libxml_get_errors()

Retrieve array of

errors
Retrieve last error
from libxml

libxml_get_last_error()

libxml_set_streams_conte Set the streams

xt()
context for the next
libxml document
load or write
libxml_use_internal_errors()

5
5

Disable libxml errors 5

and allow user to
fetch error
information as
needed

Description

PHP

PHP libxml
Constants
Function
LIBXML_COMPACT Set small nodes allocation optimization. This may improve the
application performance

LIBXML_DTDATTR Set default DTD attributes

LIBXML_DTDLOAD Load external subset

LIBXML_DTDVALI
D

Validate with the DTD

LIBXML_NOBLANKS

Remove blank nodes

LIBXML_NOCDATA

Set CDATA as text nodes

LIBXML_NOEMPTYTAG

Change empty tags (e.g. <br/> to <br></br>), only

available in the DOMDocument->save() and
DOMDocument->saveXML() functions

LIBXML_NOENT

Substitute entities

LIBXML_NOERROR

Do not show error reports

LIBXML_NONET

Stop network access while loading documents

LIBXML_NOWARNING

Do not show warning reports

LIBXML_NOXMLDECL

Drop the XML declaration when saving a document

LIBXML_NSCLEAN

Remove excess namespace declarations

LIBXML_XINCLUDE

Use XInclude substitution

LIBXML_ERR_ERROR

Get recoverable errors

LIBXML_ERR_FATAL

Get fatal errors

LIBXML_ERR_NONE

Get no errors

LIBXML_ERR_WARNING

Get simple warnings

LIBXML_VERSION

Get libxml version (e.g. 20605 or 20617)

LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION

Get dotted libxml version (e.g. 2.6.5 or 2.6.17)

PHP Mail
Introduction
The mail() function
allows you to send
emails directly from
a script.

Default

Description

Changeable

Requirement
s

For the mail

functions to be
available, PHP
requires an installed
and working email
system. The program
to be used is defined
by the configuration
settings in the
php.ini file.

Installation
The mail functions
are part of the PHP
core. There is no
installation needed to
use these functions.

Runtime
Configuration
The behavior of the
mail functions is
affected by settings
in the php.ini file.
Mail configuration
options:
Name
SMTP

"localhost"

Windows only: The DNS name or IP

address of the SMTP server

PHP_INI_ALL

smtp_port

"25"

Windows only: The SMTP port number.

Available since PHP 4.3

PHP_INI_ALL

sendmail_from

NULL

Windows only: Specifies the "from"

address to be used in email sent from
PHP

PHP_INI_ALL

sendmail_path

NULL

Unix systems only: Specifies where the

sendmail program can be found
(usually /usr/sbin/sendmail or
/usr/lib/sendmail)

PHP_INI_SYSTEM

PHP Mail Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

ezmlm_hash()

Calculates the hash value needed by the EZMLM mailing list

system

mail()

Allows you to send emails directly from a script

PHP Mail Constants

None.

PHP Math Introduction

The math functions can handle values within the range of integer and float types.

Installation
The math functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

PHP Math Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

abs()

Returns the absolute value of a number

acos()

Returns the arccosine of a number

acosh()

Returns the inverse hyperbolic cosine of a number

asin()

Returns the arcsine of a number

asinh()

Returns the inverse hyperbolic sine of a number

atan()

Returns the arctangent of a number as a numeric value

between -PI/2 and PI/2 radians

atan2()

Returns the angle theta of an (x,y) point as a numeric value

between -PI and PI radians

atanh()

Returns the inverse hyperbolic tangent of a number

base_convert()

Converts a number from one base to another

bindec()

Converts a binary number to a decimal number

ceil()

Returns the value of a number rounded upwards to the nearest

integer

cos()

Returns the cosine of a number

cosh()

Returns the hyperbolic cosine of a number

decbin()

Converts a decimal number to a binary number

dechex()

Converts a decimal number to a hexadecimal number

decoct()

Converts a decimal number to an octal number

deg2rad()

Converts a degree to a radian number

exp()

Returns the value of E

expm1()

Returns the value of Ex - 1

floor()

Returns the value of a number rounded downwards

to the nearest integer

fmod()

Returns the remainder (modulo) of the division of

the arguments

getrandmax()

Returns the maximum random number that can be

returned by a call to the rand() function

hexdec()

