PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

HANDS ON TIPS FOR CRACKING THE INTERVIEW

PHP
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

550 REAL TIME INTERVIEW QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Introduction :
Thanks For Buying This PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Book. This book
is designed to suit the needs of students / professionals who intend to prepare for
interview calls on PHP . Often for the purpose of preparing you to struggle to look
for important topics & browse through some voluble concepts, which you feel
might be asked in an interview. Such a frantic search consumes a lot of time &
energy, as it requires goes through huge volume of PHP Technology. So in order to
solve this dilemma we come up with PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS book,
which will equipped to deal with such problems.

All the best .

Warning : All Rights Reserved . No part of this text or content may be reproduced ,
distributed, including photocopying & other electronic methods are Prohibited.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1

1. What is PHP?
Answers : PHP is a web language based on scripts that allows developers to
dynamically create generated web pages.

PHP is a server side scripting language commonly used for web applications. PHP
has many frameworks and cms for creating websites.Even a non technical person
can cretae sites using its CMS.WordPress,osCommerce are the famus CMS of
php.It is also an object oriented programming language like java,C-sharp etc.It is
very eazy for learning

2. What does the initials of PHP stand for ?

Answers :PHP means PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

3. Which programming language does PHP resemble to?

Answers :PHP syntax resembles Perl and C

4. What does PEAR stands for?

Answers :PEAR means “PHP Extension and Application Repository”. it extends
PHP and provides a higher level of programming for web developers.

5. What is Open Source Software?

Answers :Software in which the source codes are freely used, modify, and shared
by anyone are called Open Source Software. These can also be distributed under
licenses that adhere with the Open Source Definition.

6. What is the difference between include(), include_once() and require_once()

Answers :The include() statement includes and evaluates a specified line i.e. it
will include a file based in the given path. require() does the same thing expect
upon failure it will generate a fatal error and halt the script whereas include() will
just gives a warning and allow script to continue. require_once() will check if the
file already has been included and if so it will not include the file again.

7. Differences between GET, POST and REQUEST methods ?

Answers :GET and POST are used to send information from client browser to
web server. In case of GET the information is send via GET method in
name/value pair and is URL encoded. The default GET has a limit of 512
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characters. The POST method transfers the information via HTTP Headers. The
POST method does not have any restriction in data size to be sent. POST is used
for sending data securely and ASCII and binary type’s data. The $_REQUEST
contains the content of both $_GET, $_POST and $_COOKIE.

8. What are the different errors in PHP?

Answers :There are 4 basically types of error.
Parse Error – Commonly caused due to syntax mistakes in codes e.g. missing
semicolon, mismatch brackets.

Fatal Error – These are basically run time errors which are caused when you try
to access what can’t be done. E.g. accessing a dead object, or trying to use a
function that hasn’t been declared.

Warning Error – These occurs when u try to include a file that is not present, or
delete a file that is not on the server. This will not halt the script; it will give the
notice and continue with the next line of the script.

Notice Error – These errors occurs when u try to use a variable that hasn’t been
declared, this will not halt the script, It will give the notice and continue with the
next line of the script.

9. What is session and why do we use it?

Answers :Session is a super global variable that preserve data across subsequent
pages. Session uniquely defines each user with a session ID, so it helps making
customized web application where user tracking is needed.

10. What is cookie and why do we use it?

Answers : Cookie is a small piece of information stored in client browser. It is a
technique used to identify a user using the information stored in their browser (if
already visited that website) . Using PHP we can both set and get COOKIE.

11.How we know the total number of elements of Array?

Answers : There are two methods through which we can know the total number of
elements:
sizeof($array_var)
count($array_var)

12.What is the difference between explode() and split() functions?

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Answers : Split function splits string into array by regular expression. Explode
splits a string into array by string.

13.How to strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end of
a string ?
Answers : The trim() function removes whitespaces or other predefined characters
from both sides of a string.

14.How to set a page as a home page in a php based site?

Answers : index.php is the default name of the home page in php based sites.

15.How to find the length of a string?

Answers : strlen() function used to find the length of a string.

16.what is the use of isset() in php?

Answers :This function is used to determine if a variable is set and is not NULL.

17.What is the use of "ksort" in php?

Answers : It is used for sort an array by key in reverse order

18.How to delete a file from the system

Answers :Unlink() deletes the given file from the file system

19.What is PEAR in php?

Answers :PEAR(PHP Extension and Application Repository) is a framework and
repository for reusable PHP components. PEAR is a code repository containing all
kinds of php code snippets and libraries.

PEAR also offers a command-line interface that can be used to automatically

install "packages".
$message vs. $$message in PHP.

$message is a variable with a fixed name. $$message is a variable whose name is

stored in $message.

If $message contains "var", $$message is the same as $var.Echo vs. print

statement.
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echo() and print() are language constructs in PHP, both are used to output strings.
The speed of both statements is almost the same.

echo() can take multiple expressions whereas print cannot take multiple
expressions.

Print return true or false based on success or failure whereas echo doesn't return
true or false.

20.Explain how to submit form without a submit button.

Answers :
We can achieve the above task by using JavaScript code linked to an event trigger
of any form field and call the document.form.submit() function in JavaScript
code.Explain the different types of errors in PHP.
Notices, Warnings and Fatal errors are the types of errors in PHP

Notices:

Notices represents non-critical errors, i.e. accessing a variable that has not yet
been defined. By default, such errors are not displayed to the user at all but
whenever required, you can change this default behavior.

Warnings:

Warnings are more serious errors but they do not result in script termination. i.e
calling include() a file which does not exist. By default, these errors are displayed
to the user.

Fatal errors:

Fatal errors are critical errors i.e. calling a non-existent function or class. These
errors cause the immediate termination of the script.

21.What is the use of PEAR in php?

Answers :PEAR is known as PHP Extension and Application Repository. It
provides structured library to the PHP users and also gives provision for package
maintenance.
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22.What is the difference between PHP and JavaScript?

Answers :The difference lies with the execution of the languages. PHP is server
side scripting language, which means that it can’t interact directly with the user.
Whereas, JavaScript is client side scripting language, that is used to interact
directly with the user.

23.What is the difference between $message and $$message?

Answers :The main difference between $message and $$message is that former
one is a simple variable and later is a reference variable. $message is a variable
with a fixed name and it consists of a fixed value. $$messages contains the
variable itself.

24. What is the use of "echo" in php?

Answers :It is used to print a data in the webpage, Example: <?php echo 'Car
insurance'; ?> , The following code print the text in the webpage

25. How to include a file to a php page?

Answers :We can include a file using "include() " or "require()" function with file
path as its parameter.

26.What's the difference between include and require?

Answers :If the file is not found by require(), it will cause a fatal error and halt the
execution of the script. If the file is not found by include(), a warning will be
issued, but execution will continue.

27. require_once(), require(), include().What is difference between them?

Answers :require() includes and evaluates a specific file, while require_once()
does that only if it has not been included before (on the same page). So,
require_once() is recommended to use when you want to include a file where you
have a lot of functions for example. This way you make sure you don't include the
file more times and you will not get the "function re-declared" error.

28. Differences between GET and POST methods ?

Answers :We can send 1024 bytes using GET method but POST method can
transfer large amount of data and POST is the secure method than GET method .
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29. How to declare an array in php?

Answers :Eg : var $arr = array('apple', 'grape', 'lemon');

30. What is the use of 'print' in php?

Answers :This is not actually a real function, It is a language construct. So you
can use with out parentheses with its argument list.
Example print('PHP Interview questions');
print 'Job Interview ');

31. What is use of in_array() function in php ?

Answers :in_array used to checks if a value exists in an arraY
32. What is use of count() function in php ?
Answers :count() is used to count all elements in an array, or something in an
object

33.What’s the difference between include and require?

Answers :It’s how they handle failures. If the file is not found by require(), it will
cause a fatalerror and halt the execution of the script. If the file is not found by
include(), a warning will be issued, but execution will continue.

34.What is the difference between Session and Cookie?

Answers :The main difference between sessions and cookies is that sessions are
stored on the server, and cookies are stored on the user’s computers in the text file
format. Cookies can not hold multiple variables,But Session can hold multiple
variables.We can set expiry for a cookie,The session only remains active as long
as the browser is open.Users do not have access to the data you stored in
Session,Since it is stored in the server.Session is mainly used for login/logout
purpose while cookies using for user activity tracking

35. How to set cookies in PHP?

Answers :Setcookie("sample", "ram", time()+3600);

36. How to Retrieve a Cookie Value?

Answers :eg : echo $_COOKIE["user"];

37. How to create a session? How to set a value in session ? How to Remove data
from a session?
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 7

Answers :Create session : session_start();

Set value into session : $_SESSION['USER_ID']=1;
Remove data from a session : unset($_SESSION['USER_ID'];

38. Is variable name casesensitive ? could we start a variale with number like
$4name ? What is the difference between $name and $$name?
Answers :Yes variable name casesensitive and we can’t start a variable with
number like $4name as A valid variable name starts with a letter or underscore,
followed by any number of letters, numbers, or underscores.
where as $$ is variable of variable $name is variable where as $$name is variable
of variable
like $name=sonia and $$name=singh so $sonia value is singh.

39. How do you connet mysql database with PHP ?

Answers :We can connect Mysql Database with PHP using both Procedural and
Object oriented style like below
$link = mysqli_connect(“localhost”, “username”, “password”, “dbofpcds”);
$mysqli = new mysqli(“localhost”, “username”, “password”, “dbname”);
and in old type of connectivity were
$link = mysql_connect(“localhost”, “username”, “password”);
mysql_select_db(“database”,$link);

40. In how many ways we can retrieve the data in the result set of MySQL using
PHP? What is the difference between mysql_fetch_object and
mysql_fetch_array ?
Answers :we can retrieve the data in the result set of MySQL using PHP in 4
Ways
1. mysqli_fetch_row >> Get a result row as an enumerated array
2. mysqli_fetch_array >> Fetch a result row as associative and numeric array
3.mysqli_fetch_object >> Returns the current row of a result set as an object
4. mysqli_fetch_assoc >> Fetch a result row as an associative array
mysqli_fetch_object() is similar to mysqli_fetch_array(), with one difference -
an object is returned, instead of an array. Indirectly, that means that
we can only access the data by the field names, and not by their
offsets (numbers are illegal property names).

41. What are the differences between Get and post methods.
Answers :There are some defference between GET and POST method
1. GET Method have some limit like only 2Kb data able to send for request
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But in POST method unlimited data can we send

2. when we use GET method requested data show in url but
Not in POST method so POST method is good for send sensetive request

42. How can we extract string “pcds.co.in ” from a string

“http://[email protected] using regular expression of PHP?
Answers :preg_match(“/^http:\/\/.+@(.+)$/”,”http://[email protected]”,
$matches);
echo $matches[1];

43. How can we create a database using PHP and MySQL?

Answers :We can create MySQL database with the use of
mysql_create_db(“Database Name”)

44. What are the differences between require and include?

Answers :Both include and require used to include a file but when included file
not found
Include send Warning where as Require send Fatal Error .

45. Can we use include (“xyz.PHP”) two times in a PHP page “index.PHP”?
Answers :Yes we can use include(“xyz.php”) more than one time in any page. but
it create a prob when xyz.php file contain some funtions declaration then error
will come for already declared function in this file else not a prob like if you want
to show same content two time in page then must incude it two time not a prob

46. What are the different tables(Engine) present in MySQL, which one is
default?
Answers :Following tables (Storage Engine) we can create
1. MyISAM(The default storage engine IN MYSQL Each MyISAM table is
stored on disk in three files. The files have names that begin with the table name
and have an extension to indicate the file type. An .frm file stores the table format.
The data file has an .MYD (MYData) extension. The index file has an .MYI
(MYIndex) extension. )
2. InnoDB(InnoDB is a transaction-safe (ACID compliant) storage engine for
MySQL that has commit, rollback, and crash-recovery capabilities to protect user
data.)
3. Merge
4. Heap (MEMORY)(The MEMORY storage engine creates tables with contents
that are stored in memory. Formerly, these were known as HEAP tables.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 9

MEMORY is the preferred term, although HEAP remains supported for backward
compatibility. )
5. BDB (BerkeleyDB)(Sleepycat Software has provided MySQL with the
Berkeley DB transactional storage engine. This storage engine typically is called
BDB for short. BDB tables may have a greater chance of surviving crashes and
are also capable of COMMIT and ROLLBACK operations on transactions)
6. EXAMPLE
7. FEDERATED (It is a storage engine that accesses data in tables of remote
databases rather than in local tables. )
8. ARCHIVE (The ARCHIVE storage engine is used for storing large amounts of
data without indexes in a very small footprint. )
9. CSV (The CSV storage engine stores data in text files using comma-separated
values format.)
10. BLACKHOLE (The BLACKHOLE storage engine acts as a “black hole” that
accepts data but throws it away and does not store it. Retrievals always return an
empty result)

47. What is use of header() function in php ?

Answers :The header() function sends a raw HTTP header to a client.We can use
herder()
function for redirection of pages. It is important to notice that header() must
be called before any actual output is seen..

48. How can I execute a PHP script using command line?

Answers :Just run the PHP CLI (Command Line Interface) program and
provide the PHP script file name as the command line argument.

49. Suppose your Zend engine supports the mode <? ?> Then how can you
configure your PHP Zend engine to support <?PHP ?> mode ?
Answers :In php.ini file:
set
short_open_tag=on
to make PHP support

50. Shopping cart online validation i.e. how can we configure Paypal, etc.?
Answers :Nothing more we have to do only redirect to the payPal url after submit
all information needed by paypal like amount,adresss etc.

51. What is meant by nl2br()?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 10

Answers :Inserts HTML line breaks (<BR />) before all newlines in a string.

52. What is htaccess? Why do we use this and Where?

Answers :.htaccess files are configuration files of Apache Server which provide
a way to make configuration changes on a per-directory basis. A file,
containing one or more configuration directives, is placed in a particular
document directory, and the directives apply to that directory, and all
subdirectories thereof.

53. How we get IP address of client, previous reference page etc ?

Answers :By using $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'],
$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] etc.

54. What are the reasons for selecting lamp (Linux, apache, MySQL, PHP)
instead of combination of other software programs, servers and operating
systems?
Answers :All of those are open source resource. Security of Linux is very
very more than windows. Apache is a better server that IIS both in
functionality and security. MySQL is world most popular open source
database. PHP is more faster that asp or any other scripting language.

55. How can we encrypt and decrypt a data present in a MySQL table using
MySQL?
Answers :AES_ENCRYPT () and AES_DECRYPT ()

56. How can we encrypt the username and password using PHP?
Answers :The functions in this section perform encryption and decryption, and
compression and uncompression:

57. How can we get the properties (size, type, width, height) of an image using
PHP image functions?
Answer : To know the Image type use exif_imagetype () function
To know the Image size use getimagesize () function
To know the image width use imagesx () function
To know the image height use imagesy() function

58. How can we get the browser properties using PHP?

Answer : By using
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$_SERVER[’HTTP_USER_AGENT’] variable.

59. What is the maximum size of a file that can be uploaded using PHP
and how can we change this?
Answer : By default the maximum size is 2MB. and we can change the following
setup at php.iniupload_max_filesize = 2M

60. How can we increase the execution time of a PHP script?

Answer : by changing the following setup at php.inimax_execution_time = 30;
Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds

61. How can we take a backup of a MySQL table and how can we restore it. ?

Answer : To backup: BACKUP TABLE tbl_name[,tbl_name…] TO

‘/path/to/backup/directory’
RESTORE TABLE tbl_name[,tbl_name…] FROM
‘/path/to/backup/directory’mysqldump: Dumping Table Structure and DataUtility
to dump a database or a collection of database for backup or for transferring the
data to another SQL server (not necessarily a MySQL server). The dump will
contain SQL statements to create the table and/or populate the table. -t, –no-
create-info Don’t write table creation information (the CREATE TABLE
statement). -d, –no-data Don’t write any row information for the table. This is
very useful if you just want to get a dump of the structure for a table.

62. How can we optimize or increase the speed of a MySQL select query?
Answer : • First of all instead of using select * from table1, use select column1,
column2, column3.. from table1
•Look for the opportunity to introduce index in the table you are querying.
•use limit keyword if you are looking for any specific number of rows from the
result set.

63. How many ways can we get the value of current session id?
Answer : session_id() returns the session id for the current session.

64. How can we destroy the session, how can we unset the variable of a session?
Answer : session_unregister — Unregister a global variable from the current
session
session_unset — Free all session variable
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65. How can we destroy the cookie?

Answer : Set the cookie in past.

66. How many ways we can pass the variable through the navigation between the
pages?
Answer : •GET/QueryString
•POST

67. What is the difference between ereg_replace() and eregi_replace()?

Answer : eregi_replace() function is identical to ereg_replace() except that this
ignores case distinction when matching alphabetic characters.eregi_replace()
function is identical to ereg_replace() except that this ignores case distinction
when matching alphabetic characters.

68. What are the different functions in sorting an array?

Answer : Sort(), arsort(),
asort(), ksort(),
natsort(), natcasesort(),
rsort(), usort(),
array_multisort(), and
uksort().

69. How can we know the count/number of elements of an array?

Answer : 2 ways
a) sizeof($urarray) This function is an alias of count()
b) count($urarray)

70. What is the PHP predefined variable that tells the What types of
images that PHP supports?
Answer : Though i am not sure if this is wrong or not, With the exif extension
you are able to work with image meta data.

71. How can I know that a variable is a number or not using a JavaScript?
Answer : bool is_numeric ( mixed var) Returns TRUE if var is a number or a
numeric string, FALSE otherwise.or use isNaN(mixed var)The isNaN() function
is used to check if a value is not a number.

72. List out some tools through which we can draw E-R diagrams for mysql.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 13

Answer :
Case Studio
Smart Draw

73. How can I retrieve values from one database server and store themin other
database server using PHP?
Answer : WeWe can always fetch from one database and rewrite to another. Here
is a nice solution of it.
$db1 = mysql_connect(”host”,”user”,”pwd”);
mysql_select_db(”db1?, $db1);
$res1 = mysql_query(”query”,$db1);
$db2 = mysql_connect(”host”,”user”,”pwd”);
mysql_select_db(”db2?, $db2);
$res2 = mysql_query(”query”,$db2);
At this point you can only fetch records from you previous ResultSet, i.e $res1 –
But you cannot execute new query in $db1, even if yousupply the link as because
the link was overwritten by the new db.so at this point the following script will
fail
$res3 = mysql_query(”query”,$db1); //this will failSo how to solve that? take a
look below.
$db1 = mysql_connect(”host”,”user”,”pwd”);
mysql_select_db(”db1?, $db1);
$res1 = mysql_query(”query”,$db1);
$db2 = mysql_connect(”host”,”user”,”pwd”, true);
mysql_select_db(”db2?, $db2);
$res2 = mysql_query(”query”,$db2);
So mysql_connect has another optional boolean parameter whichindicates
whether a link will be created or not. As we connect to the $db2 with this optional
parameter set to ‘true’, so both link willremain live. Now the following query will
execute successfully.
$res3 = mysql_query(”query”,$db1);

74. List out the predefined classes in PHP?

Answer : Directory
stdClass
__PHP_Incomplete_Class
exception
php_user_filter
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75. How can I make a script that can be bi-language (supports English,
German)?
Answer : You can maintain two separate language file for each of the language.
All the labels are putted in both language files as variables and assign those
variables in the PHP source. On run-time choose the required language option.

