Basic PHP Syntax
A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, just like an HTML file, and some PHP scripting code.
Below, we have an example of a simple PHP script which sends the
text "Hello World" to the browser:
<html>
<body>
<?php echo "Hello World"; ?>
</body>
</html>
A PHP scripting block always starts with <?php and ends with ?>. A PHP scripting block can be
placed anywhere in the document.
Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon. The semicolon is a separator and is used to
distinguish one set of instructions from another.
There are two basic statements to output text with PHP: echo and print. In the example above we
have used the echo statement to output the text "Hello World".
Variables in PHP
All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol. Variables may contain strings, numbers, or arrays.
Below, the PHP script assigns the string "Hello World" to a variable
called $txt:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;
?>
</body>
</html>
To concatenate two or more variables together, use the dot (.)
operator:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$txt1="Hello World";
$txt2="1234";
echo $txt1 . " " . $txt2 ;
?>
</body>
</html>
The output of the script above will be: "Hello World 1234".
Comments in PHP
In PHP, we use // to make a single-line comment or /* and */ to make a
large comment block.
<html>
<body>
<?php
//This is a comment
/*
This is
a comment
block
*/
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Operators
This section lists the different operators used in PHP.
Arithmetic Operators
Operator Description Example Result
+ Addition x=2 4
x+2
- Subtraction x=2 3
5-x
* Multiplication x=4 20
x*5
/ Division 15/5 3
5/2 2.5
% Modulus (division remainder) 5%2 1
10%8 2
10%2 0
++ Increment x=5 x=6
x++
-- Decrement x=5 x=4
x--
Assignment Operators
Operator Example Is The Same As
= x=y x=y
+= x+=y x=x+y
-= x-=y x=x-y
*= x*=y x=x*y
/= x/=y x=x/y
%= x%=y x=x%y
Comparison Operators
Operator Description Example
== is equal to 5==8 returns false
!= is not equal 5!=8 returns true
> is greater than 5>8 returns false
< is less than 5<8 returns true
>= is greater than or equal to 5>=8 returns false
<= is less than or equal to 5<=8 returns true
Logical Operators
Operator Description Example
&& and x=6
y=3
(x < 10 && y > 1) returns true
|| or x=6
y=3
(x==5 || y==5) returns false
! not x=6
y=3
!(x==y) returns true
Conditional Statements
Very often when you write code, you want to perform different actions for different decisions. You
can use conditional statements in your code to do this.
In PHP we have two conditional statements:
if (...else) statement - use this statement if you want to execute a set of code when a
condition is true (and another if the condition is not true)
switch statement - use this statement if you want to select one of many sets of lines to
execute
The If Statement
If you want to execute some code if a condition is true and another code if a condition is false, use
the if....else statement.
Syntax
if (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
else
code to be executed if condition is false;
Example
The following example will output "Have a nice weekend!" if the
current day is Friday, otherwise it will output "Have a nice day!":
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
else
echo "Have a nice day!";
?>
</body>
</html>
If more than one line should be executed when a condition is true, the
lines should be enclosed within curly braces:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$x=10;
if ($x==10)
{
echo "Hello<br />";
echo "Good morning<br />";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
The Switch Statement
If you want to select one of many blocks of code to be executed, use the Switch statement.
Syntax
switch (expression)
{
case label1:
code to be executed if expression = label1;
break;
case label2:
code to be executed if expression = label2;
break;
default:
code to be executed
if expression is different
from both label1 and label2;
}
Example
This is how it works: First we have a single expression (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
to prevent
there is a match, the block of code associated with that case is executed. Use break
the code from running into the next case automatically. The default
statement is used if none of the cases are true.
<html>
<body>
<?php
switch ($x)
{
case 1:
echo "Number 1";
break;
case 2:
echo "Number 2";
break;
case 3:
echo "Number 3";
break;
default:
echo "No number between 1 and 3";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Looping
Very often when you write code, you want the same block of code to run a number of times. You can
use looping statements in your code to perform this.