Converts a hexadecimal number to a decimal

number

hypot()

Returns the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle

is_finite()

Returns true if a value is a finite number

is_infinite()

Returns true if a value is an infinite number

is_nan()

Returns true if a value is not a number

lcg_value()

Returns a pseudo random number in the range of (0,1)

log()

Returns the natural logarithm (base E) of a number

log10()

Returns the base-10 logarithm of a number

log1p()

Returns log(1+number)

max()

Returns the number with the highest value of two specified

numbers

min()

Returns the number with the lowest value of two specified

numbers

mt_getrandmax()

Returns the largest possible value that can be returned by

mt_rand()

Returns a random integer using Mersenne Twister algorithm

mt_srand()

Seeds the Mersenne Twister random number generator

octdec()

Converts an octal number to a decimal number

pi()

Returns the value of PI

pow()

Returns the value of x to the power of y

rad2deg()

Converts a radian number to a degree

rand()

Returns a random integer

round()

Rounds a number to the nearest integer

sin()

Returns the sine of a number

sinh()

Returns the hyperbolic sine of a number

sqrt()

Returns the square root of a number

srand()

Seeds the random number generator

tan()

Returns the tangent of an angle

tanh()

Returns the hyperbolic tangent of an angle

PHP Math Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

PH
P

M_E

Returns e (approx. 2.718)

M_EULER

Returns Euler's constant (approx. 0.577)

M_LNPI

Returns the natural logarithm of PI (approx. 1.144)

M_LN2

Returns the natural logarithm of 2 (approx. 0.693)

M_LN10

Returns the natural logarithm of 10 (approx. 2.302)

M_LOG2E

Returns the base-2 logarithm of E (approx. 1.442)

M_LOG10E

Returns the base-10 logarithm of E (approx. 0.434)

M_PI

Returns PI (approx. 3.14159)

M_PI_2

Returns PI/2 (approx. 1.570)

M_PI_4

Returns PI/4 (approx. 0.785)

M_1_PI

Returns 1/PI (approx. 0.318)

M_2_PI

Returns 2/PI (approx. 0.636)

M_SQRTPI

Returns the square root of PI (approx. 1.772)

M_2_SQRTPI

Returns 2/square root of PI (approx. 1.128)

M_SQRT1_2

Returns the square root of 1/2 (approx. 0.707)

M_SQRT2

Returns the square root of 2 (approx. 1.414)

M_SQRT3

Returns the square root of 3 (approx. 1.732)

PHP Misc. Functions

PHP Miscellaneous Introduction
The misc. functions were only placed here because none of the other categories seemed to fit.

Installation
The misc functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

Runtime Configuration
The behavior of the misc functions is affected by settings in the php.ini file.
Misc. configuration options:
N De DescCha
a fa ripti nge
m ult on able
e
ignore_user_abort "0"

highlight.string

FALSE indicates that scripts will be terminated as soon

as they try to output something after a client has
aborted their connection

"#DD0000 Color for highlighting a string in PHP syntax

PHP_INI_ALL

highlight.commen "#FF8000" Color for highlighting PHP comments

PHP_INI_ALL

highlight.keyword "#007700" Color for syntax highlighting PHP keywords (e.g.

parenthesis and semicolon)

PHP_INI_ALL

highlight.bg

"#FFFFFF"

PHP_INI_ALL

highlight.default

"#0000BB" Default color for PHP syntax

PHP_INI_ALL

highlight.html

"#000000" Color for HTML code

PHP_INI_ALL

browscap

NULL

PHP_INI_SYSTE
M

Color for background

Name and location of browser-capabilities file (e.g.

browscap.ini)

PHP Misc. Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

connection_aborted()

Checks whether the client has disconnected

connection_status()

Returns the current connection status

connection_timeout()

Deprecated in PHP 4.0.5

constant()

Returns the value of a constant

define()

Defines a constant

defined()

Checks whether a constant exists

die()

Prints a message and exits the current script

eval()

Evaluates a string as PHP code

exit()

Prints a message and exits the current script

get_browser()

Returns the capabilities of the user's browser

highlight_file()

Outputs a file with the PHP syntax highlighted

highlight_string()

Outputs a string with the PHP syntax highlighted

ignore_user_abort()

Sets whether a remote client can abort the running of a script

pack()

Packs data into a binary string

php_check_syntax()

Deprecated in PHP 5.0.5

php_strip_whitespace()

Returns the source code of a file with PHP comments and whitespace 5
removed

show_source()

Alias of highlight_file()

sleep()

Delays code execution for a number of seconds

time_nanosleep()

Delays code execution for a number of seconds and nanoseconds

time_sleep_until()

Delays code execution until a specified time

uniqid()

Generates a unique ID

unpack()

Unpacks data from a binary string

usleep()

Delays code execution for a number of microseconds

PHP Misc. Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.