76. What are the difference between abstract class and interface?
Answer : Abstract class: abstract classes are the class where one or moremethods
are abstract but not necessarily all method has to be abstract.
Abstract methods are the methods, which are declare in its class but not defined.
The definition of those methods must be in its extending class.

Interface: Interfaces are one type of class where all the methods are abstract. That
means all the methods only declared but not defined. All the methods must be
defined by its implemented class.

77. How can we send mail using JavaScript?

Answer : JavaScript does not have any networking capabilities as it isdesigned to
work on client site. As a result we can not send mails usingJavaScript. But we can
call the client side mail protocol mailtovia JavaScript to prompt for an Email to
send. this requires the client to approve it.

78. How can we repair a MySQL table?

Answer : The syntex for repairing a MySQL table is REPAIR TABLENAME,
[TABLENAME, ], [Quick],[Extended].This command will repair the table
specified if the quick is given the MySQL will do a repair of only the index tree if
the extended is givenit will create index row by row.

79. What are the advantages of stored procedures, triggers, indexes?

Answer : A stored procedure is a set of SQL commands that can be compiled
andstored in the server. Once this has been done, clients don’t need tokeep re-
issuing the entire query but can refer to the stored procedure.This provides better
overall performance because the query has to beparsed only once, and less
information needs to be sent between theserver and the client. You can also raise
the conceptual level by havinglibraries of functions in the server. However, stored
procedures ofcourse do increase the load on the database server system, as more
of the work is done on the server side and less on the client
(application)side.Triggers will also be implemented. A trigger is effectively a type
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of stored procedure, one that is invoked when a particular event occurs.For

example, you can install a stored procedure that is triggered each time a record is
deleted from a transaction table and that stored procedure automatically deletes
the corresponding customer from a customer table when all his transactions are
deleted.Indexes are used to find rows with specific column values quickly.Without
an index, MySQL must begin with the first row and then read through the entire
table to find the relevant rows. The larger the table, the more this costs. If the table
has an index for the columns in question, MySQL can quickly determine the
position to seek to in the middle of the data file without having to look at all the
data. If a table has 1,000 rows, this is at least 100 times faster than reading
sequentially. If you need to access most of the rows, it is faster to read
sequentially, because this minimizes disk seeks.

80. What is the maximum length of a table name, database name and field name
in MySQL?
Answer : The following table describes the maximum length for each type of
identifier.
There are some restrictions on the characters that may appear in identifiers.

81. How many values can the SET function of MySQL take?
Answer : MySQL set can take zero or more values but at the maximum it can
take 64 values.

82. What are the other commands to know the structure of table using MySQL
commands except explain command?
Answer : describe Table-Name;

83. How many tables will create when we create table, what are they?
Answer : The ‘.frm’ file stores the table definition.The data file has a ‘.MYD’
(MYData) extension.The index file has a ‘.MYI’ (MYIndex) extension.

84. What is the purpose of the following files having extensions 1) .frm2) .myd
3) .myi? What do these files contain?
Answer : In MySql, the default table type is MyISAM.Each MyISAM table is
stored on disk in three files. The files have names that begin with the table name
and have an extension to indicate the file type.The ‘.frm’ file stores the table
definition.The data file has a ‘.MYD’ (MYData) extension.The index file has a
‘.MYI’ (MYIndex) extension.
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85. What are the correct and the most two common way to start and finish a
PHP block of code?
Answers :The two most common ways to start and finish a PHP script are: <?php
[ — PHP code—- ] ?> and <? [— PHP code —] ?>

86. How can we display the output directly to the browser?

Answers :To be able to display the output directly to the browser, we have to use
the special tags <?= and ?>.

87. What is the main difference between PHP 4 and PHP 5?

PHP 5 presents many additional OOP (Object Oriented Programming) features.

88. Is multiple inheritance supported in PHP?

Answers :PHP includes only single inheritance, it means that a class can be
extended from only one single class using the keyword ‘extended’.

89. What is the meaning of a final class and a final method?

Answers :‘final’ is introduced in PHP5. Final class means that this class cannot be
extended and a final method cannot be overrided.

90. How comparison of objects is done in PHP5?

Answers :We use the operator ‘==’ to test is two object are instanced from the
same class and have same attributes and equal values. We can test if two object
are refering to the same instance of the same class by the use of the identity
operator ‘===’.

91. How can PHP and HTML interact?

Answers :It is possible to generate HTML through PHP scripts, and it is possible
to pass informations from HTML to PHP.

92. What type of operation is needed when passing values through a form or an
URL?
Answers :If we would like to pass values througn a form or an URL then we need
to encode and to decode them using htmlspecialchars() and urlencode().

93. How can PHP and Javascript interact?

Answers :PHP and Javascript cannot directly interacts since PHP is a server side
language and Javascript is a client side language. However we can exchange
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variables since PHP is able to generate Javascript code to be executed by the

browser and it is possible to pass specific variables back to PHP via the URL.

94. What is needed to be able to use image function?

Answers :GD library is needed to be able execute image functions.

95. What is the use of the function ‘imagetypes()’?

Answers :imagetypes() gives the image format and types supported by the current
version of GD-PHP.

96. What are the functions to be used to get the image’s properties (size, width
and height)?
Answers :The functions are getimagesize() for size, imagesx() for width and
imagesy() for height.

97. How failures in execution are handled with include() and require() functions?
Answers :If the function require() cannot access to the file then it ends with a fatal
error. However, the include() function gives a warning and the PHP script
continues to execute.

98. What is the main difference between require() and require_once()?

Answers :require() and require_once() perform the same task except that the
second function checks if the PHP script is already included or not before
executing it.

(same for include_once() and include())

· version when you go in for your interview)
· MySQL- 5.5.23

99. Who is the father of PHP and explain the changes in PHP versions?
Answer : Rasmus Lerdorf is known as the father of PHP.PHP/FI 2.0 is an early
and no longer supported version of PHP. PHP 3 is the successor to PHP/FI 2.0 and
is a lot nicer. PHP 4 is the current generation of PHP, which uses the Zend engine
under the hood. PHP 5 uses Zend engine 2 which, among other things, offers
many additional OOPs features.

100. How can we submit a form without a submit button?

Answer : The main idea behind this is to use Java script submit() function in order
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 18

to submit the form without explicitly clicking any submit button. You can attach
the document.formname.submit() method to onclick, onchange events of different
inputs and perform the form submission. you
can even built a timer function where you can automatically submit the form after
xx seconds once the loading is done (can be seen in online test sites).

101. In how many ways we can retrieve the data in the result set of
MySQL using PHP?
Answer : You can do it by 4 Ways

1. mysql_fetch_row.
2. mysql_fetch_array
3. mysql_fetch_object
4. mysql_fetch_assoc

102. How can we extract string ‘hotmail.com ‘ from a string

[email protected] using regular expression of PHP?
Answer : preg_match(”/^http://invalid.invalid/@(.+)
$/”,’[email protected]’,$found);
echo $found[1];

103. How can we create a database using PHP and MySQL?

Answer : We can create MySQL Database with the use of
mysql_create_db(“Database Name”).

104. Can we use include (”abc.PHP”) two times in a PHP page “makeit.PHP”?
Answer : Yes we can use include() more than one time in any page though it is not
a very good practice.

105. What is meant by urlencode and urldecode?

Answer : URLencode returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric characters
except -_. have been replaced with a percent (%) sign followed by two hex digits
and spaces encoded as plus (+) signs. It is encoded the same way that the posted
data from a WWW form
is encoded, that is the same way as in application/x-www-form-urlencoded media
type. urldecode decodes any %## encoding in the given string.

106. What is the difference between the functions unlink and unset?
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 19

Answer : unlink() deletes the given file from the file system.
unset() makes a variable undefined.

107. What is meant by urlencode and urldecode?

Answer : URLencode returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric characters
except -_. have been replaced with a percent (%) sign followed by two hex digits
and spaces encoded as plus (+) signs. It is encoded the same way that the posted
data from a WWW form
is encoded, that is the same way as in application/x-www-form-urlencoded media
type. urldecode decodes any %## encoding in the given string.

108. What is the difference between the functions unlink and unset?
Answer : unlink() deletes the given file from the file system.
unset() makes a variable undefined.

109. How can we register the variables into a session?

Answer : $_SESSION[’name’] = “RAGHAV”;

110. How can we get the browser properties using PHP?

Answer : By using
$_SERVER[’HTTP_USER_AGENT’] variable.

111. What you can do with PHP?

Answers :Some interesting things, you can do in PHP. Also, there are a lot of
hidden features like you can create .png image for games, create a .pdf files, GTK
applications and much more.

112. List out the top frameworks which are used in PHP?
Answers :1. Laravel
2. CodeIgniter
3. Symfony
2.Phalcon

113. Difference between if(‘value’==$var) and if($var==’value’)?

Answers :Here, if the value is non-zero, then if($var==’value’) is true and it will
execute. If you put the value on the left, then it throws the PHP parse time error.

114. How to stop the execution of the php script?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 20

Answers :exit() function which stops the current php script (Execution of the
page).
We included the

115. What is a CAPTCHA & when do you use it?

Ans:CAPTCHA is the short form of Completely Automated Public Turing Test.

It‟s a step taken to ensure that a feature is not abused in a way it‟s not meant to be
used. We use CAPTCHAS for general form submissions, registrations, user
generated content and so on to prevent spam bots from clogging up the system or
spamming.

116. What is the difference between GET and POST functions?

Ans:GET function is normally used when the result of using this function does not
cause any visible change on the state of the world. This is normally used in cases
like searching from a database where no changes are made to the system.

POST function is used when there is a visible change on the state of the world.
When we use a POST function, normally the system changes. E.g. when we add,
delete or modify values from a database. A simple example is a form submission.

117. Is it possible to know details about the browser being used to view a PHP
website?
Ans:Yes. We can use the get_browser() function to get the details of the browser a
user is using. This information is usually found inside the browscap.ini file.

118. Is it possible to create a database using PHP and MySQL?

Ans:Yes. We can create a database using the function mysql_create_db(“<Insert
database name here>”).

119. How many times is it possible to use an include function in a PHP page?
Ans:We can use include function multiple times in any dynamically generated
PHP page. However, it‟s not considered a good practice to have multiple include
functions on the same page.
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120. Can you tell me whether objects are passed by value or by reference?

Ans:In PHP, everything is usually passed by value and not by reference.

121. What is an efficient way to combine two variables in PHP?

Ans:There are two different ways to combine variables in PHP. Let‟s take an
example.
· $var1 = „Hello „;
· $var2 = „World‟;
We can combine it using the two codes below
· $var 3 = $var1.$var2; and
· $var3 = “$var1$var2″;
It‟s usually seen that, for large datasets, the first method outperforms the second
one.

122. What is the current version of PHP and MYSQL?

Ans:The current versions are

· PHP – 5.4.1 (As of this writing. Make sure you know the current

123. What is Full form of PHP ? Who is the father or inventor of PHP ?
Answers :Rasmus Lerdorf is known as the father of PHP that started development
of PHP in 1994
for their own Personal Home Page (PHP) and they released PHP/FI (Forms
Interpreter) version 1.0 publicly on 8 June 1995 But in 1997 two Israeli
developers named Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans rewrote the parser that formed
the base of PHP 3 and then changed the language’s name to the PHP: Hypertext
Preprocessor.

124. What are the differences between PHP3 and PHP4 and PHP5 ? what is
the current stable version of PHP ? what advance thing in php6
Answers :The current stable version of PHP is PHP 5.4.5 as still waiting for PHP6
with unicode handlig thing
There are lot of difference among PHP3 and PHP4 and PHP5 version of php so
Difference mean oldest version have less functionality as compare to new one like
1>PHP3 is oldest stable version and it was pure procedural language constructive
like C
2>Where as PHP4 have some OOPs concept added like class and object with new
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 22

functionality
3>and in PHP5 approximately all major oops functionality has been added along
with below thing
1. Implementation of exceptions and exception handling
2. Type hinting which allows you to force the type of a specific argument
3. Overloading of methods through the __call function
4. Full constructors and destructors etc through a __constuctor and __destructor
function
5. __autoload function for dynamically including certain include files depending
on the class you are trying to create.
6 Finality : can now use the final keyword to indicate that a method cannot be
overridden by a child. You can also declare an entire class as final which prevents
it from having any children at all.
7 Interfaces & Abstract Classes
8 Passed by Reference :
9 An __clone method if you really want to duplicate an object
10 Numbers of Functions Deprecated or removed in PHP 5.x like
ereg,ereg_replace,magic_quotes, session_register,register_globals, split(),
call_user_method() etc

125. Is variable name casesensitive ? could we start a variale with number like
$4name ? What is the difference between $name and $$name?
Answers :Yes variable name casesensitive and we can’t start a variable with
number like $4name as A valid variable name starts with a letter or underscore,
followed by any number of letters, numbers, or underscores.
where as $$ is variable of variable $name is variable where as $$name is variable
of variable
like $name=sonia and $$name=singh so $sonia value is singh.

126. How do you connet mysql database with PHP ?

Answers :We can connect Mysql Database with PHP using both Procedural and
Object oriented style like below
$link = mysqli_connect(“localhost”, “username”, “password”, “dbofpcds”);
$mysqli = new mysqli(“localhost”, “username”, “password”, “dbname”);
and in old type of connectivity were
$link = mysql_connect(“localhost”, “username”, “password”);
mysql_select_db(“database”,$link);

127. In how many ways we can retrieve the data in the result set of MySQL
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 23

using PHP? What is the difference between mysql_fetch_object and

mysql_fetch_array ?
Answers :we can retrieve the data in the result set of MySQL using PHP in 4
Ways
1. mysqli_fetch_row >> Get a result row as an enumerated array
2. mysqli_fetch_array >> Fetch a result row as associative and numeric array
3.mysqli_fetch_object >> Returns the current row of a result set as an object
4. mysqli_fetch_assoc >> Fetch a result row as an associative array
mysqli_fetch_object() is similar to mysqli_fetch_array(), with one difference -
an object is returned, instead of an array. Indirectly, that means that
we can only access the data by the field names, and not by their
offsets (numbers are illegal property names)

128. What are the differences between Get and post methods.
Answers :There are some defference between GET and POST method
1. GET Method have some limit like only 2Kb data able to send for request
But in POST method unlimited data can we send
2. when we use GET method requested data show in url but
Not in POST method so POST method is good for send sensetive request

129. How can we extract string “pcds.co.in ” from a string

“http://[email protected] using regular expression of PHP?
Answers :preg_match(“/^http:\/\/.+@(.+)$/”,”http://[email protected]”,
$matches);
echo $matches[1];

130. How can we create a database using PHP and MySQL?

Answers :We can create MySQL database with the use of
mysql_create_db(“Database Name”)

131. What are the differences between require and include?

Both include and require used to include a file but when included file not found
Include send Warning where as Require send Fatal Error .

132. Can we use include (“xyz.PHP”) two times in a PHP page “index.PHP”?
Answers :Yes we can use include(“xyz.php”) more than one time in any page. but
it create a prob when xyz.php file contain some funtions declaration then error
will come for already declared function in this file else not a prob like if you want
to show same content two time in page then must incude it two time not a prob
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133. What are the different tables(Engine) present in MySQL, which one is
default?
Answers :Following tables (Storage Engine) we can create
1. MyISAM(The default storage engine IN MYSQL Each MyISAM table is
stored on disk in three files. The files have names that begin with the table name
and have an extension to indicate the file type. An .frm file stores the table format.
The data file has an .MYD (MYData) extension. The index file has an .MYI
(MYIndex) extension. )
2. InnoDB(InnoDB is a transaction-safe (ACID compliant) storage engine for
MySQL that has commit, rollback, and crash-recovery capabilities to protect user
data.)
3. Merge
4. Heap (MEMORY)(The MEMORY storage engine creates tables with contents
that are stored in memory. Formerly, these were known as HEAP tables.
MEMORY is the preferred term, although HEAP remains supported for backward
compatibility. )
5. BDB (BerkeleyDB)(Sleepycat Software has provided MySQL with the
Berkeley DB transactional storage engine. This storage engine typically is called
BDB for short. BDB tables may have a greater chance of surviving crashes and
are also capable of COMMIT and ROLLBACK operations on transactions)
6. EXAMPLE
7. FEDERATED (It is a storage engine that accesses data in tables of remote
databases rather than in local tables. )
8. ARCHIVE (The ARCHIVE storage engine is used for storing large amounts of
data without indexes in a very small footprint. )
9. CSV (The CSV storage engine stores data in text files using comma-separated
values format.)
10. BLACKHOLE (The BLACKHOLE storage engine acts as a “black hole” that
accepts data but throws it away and does not store it. Retrievals always return an
empty result)

134. What is use of header() function in php ?

Answers :The header() function sends a raw HTTP header to a client.We can use
herder()
function for redirection of pages. It is important to notice that header() must
be called before any actual output is seen..

135. How can I execute a PHP script using command line?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 25

Answers :Just run the PHP CLI (Command Line Interface) program and
provide the PHP script file name as the command line argument.

136. Suppose your Zend engine supports the mode <? ?> Then how can you
configure your PHP Zend engine to support <?PHP ?> mode ?
Answers :In php.ini file:
set
short_open_tag=on
to make PHP support

137. Shopping cart online validation i.e. how can we configure Paypal, etc.?
Answers :Nothing more we have to do only redirect to the payPal url after submit
all information needed by paypal like amount,adresss etc

138. What is meant by nl2br()?

Answers :Inserts HTML line breaks (<BR />) before all newlines in a string.

139. What is htaccess? Why do we use this and Where?

Answers :.htaccess files are configuration files of Apache Server which provide
a way to make configuration changes on a per-directory basis. A file,
containing one or more configuration directives, is placed in a particular
document directory, and the directives apply to that directory, and all
subdirectories thereof.

140. How we get IP address of client, previous reference page etc ?

Answers :By using $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'],
$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] etc.

141. What are the reasons for selecting lamp (Linux, apache, MySQL, PHP)
instead of combination of other software programs, servers and operating
systems?
Answers :All of those are open source resource. Security of Linux is very
very more than windows. Apache is a better server that IIS both in
functionality and security. MySQL is world most popular open source
database. PHP is more faster that asp or any other scripting language.

142. How can we encrypt and decrypt a data present in a MySQL table using
MySQL?
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 26

Answers : AES_ENCRYPT () and AES_DECRYPT ()

143. How can we display information of a variable and readable by human
with PHP?
Answers : To be able to display a human-readable result we use print_r().

