Introduction to PHP

PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl
with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. Another way to think of PHP is a powerful,
behind the scenes scripting language that visitors won't see!

The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly.
When someone visits a PHP webpage, web server processes the PHP code. It then sees which parts it
needs to show to visitors (content and pictures) and hides the other stuffs (file operations, math
calculations, etc.) then translates PHP into HTML. After the translation into HTML, it sends the
webpage to the visitor's web browser.

What is PHP?

 PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

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

Why PHP?

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

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

Where to Start?

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

 Install Apache (or IIS) on your own server, install PHP, and MySQL
 Or find a web hosting plan with PHP and MySQL support

How it Works

When a user navigates in her browser to a page that ends with a .php extension, the request is sent to
a web server, which directs the request to the PHP interpreter. As shown in the diagram, the PHP
interpreter processes the page, communicating with file systems, databases, and email servers as
necessary, and then delivers a web page to the web server to return to the browser.

1
PHP-Syntax

Syntax - The rules that must be followed to write properly structured code. PHP's syntax and
semantics are similar to most other programming languages (C, Java, Perl) with the addition that all
PHP code is contained within <?php ………. ?> tag. That is, a PHP scripting block always starts with
<?php and ends with ?>, and can be placed anywhere in the document. On servers with shorthand
support enabled it is possible to start a scripting block with <? and end with ?>.

PHP Code

<?php

//write php code here….

?>

<?

//write php code here….

?>

Our First Script

Let's jump straight in with a PHP script. To begin, open your favorite text editor. Like HTML
documents, PHP files are made up of plain text. You can create them with any text editor, such as
Notepad on Windows, Simple Text and BBEdit on MacOS, or VI and Emacs on UNIX operating systems.
Most popular HTML editors provide at least some support for PHP.

PHP Code

<?php

2
 echo “Hello world ! it is my first php script”;

//using echo for calling php script

?>

PHP semicolon
The semicolon signifies the end of a PHP statement and should never be forgotten. For example, if we
repeated our "Hello World!" code several times, then we would need to place a semicolon at the end
of each statement.

PHP Code

<?php

echo “Hello World !”;

?>

PHP starting and ending script

When writing PHP, you need to inform the interpreter that you want it to execute your commands. If
you don't do this, the code you write will be mistaken for HTML and will be output to the browser.
Following table shows different ways of enclosing PHP code.

Tag Style Start Tag End Tag

Standard tags <?php ?>

Sort tags <? ?>

Script tags <script language=”php”> </script>

Let's run through some of the ways in which you can legally write the code in listing.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Hello world !

echo “hello world !”;

?>

3
 <? Hello world !

echo “hello world !”;

?>

<script language =”php”> Hello world !

echo “hello world !”;

</script>

<?php echo “hello world !”; ?> Hello world !

PHP print function

print() is a function that outputs data. In most cases, anything output by print() ends up in the browser
window. A function is a command that performs an action, usually modified in some way by data
provided for it. Data sent to a function is almost always placed in parentheses after the function
name. In this case, you sent the print() function a collection of characters, or string. Strings must
always be enclosed by quotation marks, either single or double.

Combining HTML and PHP

You can incorporate this into an HTML document simply by adding HTML outside the PHP start and
end tags, as shown in example code.

As you can see, incorporating HTML into a PHP document is simply a matter of typing in the code. The
PHP interpreter ignores everything outside PHP open and close tags. If you were to view with a
browser, as shown in Figure, you would see the string "this is a php code". If you were to view the
document source, as shown in Figure the listing would look exactly like a normal HTML document.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Hello world!

//echo style Hello dude !

print “hello world ! <BR>”;

//function style

print (“hello dude !”);

?>

4
PHP Code

Code Result

<html> This is a html code

<head><title>HTML-PHP</title></head> This is a php code

<body>

This is a html code

<BR>

<?php

print “this is a php code”;

?>

</body>

</html>

PHP Comments
Adding comments to your code as you write can save you time later on and make it easier for other
programmers to work with your code.

Single line comments begin with two forward slashes (//) or a single hash sign (#).All text from either
of these marks until either the end of the line or the PHP close tag is ignored.

Multiline comments begin with a forward slash followed by an asterisk (/*) and end with an asterisk
followed by a forward slash (*/).

// this is a single line comment

# this is another single line coment

/*

this is a php multi line coment

this is a php multi line coment

this is a php multi line coment

*/

5
PHP Variables

Variables are used for storing values, like text strings, numbers or arrays. When a variable is declared,
it can be used over and over again in your script.

All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol. The correct way of declaring a variable in PHP is
$var_name = value;

NOTE: New PHP programmers often forget the $ sign at the beginning of the variable. In that case it
will not work.

Following example creates a variable containing a string, and a variable containing a number:

<?php
$txt="Hello_World!";
$x=16;
?>

PHP is a loosely typed language. In PHP, a variable does not need to be declared before adding a value
to it. In the example above, you see that you do not have to tell PHP which data type the variable is.
PHP automatically converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on its value. In case of a
strongly typed programming language, you have to declare (define) the type and name of the variable
before using it. In PHP, the variable is declared automatically when you use it.

Naming Rules for Variables

 A variable name must start with a letter or an underscore "_"

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

PHP Strings

Before you can use a string you have to create it. A string can be used directly in a function or it can be
stored in a variable. Below we create the exact same string twice: first storing it into a variable and in
the second case we send the string directly to echo.

6
PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Hello every body !

//set string Hello every body !

$my_string = "Hello every body !"; Hello guys !

$_mystring=”Hello guys !”; Hello dude !

$mystring=”Hello dude !”; Hello web !

$mystring1=”Hello web !”;

echo "Hello every body !";

echo “<br>”;

//<BR> for line break

//call for out put the string

echo $my_string;

echo “<br>”;

echo $_mystring;

echo “<br>”;

echo $mystring;

echo “<br>”;

echo $mystring1;

?>

Constants

Constants are like variables except that, once assigned a value, they cannot be changed. Constants are
created using the define() function and by convention (but not by rule) are in all uppercase letters.
Constants can be accessed from anywhere on the page.

Syntax

define ('CONST_NAME',VALUE);

7
PHP Code

Code Result

<?php my name is Prince

define("name","Prince"); my number is 100

define("number","100");

print "my name is ".name."<br>";

print "my number is ".number;

?>

Double-Quotes and Single-Quotes

In JavaScript, you can use either use single (') or double (") quotes and they behave the same.
In php, it is different. Double quotes and single quotes aren't exactly the same.

$something="Oh something"; echo "My answer is $something.<br>";

//result is: My answer is Oh something

In the above, using double quotes, the variable $something is evaluated within the quotes and
the result isn't what is expected: the variable is evaluated to Oh something. Variables, but not
functions or constants, are evaluated even when enclosed in double quotes.

echo 'My answer is $something.<br>'; //result is: My answer is $something.

When single quotes are used, as above, the variable isn't evaluated and is printed on the screen
literally as $something.

Escaping with the Backslash

The backslash character (\) can be used to escape quotes and variables. The next example
repeats the idea that things are evaluated within double quotes.

$something="Oh something!"; echo "My answer is $something";

//result: My answer is Oh something!

So nothing new here, just a reminder. Next we use the backslash to escape the variable
$something and also the double quotes around "is":

echo "<br>"; echo "My answer \"is\" \$something";

8
//result: My answer "is" $something

The program doesn't crash on finding more double quotes, but understands that these are just to
emphasize "is". And the program does not explode $something, but prints it literally, because it
is escaped

PHP Array

PHP arrays allow you to store groups of related data in one variable (as opposed to storing them in
separate variables). Storing data like this in an array has many benefits. For example, if you have a lot
of data, you could populate the array programmatically. You could also output the contents
programmatically - all you need to know is the name of the array.