Constant

Description

PH
P

CONNECTION_ABORTED
CONNECTION_NORMAL
CONNECTION_TIMEOUT
__COMPILER_HALT_OFFSET__

PHP MySQL Introduction

The MySQL functions allows you to access MySQL database servers.

Installation

For the MySQL functions to be available, you must compile PHP with MySQL support.
For compiling, use --with-mysql=DIR (the optional DIR points to the MySQL directory).
Note: For full functionality of MySQL versions greater than 4.1., use the MySQLi extension instead. If you
would like to install both the mysql extension and the mysqli extension you should use the same client
library to avoid any conflicts.

Installation on Linux Systems

PHP 5+: MySQL and the MySQL library is not enabled by default. Use the --with-mysql=DIR configure
option to include MySQL support and download headers and libraries from www.mysql.com.
Installation on Windows Systems
PHP 5+: MySQL is not enabled by default, so the php_mysql.dll must be enabled inside of php.ini. Also, PHP
needs access to the MySQL client library. A file named libmysql.dll is included in the Windows PHP
distribution, and in order for PHP to talk to MySQL this file needs to be available to the Windows systems
PATH.
To enable any PHP extension, the PHP extension_dir setting (in the php.ini file) should be set to the directory
where the PHP extensions are located. An example extension_dir value is c:\php\ext.
Note: If you get the following error when starting the web server: "Unable to load dynamic library
'./php_mysql.dll'", this is because php_mysql.dll or libmysql.dll cannot be found by the system.

Runtime Configuration

The behavior of the MySQL functions is affected by settings in the php.ini file.
MySQL configuration options:
Na Def Des Cha
me aul cri nge
t
pti abl
on e
mys "1"
ql.a
llow
_pe
rsis
tent

Wh PHP
eth _IN
er I_S
or YST
not EM
to
allo
w
per
sist
ent
con
nec
tion
s

mys "-1" The PHP

ql.
ma _IN
ma
xim I_S
x_p
um YST
ersi
nu EM
ste
mb
nt
er
of
per
sist
ent
con
nec
tion
s
per
pro
ces
s
mys "-1" The PHP
ql.
ma _IN
ma
xim I_S
x_li
um YST

nks

nu EM
mb
er
of
con
nec
tion
s
per
pro
ces
s
(per
sist
ent
con
nec
tion
s
incl
ude
d)

mysql.trace_mode

"0"

Trace
PHP_INI_ALL
mode.
When set to
"1",
warnings
and SQLerrors will
be
displayed.
Available
since PHP
4.3
The default PHP_INI_ALL
TCP port
number to
use

mysql.default_port

NULL

mysql.default_socket

NULL

The
default
socket
name to
use.
Available
since PHP
4.0.1

PHP_INI_ALL

mysql.default_host

NULL

The
default
server
host to
use
(doesn't
apply in
SQL safe
mode)

PHP_INI_ALL

mysql.default_user

NULL

The
PHP_INI_ALL
default
user name
to use

(doesn't
apply in
SQL safe
mode)
mysql.default_password

NULL

The
default
password
to use
(doesn't
apply in
SQL safe
mode)

PHP_INI_ALL

mysql.connect_timeout

"60"

Connectio PHP_INI_ALL
n timeout
in seconds

Resource Types

There are two resource types used in the MySQL extension. The first one is the link_identifier for a database
connection, the second is a resource which holds the result of a query.
Note: Most MySQL functions accept link_identifier as the last optional parameter. If it is not provided, the
last opened connection is used.