144. How is it possible to set an infinite execution time for PHP script?
Answers : The set_time_limit(0) added at the beginning of a script sets to infinite
the time of execution to not have the PHP error ‘maximum execution time
exceeded’.It is also possible to specify this in the php.ini file.

145. What does the PHP error ‘Parse error in PHP – unexpected T_variable at
line x’ means?
Answers : This is a PHP syntax error expressing that a mistake at the line x stops
parsing and executing the program.

146. What should we do to be able to export data into an Excel file?

Answers : The most common and used way is to get data into a format supported
by Excel. For example, it is possible to write a .csv file, to choose for example
comma as separator between fields and then to open the file with Excel.

147. What is the function file_get_contents() usefull for?

Answers : file_get_contents() lets reading a file and storing it in a string variable.

148. How can we connect to a MySQL database from a PHP script?

Answers : To be able to connect to a MySQL database, we must use
mysql_connect() function as follows:

149. What is the function mysql_pconnect() usefull for?

Answers : mysql_pconnect() ensure a persistent connection to the database, it
means that the connection do not close when the the PHP script ends.

150. How the result set of Mysql be handled in PHP?

Answers : The result set can be handled using mysql_fetch_array,
mysql_fetch_assoc, mysql_fetch_object or mysql_fetch_row.

151. How is it possible to know the number of rows returned in result set?
Answers : The function mysql_num_rows() returns the number of rows in a result
set.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 27

152. Which function gives us the number of affected entries by a query?

Answers : mysql_affected_rows() return the number of entries affected by an SQL
query.

153. What is the difference between mysql_fetch_object() and

mysql_fetch_array()?
Answers : The mysql_fetch_object() function collects the first single matching
record where mysql_fetch_array() collects all matching records from the table in
an array.

154. How can we access the data sent through the URL with the GET method?
Answers : In order to access the data sent via the GET method, we you use
$_GET array like this:
www.url.com?var=value
$variable = $_GET[“var”]; this will now contain ‘value’

155. How can we access the data sent through the URL with the POST
method?
Answers : To access the data sent this way, you use the $_POST array.
Imagine you have a form field called ‘var’ on the form, when the user clicks
submit to the post form, you can then access the value like this:
$_POST[“var”];

156. How can we check the value of a given variable is a number?

Answers : It is possible to use the dedicated function, is_numeric() to check
whether it is a number or not.

157. How can we check the value of a given variable is alphanumeric?

Answers : It is possible to use the dedicated function, ctype_alnum to check
whether it is an alphanumeric value or not.

158. How do I check if a given variable is empty?

Answers : If we want to check whether a variable has a value or not, it is possible
to use the empty() function.

159. What does the unlink() function means?

Answers : The unlink() function is dedicated for file system handling. It simply
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 28

deletes the file given as entry.

160. What does the unset() function means?

Answers : The unset() function is dedicated for variable management. It will

make a variable undefined.

161. How do I escape data before storing it into the database?

Answers : addslashes function enables us to escape data before storage into the
database.

162. How is it possible to remove escape characters from a string?

Answers :The strips lashes function enables us to remove the escape characters
before apostrophes in a string.

163. How can we automatically escape incoming data?

Answers :We have to enable the Magic quotes entry in the configuration file of
PHP.

164. What does the function get_magic_quotes_gpc() means?

Answers :The function get_magic_quotes_gpc() tells us whether the magic quotes
is switched on or no.

165. Is it possible to remove the HTML tags from data?

Answers :The strip_tags() function enables us to clean a string from the HTML
tags.

166. what is the static variable in function useful for?

Answers :A static variable is defined within a function only the first time and its
value can be modified during function calls as follows:

167. What Is difference between array_combine and array_merge?

Answer:
array_combine give an array by combining two arrays($keyArray, $valueArray)
and both $keyArray & $valueArray must have same number of elements.
$keyArrays become keys of returning Array, $valueArray become values of
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 29

returning Arrays.

array_merge gives an array by merging two array ($array1, $array2) and both can
have different number of elements. $array1 and $array2 are added in returning
array.

168. What Is difference between Cookie and Session?

Answer:
Cookie are stored in client side (e.g Browser) where as Session are stored in
server side (tmp file of web server). Cookie can be added/update/delete from
browser but session can't delete from browser.
Session is depended on cookie. For example: When user login in website then
session is created in webserver.

169. What are encryption functions in PHP?

Answers : CRYPT(), MD5()

170. How to store the uploaded file to the final location

Answers : move_uploaded_file( string filename, string destination)

171. How to store the uploaded file to the final location?Answers :

move_uploaded_file( string filename, string destination)

172. Explain mysql_error().

Answers : The mysql_error() message will tell us what was wrong with our mysql
query.

173. What is Difference between local variable and data members or instance
variable?
Answer: 1. A data member belongs to an object of a class whereas local variable
belongs to its current scope.
2. A local variable is declared within the body of a function and can be used only
from the point at which it is declared to the immediately following closing brace.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 30

3. Data members are accessible to all member function of the class. Local variable
are not accessible in any another function or class.

2. The only rule is that static methods or properties are out of object context.
3. Public function of class can be access by scope resolution operator (i.e ::)
and Object Reference Operator (i.e ->) but public data member can't be
access through scope resolution operator.

174. What is Persistent Database Connections?

Answer: Persistent connections are links that do not close when the execution of
your script ends. When a persistent connection is requested, PHP checks if there's
already an identical persistent connection (that remained open from earlier) - and
if it exists, it uses it. If it does not exist, it creates the link.
Persistent connections are good if the overhead to create a link to your SQL server
is high. Whether or not this overhead is really high depends on many factors.
Like, what kind of database it is, whether or not it sits on the same computer on
which your web server sits, how loaded the machine the SQL server sits on is and
so forth. The bottom line is that if that connection overhead is high, persistent
connections help you considerably.

175. Server Start/Stop/Restart unix command

Answers : Restart Apache web server over the SSH
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Stop Apache web server over the SSH

/etc/init.d/apache2 stop

Start Apache web server over the SSH

/etc/init.d/apache2 start

httpd Server restart command

service httpd restart

httpd Server Stop command

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 31

service httpd stop

httpd Server Stop command

service httpd start

176. What is ORM?

Answer: Full form of ORM is Object Relation Mapper.
ORM is programming technique for converting data between incompatible type
systems in object-oriented programming languages.

Data management tasks in object-oriented programming(OOP) are typically

implemented by manipulating objects that are almost always non-scalar values.
For example, consider an address book entry that represents a single person along
with zero or more phone numbers and zero or more addresses. This could be
modeled in an object-oriented implementation by a "Person object" with
attributes/fields to hold each data item that the entry comprises: the person's name,
a list of phone numbers, and a list of addresses. The list of phone numbers would
itself contain "PhoneNumber objects" and so on. The address book entry is treated
as a single object by the programming language (it can be referenced by a single
variable containing a pointer to the object, for instance)

177. What is Exception Handling in PHP?

Answer: Exception Handling is used to handle the error. It can handle all types of
error like Warning, Notice, User defined Error message etc but unfortunately it
can not handle fatal error. read more...

178. What is dispatcher in Zend?

Answer: Dispatching is the process of taking the request object,
Zend_Controller_Request_Abstract, extracting the module, controller, action
name, and optional parameters contained in it, and then instantiating a controller
and calling an action of that controller. If any of the module name, controller
name, or action are not found, it will use default values for them.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 32

Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Standard specifies index for each of the controller

and action defaults and default for the module default value, but allows the
developer to change the default values for each using the setDefaultController(),
setDefaultAction(), and setDefaultModule() methods, respectively.

179. What is Bootstrap in Zend?

Answer: In Zend Framework, bootstrapping is the process that loads your
application. This includes, but is not limited to the Session. Any resources needed
by your application to process the request (the dispatch) to the application is
bootstrapped/loaded/initialized before the request is fulfilled, e.g. before the
controller delegates any input to the model and creates a response that is send
back to the client.

180. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Store procedure.

Answer: Following are the advantage / disadvantage of SP.
Advantage
You do not need to deploy to make a change.
Faster
Easier to expand a system

Disadvantages
Refactoring is harder. Renaming or changing where the store proc is might
produce a bad effect.
Unit testing stored proc require code assistance outside the DB

181. What is difference between array_combine and array_merge?

Answer: array_merge merges the elements of one or more arrays. array_combine
Creates an array by using one array as its keys and another for its values.

182. What is www1?

Answers : World Wide Web
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 33

The number(eg 1,2,3,4,5....) that follows the "WWW" indicates that the data being
retrieved by the Web browser is gathering the information from a different Web
server than the one that serves the typical "WWW" address.

Web sites, especially dynamic Web sites, that handle large amounts of traffic often
need more than one server to accommodate the many requests they receive as one
server often cannot handle the multitude of requests.
Examples
https://www1.pearsonvue.com/
https://www2.pearsonvue.com/
https://www3.pearsonvue.com/
https://www4.pearsonvue.com/
https://www5.pearsonvue.com/
https://www6.pearsonvue.com/
Here all above websites have same data.

183. What is New Relic. What is benefits of this software?

Answer: New Relic is software as a service (SaaS) that monitors your Website
and mobile applications(Android, iOS) in real-time that run in different
environments like cloud, on-premise and hybrid.

Following are few benefits of New Relic

1. Monitoring your website regularly.
2. Downtime Notification by email.
3. Custom Error recording and then report you in email & also can view in
newrelicwebsite.
4. Key Transaction tracking:
You will be able to see where your application is spending most of its time (e.g. in
the controller, model OR database).
5. External Service Call Recording (Webservices)

184. What is Apdex?

Answers : Apdex means Application Performance Index.
It is standard method for reporting & comparing the performance of software.

Purpose: Analyse the performance, user satisfaction & expectation then Convert
into percentage.

Formula
Apdex = (Satisfied + Tolerating / 2) / Total
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 34

Satisfied: Response time is less than or equal to T.

Tolerated: Response time is more than T and (Less than OR Equal to 4T);
Frustrated: Response time is greater than 4T.
T: It is threshold time define by application owner.

Example: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/assets/apdex.pdf

185. Execute a php script using command line in wampserver server in

window7.
Answer: Follow simple steps
1. login to command prompt (CMD)
2. Go to path where "php.exe" exist in wamp folder.
"C:\wamp\bin\php\phpx.x.x";
2. Execute the file with php, for example
php c:/wamp/www/arun/test.php

186. What is meant by urlencode and urldocode?

Answer: URL coding converts special characters into % signs followed by two
hex digits.
For example, urlencode("10.00%") will return "10%2E00%25?
urldocode is just opposite to urlencode

187. What is difference between unlink and unset?

Answer: unlink: It unlink(remove) the file.
unset: It unlink(remove) the variable from scope.

188. How to get the image type, size,width and height

Answer:
type: exif_imagetype()
size: use getimagesize()
width: use imagesx()
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 35

height: use imagesy()

189. What are formating functions in PHP?

Answer:
Function Description
printf() : Displays a formatted string
sprintf() : Saves a formatted string in a variable
fprintf() : Prints a formatted string to a file
number_format() : Formats numbers as strings

190. How to create a mysql connection

Answers : mysql_connect(servername,username,password);

191. How to select a database?

Answers : mysql_select_db($db_name);

192. How to execute an sql query? How to fetch its result ?

Answers : $my_qry = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE

`u_id`='1'; ");
$result = mysql_fetch_array($my_qry);
echo $result['First_name'];

193. Write a program using while loop

Answers :
$my_qry = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `u_id`='1'; ");
while($result = mysql_fetch_array($my_qry))
{
echo $result['First_name'.]."<br/>";
}

194. How we can retrieve the data in the result set of MySQL using PHP?
Answers :1. mysql_fetch_row
2. mysql_fetch_array
3. mysql_fetch_object
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 36

4. mysql_fetch_assoc

195. What is the use of explode() function ?

Answers : Syntax : array explode ( string $delimiter , string $string [, int
$limit ] );
This function breaks a string into an array. Each of the array elements is a
substring of string formed by splitting it on boundaries formed by the string
delimiter.

196. What is the difference between explode() and split() functions?

Answers :Split function splits string into array by regular expression. Explode
splits a string into array by string.

197. What is the use of mysql_real_escape_string() function?

Answers : It is used to escapes special characters in a string for use in an SQL
statement

198. Write down the code for save an uploaded file in php.

Answers : if ($_FILES["file"]["error"] == 0)
{
move_uploaded_file($_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"],
"upload/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"]);
echo "Stored in: " . "upload/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"];
}

199. How to create a text file in php?

Answers :
$filename = "/home/user/guest/newfile.txt";
$file = fopen( $filename, "w" );
if( $file == false )
{
echo ( "Error in opening new file" ); exit();
}
fwrite( $file, "This is a simple test\n" );
fclose( $file );
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 37

200. How to strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end
of a string ?
Answers :
The trim() function removes whitespaces or other predefined characters from both
sides of a string.

201. What is the use of header() function in php ?

Answers : The header() function sends a raw HTTP header to a client
browser.Remember that this function must be called before sending the actual out
put.For example, You do not print any HTML element before using this function.

202. How to redirect a page in php?

Answers : The following code can be used for it,
header("Location:index.php");

203. How stop the execution of a php scrip ?

Answers : exit() function is used to stop the execution of a page

204. How to set a page as a home page in a php based site ?

Answers : index.php is the default name of the home page in php based sites

205. How to find the length of a string?

Answers : strlen() function used to find the length of a string

206. what is the use of rand() in php?

Answers : It is used to generate random numbers.If called without the arguments
it returns a pseudo-random integer between 0 and getrandmax(). If you want a
random number between 6 and 12 (inclusive), for example, use rand(6, 12).This
function does not generate cryptographically safe values, and should not be used
forcryptographic uses. If you want a cryptographically secure value, consider
using openssl_random_pseudo_bytes() instead.

207. what is the use of isset() in php?

Answers : This function is used to determine if a variable is set and is not NULL

208. What is the difference between mysql_fetch_array() and Answers :

mysql_fetch_assoc() ?
mysql_fetch_assoc function Fetch a result row as an associative array,
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 38

Whilemysql_fetch_array() fetches an associative array, a numeric array, or both

209. What is mean by an associative array?
Answers : Associative arrays are arrays that use string keys is called associative
arrays.

210. What is the importance of "method" attribute in a html form?

Answers : "method" attribute determines how to send the form-data into the
server.There are two methods, get and post. The default method is get.This sends
the form information by appending it on the URL.Information sent from a form
with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the amount of
information to send.

211. What is the importance of "action" attribute in a html form?

Answers : The action attribute determines where to send the form-data in the form
submission.

212. What is the use of "enctype" attribute in a html form?

Answers : The enctype attribute determines how the form-data should be encoded
when submitting it to the server. We need to set enctype as "multipart/form-
data"when we are using a form for uploading files

213. How to create an array of a group of items inside an HTML form ?

Answers : We can create input fields with same name for "name" attribute with
squire bracket at the end of the name of the name attribute, It passes data as an
array to PHP.
For instance :
<input name="MyArray[]" /> <input name="MyArray[]" /> <input
name="MyArray[]" /> <input name="MyArray[]" />
214. Define Object-Oriented Methodology
Answers : Object orientation is a software/Web development methodology that is
based on the modeling a real world system.An object is the core concept involved
in the object orientation. An object is the copy of the real world enity.An object
oriented model is a collection of objects and its inter-relationships

215. How do you define a constant?

Answers : Using define() directive, like define ("MYCONSTANT",150)

216. How send email using php?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 39

Answers : To send email using PHP, you use the mail() function.This mail()
function accepts 5 parameters as follows (the last 2 are optional). You need
webserver, you can't send email from localhost. eg : mail($to,$subject,$message,
$headers);

217. How to find current date and time?

Answers : The date() function provides you with a means of retrieving the current
date and time, applying the format integer parameters indicated in your script to
the timestamp provided or the current local time if no timestamp is given. In
simplified terms, passing a time parameter is optional - if you don't, the current
timestamp will be used.

218. Difference between mysql_connect and mysql_pconnect?

Answers : There is a good page in the php manual on the subject, in short
mysql_pconnect() makes a persistent connection to the database which means a
SQL link that do not close when the execution of your script ends.
mysql_connect()provides only for the databasenewconnection while using
mysql_pconnect , the function would first try to find a (persistent) link that's
already open with the same host, username and password. If one is found, an
identifier for it will be returned instead of opening a new connection... the
connection to the SQL server will not be closed when the execution of the script
ends. Instead, the link will remain open for future use.

219. What is the use of "ksort" in php?

Answers : It is used for sort an array by key in reverse order.

220. What is the difference between $var and $$var?

Answers : They are both variables. But $var is a variable with a fixed name. $$var
is a variable who's name is stored in $var. For example, if $var contains
"message", $$var is the same as $message.

221. What are the encryption techniques in PH

Answers : MD5 PHP implements the MD5 hash algorithm using the md5
function,
eg : $encrypted_text = md5 ($msg);

mcrypt_encrypt :- string mcrypt_encrypt ( string $cipher , string $key , string

$data , string $mode [, string $iv ] );
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 40

Encrypts plaintext with given parameters

222. What is the use of the function htmlentities?

Answers : Html entities Convert all applicable characters to HTML entities This
function is identical to htmlspecialchars() in all ways, except with htmlentities(),
all characters which have HTML character entity equivalents are translated into
these entities.

223. How to delete a file from the system

Answers : Unlink() deletes the given file from the file system.

224. How to get the value of current session id?

Answers : session_id() function returns the session id for the current session.

225. What are the differences between mysql_fetch_array(),

mysql_fetch_object(), mysql_fetch_row()?
Answers : o Mysql_fetch_array Fetch a result row as an associative array, a
numeric array, or both.

o mysql_fetch_object ( resource result ) Returns an object with properties that

correspond to the fetched row and moves the internal data pointer ahead. Returns
an object with properties that correspond to the fetched row, or FALSE if there are
no more rows
o mysql_fetch_row() fetches one row of data from the result associated with the
specified result identifier. The row is returned as an array. Each result column is
stored in an array offset, starting at offset 0.

226. What are the different types of errors in PHP ?

Answers : Here are three basic types of runtime errors in PHP:
o 1. Notices: These are trivial, non-critical errors that PHP encounters while
executing a script - for example, accessing a variable that has not yet been
defined. By default, such errors are not displayed to the user at all - although you
can change this default behavior.
o 2. Warnings: These are more serious errors - for example, attempting to
include() a file which does not exist. By default, these errors are displayed to the
user, but they do not result in script termination.
o 3. Fatal errors: These are critical errors - for example, instantiating an object
of a non-existent class, or calling a non-existent function. These errors cause the
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 41

immediate termination of the script, and PHP's default behavior is to display them
to the user when they take place.

227. what is sql injection ?

