Introduction to PHP Language

What is PHP?
 PHP is an acronym for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor"
 PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language
 PHP scripts are executed on the server
 PHP is free to download and use

HP is an amazing and popular language!

It is powerful enough to be at the core of the biggest blogging system on

the web (WordPress)!
It is deep enough to run the largest social network (Facebook)!
It is also easy enough to be a beginner's first server side language!

What is a PHP File?

 PHP files can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code
 PHP code are executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML
 PHP files have extension ".php"

What Can PHP Do?

 PHP can generate dynamic page content
 PHP can create, open, read, write, delete, and close files on the server
 PHP can collect form data
 PHP can send and receive cookies
 PHP can add, delete, modify data in your database
 PHP can be used to control user-access
 PHP can encrypt data

With PHP you are not limited to output HTML. You can output images, PDF files, and even Flash
movies. You can also output any text, such as XHTML and XML.
Why PHP?
 PHP runs on various platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.)
 PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
 PHP supports a wide range of databases
 PHP is free. Download it from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
 PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side
 A PHP script is executed on the server, and the plain HTML result is sent back to the
browser.

PHP is a Loosely Typed Language

In the example above, notice that we did not have to tell PHP which data type the variable is.

PHP automatically converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on its value.

In other languages such as C, C++, and Java, the programmer must declare the name and type of the
variable before using it.

Basic PHP Syntax

 A PHP script can be placed anywhere in the document.
 A PHP script starts with <?php and ends with ?>:
 <?php
// PHP code goes here
?>
 The default file extension for PHP files is ".php".
 A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, and some PHP scripting code.
 Below, we have an example of a simple PHP file, with a PHP script that uses a built-in PHP
function "echo" to output the text "Hello World!" on a web page

<?php
echo "Hello World!";
?>
C++ code for table of 2 generation/ PHP code (Syntax)

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int n;
cout << "Enter a positive integer: "; for($i=1 ; $i<=10 ; $i++) {
echo $i*NUM;
cin >> n;
}
for (int i = 1; i <= 10; ++i) {
cout << n << " * " << i << " = " << n * i << endl;
}

return 0;
}

PHP Case Sensitivity

In PHP, all keywords (e.g. if, else, while, echo, etc.), classes, functions, and user-defined functions
are NOT case-sensitive.

In the example below, all three echo statements below are legal (and equal):

<?php
ECHO "Hello World!<br>";
echo "Hello World!<br>";
EcHo "Hello World!<br>";
?>

Creating (Declaring) PHP Variables

PHP Variables
A variable can have a short name (like x and y) or a more descriptive name (age, carname,
total_volume).

Rules for PHP variables:

 A variable starts with the $ sign, followed by the name of the variable
 A variable name must start with a letter or the underscore character
 A variable name cannot start with a number
  A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (A-z, 0-9, and _
)
 Variable names are case-sensitive ($age and $AGE are two different variables)

Variables are "containers" for storing information.

In PHP, a variable starts with the $ sign, followed by the name of the variable:

<?php
$txt = "Hello world!";
$x = 5;
$y = 10.5;

echo $txt;
echo "<br>";
echo $x;
echo "<br>";
echo $y;
?>

Output Variables
The PHP echo statement is often used to output data to the screen.

The following example will show how to output text and a variable:

<?php
$x = 5;
$y = 4;
echo $x + $y;
?>

The PHP for Loop

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

Syntax
for (init counter; test counter; increment counter) {
code to be executed;
}

Parameters:

 init counter: Initialize the loop counter value

 test counter: Evaluated for each loop iteration. If it evaluates to TRUE, the loop continues. If
it evaluates to FALSE, the loop ends.
  increment counter: Increases the loop counter value

The example below displays the numbers from 0 to 10:

Example
<?php
for ($x = 0; $x <= 10; $x++) {
echo "The number is: $x <br>";
}
?>

The PHP foreach Loop

The foreach loop works only on arrays, and is used to loop through each key/value pair in an array.

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

For every loop iteration, the value of the current array element is assigned to $value and the array
pointer is moved by one, until it reaches the last array element.

The following example demonstrates a loop that will output the values of the given array ($colors):

Example
<?php
$colors = array("red", "green", "blue", "yellow");

foreach ($colors as $value) {

echo "$value <br>";
}
?>

The PHP switch Statement

The switch statement is used to perform different actions based on different conditions.

Use the switch statement to select one of many blocks of code to be executed.

Syntax
switch (n) {
case label1:
 code to be executed if n=label1;
break;
case label2:
code to be executed if n=label2;
break;
case label3:
code to be executed if n=label3;
break;
...
default:
code to be executed if n is different from all labels;
}

This is how it works: First we have a single expression n (most often a variable), that is evaluated
once. The value of the expression is then compared with the values for each case in the structure. If
there is a match, the block of code associated with that case is executed. Use break to prevent the
code from running into the next case automatically. The default statement is used if no match is
found.

Example
<?php
$favcolor = "red";

switch ($favcolor) {
case "red":
echo "Your favorite color is red!";
break;
case "blue":
echo "Your favorite color is blue!";
break;
case "green":
echo "Your favorite color is green!";
break;
default:
echo "Your favorite color is neither red, blue, nor green!";
}
?>