There are 3 different types of PHP arrays:

 Numeric arrays
 Associative arrays
 Multidimensional arrays

Numeric array

Numeric arrays use a number as the "key". The key is the unique identifier, or ID, of each item within
the array. We can use this ID later when working with the contents within the array - we don't need to
know the item's value, just the ID.

Note that numbering starts at zero.

You can choose between the following examples when creating an array. Both of these examples have
the same result.

Example: Manual key assignment

When creating an array this way, you assign each "key" as a number within open and closing square
brackets ([ and ]).

$arrayName[0] = "Value1";
$arrayName[1] = "Value2";
$arrayName[2] = "Value3";

Another Example: Automatic key assignment

When using this method to create an array, you don't need to assign the key - PHP will do that for you.

$arrayName = array("Value1", "Value2", "Value3");

You can work with each value in an array by referring to its key. For example, to select the 2nd value
in an array, we would do this $arrayName[1]. Just a reminder that numbering starts at zero, so the
2nd item actually uses the number one as it's key.

9
PHP Code

Code Result
<?php Strawberries
$fruit = array("Apples", "Strawberries", "Blackberries");
echo $fruit[1];
?>

Associative array

Associative arrays are similar to numeric arrays but, instead of using a number for the key, we use a
value. We then assign another value to the key - you could think of it as two values for the price of
one!

As with creating numeric arrays, there are two options for creating associative arrays in PHP (although
in both cases, we have to create the key manually).

Example: $arrayName['keyName'] = "Value1";

$arrayName['keyName'] = "Value2";
$arrayName['keyName'] = "Value3";

Another Example

$arrayName = array("keyName"=>"Value1", "keyName"=>"Value2", "keyName"=>"Value3");

You can display the contents of associative arrays just as you would with numeric arrays - by referring
to it's key.

PHP Code

Code Result
<?php Artichoke: 105 kilojoules
$vegetables=array("Gourd"=>"40kilojoules",
"Artichoke"=>"105 kilojoules", "Cassava"=>"550 kilojoules");
echo "Artichoke: " . $vegetables["Artichoke"];
?>

Multidimensional arrays

Multidimensional arrays allow you to put an array inside another array. In other words, the
contents of the array are another array. You can do this as many times as you wish - you could
have an array inside another array, which is inside another array, etc

The following diagram demonstrates this. We have an array called "Food", which contains 3
arrays (called "Fruit", "Vegetables", "Grains"). Each of these arrays contains their own arrays
(one for each food within that group).

10
 Food
Fruits
Apples

Bananas

Vegetables
Carrots

Grains
oarbran

We can create the above array using the following code:

Code Result
<?php Best Food is Potatoes.
$Food = array ("Fruit"=>array ("Apples", "Bananas",
"Oranges", ), "Vegetables"=>array ("Carrots",
"Potatoes", ), "Grains"=>array ("Oatbran", )
);

echo “Best Food is ”. $Food[Vegetables][1].”.”

?>

PHP Operator

In all programming languages, operators are used to manipulate or perform operations on variables
and values. There are many operators used in PHP, which can be separated into the following
categories to make it easier to learn them all.

 Assignment Operators
 Arithmetic Operators
 Comparison Operators
 String Operators
 Combination Arithmetic & Assignment Operators
 Logical Operators

Assignment Operators

Assignment operators are used to set a variable equal to a value or set a variable to another variable's
value. Such an assignment of value is done with the "=", or equal character. Example:

$my_var = 4;

11
$another_var = $my_var;

Now both $my_var and $another_var contain the value 4. Assignments can also be used in
conjunction with arithmetic operators.

Arithmetic Operators

Operator Name Example

+ Addition 2+4

- Subtraction 10-5

* Multiplication 5*5

/ Division 10/2

% Modulus 43%10

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php addition: 2 + 4 = 6

$addition = 2+4; subtraction: 10 - 5 = 5

$subtraction = 10-5; multiplication: 5 *5 = 25

$multiplication = 5*5; division: 10 / 2 = 5

$division = 10/2; modulus: 43 % 10 = 3

$modulus = 43%10;

echo "addition: 2 + 4 = ".$addition."<br />";

echo "subtraction: 10 - 5 = ".$subtraction."<br />";

echo "multiplication: 5 *5 = ".$multiplication."<br />";

echo "division: 10 / 2 = ".$division."<br />";

echo "modulus: 43 % 10 = " . $modulus ;

?>

12
Comparison Operators

Comparisons are used to check the relationship between variables and/or values. Comparison
operators are used inside conditional statements and evaluate to either true or false. Here are the
most important comparison operators of PHP. Asume $x = 4 and $y = 5

Operator Name Example Result

== Equal To $x = = $y False

!= Not Equal To $x != $y True

< Less Than $x < $y True

> Greater Than $x > $y False

<= Less Than or Equal To $x <= $y True

>= Greater Than or Equal To $x >= $y False

String Operators

There is only one string operator in PHP. As we have already seen in the Arithmetic Operators Lesson,
the period "." is used to add two strings together, or more technically, the period is the concatenation
operator for strings.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Hello world !

$_a = “hello”;

$_b = “world”;

$_new = $_a . $_b;

print $_new . “!”;

?>

13
Combination of Arithmetic and Assignment Operators

In programming it is a very common task to have to increment a variable by some fixed amount. The
most common example of this is a counter. Say you want to increment a counter by 1, you would
have:

$counter = $counter + 1;

However, there is a short-hand for doing this.

$counter += 1;

This combination assignment/arithmetic operator would accomplish the same task. The downside to
this combination operator is that it reduces code readability to those programmers who are not used
to such an operator. Here are some examples of other common shorthand operators. In general, "+="
and "-=" are the most widely used combination operators.

Operator Name Example Equivalent operation

+= Plus Equals $x += 2 $x = $x + 2

-= Minus Equals $x -= 2 $x = $x – 2

*= Multiply Equals $x *=2 $x = $x * 2

/= Divide Equals $x /=2 $x = $x / 2

%= Modulo Equals $x %= 2 $x = $x % 2
Concatenate Equals
.= $_a .= $b $_a = $_a . $_b

Logical Operators

The logical operators test combinations of Booleans. The or (||) operator, for example returns true if
either the left or the right operand is true.

true || false would return true

The and operator only returns true if both the left and right operands are true.

true && false would return false

14
It's unlikely that you would use a logical operator to test Boolean constants, however. It would make
more sense to test two or more expressions that resolve to a Boolean. For example,

($x > 2) && ($x < 15) would return true if $x contained a value that is greater than 2 and smaller than
15. We include the parentheses to make the code easier to read.

Operator Name Return True If... Example Result

|| Or Left or right is true true || false True

&& And Left and right are true true && false False

! Not The single operand is not true ! true False

Increment and Decrement Variable

This may seem a bit absurd, but there is even shorter shorthand for the common task of adding 1 or
subtracting 1 from a variable. To add one to a variable or "increment" use the

"++" operator: $x++; which is equivalent to $x += 1; or $x = $x + 1;

To subtract 1 from a variable, or "decrement" use the "--" operator. $x--; which is equivalent to $x -=
1; or $x = $x - 1;

In addition to this "shorter hand" technique, you can specify whether you want to increment before
the line of code is being executed or after the line has executed. Our PHP code below will display the
difference.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php

$x = 4; 4

15
 // The value of x with post-plusplus

echo $x++.”<br>”; 5

// The value of x after the post-plusplus is

echo $x.”<br><br>”; 5

$x = 4;

// The value of x with with pre-plusplus

echo ++$x.”<br>”; 5

// The value of x after the pre- plusplus is

echo $x;

?>

Switching Flow

Most scripts evaluate conditions and change their behavior accordingly. The facility to make decisions
makes your PHP pages dynamic, capable of changing their output according to circumstances. Like
most programming languages, PHP allows you to do this with an if statement.