Answers : SQL injection is a malicious code injection technique.It exploiting SQL
vulnerabilities in Web applications

228. What is x+ mode in fopen() used for?

Answers : Read/Write. Creates a new file. Returns FALSE and an error if file
already exists
229. How to find the position of the first occurrence of a substring in a string
Answers : strpos() is used to find the position of the first occurrence of a
substring in a string

230. What is PEAR?

Answers :PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP
components.The project seeks to provide a structured library of code, maintain a
system for distributing code and for managing code packages, and promote a
standard coding style.PEAR is broken into three classes: PEAR Core
Components, PEAR Packages, and PECL Packages. The Core Components
include the base classes of PEAR and PEAR_Error, along with database, HTTP,
logging, and e-mailing functions. The PEAR Packages include functionality
providing for authentication, networking, and file system features, as well as tools
for working with XML and HTML templates.

231. Distinguish between urlencode and urldecode?

Answers : This method is best when encode a string to used in a query part of a
url. it returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric characters except -_. have
replece with a percentege(%) sign . the urldecode->Decodes url to encode string
as any %and other symbole are decode by the use of the urldecode() function.

232. What are the different errors in PHP?

Answers : In PHP, there are three types of runtime errors, they are:
Warnings:
These are important errors. Example: When we try to include () file which is not
available. These errors are showed to the user by default but they will not result in
ending the script.
Notices:
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 42

These errors are non-critical and trivial errors that come across while executing
the script in PHP. Example: trying to gain access the variable which is not
defined. These errors are not showed to the users by default even if the default
behavior is changed.
Fatal errors:
These are critical errors. Example: instantiating an object of a class which does
not exist or a non-existent function is called. These errors results in termination of
the script immediately and default behavior of PHP is shown to them when they
take place. Twelve different error types are used to represent these variations
internally.

233. What are the differences between Get and post methods in form
submitting. Give the case where we can use get and we can use post methods?
Answer : When to use GET or POST
The HTML 2.0 specification says, in section Form Submission (and the HTML
4.0 specification repeats this with minor stylistic changes):
–>If the processing of a form is idempotent (i.e. it has no lasting observable effect
on the state of the
world), then the form method should be GET. Many database searches have no
visible side-effects and make ideal applications of query forms.
–
–>If the service associated with the processing of a form has side effects (for
example, modification of a database or subscription to a service), the method
should be POST.

234. How the form data is transmitted?

Answers : quotation from the HTML 4.0 specification
–> If the method is “get” – -, the user agent takes the value of action, appends a ?
to it, then appends the form data set, encoded using the application/x-www-form-
urlencoded content type. The user agent then traverses the link to this URI. In this
scenario, form data are restricted to ASCII codes.
–> If the method is “post” –, the user agent conducts an HTTP post transaction
using the value of the action attribute and a message created according to the
content type specified by the enctype
attribute.

235. Quote from CGI FAQ

Answers : Firstly, the the HTTP protocol specifies differing usages for the two
methods. GET requests should always be idempotent on the server. This means
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 43

that whereas one GET request might (rarely) change some state on the Server, two
or more identical requests will have no further effect.

This is a theoretical point which is also good advice in practice. If a user hits
“reload” on his/her browser, an identical request will be sent to the server,
potentially resulting in two identical database or guestbook entries, counter
increments, etc. Browsers may reload a GET URL automatically, particularly if
cacheing is disabled (as is usually the case with CGI output), but will typically
prompt the user before re-submitting a POST request. This means you’re far less
likely to get inadvertently-repeated entries from POST.

GET is (in theory) the preferred method for idempotent operations, such as
querying a database, though it matters little if you’re using a form. There is a
further practical constraint that many systems have built-in limits to the length of
a GET request they can handle: when the total size of a request (URL+params)
approaches or exceeds 1Kb, you are well-advised to use POST in any
case.

I would prefer POST when I don’t want the status to be change when user
resubmits. And GET
when it does not matter.

236. Who is the father of PHP and explain the changes in PHP versions
Answer : Rasmus Lerdorf is known as the father of PHP.PHP/FI 2.0 is an early
and no longer supported version of PHP. PHP 3 is the successor to PHP/FI 2.0 and
is a lot nicer. PHP 4 is the current generation of PHP, which uses the Zend engine
under the hood. PHP 5 uses Zend engine 2 which, among other things, offers
many additional OOPs features.

237. How can we submit a form without a submit button?

Answer : The main idea behind this is to use Java script submit() function in
order to submit the form without explicitly clicking any submit button. You can
attach the document.formname.submit() method to onclick, onchange events of
different inputs and perform the form submission. you
can even built a timer function where you can automatically submit the form after
xx seconds once the loading is done (can be seen in online test sites).

238. In how many ways we can retrieve the data in the result set of
MySQL using PHP?
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 44

Answer : You can do it by 4 Ways

1. mysql_fetch_row.
2. mysql_fetch_array
3. mysql_fetch_object
4. mysql_fetch_assoc

239. What is the difference between mysql_fetch_object and

mysql_fetch_array?
Answer : mysql_fetch_object() is similar to mysql_fetch_array(), with one
difference –
an object is returned, instead of an array. Indirectly, that means that you can only
access the data by the field names, and not by their offsets (numbers are illegal
property names).

240. What is the difference between $message and $$message?

Answer : It is a classic example of PHP’s variable variables. take the following
example.

$message = “Raghav”;
$$message = “is a owner of https://sharag.wordpress.com/ “;

$message is a simple PHP variable that we are used to. But the $$message is not a
very familiar face. It creates a variable name $mizan with the value “is a
moderator of PHPXperts.” assigned. break it like this${$message} =>
$mizanSometimes it is convenient to be able to have variable variable names.
That is, a variable name which can be set and used dynamically.

241. How can we extract string ‘hotmail.com ‘ from a string

[email protected] using regular expression of PHP?

Answer : preg_match(”/^http://.+@(.+)$/”,’[email protected]’,$found);
echo $found[1];

242. How can we create a database using PHP and MySQL?

Answer : We can create MySQL Database with the use of
mysql_create_db(“Database Name”).

243. What are the differences between require and include, include_once and
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 45

require_once?
Answer :
The include() statement includes and evaluates the specified file.The
documentation below also applies to require(). The two constructs are identical in
every way except how they handle
failure. include() produces a Warning while require() results in a Fatal Error. In
other words, use
require() if you want a missing file to halt processing of the page. include() does
not behave this way, the script will continue regardless. The include_once()
statement includes and evaluates the
specified file during the execution of the script. This is a behavior similar to the
include() statement, with the only difference being that if the code from a file has
already been included, it will not be
included again. As the name suggests, it will be included just once.include_once()
should be used in cases where the same file might be included and evaluated more
than once during a particular execution of a script, and you want to be sure that it
is included exactly once to avoid problems with function redefinitions, variable
value reassignments, etc. require_once() should be used in cases where the same
file might be included and evaluated more than once during a particular execution
of a script, and you want to be sure that it is included exactly once to avoid
problems with function
redefinitions, variable value reassignments, etc

244. Can we use include (”abc.PHP”) two times in a PHP page “makeit.PHP”?
Answer : Yes we can use include() more than one time in any page though it is
not a very good practice.

245. What are the different tables present in MySQL, which type of table is
generated when we are creating a table in the following syntax:
create table employee (eno int(2),ename varchar(10)) ?

Answer : Total 5 types of tables we can create

1. MyISAM
2. Heap
3. Merge
4. INNO DB
5. ISAM
MyISAM is the default storage engine as of MySQL 3.23 and as a result if
we do not specify the table name explicitly it will be assigned to the
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 46

default engine.

246. Functions in IMAP, POP3 AND LDAP?

Answer : You can find these specific information in PHP Manual.

247. How can I execute a PHP script using command line?

Answer : As of version 4.3.0, PHP supports a new SAPI type (Server Application
Programming Interface) named CLI which means Command Line Interface. Just
run the PHP CLI (Command Line Interface) program and provide the PHP script
file name as the command line argument. For example, “php myScript.php”,
assuming “php” is the command to invoke the CLI program.
Be aware that if your PHP script was written for the Web CGI interface, it may
not execute properly in command line environment.

248. Suppose your Zend engine supports the mode <? ?>. Then how can you
configure your PHP Zend engine to support <?php ?>mode ?
Answer : In php.ini file:
set
short_open_tag=on
to make PHP support

249. Shopping cart online validation i.e. how can we configure Paypal,
etc.?
Answer : We can find the detail documentation about different paypal integration
process at the following site PayPal PHP
SDK : http://www.paypaldev.org/

250. What is meant by nl2br()?

Answer : Inserts HTML line breaks
(
)
before all newlines in a string string nl2br (string); Returns string with ” inserted
before all newlines.
For example: echo nl2br(”god bless/n you”) will output “god bless
you” to your browser.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 47

251. Draw the architecture of Zend engine?

Answer : The Zend Engine is the internal compiler and runtime engine used by
PHP4. Developed by Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, the Zend Engine is an
abbreviation of their names. In the early days of PHP4, it worked as follows:The

PHP script was loaded by the Zend Engine and compiled into Zend opcode.
Opcodes, short for operation codes, are low level binary instructions. Then
the opcode was executed and the HTML generated sent to the client. The
opcode was flushed from memory afterexecution.Today, there are a multitude
of products and techniques to help you speed up this process. In the following

diagram, we show the how modern PHP scripts work; all the shaded boxes
are optional.
PHP Scripts are loaded into memory and compiled into Zend opcodes.

252. What are the current versions of apache, PHP, and MySQL?
Answer : As of Aug 2008 the current versions are PHP: php5.2.6
MySQL: MySQL 5.1.2
Apache: Apache 2.2.9
Note: visit
http://www.php.net/,
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/,
http://www.apache.org/ to get current
versions.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 48

253. What are the reasons for selecting lamp (Linux, apache, MySQL,
PHP) instead of combination of other software programs, servers and
operating systems?
Answer : All of those are open source resource. Security of Linux is very very
more than windows. Apache is a better server that IIS both in functionality and
security. MySQL is world most popular open source database. PHP is more faster
that asp or any other scripting language.

254. How can we encrypt and decrypt a data present in a MySQL table using
MySQL?
Answer : AES_ENCRYPT () and AES_DECRYPT ()

255. How can we encrypt the username and password using PHP?
Answer : The functions in this section perform encryption and decryption, and
compression and uncompression:

256. What are the features and advantages of object-oriented programming?

Answer : One of the main advantages of OO programming is its ease of
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 49

modification; objects can easily be modified and added to a system there by

reducing maintenance costs. OO programming is also considered to be better at
modeling the real world than is procedural programming. It allows for more
complicated and flexible interactions. OO systems are also easier for non-
technical personnel to understand and easier for them to participate in the
maintenance and enhancement of a system because it appeals to natural human
cognition patterns. For some systems, an OO approach can speed development
time since many objects are standard across systems and can be reused.
Components that manage dates, shipping, shopping carts, etc. can be purchased
and easily modified for a specific system.

257. What are the differences between procedure-oriented languages and

object-oriented languages?
Answer : Traditional programming has the following characteristics:Functions are
written sequentially, so that a change in programming can affect any code that
follows it. If a function is used multiple times in a system (i.e., a piece of code
that manages the date), it is often simply cut and pasted into each program (i.e., a
change log, order function, fulfillment system, etc). If a date change is needed
(i.e., Y2K when the code needed to be changed to handle four numerical digits
instead of two), all these pieces of code must be found, modified, and tested. Code
(sequences of computer instructions) and data (information on which the
instructions operates on) are kept separate. Multiple sets of code can access and
modify one set of data. One set of code may rely on data in multiple places.
Multiple sets of code and data are required to work together. Changes made to any
of the code sets and data sets can cause problems through out the system.Object-
Oriented programming takes a radically different approach:Code and data are
merged into one indivisible item – an object (the term “component” has also been
used to describe an object.) An object is an abstraction of a set of real-world
things (for example, an object may be created around “date”) The object would
contain all information and
functionality for that thing (A date object it may contain labels like January,
February, Tuesday, Wednesday.
It may contain functionality that manages leap years, determines if it is a business
day or a holiday, etc., See Fig. 1). Ideally, information about a particular thing
should reside in only one place in a system.The information within an object is
encapsulated (or hidden) from the rest of the system. A system is composed of
multiple objects (i.e., date function, reports, order processing, etc., See Fig 2).
When one object needs information from another object, a request is sent asking
for specific information. (for example, a report object may need to know what
today’s date is and will send a request to the date object) These requests are called
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 50

messages and each object has an interface that manages messages. OO

programming languages include features such as “class”, “instance”,
“inheritance”, and “polymorphism” that increase the power and
flexibility of an object.

258. What is the use of friend function?

Answer : Sometimes a function is best shared among a number of different
classes. Such functions can be declared either as member functions of one class or
as global functions. In either case they can be set to be friends of other classes, by
using a friend specifier in the class that is admitting them. Such functions can use
all attributes of the class which names them as a friend, as if they were themselves
members of that class. A friend declaration is essentially a prototype for a member
function, but instead of requiring an implementation with the name of that class
attached by the double colon syntax, a global function or member function of
another class provides the match.

259. What are the differences between public, private, protected,static,

transient, final and volatile?
Answer : Public: Public declared items can be accessed everywhere.
Protected: Protected limits access to inherited and parent classes (and to the class
that defines the item).
Private: Private limits visibility only to the class that defines the item.
Static: A static variable exists only in a local function scope, but it does not lose
its value when program execution leaves this scope.
Final: Final keyword prevents child classes from overriding a method by
prefixing the definition with final. If the class itself is being defined final then it
cannot be extended.
Transient: A transient variable is a variable that may not be serialized.
Volatile: a variable that might be concurrently modified by multiple threads
should be declared volatile. Variables declared to be volatile will not be optimized
by the compiler because their value can change at any time.

260. What are the different types of errors in PHP?

Answer : Three are three types of errors:1. Notices: These are trivial, non-critical
errors that PHP encounters while executing a script – for example, accessing a
variable that has not yet been defined. By default, such errors are not displayed to
the user at all – although, as you will see, you can change this default behavior.2.
Warnings: These are more serious errors – for example, attempting to include() a
file which does not exist. By default, these errors are displayed to the user, but
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 51

they do not result in script termination.3. Fatal errors: These are critical errors –
for example,
instantiating an object of a non-existent class, or calling a non-existent function.
These errors cause the immediate termination of the script, and PHP’s default
behavior is to display them to the user when they take place.

261. What is the functionality of the function strstr and stristr?

Answer : strstr:
Returns part of haystack string from the first occurrence of needle to the end of
haystack.If needle is not found, returns FALSE. If needle is not a string, it is
converted to an integer and applied as the ordinal value of a character. This
function is case-sensitive. For case-insensitive searches, use stristr().

262. What are the differences between PHP 3 and PHP 4 and PHP 5?
Answer : PHP 3 is most procedure oriented and , PHP4 and PHP5 aer object
oriented. For more details
http://php.net/

263. How can we convert asp pages to PHP pages?

Answer : There are lots of tools available for asp to PHP conversion. you can
search Google for that. the best one is available athttp://asp2php.naken.cc/

264. What is the functionality of the function htmlentities?

Answer : Convert all applicable characters to HTML entities
This function is identical to htmlspecialchars() in all ways, except with
htmlentities(), all characters which have HTML character entity equivalents are
translated into these entities.

265. How can we get second of the current time using date function?
Answer : $second = date(”s”);

266. How can we convert the time zones using PHP?

Answer : By using date_default_timezone_get and
date_default_timezone_set function on PHP 5.1.0
<!–p// Discover what 8am in Tokyo relates to on the East Coast of the US

// Set the default timezone to Tokyo time:

date_default_timezone_set(’Asia/Tokyo’);
// Now generate the timestamp for that particular timezone, on Jan 1st, 2000
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 52

$stamp = mktime(8, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2000);

// Now set the timezone back to US/Eastern

date_default_timezone_set(’US/Eastern’);

// Output the date in a standard format (RFC1123), this will print:

// Fri, 31 Dec 1999 18:00:00 EST
echo ‘
‘, date(DATE_RFC1123, $stamp) ,’
‘; ?>

267. What is meant by urlencode and urldecode?

Answer : URLencode returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric characters
except -_. have been replaced with a percent (%) sign followed by two hex digits
and spaces encoded as plus (+) signs. It is encoded the same way that the posted
data from a WWW form
is encoded, that is the same way as in application/x-www-form-urlencoded media
type. urldecode decodes any %## encoding in the given string.

268. What is the difference between the functions unlink and unset?
Answer : unlink() deletes the given file from the file system.
unset() makes a variable undefine

269. How can we register the variables into a session?

Answer : $_SESSION[’name’] = “RAGHAV”;

270. What is maximum size of a database in MySQL?

Answer : If the operating system or file system places a limit on the number of
files in a directory, MySQL is bound by thatconstraint.The efficiency of the
operating system in handling large numbers offiles in a directory can place a
practical limit on the number of tables in a database. If the time required to open a
file in the directory increases significantly as the number of files increases,
database performance can be adversely affected.The amount of available disk
space limits the number of tables.MySQL3.22 had a 4GB (4 gigabyte) limit on
table size. With the MyISAM storage engine in MySQL 3.23, the maximum table
size was increased to65536 terabytes (2567 – 1 bytes). With this larger allowed
table size,the maximum effective table size for MySQL databases is usually
determined by operating system constraints on file sizes, not by MySQL internal
limits.The InnoDB storage engine maintains InnoDB tables within a table space
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that can be created from several files. This allows a table to exceed the maximum
individual file size. The table space can include raw disk partitions, which allows
extremely large tables. The maximum table space size is 64TB.The following
table lists some examples of operating system file-size limits. This is only a rough
guide and is not intended to be definitive.For the most up-to-date information, be
sure to check the documentationspecific to your operating system.Operating
System File-size Limit Linux 2.2-Intel 32-bit 2GB (LFS: 4GB)
Linux 2.4+ (using ext3 filesystem) 4TB
Solaris 9/10 16TB
NetWare w/NSS filesystem 8TB
Win32 w/ FAT/FAT32 2GB/4GB
Win32 w/ NTFS 2TB (possibly larger)
MacOS X w/ HFS+ 2TB

271. Give the syntax of Grant and Revoke commands?

Answer : The generic syntax for grant is as following :
> GRANT [rights] on [database/s] TO [username@hostname] IDENTIFIED
BY[password]now rights can be a) All privileges b) combination of create, drop,
select, insert, update and delete etc. We can grant rights on all databse by using
*.* or some specificdatabase by database.* or a specific table by
database.table_name username@hotsname can be either username@localhost,
username@hostname and username@% where hostname is any valid hostname
and % represents any name, the *.*any condition password is simply the
password of user.
The generic syntax for revoke is as following :
> REVOKE [rights] on [database/s] FROM [username@hostname] now rights
can be as explained above a) All privileges b) combination of create, drop, select,
insert, update and delete etc.username@hotsname can be either
username@localhost, username@hostname and username@% where hostname is
any valid hostname and % represents any name, the *.*any condition

272. Explain Normalization concept?

Answer : The normalization process involves getting our data to conform to three
progressive normal forms, and a higher level of normalization cannot be achieved
until the previous levels have been achieved (there are actually five normal forms,
but the last two are mainly academic and will not be discussed).First Normal
Form The First Normal Form (or 1NF) involves removal of redundant data from
horizontal rows. We want to ensure that there is no duplication of data in a given
row, and that every column stores the least amount of information possible
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 54

(making the field atomic). Second Normal Form Where the First Normal Form
deals with redundancy of data across a horizontal row, Second Normal Form (or
2NF) deals with redundancy of data in vertical columns. As stated earlier, the
normal forms are progressive, so to achieve Second Normal Form, your tables
must already be in First NormalForm.Third Normal Form I have a confession to
make; I do not often use Third Normal Form. In Third Normal Form we are
looking for data in our tables that is not fully dependent on the primary key, but
dependent on another value in the table.