PHP MySQL Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

mysql_affected_rows()

Returns the number of affected rows in the previous MySQL

operation

mysql_change_user()

Deprecated. Changes the user of the current MySQL connection 3

mysql_client_encoding()

Returns the name of the character set for the current

connection

mysql_close()

Closes a non-persistent MySQL connection

mysql_connect()

Opens a non-persistent MySQL connection

mysql_create_db()

Deprecated. Creates a new MySQL database. Use

mysql_query() instead

mysql_data_seek()

Moves the record pointer

mysql_db_name()

Returns a database name from a call to mysql_list_dbs()

mysql_db_query()

Deprecated. Sends a MySQL query. Use mysql_select_db() and

mysql_query() instead

mysql_drop_db()

Deprecated. Deletes a MySQL database. Use mysql_query()

instead

mysql_errno()

Returns the error number of the last MySQL operation

mysql_error()

Returns the error description of the last MySQL operation

mysql_escape_string()

Deprecated. Escapes a string for use in a mysql_query. Use

mysql_real_escape_string() instead

mysql_fetch_array()

Returns a row from a recordset as an associative array and/or a 3

numeric array

mysql_fetch_assoc()

Returns a row from a recordset as an associative array

mysql_fetch_field()

Returns column info from a recordset as an object

mysql_fetch_lengths()

Returns the length of the contents of each field in a result row

mysql_fetch_object()

Returns a row from a recordset as an object

mysql_fetch_row()

Returns a row from a recordset as a numeric array

mysql_field_flags()

Returns the flags associated with a field in a recordset

mysql_field_len()

Returns the maximum length of a field in a recordset

mysql_field_name()

Returns the name of a field in a recordset

mysql_field_seek()

Moves the result pointer to a specified field

mysql_field_table()

Returns the name of the table the specified field is in

mysql_field_type()

Returns the type of a field in a recordset

mysql_free_result()

Free result memory

mysql_get_client_info()

Returns MySQL client info

mysql_get_host_info()

Returns MySQL host info

mysql_get_proto_info()

Returns MySQL protocol info

mysql_get_server_info()

Returns MySQL server info

mysql_info()

Returns information about the last query

mysql_insert_id()

Returns the AUTO_INCREMENT ID generated from the previous

INSERT operation

mysql_list_dbs()

Lists available databases on a MySQL server

mysql_list_fields()

Deprecated. Lists MySQL table fields. Use mysql_query()

instead

mysql_list_processes()

Lists MySQL processes

mysql_list_tables()

Deprecated. Lists tables in a MySQL database. Use

mysql_query() instead

mysql_num_fields()

Returns the number of fields in a recordset

mysql_num_rows()

Returns the number of rows in a recordset

mysql_pconnect()

Opens a persistent MySQL connection

mysql_ping()

Pings a server connection or reconnects if there is no

connection

mysql_query()

Executes a query on a MySQL database

mysql_real_escape_string()

Escapes a string for use in SQL statements

mysql_result()

Returns the value of a field in a recordset

mysql_select_db()

Sets the active MySQL database

mysql_stat()

Returns the current system status of the MySQL server

mysql_tablename()

Deprecated. Returns the table name of field. Use mysql_query() 3

instead

mysql_thread_id()

Returns the current thread ID

mysql_unbuffered_query()

Executes a query on a MySQL database (without fetching /

buffering the result)

PHP MySQL Constants

Since PHP 4.3 it has been possible to specify additional flags for the mysql_connect() and mysql_pconnect()
functions:
PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

P
MYSQL_CLIENT_COMPRESS

Use compression protocol

4.3

MYSQL_CLIENT_IGNORE_SPACE

Allow space after function names

4.3

MYSQL_CLIENT_INTERACTIVE

Allow interactive timeout seconds of inactivity before 4.3

closing the connection

MYSQL_CLIENT_SSL

Use SSL encryption (only available with version 4+

of the MySQL client library)

4.3

The mysql_fetch_array() function uses a constant for the different types of result arrays. The following
constants are defined:
Constant

Description

MYSQL_ASSOC

Columns are returned into the array with the fieldname as the array index

MYSQL_BOTH

Columns are returned into the array having both a numerical index and
the fieldname as the array index

MYSQL_NUM

Columns are returned into the array having a numerical index (index starts
at 0)

PH
P

PHP SimpleXML Introduction

The SimpleXML functions lets you convert XML to an object.
This object can be processed, like any other object, with normal property selectors and array iterators.
Some of these functions requires the newest PHP build.