The if Statement

The if statement evaluates an expression between parentheses. If this expression results in a true
value, a block of code is executed. Otherwise, the block is skipped entirely. This enables scripts to
make decisions based on any number of factors.

if ( expression )

// code to execute if the expression evaluates to true

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Correct number

$number = 100;

16
 if($number == 100)

{ print “Correct number”; }

?>

You use the comparison operator == to compare the variable $number with the value 100. If they
match, the expression evaluates to true, and the code block below the if statement is executed.
Although the code block is wrapped in braces in the example, this is only necessary if the block
contains more than one line. The following fragment, therefore, would be acceptable.

if ( $number == 100 )

print "Correct number";

If you change the value of $number to "50" and run the script, the expression in the if statement
evaluates to false, and the code block is skipped. The script remains sulkily silent.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?Php

$number = 50;

if($number = = 100)

{ print “Correct number”;}

?>

Using else with if Statement

When working with if statement, you will often want to define an alternative block of code that
should be executed if the expression you are testing evaluates to false. You can do this by adding else
to if statement followed by a further block of code.

if ( expression )

// code to execute if the expression evaluates to true

17
else

// code to execute in all other cases

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Wrong number

$number = 50;

if($number = = 100)

print “Correct number”;

else

print “Wrong number”;

?>

$number contains the 50, which is not equivalent to 100, so the expression in if statement evaluates
to false. This means that the first block of code is skipped. The block of code after else, therefore, is
executed, and the message "Wrong number" is printed to the browser.

Using elseif with if Statement

You can use an if-elseif-else construct to test multiple expressions before offering a default block of
code.

if ( expression )

// code to execute if the expression evaluates to true

18
}

elseif ( another expression )

// code to execute if the previous expression failed and this one evaluates to true

else

// code to execute in all other cases

If the first expression does not evaluate to true, then the first block of code is ignored. The elseif
clause then causes another expression to be evaluated. Once again, if this expression evaluates to
true, then the second block of code is executed. Otherwise, the block of code associated with the else
clause is executed. You can include as many elseif clauses as you want, and if you don't need a default
action, you can omit the else clause.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?Php Else If is a Correct

$number = 50;

if ($number = = 100){ print “Correct number”; }

elseif ($number = = 50)

{ print “Else If is a Correct ”; }

else

{ print “Wrong number”;}

?>

Once again, $number holds value 50, This is not equivalent to 100, so the first block is ignored. The
elseif clause tests for equivalence between the contents of $number and 50, which evaluates to true.
This block of code is therefore executed.

19
The switch Statement

With the use of the switch statement you can check for all these conditions at once, and the great
thing is that it is actually more efficient programming to do this.

The way the Switch statement works is it takes a single variable as input and then checks it against all
the different cases you set up for that switch statement. Instead of having to check that variable one
at a time, as it goes through a bunch of If Statements, the Switch statement only has to check one
time.

In our example the single variable will be $destination and the cases will be: Las Vegas, Amsterdam,
Egypt, Tokyo, and the Caribbean Islands.

PHP Code

Code Result

$destination = "Tokyo"; Traveling to Tokyo

echo "Traveling to $destination<br />"; Bring lots of money

switch ($destination)

case "Las Vegas":

echo "Bring an extra $500";

break;

case "Amsterdam":

echo "Bring an open mind";

break;

case "Egypt":

echo "Bring15 bottles of SPF 50

Sunscreen";

break;

20
 case "Tokyo":

echo "Bring lots of money";

break;

case "Caribbean Islands":

echo "Bring a swimsuit";

break;

?>

The value of $destination was Tokyo, so when PHP performed the switch operating on $destination in
immediately did a search for a case with the value of "Tokyo". It found it and proceeded to execute
the code that existed within that segment.

You might have noticed how each case contains a break; at the end of its code area. This break
prevents the other cases from being executed. If the above example did not have any break
statements then all the cases that follow Tokyo would have been executed as well. Use this
knowledge to enhance the power of your switch statements!

The form of the switch statement is rather unique, so spend some time reviewing it before moving on.
Note: Beginning programmers should always include the break; to avoid any unnecessary confusion.

switch Statement Default Case

You may have noticed the lack of a place for code when the variable doesn't match our condition. if
statement has the else clause and the switch statement has the default case.

It's usually a good idea to always include the default case in all your switch statements. Below is a
variation of our example that will result in none of the cases being used causing our switch statement
to fall back and use the default case

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Bring lots of underwear

$destination = "New York";

21
echo "Traveling to $destination<br />";

switch ($destination){

case "Las Vegas":

echo "Bring an extra $500";

break;

case "Amsterdam":

echo "Bring an open mind";

break;

case "Egypt":

echo "Bring15bottles of SPF 50

Sunscreen";

break;

case "Tokyo":

echo "Bring lots of money";

break;

case "Caribbean Islands":

echo "Bring a swimsuit";

break;

default:

echo "Bring lots of underwear!";

break;

?>

Using the ?: Operator

The ?: or ternary operator is similar to the if statement but returns a value derived from one of two
expressions separated by a colon. Which expression is used to generate the value returned depends
on the result of a test expression:

(expression) ? returned_if_expression_is_true : returned_if_expression_is_false;

22
If the test expression evaluates to true, the result of the second expression is returned; otherwise, the
value of the third expression is returned.

PHP Code

Code Result

<html> Your number is wrong

<head><title>Example</title></head>

<body>

<?php

$_ct = “500”;

$_logic = (100 > $_ct)?”your number is

correct”:”your number is wrong”;

print $_logic;

?>

</body>

</html>

Looping

So far you've looked at decisions that a script can make about what code to execute. Scripts can also
decide how many times to execute a block of code. Loop statements are designed to enable you to
achieve repetitive tasks. Almost without exception, a loop continues to operate until a condition is
achieved, or you explicitly choose to exit the loop.

While Loop

Repetitive tasks are always a burden to us. Deleting spam email, sealing 50 envelopes, and going to
work are all examples of tasks that are repeated. The nice thing about programming is that you can
avoid such repetitive tasks with a little bit of extra thinking. Most often these repetitive tasks are
conquered in the loop.

23
The idea of a loop is to do something over and over again until the task has been completed. Before
we show a real example of when you might need one, let's go over the structure of the PHP while
loop.

Example

The function of the while loop is to do a task over and over as long as the specified conditional
statement is true. This logical check is the same as the one that appears in a PHP if statement to
determine if it is true or false. Here is the basic structure of a PHP while loop.

while ( conditional statement)

//do this code;

It displays how the while loop is structured. The conditional statement is checked:

If it is true, then code within the while loop is executed.

If the conditional statement is false, then code following the while loop is executed like
normal.
Example

Imagine that you are running an art supply store. You would like to print out the price chart for
number of brushes and total cost. You sell brushes at a flat rate, but would like to display how much
different quantities would cost. This will save your customers from having to do the mental math
themselves.

You know that a while loop would be perfect for this repetitive and boring task. Here is how to go
about doing it.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Quantity Price

$brush_price = 5; 10 50

$counter = 10; 20 100

echo "<table border=\"1\" align=\"center\">";

24
 echo "<tr><th>Quantity</th>"; 30 150

echo "<th>Price</th></tr>"; 40 200

while ( $counter <= 100 ) { 50 250

echo "<tr><td>"; 60 300

echo $counter; 70 350

echo "</td><td>"; 80 400

echo $brush_price * $counter; 90 450

echo "</td></tr>"; 100 500
$counter = $counter + 10;

echo "</table>";

?>

The loop created a new table row and its respective entries for each quantity, until our counter
variable grew past the size of 100. When it grew past 100 our conditional statement failed and the
loop stopped being used. Let's review what is going on.