273. How can we find the number of rows in a table using MySQL?
Answer : Use this for mysql>SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table_name;

274. How can we find the number of rows in a result set using PHP?
Answer :
$result = mysql_query($sql, $db_link);
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result);
echo “$num_rows rows found”;

275. How many ways we can we find the current date using MySQL?
Answer :
SELECT CURDATE();
CURRENT_DATE() = CURDATE()
for time use SELECT CURTIME();
CURRENT_TIME() = CURTIME()

276. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Cascading Style Sheets?
Answer :
External Style Sheets
Advantages : Can control styles for multiple documents at once. Classes can be
created for use on multiple HTML element types in many documents.Selector and
grouping methods can be used to apply styles under complex contexts.
Disadvantages : An extra download is required to import style information for
eachdocument The rendering of the document may be delayed until the
externalstyle sheet is loaded becomes slightly unwieldy for small quantities
ofstyle definitions.
Embedded Style Sheets
Advantages : Classes can be created for use on multiple tag types in the
document.Selector and grouping methods can be used to apply styles under
complexcontexts. No additional downloads necessary to receive style information.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 55

Disadvantages : This method can not control styles for multiple documents at
once.
Inline Styles
Advantages : Useful for small quantities of style definitions. Can override
otherstyle specification methods at the local level so only exceptions needto be
listed in conjunction with other style methods.
Disadvantages : Does not distance style information from content (a main goal
ofSGML/HTML). Can not control styles for multiple documents at once.Author
can not create or control classes of elements to control multipleelement types
within the document. Selector grouping methods can not beused to create
complex element addressing scenarios

277. What type of inheritance that PHP supports?

Answer : In PHP an extended class is always dependent on a single base
class,that is, multiple inheritance is supported by interfaces. Classes are extended
using the keyword ‘extends’.

278. What is the difference between Primary Key and Unique key
Answers : Primary Key: A column in a table whose values uniquely identify
therows in the table. A primary key value cannot be NULL. Unique Key: Unique
Keys are used to uniquely identify each row in thetable. There can be one and
only one row for each unique key value. So NULL can be a unique key.There can
be only one primary key for a table but there can be morethan one unique for a
table

279. The structure of table view buyers is as follows:

the value of user_pri_id the last row 999 then What will happen inthe

following conditions?Condition1: Delete all the rows and insert another row
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 56

then.What is the starting value for this auto incremented field user_pri_id
,Condition2: Delete the last row(having the field value 999) andinsert another
row then. What is the value for this auto incremented field user_pri_id.

Answer : In both cases let the value for auto increment field be n then nextrow
will have value n+1 i.e. 1000.

280. What are the advantages/disadvantages of MySQL and PHP?

Answer : Both of them are open source software (so free of cost), supportcross
platform. php is faster then ASP and JSP.

281. What is the difference between GROUP BY and ORDER BY in Sql?

Answer : ORDER BY [col1],[col2],…,[coln]; Tells DBMS according to what
columns it should sort the result. If two rows will have the same value in col1it
will try to sort them according to col2 and so on.GROUP BY[col1],[col2],…,
[coln]; Tells DBMS to group results with same value of column col1. You can use
COUNT(col1), SUM(col1), AVG(col1) with it, if you want to count all items in
group, sum all values or view average.

282. What is the difference between char and varchar data types?
Answer : Set char to occupy n bytes and it will take n bytes even if u r storing a
value of n-m bytes Set varchar to occupy n bytes and it will take only the required
space and will not use the n bytes eg. name char(15) will waste 10 bytes if we
store ‘mizan’, if each char takes a byte eg. name varchar(15) will just use 5 bytes
if we store ‘mizan’, if each char takes a byte. rest 10 bytes will be free.

283. What is the functionality of md5 function in PHP?

Answer : Calculate the md5 hash of a string. The hash is a 32-
characterhexadecimal number. I use it to generate keys which I use to
identifyusers etc. If I add random no techniques to it the md5 generated nowwill
be totally different for the same string I am using

284. How can I load data from a text file into a table?
Answer : you can use LOAD DATA INFILE file_name; syntax to load datafrom a
text file. but you have to make sure thata) data is delimitedb) columns and data
matched correctly.

285. How can we know the number of days between two given dates using
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 57

MySQL?
Answer : SELECT DATEDIFF(’2007-03-07?,’2005-01-01?);

286. How can we know the number of days between two given dates using
PHP?
Answer : $date1 = date(’Y-m-d’);
$date2 = ‘2006-08-15?;
$days = (strtotime($date1) – strtotime($date2)) / (60 * 60 * 24);

287. How can we encrypt the username and password using PHP?
The functions in this section perform encryption and decryption, and
compression and uncompression:

288. What are the features and advantages of object-oriented programming?

Answers : One of the main advantages of OO programming is its ease of
modification; objects can easily be modified and added to a system there
by reducing maintenance costs. OO programming is also considered to be
better at modeling the real world than is procedural programming. It
allows for more complicated and flexible interactions. OO systems are
also easier for non-technical personnel to understand and easier for
them to participate in the maintenance and enhancement of a system
because it appeals to natural human cognition patterns.
For some systems, an OO approach can speed development time since many
objects are standard across systems and can be reused. Components that
manage dates, shipping, shopping carts, etc. can be purchased and easily
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modified for a specific system

289. What are the differences between procedure-oriented languages and

object-oriented languages?
Answers : There are lot of difference between procedure language and object
oriented like below
1>Procedure language easy for new developer but complex to understand whole
software as compare to object oriented model
2>In Procedure language it is difficult to use design pattern mvc , Singleton
pattern etc but in OOP you we able to develop design pattern
3>IN OOP language we able to ree use code like Inheritance ,polymorphism etc
but this type of thing not available in procedure language on that our Fonda use
COPY and PASTE .

290. What is the use of friend function?

Answers : Sometimes a function is best shared among a number of different
classes. Such functions can be declared either as member functions of
one class or as global functions. In either case they can be set to be
friends of other classes, by using a friend specifier in the class that
is admitting them. Such functions can use all attributes of the class
which names them as a friend, as if they were themselves members of that
class.
A friend declaration is essentially a prototype for a member function,
but instead of requiring an implementation with the name of that class
attached by the double colon syntax, a global function or member
function of another class provides the match.

291. What are the differences between public, private, protected, static,
transient, final and volatile?
Answers : Public: Public declared items can be accessed everywhere.
Protected: Protected limits access to inherited and parent
classes (and to the class that defines the item).
Private: Private limits visibility only to the class that defines
the item.
Static: A static variable exists only in a local function scope,
but it does not lose its value when program execution leaves this scope.
Final: Final keyword prevents child classes from overriding a
method by prefixing the definition with final. If the class itself is
being defined final then it cannot be extended.
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transient: A transient variable is a variable that may not

be serialized.
volatile: a variable that might be concurrently modified by multiple
threads should be declared volatile. Variables declared to be volatile
will not be optimized by the compiler because their value can change at
any time.

292. What are the different types of errors in PHP?

Answers : Three are three types of errors:
1. Notices: These are trivial,non-critical errors that PHP encounters while
executing a script “ for example, accessing a variable that has not yet been
defined. By default, such errors are not displayed to the user at all “ although, as
you will see, you can change this default behavior.
2. Warnings: These are more serious errors “ for example, attempting to
include() a file which does not exist. By default, these errors are displayed to the
user, but they do not result in script termination.
3. Fatal errors: These are critical errors “ for example, instantiating an object of
a non-existent class, or calling a non-existent function. These errors cause the
immediate termination of the script, and PHP’s default behavior is to display them
to the user when they take place.

293. What is the functionality of the function strstr and stristr?

Answers : strstr Returns part of string from the first occurrence of needle(sub
string that we finding out ) to the end of string.
$email= ‘[email protected]’;
$domain = strstr($email, ‘@’);
echo $domain; // prints @gmail.com
here @ is the needle
stristr is case-insensitive means able not able to diffrenciate between a and A

294. How can we submit a form without a submit button?

Answers : Java script submit() function is used for submit form without submit
button on click call document.formname.submit()

295. How can we convert asp pages to PHP pages?

Answers : There are lots of tools available for asp to PHP conversion. you can
search Google for that. the best one is available athttp://asp2php.naken.cc./

296. What is the functionality of the function htmlentities?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 60

Answers : Convert all applicable characters to HTML entities

This function is identical to htmlspecialchars() in all ways, except
with htmlentities(), all characters which have HTML character entity
equivalents are translated into these entities.

297. How can we get second of the current time using date function?
Answers : $second = date(“s”);

298. How can we convert the time zones using PHP?

Answers : By using date_default_timezone_get and
date_default_timezone_set function on PHP 5.1.0
<?php
// Discover what 8am in Tokyo relates to on the East Coast of the US
// Set the default timezone to Tokyo time:
date_default_timezone_set(‘Asia/Tokyo’);
// Now generate the timestamp for that particular timezone, on Jan 1st, 2000
$stamp = mktime(8, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2000);
// Now set the timezone back to US/Eastern
date_default_timezone_set(‘US/Eastern’);
// Output the date in a standard format (RFC1123), this will print:
// Fri, 31 Dec 1999 18:00:00 EST
echo ‘<p>’, date(DATE_RFC1123, $stamp) ,’</p>’;?>

299. What is meant by urlencode and urldocode?

Answers : URLencode returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric characters
except -_. have been replaced with a percent (%)
sign followed by two hex digits and spaces encoded as plus (+)
signs. It is encoded the same way that the posted data from a WWW form
is encoded, that is the same way as in
application/x-www-form-urlencoded media type.
urldecode decodes any %##
encoding in the given string.

300. What is the difference between the functions unlink and unset?
Answers : unlink() deletes the given file from the file system.
unset() makes a variable undefined.

301. How can we register the variables into a session?

Answers : $_SESSION['name'] = “tut2learn”;
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 61

302. How can we get the properties (size, type, width, height) of an image using
PHP image functions?
Answers : To know the Image type use exif_imagetype () function
To know the Image size use getimagesize () function
To know the image width use imagesx () function
To know the image height use imagesy() function t

303. How can we get the browser properties using PHP?

Answers : By using
$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']
variable.
304. How can we define a variable accessible in functions of a PHP script?This
Answers : feature is possible using the global keyword.

305. How is it possible to return a value from a function?

Answers : A function returns a value using the instruction ‘return $value;’.

306. What is the most convenient hashing method to be used to hash

passwords?
Answers : It is preferable to use crypt() which natively supports several hashing
algorithms or the function hash() which supports more variants than crypt() rather
than using the common hashing algorithms such as md5, sha1 or sha256 because
they are conceived to be fast. hence, hashing passwords with these algorithms can
vulnerability.

307. Which cryptographic extension provide generation and verification of

digital signatures?
Answers : The PHP-openssl extension provides several cryptographic operations
including generation and verification of digital signatures.

308. How a constant is defined in a PHP script?

Answers : The define() directive lets us defining a constant as follows:
define (“ACONSTANT”, 123);

309. How can you pass a variable by reference?

Answers : To be able to pass a variable by reference, we use an ampersand in
front of it, as follows $var1 = &$var2
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310. Will a comparison of an integer 12 and a string “13” work in PHP?

Answers : “13” and 12 can be compared in PHP since it casts everything to the
integer type.

311. How is it possible to cast types in PHP?

Answers : The name of the output type have to be specified in parentheses before
the variable which is to be cast as follows:
* (int), (integer) – cast to integer
* (bool), (boolean) – cast to boolean
* (float), (double), (real) – cast to float
* (string) – cast to string
* (array) – cast to array
* (object) – cast to object

312. When a conditional statement is ended with an endif?

Answers : When the original if was followed by : and then the code block without
braces.

313. How is the ternary conditional operator used in PHP?

Answers : It is composed of three expressions: a condition, and two operands
describing what instruction should be performed when the specified condition is
true or false as follows:
Expression_1 ? Expression_2 : Expression_3;

314. What is the function func_num_args() used for?

Answers : The function func_num_args() is used to give the number of
parameters passed into a function.

315. If the variable $var1 is set to 10 and the $var2 is set to the character var1,
what’s the value of $$var2?
Answers : $$var2 contains the value 10.

316. What does accessing a class via :: means?

Answers : :: is used to access static methods that do not require object
initialization.

317. In PHP, objects are they passed by value or by reference?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 63

Answers : In PHP, objects passed by value.

318. Are Parent constructors called implicitly inside a class constructor?

Answers : No, a parent constructor have to be called explicitly as follows:
parent::constructor($value)

319. What’s the difference between __sleep and __wakeup?

Answers : __sleep returns the array of all the variables that need to be saved,
while __wakeup retrieves them.

320. What is faster?

Answers : 1- Combining two variables as follows:
$variable1 = ‘Hello ‘;
$variable2 = ‘World’;
$variable3 = $variable1.$variable2;

Or
2- $variable3 = “$variable1$variable2”;
$variable3 will contain “Hello World”. The first code is faster than the second
code especially for large large sets of data.

321. what is the definition of a session?

Answers : A session is a logical object enabling us to preserve temporary data
across multiple PHP pages.

322. How to initiate a session in PHP?

Answers : The use of the function session_start() lets us activating a session.

323. How is it possible to propagate a session id?

Answers : It is possible to propagate a session id via cookies or URL parameters.

324. What is the meaning of a Persistent Cookie?

Answers : A persistent cookie is permanently stored in a cookie file on the
browser’s computer. By default, cookies are temporary and are erased if we close
the browser.

325. When sessions ends?

Answers : Sessions automatically ends when the PHP script finishs executing, but
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 64

can be manually ended using the session_write_close().

326. What is the difference between session_unregister() and session_unset()?

Answers : The session_unregister() function unregister a global variable from the
current session and the session_unset() function free all session variables.

327. What does $GLOBALS means?

Answers : $GLOBALS is associative array including references to all variables
which are currently defined in the global scope of the script.

328. What does $_SERVER means?

Answers : $_SERVER is an array including information created by the web server
such as paths, headers, and script locations.

329. What does $_FILES means?

Answers : $_FILES is an associative array composed of items sent to the current

script via the HTTP POST method.

330. What is the difference between $_FILES[‘userfile’][‘name’] and

$_FILES[‘userfile’][‘tmp_name’]?
Answers : $_FILES[‘userfile’][‘name’] represents the original name of the file on
the client machine,
$_FILES[‘userfile’][‘tmp_name’] represents the temporary filename of the file
stored on the server.

331. How can we get the error when there is a problem to upload a file?
Answers : $_FILES[‘userfile’][‘error’] contains the error code associated with the
uploaded file.

332. How can we change the maximum size of the files to be uploaded?
Answers : We can change the maximum size of files to be uploaded by changing
upload_max_filesize in php.ini.

333. What does $_ENV means?

Answers : $_ENV is an associative array of variables sent to the current PHP
script via the environment method.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 65

334. What does $_COOKIE means?

Answers : $_COOKIE is an associative array of variables sent to the current PHP
script using the HTTP Cookies.

335. What does the scope of variables means?

Answers : The scope of a variable is the context within which it is defined. For
the most part all PHP variables only have a single scope. This single scope spans
included and required files as well.

336. what the difference between the ‘BITWISE AND’ operator and the
‘LOGICAL AND’ operator?
Answers : $a and $b: TRUE if both $a and $b are TRUE.
$a & $b: Bits that are set in both $a and $b are set.

337. What are the two main string operators?

Answers : The first is the concatenation operator (‘.’), which returns the
concatenation of its right and left arguments. The second is (‘.=’), which appends
the argument on the right to the argument on the left.

338. What does the array operator ‘===’ means?

Answers : $a === $b TRUE if $a and $b have the same key/value pairs in the
same order and of the same types.

339. What is the differences between $a != $b and $a !== $b?

Answers : != means inequality (TRUE if $a is not equal to $b) and !== means
non-identity (TRUE if $a is not identical to $b).

340. How can we determine whether a PHP variable is an instantiated object

of a certain class?
Answers : To be able to verify whether a PHP variable is an instantiated object of
a certain class we use instanceof.

341. What is the goto statement useful for?

Answers : The goto statement can be placed to enable jumping inside the PHP
program. The target is pointed by a label followed by a colon, and the instruction
is specified as a goto statement followed by the desired target label.

342. what is the difference between Exception::getMessage and

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 66

Exception::getLine ?
Answers : Exception::getMessage lets us getting the Exception message and
Exception::getLine lets us getting the line in which the exception occurred.

343. What does the expression Exception::__toString means?

Answers : Exception::__toString gives the String representation of the exception.

344. How is it possible to parse a configuration file?

Answers : The function parse_ini_file() enables us to load in the ini file specified
in filename, and returns the settings in it in an associative array.

345. How can we determine whether a variable is set?

Answers : The boolean function isset determines if a variable is set and is not
NULL.

346. What is the difference between the functions strstr() and stristr()?
Answers : The string function strstr(string allString, string occ) returns part of
allString from the first occurrence of occ to the end of allString. This function is
case-sensitive. stristr() is identical to strstr() except that it is case insensitive.

347. what is the difference between for and foreach?

Answers : for is expressed as follows:
for (expr1; expr2; expr3)
statement

The first expression is executed once at the beginning. In each iteration, expr2 is
evaluated. If it is TRUE, the loop continues and the statements inside for are
executed. If it evaluates to FALSE, the execution of the loop ends. expr3 is tested
at the end of each iteration.
However, foreach provides an easy way to iterate over arrays and it is only used
with arrays and objects.

348. Is it possible to submit a form with a dedicated button?

Answers : It is possible to use the document.form.submit() function to submit the
form. For example: <input type=button value=”SUBMIT”
onClick=”document.form.submit()”>

349. What is the difference between ereg_replace() and eregi_replace()?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 67

Answers : The function eregi_replace() is identical to the function ereg_replace()

except that it ignores case distinction when matching alphabetic characters.

350. Is it possible to protect special characters in a query string?

Answers : Yes, we use the urlencode() function to be able to protect special
characters.

351. What are the three classes of errors that can occur in PHP?
Answers : The three basic classes of errors are notices (non-critical), warnings
(serious errors) and fatal errors (critical errors).