Installation
The SimpleXML functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

PHP SimpleXML Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

__construct()

Creates a new SimpleXMLElement object

addAttribute()

Adds an attribute to the SimpleXML element

addChild()

Adds a child element the SimpleXML element

asXML()

Gets an XML string from a SimpleXML element

attributes()

Gets a SimpleXML element's attributes

children()

Gets the children of a specified node

getDocNamespaces()

Gets the namespaces of an XML document

getName()

Gets the name of a SimpleXML element

getNamespaces()

Gets the namespaces from XML data

registerXPathNamespace()

Creates a namespace context for the next XPath query

simplexml_import_dom()

Gets a SimpleXMLElement object from a DOM node

simplexml_load_file()

Gets a SimpleXMLElement object from an XML document

simplexml_load_string()

Gets a SimpleXMLElement object from an XML string

xpath()

Runs an XPath query on XML data

PHP SimpleXML Constants

PHP String Introduction

The string functions allow you to manipulate strings.

Installation
The string functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

PHP String Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

addcslashes()

Returns a string with backslashes in front of the specified

characters

addslashes()

Returns a string with backslashes in front of predefined

characters

bin2hex()

Converts a string of ASCII characters to hexadecimal values

chop()

Alias of rtrim()

chr()

Returns a character from a specified ASCII value

chunk_split()

Splits a string into a series of smaller parts

convert_cyr_string()

Converts a string from one Cyrillic character-set to another

convert_uudecode()

Decodes a uuencoded string

convert_uuencode()

Encodes a string using the uuencode algorithm

count_chars()

Returns how many times an ASCII character occurs within a

string and returns the information

crc32()

Calculates a 32-bit CRC for a string

crypt()

One-way string encryption (hashing)

echo()

Outputs strings

explode()

Breaks a string into an array

fprintf()

Writes a formatted string to a specified output stream

get_html_translation_table()

Returns the translation table used by htmlspecialchars() and 4

htmlentities()

hebrev()

Converts Hebrew text to visual text

hebrevc()

Converts Hebrew text to visual text and new lines (\n) into
<br />

html_entity_decode()

Converts HTML entities to characters

htmlentities()

Converts characters to HTML entities

htmlspecialchars_decode()

Converts some predefined HTML entities to characters

htmlspecialchars()

Converts some predefined characters to HTML entities

implode()

Returns a string from the elements of an array

join()

Alias of implode()

levenshtein()

Returns the Levenshtein distance between two strings

localeconv()

Returns locale numeric and monetary formatting information 4

ltrim()

Strips whitespace from the left side of a string

md5()

Calculates the MD5 hash of a string

md5_file()

Calculates the MD5 hash of a file

metaphone()

Calculates the metaphone key of a string

money_format()

Returns a string formatted as a currency string

nl_langinfo()

Returns specific local information

nl2br()

Inserts HTML line breaks in front of each newline in a string

number_format()

Formats a number with grouped thousands

ord()

Returns the ASCII value of the first character of a string

parse_str()

Parses a query string into variables

print()

Outputs a string

printf()

Outputs a formatted string

quoted_printable_decode()

Decodes a quoted-printable string

quotemeta()

Quotes meta characters

rtrim()

Strips whitespace from the right side of a string

setlocale()

Sets locale information

sha1()

Calculates the SHA-1 hash of a string

sha1_file()

Calculates the SHA-1 hash of a file

similar_text()

Calculates the similarity between two strings

soundex()

Calculates the soundex key of a string

sprintf()

Writes a formatted string to a variable

sscanf()

Parses input from a string according to a format

str_ireplace()

Replaces some characters in a string (case-insensitive)

str_pad()

Pads a string to a new length

str_repeat()

Repeats a string a specified number of times

str_replace()

Replaces some characters in a string (case-sensitive)

str_rot13()

Performs the ROT13 encoding on a string

str_shuffle()

Randomly shuffles all characters in a string

str_split()

Splits a string into an array

str_word_count()

Count the number of words in a string

strcasecmp()

Compares two strings (case-insensitive)

strchr()

Finds the first occurrence of a string inside another string

(alias of strstr())

strcmp()

Compares two strings (case-sensitive)

strcoll()

Locale based string comparison

strcspn()

Returns the number of characters found in a string before

any part of some specified characters are found

strip_tags()