 We first made a $brush_price and $counter variable and set them equal to our desired values.
 The table was set up with the beginning table tag and the table headers.
 The while loop conditional statement was checked, and $counter (10) was indeed smaller or
equal to 100.
 The code inside the while loop was executed, creating a new table row for the price of 10
brushes.
 We then added 10 to $counter to bring the value to 20.
 The loop started over again at step 3, until $counter grew larger than 100.
 After the loop had completed, we ended the table.

Do While Loop

A "do while" loop is a slightly modified version of the while loop. But in this case first the statements
within the loop is executed and then the while condition is check. The basic structure of PHP do while
loop is as follows:

do

25
 //do this code;

} while ( conditional statement);

While and Do While Contrast

A simple example that illustrates the difference between these two loop types is a conditional
statement that is always false. First the while loop:

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php

$_ex = 0;

while( $_ex >1 )

{ echo “good example baby”; }

?>

As you can see, this while loop's conditional statement failed (0 is not greater than 1), which means
the code within the while loop was not executed. Now, can you guess what will happen with a do-
while loop?

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Good example baby

$_ex = 0;

do {

echo “good example baby”;

}while( $_ex >1 );

?>

The code segment "good example baby" was executed even though the conditional statement was
false. This is because a do-while loop first do's and secondly checks the while condition!

26
For Loop

for loop is simply a while loop with a bit more code added to it. The common tasks that are covered by
a for loop are:

 Set a counter variable to some initial value

 Check to see if the conditional statement is true
 Execute the code within the loop
 Increment a counter at the end of each iteration through the loop
for loop allows you to define these steps in one easy line of code.

Example

Let us take the example from the while loop Paragraph and see how it could be done in a for loop. The
basic structure of for loop is as follows:

for ( initialize a counter; conditional statement; increment a counter)

//do this code;

Note: how all the steps of the loop are taken care of in the for loop statement. Each step is separated
by a semicolon: initiliaze counter, conditional statement, and the counter increment. A semicolon is
needed because these are separate expressions. However, notice that a semicolon is not needed after
the "increment counter" expression.

Here is the example of the brush prices like while loop another example

PHP Code

Code Result

27
 <?php

$brush_price = 5; Quantity Price

echo "<table border=’1’ align=’center’>"; 10 50

echo "<tr><th>Quantity</th>"; 20 100

echo "<th>Price</th></tr>"; 30 150

for ( $counter = 10; $counter <= 100; $counter += 10) 40 200

{ 50 250

echo "<tr><td>"; 60 300

echo $counter; 70 350

echo "</td><td>"; 80 400

echo $brush_price * $counter; 90 450

echo "</td></tr>"; 100 500

echo "</table>";

?>

Breaking Out of Loops with break Statement

Both while and for statements incorporate a built-in test expression with which you can end a loop.
The break statement, though, enables you to break out of a loop according to additional tests. This
can provide a safeguard against error.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php -4

$_cn = -4; -3

for( ;$_cn <= 10;$_cn++) -2

{ if($_cn == 0) { break; } -1

print $_cn."<BR>";

28
 ?>

Foreach Loop

The foreach loop is used to loop through arrays.

Example

foreach ($array as $value)

//code to be executed;

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

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php one

$x=array("one","two","three"); two

foreach ($x as $value) three

{ echo $value . "<br />"; }

?>

Another Example

This crazy statement roughly translates into: For each element of the $array associative array I want to
refer to the key as $key and the value as $value.

foreach ($array as $key=>$value)

//code to be executed;

29
The operator "=>" represents the relationship between a key and value. You can imagine that the key
points => to the value. In our example we named the key $key and the value $value. However, it might
be easier to think of it as $name and $age. Below our example does this and notice how the output is
identical because we only changed the variable names that refer to the keys and values.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php key = 0 value = one

$x=array(0=>"one",1=>"two",2=>"three"); key = 1 value = two

foreach ($x as $key=>$value) key = 2 value = three

echo "key = " .$key ." value = ".$value. "<br />";

?>

PHP Function

What is Function?

You can think of a function as a machine. A machine takes the raw materials you feed it and works
with them to achieve a purpose or to produce a product. A function accepts values from you,
processes them, and then performs an action (printing to the browser, for example) or returns a new
value, possibly both. If you needed to bake a single cake, you would probably do it yourself. If you
needed to bake thousands of cakes, you would probably build or acquire a cake-baking machine.
Similarly, when deciding whether to create a function, the most important factor to consider is the
extent to which it can save you from repetition.

A function, then, is a self-contained block of code that can be called by your scripts. When called, the
function's code is executed. You can pass values to functions, which they will then work with. When
finished, a function can pass a value back to the calling code.

NEW TERM: A function is a block of code that is not immediately executed but can be called by your
scripts when needed. Functions can be built-in or user-defined. They can require information to be
passed to them and usually return a value.

30
Calling Functions

Functions come in two flavors— those built in to the language and those you define yourself. PHP has
hundreds of built-in functions. The very first script in this tutorial consisted of a single function call:

print("Hello Web");

Note: print ( ) is not a typical function in that it does not require parentheses in order to run
successfully. print ("Hello Web"); and print "Hello Web"; are equally valid. This is an exception. All
other functions require parentheses, whether or not they accept arguments.

In this example, we called the print ( ) function, passing it the string "Hello Web". The function then
went about the business of writing the string. A function call consists of the function name, print in
this case, followed by parentheses. If you want to pass information to the function, you place it
between these parentheses. A piece of information passed to a function in this way is called an
argument. Some functions require that more than one argument be passed to them. Arguments in
these cases must be separated by commas.

some_function( $an_argument, $another_argument );

print ( ) is typical in that it returns a value. Most functions give you some information back when
they've completed their task, if only to tell whether their mission was successful. print ( ) returns a
boolean, therefore. The abs ( ) function, for example, requires a signed numeric value and returns the
absolute value of that number.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php 1200

$_number = -1200;

$new_number = abs($_number);

print $new_number;

?>

In this example, we assign the value − 1200 to a variable $_number. We then pass that variable to the
abs ( ) function, which made the necessary calculation and returned a new value. We assign this to the
31
variable $new_num and print the result. In fact, we could have dispensed with temporary variables
altogether, passing our number straight to abs ( ), and directly printing the result.

print ( abs( −1200 ) );

Create a Function

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

Example

function function_Name( )

//code to be executed;

PHP function guidelines

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

Example: A simple function that my_name when it is called as the following code.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php My name is prince

function myname()

echo “Prince”;

echo “my name is ”;

myname();

?>

32
Functions - adding parameters
To add more functionality to a function, we can add parameters. A parameter is just like a variable.
Parameters are specified after the function name, inside the parentheses.

Example: The following example will write different names.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php my name is prince

function myname($_name) my friend name is john

{ echo $_name; } my girl friend name is shely

echo "my name is ";

myname("prince ");

echo "<br>my friend name is ";

myname("john ");

echo "<br>my girl friend name is ";

myname("shely" );

?>

Functions - return values

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

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php The total mark is 75

function tm($a,$b)

$total = $a + $b;

return $total;

33
 echo "The total mark is ";

tm(50,25);

?>

Variable Scope

A variable declared within a function remains local to that function. In other words, it will not be
available outside the function or within other functions. In larger projects, this can save you from
accidentally overwriting the contents of a variable when you declare two variables of the same name
in separate functions.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php test variable:

function test()

$testvariable = "this is a test variable";

print "test variable: $testvariable<br>";

//$test variable will not run

?>

You can see the output of the script. The value of the variable $testvariable is not printed. This is
because no such variable exists outside the test ( ) function. Note that attempting to access a
nonexistent variable does not cause an error. Similarly, a variable declared outside a function will not
automatically be available within it.