352. What is the difference between characters \034 and \x34?

Answers : \034 is octal 34 and \x34 is hex 34.

353. How can we pass the variable through the navigation between the pages?
Answers : It is possible to pass the variables between the PHP pages using
sessions, cookies or hidden form fields.

354. Is it possible to extend the execution time of a php script?

Answers : The use of the set_time_limit(int seconds) enables us to extend the
execution time of a php script. The default limit is 30 seconds.

355. Is it possible to destroy a cookie?

Answers : Yes, it is possible by setting the cookie with a past expiration time.

356. What is the default session time in php?

Answers : The default session time in php is until closing of browser

357. Is it possible to use COM component in PHP?

Answers : Yes, it’s possible to integrate (Distributed) Component Object Model
components ((D)COM) in PHP scripts which is provided as a framework.

358. What function do we use to find length of string, and length of array?
Answers : For finding length of string we use strlen() function and for array we
use count() function.

359. How can we change the value of a constant?

Answers : We cannot change the value of a constant.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 68

360. What is the difference between unset() and unlink() function.

Answers : unset() is used to destroy a variable where as unlink() is used to
destroy a file.

361. What is the difference between explode() and split() functions?

Answers : Both are used to split a string to array, the basic difference is that
split() uses pattern for splitting and explode() uses a string. explode() is faster
than split() as it does not match the string based on regular expression. Also
split() is deprecated as of 5.3.0. So using of this function is discouraged.

362. What is PDO classes?

Answers : The PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension defines a lightweight,
consistent interface for accessing databases in PHP. It is a data-access abstraction
layer, so no matter what database we use the function to issue queries and fetch
data will be same. Using PDO drivers we can connect to database like DB2,
Oracle, PostgreSQL etc.

363. What is the difference between javascript and PHP?

Answers : Javascript is a client side scripting language whereas PHP is a server
side scripting language.

364. What is CSS?

Answers : CSS or cascading Style Sheet is a way to style and present HTML.

365. What is the difference between ID and class in CSS?

Answers : The difference between an ID and Class is that an ID can be used to
identify one element, whereas a class can be used to identify more than one.

366. Why do we use multipart/form-data in html form?

Answers : This is the encoding used to send image or files via form, The data will
be split into multiple parts and, one for each files plus one for the text of the form
body that may be sent with them.

367. What is AJAX?

Answers : AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a technique which
allows updating parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page. Data is
exchanged asynchronously in small amounts of data with the server.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 69

368. What is jQuery?

Answers : jQuery is a fast, small, and feature-rich JavaScript library. It is an easy-
to-use API which makes things like HTML document traversal and manipulation,
event handling, animation, and Ajax much simpler across a multitude of browsers.

369. How can we show and hide an element via jquery?

Answers : Suppose we want to show and hide elements of a div with id div1.

370. What is the difference between sql and Mysql?

Answers : SQL or Structured Query Language is a programming language
designed for managing data held in a Relational Database Management System.
Mysql is a open source, relational database management System.

371. Why do we use GROUP BY and ORDER BY function in mysql?

Answers : Group By is used for retrieving information about a group of data. It is
generally used with some aggregate function like SUM, AVG etc. ORDER BY is
used to sort the records using column name. It can sort column in both ascending
and descending order.

372. What is JOIN in mysql? What are the different types of join?
Answers : When we have to fetch records from more than one table we can use
JOIN keyword. The process is known as joining the tables. There are various
types of join like INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, and OUTER JOIN.

373. Why is the basic difference between LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN and
INNER JOIN?
Answers :
INNER Join compares two tables and only returns results where a match exists.
Records from the 1st table are duplicated when they match multiple results in the
2nd. INNER joins tend to make result sets smaller, but because records can be
duplicated this isn’t guaranteed.

LEFT join means keep all records from the 1st table no matter what and insert
NULL values when the 2nd table doesn’t match.

RIGHT Join means the opposite: keep all records from the 2nd table no matter
what and insert NULL values when the 1st table doesn’t match.
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374. If we use SUM function in mysql, does it return sum of that row or for
that column?
Answers :
Sum function works on the column basis and will return the sum of that particular
row only.

375. What do we use to remove duplicate records while fetching a data in

mysql ?
Answers : We use DISTINCT keyword.

376. What is the use of count function in mysql?

Answers : count() is used for fetching the total number records in a table.

377. How do we use % when performing a search query?

Answers : Suppose take an example where you need to fetch all customer data
where name stats with sa
SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE name LIKE ‘sa%';

Another case is where you need to fetch all customer data where kumar is found
irrespective of the position (middle name or last name).

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE name LIKE ‘%kumar%';

378. How do we delete a row in a table?

Answers : Take an example

DELETE FROM customer WHERE cid=150;

In this case it will delete the record of the customer with customer id 150

379. How do we drop a table?

Answers : DROP table customers;
It will drop the table customers

380. Who is the Father of PHP?

Ans. Rasmus Lerdorf
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381. What is PHP stands for?

Ans. Hyper text Pre Processor

382. How to include a file to a php page?

Ans. We can include a file using "include() " or "require()" function with file path
as its parameter.

383. require_once(), require(), include().What is difference between them?

Ans:require() includes and evaluates a specific file, while require_once() does that
only if it has not been included before (on the same page). So, require_once() is
recommended to use when you want to include a file where you have a lot of
functions for example. This way you make sure you don't include the file more
times and you will not get the "function re-declared" error.

384. Differences between GET and POST methods?

Ans: We can send 1024 bytes using GET method but POST method can transfer
large amount of data and POST is the secure method than GET method

385. How to declare an array in php?

Ans: Eg : var $arr = array('apple', 'grape', 'lemon');

386. What is use of count() function in php ?

Ans: count() is used to count all elements in an array, or something in an object.

387. How to set cookies in PHP?

Ans: Setcookie ("sample", "ram", time()+3600);

388. How to Retrieve a Cookie Value?

Ans: eg : echo $_COOKIE["user"];

389. What Is a Session?

Ans. It can be used to store information on the server for future use.

390. Is variable name case sensitive?

Ans. Yes variable name case sensitive and we cannot start a variable with number
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 72

like $6name as a valid variable name starts with a letter or underscore, followed
by any number of letters, numbers, or underscores.

391. How to convert string to array in php?

Answers :
$string="cakephp and zend";
$array =explode('and',$string);
print_r($array);

392. How to convert array to string in php?

$array = array('cakephp','zend');
$string =implode(' and ',$array);
echo $string;

393. How to connect mysqli with php using Object-Oriented Way?

$host = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$conn = new mysqli($host, $username, $password);
//connect to server
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
echo "Connected successfully";

394. How to connect mysqli with php using Procedural Way?

$host = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$conn = mysqli_connect($host, $username, $password);
//connect to server
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
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echo "Connected successfully";

395. How to connect mysqli with php using PDO?

$host = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$host;dbname=myDB", $username, $password);
// set the PDO error mode to exception
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
echo "Connected successfully";

396. Give Curl example using post method?

$postData = array(
"site" => "web technology experts notes",
"dailyuser" => "1000",
"location" => "India"
);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.example.com");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postData);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $output;

397. How to destroy one session?

unset($_SESSION['object']);

398. How to Destroys all data registered to a session?

session_destroy();
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399. How to delete a php file from server?

$file="full_path/filename.php"
unlink($file); //make sure you have enough permission to do delete the file.

400. How to convert string to uppercase in php?

$string="cakephp and zend";
echo strtoupper($string);

401. How to convert string to lowercase in php?

$string="CAKEPHP AND ZEND";
echo strtolower($string);

402. How to convert first letter of string to uppercase in php?

$string="cakephp and zend";
echo ucwords($string);

403. Difference between array_merge and array_combine in php?

array_merge example
$array1 = array('one','two');
$array2 = array(1,2);
$result = array_merge($array1,$array2);
print_r($result);

array_combine example
$array1 = array('one','two');
$array2 = array(1,2);
$result = array_combine($array1,$array2);
print_r($result);

404. How to convert array to json in php?

$array = array('one','two');
echo json_encode($array); //use json_decode for decode
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405. How to serialize an array in php?

$array = array('one','two');
echo serialize($array);//use unserialize for convert serialized string to array

406. How to get ip address in php?

$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']

407. How to count the number of elements in an array?

$array = array('cakephp','zend');
sizeof($array);
count($array);

408. How to call constructor of parent class?

parent::constructor()

409. Describe how PHP Works with Browser?

Works in following Flow
1. Open website http://www.web-technology-experts-notes.in/
2. Request send to server of http://www.web-technology-experts-notes.in/
3. Call PHP Files.
4. PHP Scripts are loaded into memory and compiled into Zend opcode.
5. These opcodes are executed and the HTML generated.
6. Same HTML is send back to Browser.

410. what is magic quotes?

Answers :
Magic Quotes is a process that automagically escapes ncoming data to the PHP
script. It's preferred to code with magic quotes off and to instead escape the data at
runtime, as needed. This feature has been DEPRECATED as of PHP 5.3.0 and
REMOVED as of PHP 6.0.0. Relying on this feature is highly discouraged.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 76

411. what is cross site scripting? SQL injection?

Answers :
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically
found in web applications which allow code injection by malicious web users into
the web pages viewed by other users. Examples of such code include HTML code
and client-side scripts. SQL injection is a code injection technique that exploits a
security vulnerability occurring in the database layer of an application. The
vulnerability is present when user input is either incorrectly filtered for string literal
escape characters embedded in SQL statements or user input is not strongly typed
and thereby unexpectedly executed

412. what is URL rewriting?

Using URL rewriting we can convert dynamic URl to static URL Static URLs are
known to be better than Dynamic URLs because of a number of reasons 1. Static
URLs typically Rank better in Search Engines. 2. Search Engines are known to
index the content of dynamic pages a lot slower compared to static pages. 3. Static
URLs are always more friendlier looking to the End Users. along with this we can
use URL rewriting in adding variables [cookies] to the URL to handle the sessions.

413. what is the major php security hole? how to avoid?

1. Never include, require, or otherwise open a file with a filename based on user
input, without thoroughly checking it first.
2. Be careful with eval() Placing user-inputted values into the eval() function can be
extremely dangerous. You essentially give the malicious user the ability to execute
any command he or she wishes!
3. Be careful when using register_globals = ON It was originally designed to make
programming in PHP easier (and that it did), but misuse of it often led to security
holes
4. Never run unescaped queries
5. For protected areas, use sessions or validate the login every time.
6. If you don ™t want the file contents to be seen, give the file a .php extension.

414. whether PHP supports Microsoft SQL server ?

The SQL Server Driver for PHP v1.0 is designed to enable reliable, scalable
integration with SQL Server for PHP applications deployed on the Windows
platform. The Driver for PHP is a PHP 5 extension that allows the reading and
writing of SQL Server data from within PHP scripts. using MSSQL or ODBC
modules we can access Microsoft SQL server.

415. what is MVC? why its been used?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 77

Model-view-controller (MVC) is an architectural pattern used in software

engineering. Successful use of the pattern isolates business logic from user interface
considerations, resulting in an application where it is easier to modify either the
visual appearance of the application or the underlying business rules without
affecting the other. In MVC, the model represents the information (the data) of the
application; the view corresponds to elements of the user interface such as text,
checkbox items, and so forth; and the controller manages the communication of data
and the business rules used to manipulate the data to and from the model. WHY ITS
NEEDED IS 1 Modular separation of function 2 Easier to maintain 3 View-
Controller separation means:
A Tweaking design (HTML) without altering code B Web design staff can modify UI
without understanding code

416. what is framework? how it works? what is advantage?

In general, a framework is a real or conceptual structure intended to serve as a
support or guide for the building of something that expands the structure into
something useful. Advantages : Consistent Programming Model Direct Support for
Security Simplified Development Efforts Easy Application Deployment and
Maintenance

417. what is CURL?

CURL means Client URL Library
curl is a command line tool for transferring files with URL syntax, supporting FTP,
FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SCP, SFTP, TFTP, TELNET, DICT, LDAP, LDAPS and
FILE. curl supports SSL certificates, HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading,
HTTP form based upload, proxies, cookies, user+password authentication (Basic, D
igest, NTLM, Negotiate, kerberos ¦), file transfer resume, proxy tunneling and a
busload of other useful tricks.
CURL allows you to connect and communicate to many different types of servers
with many different types of protocols. libcurl currently supports the http, https, ftp,
gopher, telnet, dict, file, and ldap protocols. libcurl also supports HTTPS certificates,
HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading (this can also be done with PHP ™s ftp
extension), HTTP form based upload, proxies, cookies, and user+password
authentication.

418. what is PDO ?

The PDO ( PHP Data Objects ) extension defines a lightweight, consistent interface
for accessing databases in PHP. if you are using the PDO API, you could switch the
database server you used, from say PgSQL to MySQL, and only need to make minor
changes to your PHP code.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 78

While PDO has its advantages, such as a clean, simple, portable API but its
maindisadvantage is that it doesn’t allow you to use all of the advanced features that
are available in the latest versions of MySQL server. For example, PDO does not
allow you to use MySQL’s support for Multiple Statements.
Just need to use below code for connect mysql using PDO
try {
$dbh = new PDO(“mysql:host=$hostname;dbname=databasename”, $username,
$password);
$sql = “SELECT * FROM employee”;
foreach ($dbh->query($sql) as $row)
{
print $row['employee_name'] .’ – ‘. $row['employee_age'] ;
}
}
catch(PDOException $e)
{
echo $e->getMessage();
}

419. What is PHP’s mysqli Extension?

The mysqli extension, or as it is sometimes known, the MySQL improved extension,
was developed to take advantage of new features found in MySQL systems versions
4.1.3 and newer. The mysqli extension is included with PHP versions 5 and later.
The mysqli extension has a number of benefits, the key enhancements over the
mysql extension being:
=>Object-oriented interface
=>Support for Prepared Statements
=>Support for Multiple Statements
=>Support for Transactions
=>Enhanced debugging capabilities
=>Embedded server support

420. What’s PHP ?

The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a programming language that allows web
developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP is basically
used for developing web based software applications.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 79

421. What Is a Session?

A session is a logical object created by the PHP engine to allow you to preserve data
across subsequent HTTP requests.There is only one session object available to your
PHP scripts at any time. Data saved to the session by a script can be retrieved by the
same script or another script when requested from the same visitor.Sessions are
commonly used to store temporary data to allow multiple PHP pages to offer a
complete functional transaction for the same visitor.

422. What is meant by PEAR in php?

PEAR is the next revolution in PHP. This repository is bringing higher level
programming to PHP. PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable
PHP components. It eases installation by bringing an automated wizard, and packing
the strength and experience of PHP users into a nicely organised OOP library. PEAR
also provides a command-line interface that can be used to automatically install
“packages”
PEAR is short for “PHP Extension and Application Repository” and is pronounced
just like the fruit. The purpose of PEAR is to provide:
A structured library of open-sourced code for PHP users
A system for code distribution and package maintenance
A standard style for code written in PHP
The PHP Foundation Classes (PFC),
The PHP Extension Community Library (PECL),

A web site, mailing lists and download mirrors to support the PHP/PEAR
communityPEAR is a community-driven project with the PEAR Group as the
governing body. The project has been founded by Stig S. Bakken in 1999 and quite a
lot of people have joined the project since then.

423. How can we know the number of days between two given dates using
PHP?
Simple arithmetic:
$date1 = date(‘Y-m-d’);
$date2 = ’2006-07-01′;
$days = (strtotime() – strtotime()) / (60 * 60 * 24);
echo “Number of days since ’2006-07-01′: $days”;
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 80

424. How can we repair a MySQL table?

The syntex for repairing a mysql table is:
REPAIR TABLE tablename
REPAIR TABLE tablename QUICK
REPAIR TABLE tablename EXTENDED
This command will repair the table specified.
If QUICK is given, MySQL will do a repair of only the index tree.
If EXTENDED is given, it will create index row by row.

425. What is the difference between $message and $$message?

$message is a simple variable whereas $$message is a reference variable. Example:
$user = ‘bob’
is equivalent to
$holder = ‘user’;
$$holder = ‘bob’;Anwser 2:
They are both variables. But $message is a variable with a fixed name. $$message is
a variable who’s name is stored in $message. For example, if $message contains
“var”, $$message is the same as $var.

426. What Is a Persistent Cookie?

A persistent cookie is a cookie which is stored in a cookie file permanently on the
browser’s computer. By default, cookies are created as temporary cookies which
stored only in the browser’s memory. When the browser is closed, temporary
cookies will be erased. You should decide when to use temporary cookies and when
to use persistent cookies based on their differences:
*Temporary cookies can not be used for tracking long-term information.
*Persistent cookies can be used for tracking long-term information.
*Temporary cookies are safer because no programs other than the browser can
access them.
*Persistent cookies are less secure because users can open cookie files see the cookie
values.

427. What does a special set of tags <?= and ?> do in PHP?
The output is displayed directly to the browser.
428. How do you define a constant?
Via define() directive, like define (“MYCONSTANT”, 100);

429. What are the differences between require and include, include_once?
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 81

require_once() and include_once() are both the functions to include and evaluate the
specified file only once. If the specified file is included previous to the present call
occurrence, it will not be done again.But require() and include() will do it as many
times they are asked to do.
The include_once() statement includes and evaluates the specified file during the
execution of the script. This is a behavior similar to the include() statement, with the
only difference being that if the code from a file has already been included, it will
not be included again. The major difference between include() and require() is that in
failure include() produces a warning message whereas require() produces a fatal
errors.

430. What is meant by urlencode and urldecode?

urlencode() returns the URL encoded version of the given string. URL coding
converts special characters into % signs followed by two hex digits. For example:
urlencode(“10.00%”) will return “10%2E00%25″. URL encoded strings are safe to
be used as part of URLs.
urldecode() returns the URL decoded version of the given string.
String urlencode(str) – Returns the URL encoded version of the input string. String
values to be used in URL query string need to be URL encoded. In the URL encoded
version:
Alphanumeric characters are maintained as is.
Space characters are converted to “+” characters.
Other non-alphanumeric characters are converted “%” followed by two hex digits
representing the converted character.
string urldecode(str) – Returns the original string of the input URL encoded string.
For example:
$discount =”10.00%”;
$url = “http://domain.com/submit.php?disc=”.urlencode($discount);
echo $url;You will get “http://domain.com/submit.php?disc=10%2E00%25″.

431. How To Get the Uploaded File Information in the Receiving Script?
Once the Web server received the uploaded file, it will call the PHP script specified
in the form action attribute to process them. This receiving PHP script can get the
uploaded file information through the predefined array called $_FILES. Uploaded
file information is organized in $_FILES as a two-dimensional array as:
$_FILES[$fieldName]['name'] – The Original file name on the browser system.
$_FILES[$fieldName]['type'] – The file type determined by the browser.
$_FILES[$fieldName]['size'] – The Number of bytes of the file content.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 82

$_FILES[$fieldName]['tmp_name'] – The temporary filename of the file in which

the uploaded file was stored on the server.
$_FILES[$fieldName]['error'] – The error code associated with this file upload.
The $fieldName is the name used in the .