In PHP we have the following looping statements:
while - loops through a block of code if and as long as a specified condition is true
do...while - loops through a block of code once, and then repeats the loop as long as a
special condition is true
for - loops through a block of code a specified number of times
foreach - loops through a block of code for each element in an array
The while Statement
The while statement will execute a block of code if and as long as a condition is true.
Syntax
while (condition)
code to be executed;
Example
The following example demonstrates a loop that will continue to run as
long as the variable i is less than, or equal to 5. i will increase by 1
each time the loop runs:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$i=1;
while($i<=5)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
$i++;
}
?>
</body>
</html>
The do...while Statement
The do...while statement will execute a block of code at least once - it then will repeat the loop as
long as a condition is true.
Syntax
do
{
code to be executed;
}
while (condition);
Example
The following example will increment the value of i at least once, and it
will continue incrementing the variable i while it has a value of less
than 5:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$i=0;
do
{
$i++;
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
}
while ($i<5);
?>
</body>
</html>
The for Statement
The for statement is used when you know how many times you want to execute a statement or a list
of statements.
Syntax
for (initialization; condition; increment)
{
code to be executed;
}
Note: The for statement has three parameters. The first parameter is for initializing variables, the
second parameter holds the condition, and the third parameter contains any increments required to
implement the loop. If more than one variable is included in either the initialization or the increment
section, then they should be separated by commas. The condition must evaluate to true or false.
Example
The following example prints the text "Hello World!" five times:
<html>
<body>
<?php
for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
{
echo "Hello World!<br />";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
The foreach Statement
Loops over the array given by the parameter. On each loop, the value of the current element is
assigned to $value and the array pointer is advanced by one - so on the next loop, you'll be looking
at the next element.
Syntax
foreach (array as value)
{
code to be executed;
}
Example
The following example demonstrates a loop that will print the values of
the given array:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$arr=array("one", "two", "three");
foreach ($arr as $value)
{
echo "Value: " . $value . "<br />";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Functions
We will only list a few useful functions in this tutorial.
A complete list of PHP functions
PHP Information
The phpinfo() function is used to output PHP information.
This function is useful for trouble shooting, providing the version of PHP, and how it is configured.
The phpinfo() function options
Name Description
INFO_GENERAL The configuration line, php.ini location, build date, Web Server,
System and more
INFO_CREDITS PHP 4 credits
INFO_CONFIGURATION Local and master values for php directives
INFO_MODULES Loaded modules
INFO_ENVIRONMENT Environment variable information
INFO_VARIABLES All predefined variables from EGPCS (Environment, GET, POST,
Cookie, Server)
INFO_LICENSE PHP license information
INFO_ALL Shows all of the above. This is the default value
Example
<html>
<body>
<?php
// Show all PHP information
phpinfo();
?>
<?php
// Show only the general information
phpinfo(INFO_GENERAL);
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Server Variables
All servers hold information such as which URL the user came from, what's the user's browser, and
other information. This information is stored in variables.
In PHP, the $_SERVER is a reserved variable that contains all server information. The $_SERVER is a
global variable - which means that it's available in all scopes of a PHP script.
Example
The following example will output which URL the user came from, the
user's browser, and the user's IP address:
<html>
<body>
<?php
echo "Referer: " . $_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"] . "<br />";
echo "Browser: " . $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"] . "<br />";
echo "User's IP address: " . $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"];
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Header() Function
The header() function is used to send raw HTTP headers over the HTTP protocol.
Note: This function must be called before anything is written to the page!
Example
The following example will redirect the browser to the following URL:
http://www.w3schools.com/:
<?php
//Redirect browser
header("Location: http://www.w3schools.com/");
?>
<html>
<body>
......
</body>
</html>
Note: This function also takes a second parameter - an optional value of true or false to determine if
the header should replace the previous header. Default is TRUE.
However, if you pass in FALSE as the second argument you can FORCE multiple headers of the same
type.