Accessing variables with the global statement

From within a function, it is not possible by default to access a variable that has been defined
elsewhere. If you attempt to use a variable of the same name, you will set or access a local variable
only.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php 3

34
 $a = 1;

$b = 2;

function Sum()

global $a, $b;

$b = $a + $b;

Sum();

echo $b;

?>

The above script will output 3. By declaring $a and $b global within the function, all references to
either variable will refer to the global version. There is no limit to the number of global variables that
can be manipulated by a function.

Usage of Important Built-in Function and String in PHP

Being able to manipulate function and strings is a valuable skill, especially in PHP. You'll most likely
come across a programming problem that requires you to find some data in a string. The beginning of
a lot of your string manipulation expertise will begin with the strops ( ) function, which allows you to
find data in your string.

Searching a string with strops

The way strops ( ) works is it takes some string you want to search in as its first argument and another
string, which is what you are actually searching for, as the second argument. If the function can find a
search match, then it will return the position of the first match. However, if it can't find a match it will
return false.

To make this function crystal clear, let’s search a numbered, in-order string, for the number five.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php The position of 5 in our string was 4

$numberedString = "1234567890";

// 10 numbers from 1 to 0

35
 $fivePos = strpos($numberedString, "5");

echo "The position of 5 in our string was

$fivePos";

?>

Notice that the position is 4, which may seem confusing at first, until you realize that PHP starts
counting from 0.

 The number 1 - Position 0 - No match

 The number 2 - Position 1 - No match
 The number 3 - Position 2 - No match
 The number 4 - Position 3 - No match
 The number 5 - Position 4 – Match
Although we only searched for a single character, you can use this function to search for a string with
any number of characters. Also, it is important to note that this function will return the position of the
start of the first match. So if we had searched the same string for "567890" we would again find a
match and position 4 because that is where the match starts.

The strlen function

The strlen ( ) function is used to return the length of a string.

Let's find the length of a string-

<?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
?>

The output of the code above will be 12.

The length of a string is often used in loops or other functions, when it is important to know
when the string ends. (i.e. in a loop, we would want to stop the loop after the last character in
the string).

PHP str_replace function

Another key tool to have in your programming toolbox is the ability to quickly replace parts of a PHP
string with new values. The str_replace function is similar to a word processor's "Replace All"
command that lets you specify a word and what to replace it with then replaces every occurrence of
that word in the document.

str_replace parameters: str_replace has three parameters that are required for the function to work
properly. str_replace (search, replace, originalString)

36
  search - This is what you want to search your string for. This can be a string or an array.
 replace - All matches for search will be replaced with this value. This can be a string or an
array.
 originalString - This is what search and replace will be operating on. The str_replace function
will return a modified version of originalString when it completes.

Example

Imagine we are working at a school district and need to create a webpage for the students' parents.
The webpage has an introduction string that we need to customize depending on if the student is
male or female. With str_replace this is mighty easy.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php

//string that needs to be customized Son: Welcome Birmingham parents.

Your son is a pleasure to have!
$rawstring = "Welcome Birmingham parents. Your
replaceme is a pleasure to have!";

//male string

$malestr = str_replace("replaceme", "son", Daughter: Welcome Birmingham

$rawstring); parents. Your daughter is a pleasure to
have!
//female string

$femalestr = str_replace("replaceme", "daughter",

$rawstring);

echo "Son: ". $malestr . "<br />";

echo "Daughter: ". $femalestr;

?>

With these two gender customized strings created we could then provide a more engaging experience
for the student's parents when they logged into the school website with their kid's credentials.

str_replace arrays: multiple replaces in one

37
PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Son: Welcome washington parents.

Your son is a pleasure to have
$rawstring = "Welcome Birmingham parents. Your
replaceme is a pleasure to have!";

$arr=array(‘Barmingham’,’replaceme’)

$arr1=array(‘Wasington’,’son’)

$malestr = str_replace($arr, $arr1, $rawstring);

/*

$femalestr = str_replace("replaceme", "daughter",

$rawstring);

*/

echo "Son: ". $malestr . "<br />";

#echo "Daughter: ". $femalestr;

?>

substr_replace function

The function substr_replace introduces some additional functionality to compliment str_replace.

substr_replace is a more mathematically based replace function, which relies on starting points and
lengths to replace parts of strings, as opposed to searching and replacing.

substr_replace's four parameters: There are three required parameters for the substr_replace
function (original string, replacement string, starting point) and one that's optional (length)

 original string - This is your original string that will be operated on.
 replacement string - This string will be used to replace everything in the string from the
starting point to the ending point (specified by length).
 starting point - This is the place in the original string that will be used to mark the
replacement's beginning. A negative value specifies the number of characters from the end of
the string.
 optional length - How many characters from the original string will be replaced. If no length is
specified then the end of the string is used. If a value of 0 is used then no characters will be
replaced and an insert is performed. A negative value specifies the number of characters from
the end of the string.
38
Example: This example of substr_replace shows what happens when you omit the length parameter at
various starting points

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Original String: ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow!

DEF321
//string that needs to be customized
Starting Point 5: ABC12Five
$original = "ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321";
Starting Point 12: ABC123 HelloTwelve
//starting point 5
Starting Point 0: Zero
$sp5 = substr_replace($original, "Five", 5);
Starting Point -1: ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow!
//starting point 12 DEF32Negative 1
$sp12 = substr_replace($original, "Twelve", 12);

//starting point 0

$sp0 = substr_replace($original, "Zero", 0);

//starting point -1

$spneg1 = substr_replace($original, "Negative 1", -

1);

//Echo each string

echo "Original String: $original <br />";

echo "Starting Point 5: $sp5 <br />";

echo "Starting Point 12: $sp12 <br />";

echo "Starting Point 0: $sp0 <br />";

echo "Starting Point -1: $spneg1 ";

?>

As you can see, when you don't specify the fourth parameter, length, everything after the starting
point is replaced by the second parameter replacement string.

39
Note: The first replacement occurred at position 5, which in $original was the character 3. This 3 and
everything onward was replaced with the replacement string. Remember that you start counting
character to begin from zero. The $original string could be labeled as so:

 Letter A - Position 0
 Letter B - Position 1
 Letter C - Position 2
 Letter 1 - Position 3
 Letter 2 - Position 4
 Letter 3 - Position 5

substr_replace specifying a length: If you want to get any sort of precision out of this function you're
going to have to get into the nitty gritty of specifying the exact length of characters you want replaced
in your original string.

Imagine that you want to get rid of those ugly pseudo references (ABC123, DEF321) at the beginning
and end of the string. Since both of those strings are a length of 6 and we know one is at the very
beginning of the string and the other is at the very end of the string we should probably use a starting
point of 0 for ABC123 and a value of -6 for DEF321. By having a replacement string of nothing "" we
can do something similar to select and delete that we often do in a word processor.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Original String: ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow!

DEF321
//string that needs to be customized

$original = "ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321"; Clean #1: Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321

//remove ABC123 and store in $cleanedstr Clean #2: Hello Mr. Cow!
$cleanedstr = substr_replace($original, "", 0, 6);

//remove DEF321 from $cleanedstr

$cleanedstr2 = substr_replace($cleanedstr, "", -6, 6);

//Echo each string

echo "Original String: $original <br />";

echo "Clean #1: $cleanedstr <br />";

echo "Clean #2: $cleanedstr2";

40
 ?>

Make sure that you play around with this function some on your own so you can get a feel for how the
starting point and length parameters affect this function.

String capitalization functions

PHP has three primary capitalization related functions: strtoupper, strtolower and ucwords. The
function names are pretty self-explanatory, but why they are useful in programming might be new to
you.