432. What is the difference between mysql_fetch_object and

mysql_fetch_array?
MySQL fetch object will collect first single matching record where
mysql_fetch_array will collect all matching records from the table in an array

433. How can I execute a PHP script using command line?

Just run the PHP CLI (Command Line Interface) program and provide the PHP
script file name as the command line argument. For example, “php myScript.php”,
assuming “php” is the command to invoke the CLI program.
Be aware that if your PHP script was written for the Web CGI interface, it may not
execute properly in command line environment.

434. How can we optimize or increase the speed of a MySQL select query?
• first of all instead of using select * from table1, use select column1, column2,
column3.. from table1
• Look for the opportunity to introduce index in the table you are querying.
• use limit keyword if you are looking for any specific number of rows from the
result set.
435. How many ways can we get the value of current session id?
session_id() returns the session id for the current session.

436. How can we destroy the session, how can we unset the variable of a
session?
session_unregister – Unregister a global variable from the current session
session_unset – Free all session variables

437. How can we set and destroy the cookie n php?

By using setcookie(name, value, expire, path, domain); function we can set the
cookie in php ;
Set the cookies in past for destroy. like
setcookie(“user”, “sonia”, time()+3600); for set the cookie
setcookie(“user”, “”, time()-3600); for destroy or delete the cookies;
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 83

438. How many ways we can pass the variable through the navigation
between the pages?
• GET/QueryString
• POST

439. What is the difference between ereg_replace() and eregi_replace()?

eregi_replace() function is identical to ereg_replace() except that this ignores case
distinction when matching alphabetic
characters.eregi_replace() function is identical to ereg_replace() except that this
ignores case distinction when matching alphabetic characters.

440. What are the different functions in sorting an array?

Sort(), arsort(),
asort(), ksort(),
natsort(), natcasesort(),
rsort(), usort(),
array_multisort(), and
uksort().

441. How can we know the count/number of elements of an array?

2 ways
a) sizeof($urarray) This function is an alias of count()
b) count($urarray)

442. what is session_set_save_handler in PHP?

session_set_save_handler() sets the user-level session storage functions which are
used for storing and retrieving data associated with a session. This is most useful
when a storage method other than those supplied by PHP sessions is preferred. i.e.
Storing the session data in a local database.

443. How can I know that a variable is a number or not using a JavaScript?
bool is_numeric ( mixed var)
Returns TRUE if var is a number or a numeric string, FALSE otherwise.or use
isNaN(mixed var)The isNaN() function is used to check if a value is not a number.

444. List out some tools through which we can draw E-R diagrams for mysql.
Case Studio
Smart Draw

445 . How can I retrieve values from one database server and store them in
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 84

other database server using PHP?

we can always fetch from one database and rewrite to another. here is a nice solution
of it.$db1 = mysql_connect(“host”,”user”,”pwd”)
mysql_select_db(“db1″, $db1);
$res1 = mysql_query(“query”,$db1);$db2 = mysql_connect(“host”,”user”,”pwd”)
mysql_select_db(“db2″, $db2);
$res2 = mysql_query(“query”,$db2);At this point you can only fetch records from
you previous ResultSet,
i.e $res1 “ But you cannot execute new query in $db1, even if you supply the link
as because the link was overwritten by the new db.so at this point the following
script will fail
$res3 = mysql_query(“query”,$db1); //this will failSo how to solve that? take a look
below.
$db1 = mysql_connect(“host”,”user”,”pwd”)
mysql_select_db(“db1″, $db1);
$res1 = mysql_query(“query”,$db1);
$db2 = mysql_connect(“host”,”user”,”pwd”, true)
mysql_select_db(“db2″, $db2);
$res2 = mysql_query(“query”,$db2);
So mysql_connect has another optional boolean parameter which indicates whether a
link will be created or not. as we connect to the $db2 with this optional parameter set
to ‘true’, so both link will remain live.
now the following query will execute successfully.
$res3 = mysql_query(“query”,$db1);

446. List out the predefined classes in PHP?

Directory
stdClass
__PHP_Incomplete_Class
exception
php_user_filter

447 . How can I make a script that can be bi-language (supports English,
German)?
You can maintain two separate language file for each of the language. all the labels
are putted in both language files as variables and assign those variables in the PHP
source. on runtime choose the required language option.

448 . What are the difference between abstract class and interface?
Abstract class: abstract classes are the class where one or more methods are abstract
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 85

but not necessarily all method has to be abstract.

Abstract methods are the methods, which are declare in its class but not define. The
definition of those methods must be in its extending class.Interface: Interfaces are
one type of class where all the methods are abstract. That means all the methods only
declared but not defined. All the methods must be define by its implemented class.

449. How can we send mail using JavaScript?

JavaScript does not have any networking capabilities as it is designed to work on
client site. As a result we can not send mails using JavaScript. But we can call the
client side mail protocol mailto via JavaScript to prompt for an email to send. this
requires the client to approve it.

450. How can we repair a MySQL table?

The syntex for repairing a MySQL table is
REPAIR TABLENAME, [TABLENAME, ], [Quick],[Extended]
This command will repair the table specified if the quick is given the MySQL will do
a repair of only the index tree if the extended is given it will create index row by row

451. What are the advantages of stored procedures, triggers, indexes?

A stored procedure is a set of SQL commands that can be compiled and stored in the
server. Once this has been done, clients don’t need to keep re-issuing the entire query
but can refer to the stored procedure.
This provides better overall performance because the query has to be parsed only
once, and less information needs to be sent between the server and the client. You
can also raise the conceptual level by having libraries of functions in the server.
However, stored procedures of course do increase the load on the database server
system, as more of
the work is done on the server side and less on the client (application) side.Triggers
will also be implemented. A trigger is effectively a type of stored procedure, one that
is invoked when a particular event occurs.
For example, you can install a stored procedure that is triggered each time a record is
deleted from a transaction table and that stored procedure automatically deletes the
corresponding customer from a customer table when all his transactions are
deleted.Indexes are used to find rows with specific column values quickly.
Without an index, MySQL must begin with the first row and then read through the
entire table to find the relevant rows. The larger the table, the more this costs. If the
table has an index for the columns in question, MySQL can quickly determine the
position to seek to in the middle of the data file without having to look at all the data.
If a table has 1,000 rows, this is at least 100 times faster than reading sequentially. If
you need to access most of the rows, it is faster to
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 86

read sequentially, because this minimizes disk seeks.

452. What is the maximum length of a table name, database name, and
fieldname in MySQL?
The following table describes the maximum length for each type of identifier.
Identifier Maximum Length
(bytes)
Database 64
Table 64
Column 64
Index 64
Alias 255
There are some restrictions on the characters that may appear in identifiers.

453. How many values can the SET function of MySQL take?
MySQL set can take zero or more values but at the maximum it can take 64 values

454. What are the other commands to know the structure of table using
MySQL commands except explain command?
describe Table-Name;

455. How many tables will create when we create table, what are they?
The ‘.frm’ file stores the table definition.
The data file has a ‘.MYD’ (MYData) extension.
The index file has a ‘.MYI’ (MYIndex) extension,

456. What is the purpose of the following files having extensions 1) .frm 2)
.myd 3) .myi? What do these files contain?
In MySql, the default table type is MyISAM.
Each MyISAM table is stored on disk in three files. The files have names that begin
with the table name and have an extension to indicate the file type.
The ‘.frm’ file stores the table definition.
The data file has a ‘.MYD’ (MYData) extension.
The index file has a ‘.MYI’ (MYIndex) extension,

457. What is maximum size of a database in MySQL?

If the operating system or filesystem places a limit on the number of files in a
directory, MySQL is bound by that constraint. The efficiency of the operating system
in handling large numbers of files in a directory can place a practical limit on the
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 87

number of tables in a database. If the time required to open a file in the directory
increases significantly as the number of files increases, database performance can be
adversely affected.
The amount of available disk space limits the number of tables.
MySQL 3.22 had a 4GB (4 gigabyte) limit on table size. With the MyISAM storage
engine in MySQL 3.23, the maximum table size was increased to 65536 terabytes
(2567 1 bytes). With this larger allowed table size, the maximum effective table size
for MySQL databases is usually determined by operating system constraints on file
sizes, not by MySQL internal limits.The InnoDB storage engine maintains InnoDB
tables within a tablespace that can be created from several files. This allows a table
to exceed the maximum individual file size. The tablespace can include raw disk
partitions, which allows extremely large tables. The maximum tablespace size is
64TB.
The following table lists some examples of operating system file-size limits. This is
only a rough guide and is not intended to be definitive.For the most up-to-date
information, be sure to check the documentation specific to your operating system.
Operating System File-size LimitLinux 2.2-Intel 32-bit 2GB (LFS: 4GB)
Linux 2.4+ (using ext3 filesystem) 4TB
Solaris 9/10 16TB
NetWare w/NSS filesystem 8TB
Win32 w/ FAT/FAT32 2GB/4GB
Win32 w/ NTFS 2TB (possibly larger)
MacOS X w/ HFS+ 2TB

458. Give the syntax of Grant and Revoke commands?

The generic syntax for grant is as following
> GRANT [rights] on [database/s] TO [username@hostname] IDENTIFIED BY
[password]
now rights can be
a) All privileges
b) combination of create, drop, select, insert, update and delete etc.We can grant
rights on all databse by using *.* or some specific database by database.* or a
specific table by database.table_name username@hotsname can be either
username@localhost, username@hostname and username@% where hostname is
any valid hostname and % represents any name, the *.* any condition password is
simply the password of userThe generic syntax for revoke is as following
> REVOKE [rights] on [database/s] FROM [username@hostname]
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now rights can be as explained above

a) All privileges
b) combination of create, drop, select, insert, update and delete etc.
username@hotsname can be either username@localhost, username@hostname and
username@% where hostname is any valid hostname and % represents any name, t
he *.* any condition

459. Explain Normalization concept?

The normalization process involves getting our data to conform to three progressive
normal forms, and a higher level of normalization cannot be achieved until the
previous levels have been achieved (there are actually five normal forms, but the last
two are mainly academic and will not be discussed).First Normal FormThe First
Normal Form (or 1NF) involves removal of redundant data from horizontal rows.
We want to ensure that there is no duplication of data in a given row, and that every
column stores the least amount of information possible (making the field
atomic).Second Normal FormWhere the First Normal Form deals with redundancy
of data across a horizontal row, Second Normal Form (or 2NF) deals with
redundancy of data in vertical columns. As stated earlier, the normal forms are
progressive, so to achieve Second Normal Form, your tables must already be in First
Normal Form.Third Normal Form
I have a confession to make; I do not often use Third Normal Form. In Third Normal
Form we are looking for data in our tables that is not fully dependant on the primary
key, but dependant on another value in the table

460. How can we find the number of rows in a table using MySQL?
Use this for mysql
>SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table_name;

461. How can we find the number of rows in a result set using PHP?
$result = mysql_query($sql, $db_link);
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result);
echo “$num_rows rows found”;

462. How many ways we can we find the current date using MySQL?
SELECT CURDATE();
CURRENT_DATE() = CURDATE()
for time use
SELECT CURTIME();
CURRENT_TIME() = CURTIME()
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 89

463. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Cascading Style Sheets?
External Style SheetsAdvantagesCan control styles for multiple documents at once.
Classes can be created for use on multiple HTML element types in many documents.
Selector and grouping methods can be used to apply styles under complex
contextsDisadvantagesAn extra download is required to import style information for
each document The rendering of the document may be delayed until the external
style sheet is loaded Becomes slightly unwieldy for small quantities of style
definitions Embedded Style Sheets
Advantages
Classes can be created for use on multiple tag types in the document.
Selector and grouping methods can be used to apply styles under complex contexts.
No additional downloads necessary to receive style information
Disadvantages
This method can not control styles for multiple documents at once Inline Styles
Advantages
Useful for small quantities of style definitions. Can override other style specification
methods at the local level so only exceptions need to be listed in conjunction with
other style methods
Disadvantages
Does not distance style information from content (a main goal of SGML/HTML).
Can not control styles for multiple documents at once.
Author can not create or control classes of elements to control multiple element
types within the document. Selector grouping methods can not be used to create
complex element addressing scenarios

464. What type of inheritance that PHP supports?

In PHP an extended class is always dependent on a single base class, that is, multiple
inheritance is not supported. Classes are extended using the keyword ‘extends’.

465. What is the difference between Primary Key and Unique key?
Primary Key: A column in a table whose values uniquely identify the rows in the
table. A primary key value cannot be NULL.
Unique Key: Unique Keys are used to uniquely identify each row in the table. There
can be one and only one row for each unique key value. So NULL can be a unique
key.There can be only one primary key for a table but there can be more than one
unique for a table.

466. what is garbage collection? default time ? refresh time?

Garbage Collection is an automated part of PHP , If the Garbage Collection process
runs, it then analyzes any files in the /tmp for any session files that have not been
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 90

accessed in a certain amount of time and physically deletes them. Garbage

Collection process only runs in the default session save directory, which is /tmp. If
you opt to save your sessions in a different directory, the Garbage Collection process
will ignore it. the Garbage Collection process does not differentiate between which
sessions belong to whom when run. This is especially important note on shared web
servers. If the process is run, it deletes ALL files that have not been accessed in the
directory. There are 3 PHP.ini variables, which deal with the garbage collector: PHP
ini value name default session.gc_maxlifetime 1440 seconds or 24 minutes
session.gc_probability 1 session.gc_divisor 100

467. What are the advantages/disadvantages of MySQL and PHP?

Both of them are open source software (so free of cost), support cross platform. php
is faster then ASP and JSP.

468. What is the difference between GROUP BY and ORDER BY in Sql?

ORDER BY [col1],[col2], ¦,[coln]; Tels DBMS according to what columns it
should sort the result. If two rows will hawe the same value in col1 it will try to sort
them according to col2 and so on.
GROUP BY [col1],[col2], ¦,[coln];
Tels DBMS to group results with same value of column col1.
You can use COUNT(col1), SUM(col1), AVG(col1) with it,
if you want to count all items in group, sum all values or view average

469. What is the difference between char and varchar data types?
Set char to occupy n bytes and it will take n bytes even if u r storing a value of n-m
bytes
Set varchar to occupy n bytes and it will take only the required space and will not
use the n bytes
eg. name char(15) will waste 10 bytes if we store ‘romharshan’, if each char takes a
byte
eg. name varchar(15) will just use 5 bytes if we store ‘romharshan’, if each char
takes a byte. rest 10 bytes will be free.

470. What is the functionality of md5 function in PHP?

Calculate the md5 hash of a string. The hash is a 32-characterhexadecimal number.
I use it to generate keys which I use to identify users etc. If I add random no
techniques to it the md5 generated now will be totally different for the same string I
am using.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 91

471. How can I load data from a text file into a table?
you can use LOAD DATA INFILE file_name; syntax to load data from a text file.
but you have to make sure that
a) data is delimited
b) columns and data matched correctly

472. How can we know the number of days between two given dates using
MySQL?
SELECT DATEDIFF(“2007-03-07″,”2005-01-01″);

473. How can we know the number of days between two given dates using PHP?
$date1 = date(“Y-m-d”);
$date2 = “2006-08-15″;
$days = (strtotime($date1) – strtotime($date2)) / (60 * 60 * 24);

474. How to use email with PHP?

Email functionality is inbuilt with PHP.
PHP provide mail() with use of this, we can sen an email to user or subscriber.
We can send html/text email.
We can send attachment with email.
We can also use option like cc, bc and bcc.
We can also set the values in header.
We can also use third party API like (gmail, yahoo etc) to send email.

475. How session and cookie works together?

Create an session in PHP.
Session data is stored in Server.
Session data have unique name.
Session unique key with domain name is stored in browser cookie.
Now, Browser keep the login with use of unique key(in cookie) and session data
(stored in server side).

476. What is the difference between the functions unlink and unset?
unlink: delete the files from Server.
unset: delete the variable name and data from memory.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 92

477. How to create subdomain?

With use virtual host and htaccess, you can create sub domain.

478. What are the various methods to pass data from one web page to another
web page?
Session
Cookie
Database
URL parameters

479.What are super global variables?

$_COOKIE – Stored information in Cookie.
$_GET – Send data in URL as paramter.
$_POST – Send data to server OR Page as POST Method.
$_REQUEST – Its combined array containing values from the $_GET, $_POST
and $_COOKIES.
$_ENV – Get/Set varaible in environment.
$_FILES – Used to upload the file, image and videos etc.
$_SERVER – It have all server information.
$GLOBALS – Contains all the global variables associated with the current
script.

480. How to get a user's IP address of client.

echo $_SESSION['REMOTE_ADDR'];

481. What type of inheritance supported by PHP?

Single inheritance.
Multiple Level inheritance.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 93

482.What is CMS?
CMS means Content Management System. It is web software who provide the
website full fledgedcontent management where owner can add/update/delete the
html/files/images/videos etc. Today's CMS do much more as compare to its
name.
For example. Joomla/Wordpress is CMS but you can create E-commererce
website and can accpet all types of payment.
In Today's CMS, you can create many different types of website like
Ecommerce website, Personal blogging and Forum etc.

483. How to create unique random password?

echo md5(uniqid(rand(), true));

484.What is the difference between echo and print?

echo constructor which is used to display the value in browser.
print is function which is used to display and return the value.

485. What is the difference between characters \023 and \x23?

\023 is octal 23.
\x23 is hex 23.

486.What are the current versions of apache, php, and mysql?

Answer:
PHP: php 5.5
Apache: Apache 2.2
MySQL: MySQL 5.5

487.What are the different types of errors in php?

Answer:
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 94

E_ERROR: A fatal error that causes script termination

E_WARNING: Run-time warning that does not cause script termination
E_ALL: Catches all errors and warnings
E_PARSE: Compile time parse error.
E_NOTICE: Run time notice caused due to error in code
E_USER_WARNING: User-generated warning message.
E_USER_ERROR: User-generated error message.
E_USER_NOTICE: User-generated notice message.
E_STRICT: Run-time notices.
E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR: Catchable fatal error indicating a dangerous error

488. What is maximum size of a database in mysql?

Answer: Depend on Operating System

489. What is meant by MIME?

Answer:
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.

WWW ability to recognize and handle files of different types is largely dependent on
the use of the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) standard. The standard
provides for a system of registration of file types with information about the
applications needed to process them.

490.What Is a Persistent Cookie?

Answer:

Persistent cookie is a cookie which is permanently stored on user’s computer in a

cookie file. They are used for tracking the user information of the users who are
browsing from a very long time. They also have the drawbacks of being unsecure, as
user can see the cookies which are saved on the computer.

491. Can we send ajax request to other domain?

Answer: No, You can't send Ajax request if different protocal OR different host.
For Example, the following table gives an overview of typical outcomes for checks
against the URL"http://www.example.com/directory/about-us.html".