Strips HTML and PHP tags from a string

stripcslashes()

Unquotes a string quoted with addcslashes()

stripslashes()

Unquotes a string quoted with addslashes()

stripos()

Returns the position of the first occurrence of a string inside

another string (case-insensitive)

stristr()

Finds the first occurrence of a string inside another string

(case-insensitive)

strlen()

Returns the length of a string

strnatcasecmp()

Compares two strings using a "natural order" algorithm

(case-insensitive)

strnatcmp()

Compares two strings using a "natural order" algorithm

(case-sensitive)
strncasecmp()

String comparison of the first n characters (case-insensitive) 4

strncmp()

String comparison of the first n characters (case-sensitive)

strpbrk()

Searches a string for any of a set of characters

strpos()

Returns the position of the first occurrence of a string inside

another string (case-sensitive)

strrchr()

Finds the last occurrence of a string inside another string

strrev()

Reverses a string

strripos()

Finds the position of the last occurrence of a string inside

another string (case-insensitive)

strrpos()

Finds the position of the last occurrence of a string inside

another string (case-sensitive)

strspn()

Returns the number of characters found in a string that

contains only characters from a specified charlist

strstr()

Finds the first occurrence of a string inside another string

(case-sensitive)

strtok()

Splits a string into smaller strings

strtolower()

Converts a string to lowercase letters

strtoupper()

Converts a string to uppercase letters

strtr()

Translates certain characters in a string

substr()

Returns a part of a string

substr_compare()

Compares two strings from a specified start position (binary

safe and optionally case-sensitive)

substr_count()

Counts the number of times a substring occurs in a string

substr_replace()

Replaces a part of a string with another string

trim()

Strips whitespace from both sides of a string

ucfirst()

Converts the first character of a string to uppercase

ucwords()

Converts the first character of each word in a string to

uppercase

vfprintf()

Writes a formatted string to a specified output stream

vprintf()

Outputs a formatted string

vsprintf()

Writes a formatted string to a variable

wordwrap()

Wraps a string to a given number of characters

PHP String Constants

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the constant.
Constant

Description

CRYPT_SALT_LENGTH

Contains the length of the default encryption method for the

system. For standard DES encryption, the length is 2

CRYPT_STD_DES

Set to 1 if the standard DES-based encryption with a 2

character salt is supported, 0 otherwise

CRYPT_EXT_DES

Set to 1 if the extended DES-based encryption with a 9

character salt is supported, 0 otherwise

CRYPT_MD5

Set to 1 if the MD5 encryption with a 12 character salt

PH
P

starting with $1$ is supported, 0 otherwise

CRYPT_BLOWFISH

Set to 1 if the Blowfish encryption with a 16 character salt

starting with $2$ or $2a$ is supported, 0 otherwise0

HTML_SPECIALCHARS
HTML_ENTITIES
ENT_COMPAT
ENT_QUOTES
ENT_NOQUOTES
CHAR_MAX
LC_CTYPE
LC_NUMERIC
LC_TIME
LC_COLLATE
LC_MONETARY
LC_ALL
LC_MESSAGES
STR_PAD_LEFT
STR_PAD_RIGHT
STR_PAD_BOTH

PHP XML Parser Introduction

The XML functions lets you parse, but not validate, XML documents.
XML is a data format for standardized structured document exchange. More information on XML can be
found in our XML Tutorial.
This extension uses the Expat XML parser.
Expat is an event-based parser, it views an XML document as a series of events. When an event occurs, it
calls a specified function to handle it.
Expat is a non-validating parser, and ignores any DTDs linked to a document. However, if the document is
not well formed it will end with an error message.
Because it is an event-based, non validating parser, Expat is fast and well suited for web applications.
The XML parser functions lets you create XML parsers and define handlers for XML events.

Installation

The XML functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.