Converting a String to Upper Case – strtoupper

The strtoupper function takes one argument, the string you want converted to upper case and returns
the converted string. Only letters of the alphabet are changed, numbers will remain the same.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Old string - String Capitalization 1234

$originalString = "String Capitalization 1234"; New String - STRING CAPITALIZATION 1234

$upperCase = strtoupper($originalString);

echo "Old string - $originalString <br />";

echo "New String - " . $upperCase;

?>

One might use this function to increase emphasis of a important point or in a title. Another time it
might be used with a font that looks very nice with all caps to fit the style of the web page design.

A more technical reason would be to convert two strings you are comparing to see if they are equal.
By converting them to the same capitalization you remove the possibility that they won't match
simply because of different capitalizations.

Converting a String to Lower Case – strtolower

41
The strtolower function also has one argument: the string that will be converted to lower case.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Old string - String Capitalization 1234

$originalString = "String Capitalization 1234"; New String - string capitalization 1234

$lowerCase = strtolower($originalString);

echo "Old string - $originalString <br />";

echo "New String - $lowerCase";

?>

Capitalizing the First Letter – ucwords

Titles of various media types often capitalize the first letter of each word and PHP has a time-saving
function that will do just this.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Old title - a title that could use some hELP

$titleString = "a title that could use some New title - A Title That Could Use Some HELP
hELP";

$ucTitleString = ucwords($titleString);

echo "Old title - $titleString <br />";

echo "New title - $ucTitleString";

?>

String explode

The PHP function explode lets you take a string and blow it up into smaller pieces. For example, if you
had a sentence you could ask explode to use the sentence's spaces " " as dynamite and it would blow
up the sentence into separate words, which would be stored in an array. The sentence "Hello, I would
like to lose weight." would look like this after explode got done with it:

42
  Hello,
 I
 would
 like
 to
 lose
 weight

The dynamite (the space character) disappears, but the other stuff remains, but in pieces. With that
abstract picture of the explode function in mind, lets take a look at how it really works.

The explode function: The first argument that explode takes is the delimiter (our dynamite) which is
used to blow up the second argument, the original string. explode returns an array of string pieces
from the original and they are numbered in order, starting from 0. Let’s take a phone number in the
form ###-###-#### and use a hyphen "-" as our dynamite to split the string into three separate
chunks.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Raw Phone Number = 800-555-5555

$rawPhoneNumber = "800-555-5555"; First chunk = 800

$phoneChunks = explode("-", Second chunk = 555

$rawPhoneNumber);
Third Chunk chunk = 5555
echo "Raw Phone Number =
$rawPhoneNumber <br />";

echo "First chunk = $phoneChunks[0]<br />";

echo "Second chunk = $phoneChunks[1]<br

/>";

echo "Third Chunk chunk = $phoneChunks[2]";

?>

Explode Function - Setting a Limit: If you want to control the amount of destruction that explode can
wreak on your original string, consider using the third (optional) argument which allows you to set the

43
number of pieces explode can return. This means it will stop exploding once the number of pieces
equals the set limit. Below we've blown up a sentence with no limit and then with a limit of 4.

PHP Code

Code Result

<?PHP Piece 0 = Please

$someWords = "Please don't blow me to pieces."; Piece 1 = don't

$wordChunks = explode(" ", $someWords); Piece 2 = blow

for($i = 0; $i < count($wordChunks); $i++){ Piece 3 = me

echo "Piece $i = $wordChunks[$i] <br />"; Piece 4 = to

} Piece 5 = pieces.

$wordChunksLimited = explode(" ", $someWords, 4); Limited Piece 0 = Please

for($i = 0; $i < count($wordChunksLimited); $i++){ Limited Piece 1 = don't

echo "Limited Piece $i = $wordChunksLimited[$i] <br />"; Limited Piece 2 = blow

} Limited Piece 3 = me to pieces.

?>

The limited explosion has 4 pieces (starting from 0, ending at 3).

Array implode

The PHP function implode operates on an array and is known as the "undo" function of explode. If you
have used explode to break up a string into chunks or just have an array of stuff you can use implode
to put them all into one string.

PHP implode - Repairing the Damage: The first argument of implode is the string of characters you
want to use to join the array pieces together. The second argument is the array (pieces).

PHP Code

Code Result

44
 <?php Piece #0 = Hello

$pieces = array("Hello", "World,", "I", "am", "Here!"); Piece #1 = World,

$gluedTogetherSpaces = implode(" ", $pieces); Piece #2 = I

$gluedTogetherDashes = implode("-", $pieces); Piece #3 = am

for($i = 0; $i < count($pieces); $i++){ Piece #4 = Here!

echo "Piece #$i = $pieces[$i] <br />"; Glued with Spaces = Hello World, I
am Here!
}
Glued with Dashes = Hello-World,-I-
echo "Glued with Spaces= $gluedTogetherSpaces <br
am-Here!
/>";

echo "Glued with Dashes = $gluedTogetherDashes";

?>

The implode function will convert the entire array into a string and there is no optional argument to
limit this as there was in the explode function.

Working with Files

Include and Require Function

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

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

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

These two functions are used to create functions, headers, footers, or elements that will be reused on
multiple pages.

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

45
Include function: include ( ) function takes all the content in a specified file and includes it in the
current file. If an error occurs, include ( ) function generates a warning, but the script will continue
execution.

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

<html>

<head></title></title></head>

</body>

<a href=”#”> Home </a> &nbsp;

<a href=”#”> About Us </a> &nbsp;

<a href=”#”> Contact Us</a>

</body>

</html>

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

PHP Code

Code Result

<html> Home About Us Contact Us

<body>

Welcome to my home page!

<?php include("header.php"); ?>

<h1>Welcome to my home page!</h1> Some text.

<p>Some text.</p>

</body>

46
 </html>

If you look at the source code of the page above (in a browser), it will look like this:

<html>

<head></title></title></head>

</body>

<a href=”#”> Home </a> &nbsp;

<a href=”#”> About Us </a> &nbsp;

<a href=”#”> Contact Us</a>

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

<p>Some text.</p>

</body>

</html>

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

Error Example include ( ) Function

<html>

<body>

<?php

//wrong file name

include("wrongFile.php");

47
 echo "Hello World!";

?>

</body>

</html>

Error message

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

failed to open stream:

No such file or directory in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5

Warning: include() [function.include]:

Failed opening 'wrongFile.php' for inclusion

(include_path='.;C:\php5\pear')

in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5

Hello World!

Notice that the echo statement is executed! This is because a Warning does not stop the script
execution.

Error Example require ( ) Function: Now, let's run the same example with the require ( ) function

<html>

<body>

<?php

//wrong file name

48
 require("wrongFile.php");

echo "Hello World!";

?>

</body>

</html>

Error message

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

failed to open stream:

No such file or directory in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5

Fatal error: require() [function.require]:

Failed opening required 'wrongFile.php'

(include_path='.;C:\php5\pear')

in C:\home\website\test.php on line 5

The echo statement is not executed, because the script execution stopped after the fatal error. It is
recommended to use require ( ) function instead of include ( ), because scripts should not continue
after an error.

Working with Forms

Many website applications rely on HTML forms so that users can perform their tasks. For example,
most Content Management Systems allow users to provide content for a website by entering the
content into a textarea form field, then clicking a "Save" button. When the user clicks the Save button,
the form is submitted to the action page. The action page is normally specified with
the action attribute of the form tag.
Once a form has been submitted, the form fields are made available to the action page as a special
type of variable. You, as the programmer, can read these form variables by using the appropriate
syntax for form variables. Form variables are stored as an array..

49
Forms can be submitted using one of two methods: get or post. By default, a form will be submitted
using the "get" method. This results in each form variable being passed via the URL. If you decide to
use the "post" method, you specify this using the method attribute (method="post" ) of the form tag.