Outco
Compared URL me Reason
httpː//www.example.com/dir/pa Succe Same protocol and host
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 95

ge2.html ss
httpː//www.example.com/dir2/o Succe
ther.html ss Same protocol and host
httpː//www.example.com:81/dir/ Failur
other.html e Same protocol and host but different port
https://www.example.com/dir/ot Failur
her.html e Different protocol
http://en.example.com/dir/other. Failur
html e Different host
http://example.com/dir/other.ht Failur
ml e Different host (exact match required)
http://v2.www.example.com/dir/ Failur
other.html e Different host (exact match required)
httpː//www.example.com:80/dir/ Don't Port explicit. Depends on implementation
other.html use in browser.
492. How can PHP read the hash portion of the URL?
Answer: PHP can't read the hash portion of the URL
index.php?page=group#birthday
Here, PHP can not read the birthday

There is some by which you can get this value

get the value by javascript and then set to cookie or pass in ajax. See Example
var query = location.href.split('#');
document.cookies = 'hasValue=' + query[1];

493. What are static method? How its different from normal method?
Answer: 1. Static methods are that can be accessed by using the scope resolution
operator (i.e ::) and object reference operator ( i.e.-> ).

For example HelloClass::mystatic(); $helloClass->mystatic();

class MyClass{
static function mystatic() {
echo "this was declared static!\n";
}
}
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 96

$obj = new MyClass();

MyClass::mystatic();
$obj->mystatic();

494. When and Why we use static variable/ functions?

Answer: 1. You use static when you want to use a method / variable that is not tied
to an instance.
2. When you want to persistent value throughout multiple call of function.
3. For singleton pattern, we use static method/variable.
4. it is very usefull for caching if a method will be called very often and do just the
same thing. For example see below
protected function is_logged_in() {
static $logged_in = null;
if($logged_in != null) {
return $logged_in;
}

//Check shibboleth headers

if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_SHIB_IDENTITY_PROVIDER']) || !
empty($_SERVER['Shib-Identity-Provider'])) {
if (!empty($_SERVER[$this->core->dbconfig("shib_auth",
self::SHIB_AUTH_CONFIG_UID)])) {
$logged_in = true;
return true;
}
}
$logged_in = false;
return false;
}

495. How to import database from desktop to server with use of command line?
1) Make a zip of sql dump file and upload the zip file to server through FTP.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 97

2) Login to Putty/Console
3) Go the directory with use of cd command, the location where you have upload the
zip file.
4) unizip that zip file, with following command
unzip zipfilename.zip
3)Import the sql dump file with use of following command.
mysql -u username -p databasename < sqlfilename.sql

(It will for prompt password)

496. How to copy file from one server to another?

1) Login to Putty/Console
2) Go to the directory where your file exist (suppose file name is file.zip)
3) Use the following command to copy the file frome current server to another server
scp file.zip username@hostname:/foldername
(It will prompt password)
(username, hostname is another server)

497. How to export database to sql file with use of command line?
1) Login to Putty/Console
2) Execute following commands to export the sql dump into server.
mysqldump –u username –p databasename tablename > sqlfilename.sql
(It will prompt password)

498. Import database from sql file to mysql

mysql –u username –p databasename tablename < sqlfilename.sql
(It will prompt for password)

499. What is Responsive web design?

Responsive web design (RWD) is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to
provide an optimal viewing experience, easy navigation and reading with a
minimum of scrolling, resizing and panning. across a wide range of devices (all
mobiles, desktop, laptop, ipad etc).
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 98

500. How can we take a backup of a MySQL table and how can we restore it. ?
To backup: BACKUP TABLE tbl_name[,tbl_name ¦] TO
‘/path/to/backup/directory’
RESTORE TABLE tbl_name[,tbl_name ¦] FROM
‘/path/to/backup/directory’mysqldump: Dumping Table Structure and DataUtility to
dump a database or a collection of database for backup or
for transferring the data to another SQL server (not necessarily a MySQL
server). The dump will contain SQL statements to create the table and/or
populate the table.
-t, no-create-info
Don’t write table creation information (the CREATE TABLE statement).
-d, “no-data
Don’t write any row information for the table. This is very useful if
you just want to get a dump of the structure for a table!
encryption decryption
AES_ENCRYT() AES_DECRYPT()
ENCODE() DECODE()
DES_ENCRYPT() DES_DECRYPT()
ENCRYPT() Not available
MD5() Not available
OLD_PASSWORD() Not available
PASSWORD() Not available
SHA() or SHA1() Not available
Not available UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH()

501. How we load all classes that placed in different directory in one PHP File ,
means how to do auto load classes
by using spl_autoload_register(‘autoloader::funtion’);
Like below
class autoloader
{

public static function moduleautoloader($class)

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 99

{
$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . “/modules/{$class}.php”;
if (is_readable($path)) require $path;
}

public static function daoautoloader($class)

{
$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . “/dataobjects/{$class}.php”;
if (is_readable($path)) require $path;
}
public static function includesautoloader($class)
{
$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . “/includes/{$class}.php”;
if (is_readable($path)) require $path;
}
}
spl_autoload_register(‘autoloader::includesautoloader’);
spl_autoload_register(‘autoloader::daoautoloader’);
spl_autoload_register(‘autoloader::moduleautoloader’);

502. How many types of Inheritances used in PHP and how we achieve it
As far PHP concern it only support single Inheritance in scripting.
we can also use interface to achieve multiple inheritance.

503. PHP how to know user has read the email?

Using Disposition-Notification-To: in mailheader we can get read receipt.
Add the possibility to define a read receipt when sending an email.
It’s quite straightforward, just edit email.php, and add this at vars definitions:
var $readReceipt = null;
And then, at ‘createHeader’ function add:
if (!empty($this->readReceipt)) {
$this->__header .= ‘Disposition-Notification-To: ‘ . $this->__formatAddress($this-
>readReceipt) . $this->_newLine;
}
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 100

504. What are default session time and path?

default session time in PHP is 1440 seconds or 24 minutes
Default session save path id temporary folder /tmp

505. how to track user logged out or not? when user is idle ?
By checking the session variable exist or not while loading th page. As the session will
exist longer as till browser closes. The default behaviour for sessions is to keep a session
open indefinitely and only to expire a session when the browser is closed. This
behaviour can be changed in the php.ini file by altering the line session.cookie_lifetime
= 0 to a value in seconds. If you wanted the session to finish in 5 minutes you would set
this to session.cookie_lifetime = 300 and restart your httpd server.

506. how to track no of user logged in ?

whenever a user logs in track the IP, userID etc..and store it in a DB with a active flag
while log out or sesion expire make it inactive. At any time by counting the no: of active
records we can get the no: of visitors.

507. in PHP for pdf which library used?

The PDF functions in PHP can create PDF files using the PDFlib library With version 6,
PDFlib offers an object-oriented API for PHP 5 in addition to the function-oriented API
for PHP 4. There is also the » Panda module. FPDF is a PHP class which allows to
generate PDF files with pure PHP, that is to say without using the PDFlib library. F from
FPDF stands for Free: you may use it for any kind of usage and modify it to suit your
needs. FPDF requires no extension (except zlib to activate compression and GD for GIF
support) and works with PHP4 and PHP5.

508. for image work which library?

we will need to compile PHP with the GD library of image functions for this to work.
GD and PHP may also require other libraries, depending on which image formats you
want to work with.

509. what is design pattern? singleton pattern?

A design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in
software design.
The Singleton design pattern allows many parts of a program to share a single resource
without having to work out the details of the sharing themselves.

510. I am trying to assign a variable the value of 0123, but it keeps coming up with
a different number, what’s the problem?
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 101

PHP Interpreter treats numbers beginning with 0 as octal. Look at the similar PHP
interview questions for more numeric problems.

511. Would I use print “$a dollars” or “{$a} dollars” to print out the amount of
dollars in this example?
In this example it wouldn’t matter, since the variable is all by itself, but if you were to
print something like “{$a},000,000 mln dollars”, then you definitely need to use the
braces.
512. What are the different tables present in MySQL? Which type of table is
generated when we are creating a table in the following syntax: create table
employee(eno int(2),ename varchar(10))?
Total 5 types of tables we can create
1. MyISAM2. Heap
3. Merge
4. INNO DB
5. ISAM
MyISAM is the default storage engine as of MySQL 3.23. When you fire the above
create query MySQL will create a MyISAM table.

513. How To Create a Table?

If you want to create a table, you can run the CREATE TABLE statement as shown in
the following sample script:
Remember that mysql_query() returns TRUE/FALSE on CREATE statements. If you
run this script, you will get something like this:
Table Tech_links created.

514. How can we encrypt the username and password using PHP?
You can encrypt a password with the following Mysql>SET
PASSWORD=PASSWORD(“Password”);
You can also use the MySQL PASSWORD() function to encrypt username and
password. For example,
INSERT into user (password, …) VALUES (PASSWORD($password”)), …);

515. What is the functionality of the functions STRSTR() and STRISTR()?

string strstr ( string haystack, string needle ) returns part of haystack string from the first
occurrence of needle to the end of haystack. This function is case-sensitive.
stristr() is idential to strstr() except that it is case insensitive.

516. When are you supposed to use endif to end the conditional statement?
When the original if was followed by : and then the code block without braces.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 102

517. How can we send mail using JavaScript?

No. There is no way to send emails directly using JavaScript.
But you can use JavaScript to execute a client side email program send the email using
the “mailto” code.
Here is an example:
function myfunction(form)
{
tdata=document.myform.tbox1.value;
location=”mailto:[email protected]?subject=…”;
return true;
}

518. What is the functionality of the function strstr and stristr?

strstr() returns part of a given string from the first occurrence of a given substring to the
end of the string. For example: strstr(“[email protected]”,”@”) will return
“@example.com”.
stristr() is idential to strstr() except that it is case insensitive.

519. What is the difference between ereg_replace() and eregi_replace()?

eregi_replace() function is identical to ereg_replace() except that it ignores case
distinction when matching alphabetic characters.

520. How do I find out the number of parameters passed into function. ?
func_num_args() function returns the number of parameters passed in.

521. What is the purpose of the following files having extensions: frm, myd, and
myi? What these files contain?
In MySQL, the default table type is MyISAM.
Each MyISAM table is stored on disk in three files. The files have names that begin with
the table name and have an extension to indicate the file type.
The ‘.frm’ file stores the table definition.
The data file has a ‘.MYD’ (MYData) extension.
The index file has a ‘.MYI’ (MYIndex) extension,

522. What is MIME?

MIME - Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions.

MIME types represents a standard way of classifying file types over Internet.
PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 103

Web servers and browsers have a list of MIME types, which facilitates files transfer of
the same type in the same way, irrespective of operating system they are working in.

A MIME type has two parts: a type and a subtype. They are separated by a slash (/).

MIME type for Microsoft Word files is application and the subtype is msword, i.e.
application/msword.Explain how to execute a PHP script using command line.
PHP script using command line can be executed using SAPI (Server Application
programming Interface). Using SAPI Command Line Interface the PHP code can be
passed to execute directly
253. How can we increase the execution time of a PHP script?
By default the PHP script takes 30secs to execute. This time is set in the php.ini file.
This time can be increased by modifying the max_execution_time in seconds. The time
must be changed keeping the environment of the server. This is because modifying the
execution time will affect all the sites hosted by the server.Explain the purpose of output
buffering in PHP.
Output buffering in PHP buffers a scripts output. This buffer can be edited before
returning it to the client. Without output buffering, PHP sends data to the web server as
soon as it is ready. Output buffering "send" cookies at any point in the script. Cookies do
not have to be necessarily sent near the start of page. Output buffers are stackable and
hence sending to output is by choice.How can we know the number of days between two
given dates using PHP?
The start date and end date can be first found as shown below:
$date1= strotime($start_date);
$date2= strotime($end_date);
$date_diff = (($date1)- ($date2)) / (60*60*24)Write the statements that are used to
connect PHP with MySQL
The statements that can be used to connect PHP wil MySQL is:
<?
$conn = mysql_connect('localhost');
echo $conn;
?>
This statement gets the resource of the localhost. There are other different ways with
which you can connect to the database and they are as follows:
<?
mysql_connect('db.domain.com:33306','root','user');
mysql_connect('localhost:/tmp/mysql.sock');
mysql_connect('localhost','rasmus','foobar',
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true,MYSQL_CLIENT_SSL|MYSQL_CLIENT_COMPRESS);
?>How to use HTTP Headers inside PHP? Write the statement through which it can be
added?
HTTP headers can be used in PHP by redirection which is written as:
<?header('Location: http://www.php.net')?>

524. Why many companies are switching their current business language to PHP?
Where PHP basically used?
PHP is rapidly gaining the popularity and many companies are switching their current
language for this language. PHP is a server side scripting language. PHP executes the
instructions on the server itself. Server is a computer where the web site is located. PHP
is used to create dynamic pages and provides faster execution of the instructions.Why
PHP is sometimes called as embedded scripting language?
PHP is a high level language which is used to allow users to write and understand it in
human readable form and also use an interpreter to interpret the code which user write
for the computer. PHP is used as an embedded scripting language for the web. PHP is
embedded in HTML code. HTML tags are used to enclose the PHP language. HTML is
used and PHP is code written in it in the same way as you write JavaScript in HTML.
What is difference between require_once(), require(), include()?
require() includes and evaluates a specific file, if the file is not found then it shows a
Fatal Error.

require_once() includes only the file which is not being included before. It is used to be
recommended for the files where you have lots of functions stored.

include() includes the file, even if the file is not found, but it gives a warning to the user
to include().PHP being an open source is there any support available to it?
PHP is an open source language, and it is been said that it has very less support online
and offline. But, PHP is all together a different language that is being developed by
group of programmers, who writes the code. There is lots of available support for PHP,
which mostly comes from developers and PHP users.

525. What are important things about php functions?

PHP function start with "function function-name()".
PHP Function name must be start with character and it accept alphanumeric and
_.
In build functions are case in-sensitive.
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User build functions are case sensitive.

We can pass upto 64 parameter as argument.
Anonymous function are user defined function which have "no-name" and also
called closures.
PHP support variable functions. Means when you can call a function using
variable.
In same file OR under same class, same function name can't be created.

526. What is role of htmlentities?

htmlentities is used to convert all applicable characters to HTML entities.
It is used to stop the user from running malicious code in HTML.
With use of htmlentities, user can't run the html tags like h2, p, script etc. It helps
to prevent you fromXSS attack.
echo htmlentities($userData);

527. How To Protect Special Characters in Query String?

If you want to include special characters like spaces in the query string, you need to
protect them by applying the urlencode() translation function. The script below shows
how to use urlencode():
<?php
print(“<html>”);
print(“<p>Please click the links below”
.” to submit comments about TECHPreparation.com:</p>”);
$comment = ‘I want to say: “It\’s a good site! :->”‘;
$comment = urlencode($comment);
print(“<p>”
.”<a href=\”processing_forms.php?name=Guest&comment=$comment\”>”
.”It’s an excellent site!</a></p>”);
$comment = ‘This visitor said: “It\’s an average site! “‘;
$comment = urlencode($comment);
print(“<p>”
.’<a href=”processing_forms.php?’.$comment.’”>’
.”It’s an average site.</a></p>”);
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print(“</html>”);
?>
528. Are objects passed by value or by reference?
Everything is passed by value.

529. Who is the father of PHP ?

Rasmus Lerdorf is known as the father of PHP.

530. What is the difference between $name and $$name?

$name is variable where as $$name is reference variable like $name=sonia and $
$name=singh so $sonia value is singh.

531. What are the method available in form submitting?

GET and POST

532.How can we get the browser properties using PHP?

<?php
echo $_SERVER[‘HTTP_USER_AGENT’].”\n\n”;
$browser=get_browser(null,true);
print_r($browser);
?>

533. What Is a Session?

A session is a logical object created by the PHP engine to allow you to preserve data
across subsequent HTTP requests. Sessions are commonly used to store temporary data
to allow multiple PHP pages to offer a complete functional transaction for the same
visitor.
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534. How can we register the variables into a session?

<?php
session_register($ur_session_var);
?>

535. How many ways we can pass the variable through the navigation between the
pages?
Register the variable into the session
Pass the variable as a cookie
Pass the variable as part of the URL

536. How can we know the total number of elements of Array?

sizeof($array_var)
count($array_var)

537. How can we create a database using php?

mysql_create_db();

538. What is the functionality of the function strstr and stristr?

strstr() returns part of a given string from the first occurrence of a given substring to the
end of the string.
For example:strstr("[email protected]","@") will return "@example.com".
stristr() is idential to strstr() except that it is case insensitive.

539. What are encryption functions in PHP?

PHP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 108

CRYPT(), MD5()

540. How to store the uploaded file to the final location?

move_uploaded_file( string filename, string destination)

541. Explain mysql_error().

The mysql_error() message will tell us what was wrong with our query, similar to the
message we would receive at the MySQL console.

542. What is Constructors and Destructors?

CONSTRUCTOR : PHP allows developers to declare constructor methods for classes.
Classes which have a constructor method call this method on each newly-created object,
so it is suitable for any initialization that the object may need before it is used.
DESTRUCTORS : PHP 5 introduces a destructor concept similar to that of other object-
oriented languages, such as C++. The destructor method will be called as soon as all
references to a particular object are removed or when the object is explicitly destroyed
or in any order in shutdown sequence.

543. Explain the visibility of the property or method.

The visibility of a property or method must be defined by prefixing the declaration with
the keywords public, protected or private.
Class members declared public can be accessed everywhere.
Members declared protected can be accessed only within the class itself and by inherited
and parent classes.
Members declared as private may only be accessed by the class that defines the member.

544. What are the differences between Get and post methods.
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There are some defference between GET and POST method

1. GET Method have some limit like only 2Kb data able to send for request
But in POST method unlimited data can we send
2. when we use GET method requested data show in url but
Not in POST method so POST method is good for send sensetive request

545. What are the differences between require and include?

Both include and require used to include a file but when included file not found
Include send Warning where as Require send Fatal Error

546. What is use of header() function in php ?

The header() function sends a raw HTTP header to a client.We can use herder()
function for redirection of pages. It is important to notice that header() must
be called before any actual output is seen.

547. List out the predefined classes in PHP?

Directory
stdClass
__PHP_Incomplete_Class
exception
php_user_filter

548. What type of inheritance that PHP supports?

In PHP an extended class is always dependent on a single base class,that is, multiple
inheritance is not supported. Classes are extended using the keyword 'extends'.

549. How can we encrypt the username and password using php?
You can encrypt a password with the following Mysql>SET
PASSWORD=PASSWORD("Password");
We can encode data using base64_encode($string) and can decode using
base64_decode($string);
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550. What is the difference between explode and split?

Split function splits string into array by regular expression. Explode splits a string into
array by string.
For Example:explode(" and", "India and Pakistan and Srilanka");
split(" :", "India : Pakistan : Srilanka");
Both of these functions will return an array that contains India, Pakistan, and Srilanka.