PHP XML Parser Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

utf8_decode()

Decodes an UTF-8 string to ISO-8859-1

utf8_encode()

Encodes an ISO-8859-1 string to UTF-8

xml_error_string()

Gets an error string from the XML parser

xml_get_current_byte_index()

Gets the current byte index from the XML

parser

xml_get_current_column_number()

Gets the current column number from the

XML parser

xml_get_current_line_number()

Gets the current line number from the XML

parser

xml_get_error_code()

Gets an error code from the XML parser

xml_parse()

Parses an XML document

xml_parse_into_struct()

Parse XML data into an array

xml_parser_create_ns()

Create an XML parser with namespace

support

xml_parser_create()

Create an XML parser

xml_parser_free()

Free an XML parser

xml_parser_get_option()

Get options from an XML parser

xml_parser_set_option()

Set options in an XML parser

xml_set_character_data_handler()

Set handler function for character data

xml_set_default_handler()

Set default handler function

xml_set_element_handler()

Set handler function for start and end

element of elements

xml_set_end_namespace_decl_handler()

Set handler function for the end of

namespace declarations

xml_set_external_entity_ref_handler()

Set handler function for external entities

xml_set_notation_decl_handler()

Set handler function for notation declarations 3

xml_set_object()

Use XML Parser within an object

xml_set_processing_instruction_handler()

Set handler function for processing

instruction

xml_set_start_namespace_decl_handler()

Set handler function for the start of

namespace declarations

xml_set_unparsed_entity_decl_handler()

Set handler function for unparsed entity

declarations

PHP XML Parser Constants

Co
nst
ant

XML_ERROR_NONE (integer)
XML_ERROR_NO_MEMORY (integer)
XML_ERROR_SYNTAX (integer)
XML_ERROR_NO_ELEMENTS (integer)
XML_ERROR_INVALID_TOKEN (integer)
XML_ERROR_UNCLOSED_TOKEN (integer)
XML_ERROR_PARTIAL_CHAR (integer)
XML_ERROR_TAG_MISMATCH (integer)
XML_ERROR_DUPLICATE_ATTRIBUTE (integer)
XML_ERROR_JUNK_AFTER_DOC_ELEMENT (integer)
XML_ERROR_PARAM_ENTITY_REF (integer)
XML_ERROR_UNDEFINED_ENTITY (integer)
XML_ERROR_RECURSIVE_ENTITY_REF (integer)
XML_ERROR_ASYNC_ENTITY (integer)

XML_ERROR_BAD_CHAR_REF (integer)
XML_ERROR_BINARY_ENTITY_REF (integer)
XML_ERROR_ATTRIBUTE_EXTERNAL_ENTITY_REF (integer)
XML_ERROR_MISPLACED_XML_PI (integer)
XML_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ENCODING (integer)
XML_ERROR_INCORRECT_ENCODING (integer)
XML_ERROR_UNCLOSED_CDATA_SECTION (integer)
XML_ERROR_EXTERNAL_ENTITY_HANDLING (integer)
XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING (integer)
XML_OPTION_TARGET_ENCODING (integer)
XML_OPTION_SKIP_TAGSTART (integer)
XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE (integer)

PHP Zip File Introduction

The Zip files functions allows you to read ZIP files.

Installation

For the Zip file functions to work on your server, these libraries must be installed:

The ZZIPlib library by Guido Draheim: Download the ZZIPlib library

The Zip PELC extension: Download the Zip PELC extension

Installation on Linux Systems
PHP 5+: Zip functions and the Zip library is not enabled by default and must be downloaded from the links
above. Use the --with-zip=DIR configure option to include Zip support.
Installation on Windows Systems
PHP 5+: Zip functions is not enabled by default, so the php_zip.dll and the ZZIPlib library must be
downloaded from the link above. php_zip.dll must be enabled inside of php.ini.
To enable any PHP extension, the PHP extension_dir setting (in the php.ini file) should be set to the directory
where the PHP extensions are located. An example extension_dir value is c:\php\ext.

PHP Zip File Functions

PHP: indicates the earliest version of PHP that supports the function.
Function

Description

PH
P

zip_close()

Closes a ZIP file

zip_entry_close()

Closes an entry in the ZIP file

zip_entry_compressedsize()

Returns the compressed size of an entry in the ZIP file

zip_entry_compressionmethod()

Returns the compression method of an entry in the ZIP file 4

zip_entry_filesize()

Returns the actual file size of an entry in the ZIP file

zip_entry_name()

Returns the name of an entry in the ZIP file

zip_entry_open()

Opens an entry in the ZIP file for reading

zip_entry_read()

Reads from an open entry in the ZIP file

zip_open()

Opens a ZIP file

zip_read()

Reads the next entry in a ZIP file

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