The Get Method

If you use the get method, your action page can access each form field
using $_GET["variableName"] (where "variableName" is the name of the form field).
Example

Form page (formpage.html)

HTML Code

Code

<html>

<head></title>php form processing</title></head>

<form action="actionpage.php" method="get">

<input type="text" name="firstName" /><br />

<input type="text" name="lastName" /><br />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

</body>

</html>

Action page ( actionpage.php ): Here, the action page outputs the contents of the form variables that
were passed from the form.

PHP Code

<html>

<head>

50
 <title> php form processing </title>

</head>

<body>

<$php

echo “First Name:” . $_GET["firstName"] . “<br>”;

echo “Last Name:” . $_GET["lastName"] ;

?>

<body>

</html>

PHP Post Method

If your form uses the post method, you use $_POST["variableName"].

HTML Code
Code

<html>

<head></title>php form processing</title></head>

<form action="actionpage.php" method="post">

<input type="text" name="firstName" /><br />

<input type="text" name="lastName" /><br />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

</body>

</html>

Action page (actionpage.php): Here, the action page outputs the contents of the form variables that
were passed from the form.
51
PHP Code
<html>

<head>

<title> php form processing </title>

</head>

<body>

<$php

echo “First Name:” . $_POST["firstName"] . “<br>”;

echo “Last Name:” . $_POST["lastName"] ;

?>

<body>

</html>

Difference between Get and Post Method

Get Method
 data is submitted as a part of url

 data is visible to the user

 it is not secure but fast and quick

 We can bookmark link with this method

 Server can log all action

Post Method

 data is submitted as a part of http request

 data is not visible in the url

 it is more secure but slower as compared to GET

 POST method have security of data.

 We cannot bookmark page link

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The Request Method

This variable contains the content of both $_GET, $_COOKIE, and $_POST. This can get the values
passed from the form with both the GET and POST methods.

Example

HTML Code

<html>

<head></title>php form processing</title></head>

<form action="actionpage.php" method="get">

<input type="text" name="firstName" /><br />

<input type="text" name="lastName" /><br />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

</body>
</html>

OR

<html>

<head></title>php form processing</title></head>

<form action="actionpage.php" method="post">

<input type="text" name="firstName" /><br />

<input type="text" name="lastName" /><br />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

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 </body>

</html>

Action page (actionpage.php): Here, the action page outputs the contents of the form variables that
were passed from the form.
PHP Code
<html>

<head>

<title> php form processing </title>

</head>

<body>

<$php

echo “First Name:” . $_REQUEST["firstName"] . “<br>”;

echo “Last Name:” . $_REQUEST["lastName"] ;

?>

<body>

</html>

Connecting to the database server in PHP

Before you can access and work with data in a database, you must create a connection to the
database. In PHP, this is done with the mysql_connect() function.
Syntax: mysql_connect ( servername,username,password );

Parameter Description

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

password Optional. Specifies the password to log in with. Default is ""

Note: There are more available parameters, but the ones listed above are the most important.
54
PHP Code

Code Result
<?php connected to the server
successfully
$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””)

/*if the server is localhost ,the user name is root & the
password is empty

*/

if ( !$cn)

die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())

/* The "die" part will be executed if the connection fails:

*/

else

echo “connected to the server successfully”

?>

Closing a Connection

The connection will be closed as soon as the script ends. To close the connection before, use the
mysql_close() function.
PHP Code

55
 <?php

$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””)

if ( !$cn)

die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())

else

echo “connected to the server successfully”

mysql_close($cn)

?>

Create Database and Tables

Create a Database

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

Syntax: CREATE DATABASE database_name
To get PHP to execute the statement above you must use the mysql_query() function. This function is
used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.
PHP Code
Code Result

<?php connected to the server successfully

$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””) Database created successfully

if ( !$cn)

die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())

else

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 {

echo “connected to the server successfully”

echo “<br>”;

//database name is m_db

if ( ! mysql_query(“create database m_db”,$cn))

echo “Could not created database”.mysql_error())

else

echo “Database created successfully”

mysql_close($cn)

?>

Create a Table

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

Syntax: CREATE TABLE table_name (column_name1 data_type, column_name2 data_type,
column_name3 data_type, .......)
We must add the CREATE TABLE statement to the mysql_query ( ) function to execute the command.

The following PHP code shows how you can create a table named "person", with three columns. The
column names will be "FirstName", "LastName" and "Age".
PHP Code
Code Result

<?php connected to the server successfully

$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””) table created successfully

if ( !$cn)

57
 die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())

else

echo “connected to the server successfully”

echo “<br>”;

mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)

// selected database & server

$q =” CREATE TABLE person

FirstName varchar(15),

LastName varchar(15),

Age int

)";

$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)

if ( !$mq)

echo “Could not created table”.mysql_error())

else

echo “table created successfuly”

mysql_close($cn)

?>

Important: A database must be selected before a table can be created. The database is selected with
the mysql_select_db ( ) function.

58
Note: When you create a database field of type varchar, you must specify the maximum length of the
field, e.g. varchar(15).
Primary Keys and Auto Increment Fields: Each table should have a primary key field.
A primary key is used to uniquely identify the rows in a table. Each primary key value must be unique
within the table. Furthermore, the primary key field cannot be null because the database engine
requires a value to locate the record.

The primary key field is always indexed. There is no exception to this rule! You must index the primary
key field so the database engine can quickly locate rows based on the key's value.
The following example sets the personID field as the primary key field. The primary key field is often
an ID number, and is often used with the AUTO_INCREMENT setting. AUTO_INCREMENT automatically
increases the value of the field by 1 each time a new record is added. To ensure that the primary key
field cannot be null, we must add the NOT NULL setting to the field.
PHP Code

$sql = "CREATE TABLE person

personID int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,

PRIMARY KEY(personID),

FirstName varchar(15),

LastName varchar(15),

Age int

)";

mysql_query($sql,$con);

Adding Data to a Table

The following PHP code adds two new records to the "Person" table:
PHP Code
Code Result

<?php connected to the server

successfully
$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””)
data inserted successfuly
if ( !$cn)

die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())

59
 else

echo “connected to the server successfully”

echo “<br>”;

mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)

$q ="INSERT INTO person (FirstName, LastName, Age)

VALUES ('Peter', 'Griffin', '35')";

$q2 ="INSERT INTO person (FirstName, LastName, Age)

VALUES ('Glenn', 'Quagmire', '33')";

$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)

$mq2 = mysql_query($q2,$cn)

$mq = $mq . $mq2

if ( !$mq)

echo “Could not inserted data”.mysql_error())

else

echo “data inserted successfuly”

mysql_close($cn)

?>

Insert Data from a Form into a Database

Now we will create an HTML form that can be used to add new records to the "Person" table.
HTML form

60
 <html>

<body>

<form action="insert.php" method="post">

Firstname: <input type="text" name="firstname" />

Lastname: <input type="text" name="lastname" />

Age: <input type="text" name="age" />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

</body>

</html>

When a user clicks the submit button in the HTML form in the example above, the form data is sent to
"insert.php". The "insert.php" file connects to a database, and retrieves the values from the form with
the PHP $_POST variables. Then, the mysql_query() function executes the INSERT INTO statement,
and a new record will be added to the database table.

Below is the PHP Code in the "insert.php" page.

Code Result

<?php

$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””)

data inserted
if ( !$cn)
successfully
{

die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())

/*

else

echo “connected to the server successfully”

61
 }

*/

echo “<br>”;

mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)

$q ="INSERT INTO person (FirstName, LastName, Age)

VALUES ('$_POST[firstname]', '$_POST[lastname]', '$_POST[age]')";

$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)

if ( !$mq)

echo “Could not inserted data”.mysql_error())

else

echo “data inserted successfuly”

mysql_close($cn)

?>

MySQL Data Operation using PHP

MySQL Select Data

The following PHP code selects all the data stored in the "Person" table (The * character selects all of
the data in the table).
PHP Code

Code Result
<?php Peter Griffin
$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””) Glenn Quagmire
if ( !$cn)
{

62
 die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())
}
echo “<br>”;
mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)
$q =" SELECT * FROM person";
//* = All
$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($mq))
{
echo $row['FirstName'] . " " . $row['LastName'];
echo "<br />";
}
mysql_close($cn);
?>

The code above stores the data returned by the mysql_query() function in the $mq variable. Next, we
use the mysql_fetch_array() function to return the first row from the recordset as an array. Each
subsequent call to mysql_fetch_array() returns the next row in the recordset. The while loop circle
through all the records in the recordset. To print the value of each row, we use the PHP $row variable
($row['FirstName'] and $row['LastName']).

Display the Result in an HTML Table

The following PHP code selects the same data as the example above, but will display the data in an
HTML table.
PHP Code

Code Result

<?php
$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””)
Firstname Lastname
if ( !$cn)
Glenn Quagmire
{
Peter Griffin
die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())
}
echo “<br>”;
mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)

63
 $q =" SELECT * FROM person";
$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)
echo "<table border='1'>”;
echo “<tr>”;
echo “<th>Firstname</th><th>Lastname</th>”;
echo “</tr>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($mq))
{
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['LastName'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
mysql_close($cn)
?>

MySQL Where Clause

The following operators can be used with the WHERE clause.

Operator Description
= Equal
!= Not equal
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
BETWEEN Between an inclusive range
LIKE Search for a pattern

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive. WHERE is the same as where.
To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is
used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.
The following PHP code will select all rows from the "Person" table, where FirstName='Peter':
64
PHP Code

Code Result

<?php Peter Griffin

$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””)
if ( !$cn)
{
die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())
}
echo “<br>”;
mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)
$q =" SELECT * FROM person WHERE FirstName='Peter' ";
$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($mq))
{
echo $row['FirstName'] . " " . $row['LastName'];
echo "<br />";
}
mysql_close($cn)
?>

Order by Keyword

The following PHP code selects all the data stored in the "Person" table, and sorts the result by the
"Age" column.
PHP Code

Code Result
<?php Glenn Quagmire 33
$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””) Peter Griffin 35
if ( !$cn)
{
die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())
}
echo “<br>”;

65
 mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)
$q =" SELECT * FROM person ORDER BY age ";
$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($mq))
{
echo $row['FirstName'] . " " . $row['LastName'];
echo "<br />";
}
mysql_close($cn)
?>

Update Data

Let we have a table named "Person". Here is how it looks:

FirstName LastName Age

Peter Griffin 35

Glenn Quagmire 33

The following PHP code updates some data in the "Person" table.

Code Result

<?php data updated successfuly

$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””)
if ( !$cn)
{
die(“could not connect”.mysql_error())
}
echo “<br>”;
mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn)
$q =" UPDATE Person SET Age = '36'
WHERE FirstName = 'Peter' AND LastName = 'Griffin') ";
$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)

66
 if ( !$mq)
{
echo “Could not updated data”.mysql_error())
}
else
{
echo “data updated successfuly”
}
mysql_close($cn);
?>

After the update, the "Person" table will look like this:

FirstName LastName Age

Peter Griffin 36
Glenn Quagmire 33

Delete Data from Database

Earlier in the tutorial we created and updated a table named "Person". Here is how it looks:

FirstName LastName Age

Peter Griffin 36
Glenn Quagmire 33

The following PHP Code deletes all the records in the "Person" table where LastName='Griffin':
PHP Code

Code Result

<?php data deleted successfully

$cn = mysql_connect (“localhost”,”root”,””);
if ( !$cn)
{

67
 die(“could not connect”.mysql_error());
}
echo “<br>”;
mysql_select_db(“m_db”,$cn);
$q =" DELETE FROM Person WHERE LastName='Griffin' ";
$mq = mysql_query($q,$cn)
if ( !$mq)
{
echo “Could not deleted data”.mysql_error())
}
else
{
echo “data deleted successfuly”
}
mysql_close($cn);
?>

After the deletion, the table will look like this:

FirstName LastName Age

Glenn Quagmire 33

PHP Session and Cookie

PHP Session

Sessions can transfer data between two or more pages. It`s somehow like a variable that keeps its
value even if you call it from an another file. Let`s say that we have a website and in the index.php file
we are asking for the name of the visitor and we store it in the $name variable (e.g.:$name = 'Tom').
If the visitor navigates to an another page the value of $name will be lost, so we would need to ask for
the name on each page so in this case is way better to use sessions. In order to use a session first we
need to "start" it.
PHP Code

<?php

68
session_start();
?>

Note: The session_start(); function must be the at the very beginning of your code, even before the
<html> tag. A session variable look`s and works like an element of an associative array.
$_SESSION ['name'] = 'Tom';
echo $_SESSION ['name'];

And because sessions are keeping their value even if you go to another page.
page1.php
<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['name'] = 'Tom';
?>

page2.php
Code Result
<?php Tom
session_start();
echo $_SESSION['name'] ;
?>

Let`s say that we have a page that is displayed only to members. If somebody is logged in than it`s
username is stored in a session. In order to show the content of the page to the visitor we need to
check if the username session exists or not. This can be easily done using this function:

isset($_SESSION['username']);
//Returns True if exists and False if not

So if we use the isset function our code will look like this.
PHP Code
<?php
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['username'])){
echo 'Welcome ' . $_SESSION ['username'];

69
}
else{
echo 'You are not logged in!';
}
?>

When the user leaves your website or closes the browser the sessions are automatically deleted, but if
you want to delete a session yourself use the following code:

unset($_SESSION['username']);

This is useful when you want to delete only a single session. If you want to delete all the sessions use
the following code:

session_destroy();

Note: After this function you can`t use more sessions on the page. Example of using the
session_destroy function is as follows:
log-out.php
session_start();
session_destroy();

By destroying the sessions the user is logged out.

Using Cookies in PHP

Cookies is small text files saved locally on the user's computer by the website, when the website later
on wants the information it just reads the cookie on the user's computer. An example on what you can
use cookies for is to see if the user has visited the site before, if it has then a cookie you saved the last
time lies on the computer so therefore you can only check if it does.

Creating cookie
When creating a cookie you have to do it before sending anything to the page, so you can't have a
html tag before it. To create a cookie you do like this:

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

Name The name of the cookie, you use this to receive the cookie later.
70
 Value The value that you'll store in the cookie.
Expire When the cookie will expire.
Path The path on the server where the cookie is available on, leaving this empty
will allow whole domain to access it.
Domain The domain which can access the cookie, leaving this empty will allow all your
domains to access it.

Here's an example on how to create a cookie:

$expire=time()+60*60*24*3;
setcookie("Cookie_Name", "Cookie_Value", $expire);

The above example will create a cookie called "Cookie_Name" with the value "Test_Value" which will
expire after 3 days.

Reading Cookies
To read a cookie you use $_COOKIE["<Name of cookie>"]; and replace <Name of cookie> with the
name of the cookie you want to read.

So if we want to read the cookie we created above we should do like this.

$_COOKIE["Cookie_Name"];

Here comes a simple example on reading a cookie.

if (isset($_COOKIE["Cookie_Name"]))
{
$Value = $_COOKIE["Cookie_Name"];
$expire=time()+60*60*24*3;
setcookie("Cookie_Name", $Value, $expire);
$Value = "The Value of Cookie_Name is " . $Value;
}
else
{
$Value = "Cookie not set";
}
echo $Value;

71
So first of all we check if the cookie exists, if it do we reads it. Then recreate the cookie with an expire
time of 3 days, this is so each time the user visit the site we will update the expire date, then we set
the value to be a message telling what the value is, and if the cookie didn't existed we stored "Cookie
not set" in the variable called Value. At the the end we just echo the result.

72