Example
<?php
header("WWW-Authenticate: Negotiate");
header("WWW-Authenticate: NTLM", FALSE);
?>
<html>
<body>
......
</body>
</html>
Opening a File
The fopen() function is used to open files in PHP.
The first parameter of this function contains the name of the file to be
opened and the second parameter specifies in which mode the file
should be opened in:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$f=fopen("welcome.txt","r");
?>
</body>
</html>
The file may be opened in one of the following modes:
File Modes Description
r Read only. File pointer at the start of the file
r+ Read/Write. File pointer at the start of the file
w Write only. Truncates the file (overwriting it). If the file doesn't exist, fopen()
will try to create the file
w+ Read/Write. Truncates the file (overwriting it). If the file doesn't exist, fopen()
will try to create the file
a Append. File pointer at the end of the file. If the file doesn't exist, fopen() will
try to create the file
Read/Append. File pointer at the end of the file. If the file doesn't exist, fopen()
a+
will try to create the file
x Create and open for write only. File pointer at the beginning of the file. If the
file already exists, the fopen() call will fail and generate an error. If the file does
not exist, try to create it
x+ Create and open for read/write. File pointer at the beginning of the file. If the
file already exists, the fopen() call will fail and generate an error. If the file does
not exist, try to create it
Note: If the fopen() function is unable to open the specified file, it returns 0 (false).
Example
The following example generates a message if the fopen() function is
unable to open the specified file:
<html>
<body>
<?php
if (!($f=fopen("welcome.txt","r")))
exit("Unable to open file!");
?>
</body>
</html>
Closing a File
The fclose() function is used to close a file.
fclose($f);
Reading from a File
The feof() function is used to determine if the end of file is true.
Note: You cannot read from files opened in w, a, and x mode!
if (feof($f))
echo "End of file";
Reading a Character
The fgetc() function is used to read a single character from a file.
Note: After a call to this function the file pointer has moved to the next character.
Example
The example below reads a file character by character, until the end of
file is true:
<?php
if (!($f=fopen("welcome.txt","r")))
exit("Unable to open file.");
while (!feof($f))
{
$x=fgetc($f);
echo $x;
}
fclose($f);
?>
PHP Form Handling
The most important thing to notice when dealing with HTML forms and PHP is that any form element
in an HTML page will automatically be available to your PHP scripts.
Look at the following example of an HTML form:
<html>
<body>
<form action="welcome.php" method="POST">
Enter your name: <input type="text" name="name" />
Enter your age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
The example HTML page above contains two input fields and a submit button. When the user fills in
this form and hits the submit button, the "welcome.php" file is called.
The "welcome.php" file looks like this:
<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_POST["name"]; ?>.<br />
You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old!
</body>
</html>
A sample output of the above script may be:
Welcome John.
You are 28 years old!
Here is how it works: The $_POST["name"] and $_POST["age"] variables are automatically set for you
by PHP. The $_POST contains all POST data.
Note: If the method attribute of the form is GET, then the form information will be set in $_GET
instead of $_POST.
What is a Cookie?
A cookie is often used to identify a user. A cookie is a small file that the server embeds on the user's
computer. Each time the same computer requests for a page with a browser, it will send the cookie
too. With PHP, you can both create and retrieve cookie values.
How to Create a Cookie
The setcookie() function is used to create cookies.
Note: The setcookie() function must appear BEFORE the <html> tag.
Syntax
setcookie(name, value, expire, path, domain);
Example
The following example sets a cookie named "uname" - that expires
after ten hours.
<?php
setcookie("uname", $name, time()+36000);
?>
<html>
<body>
<p>
A cookie was set on this page! The cookie will be active when
the client has sent the cookie back to the server.
</p>
</body>
</html>
How to Retrieve a Cookie Value
When a cookie is set, PHP uses the cookie name as a variable.
To access a cookie you just refer to the cookie name as a variable.
Tip: Use the isset() function to find out if a cookie has been set.
Example
The following example tests if the uname cookie has been set, and
prints an appropriate message.
<html>
<body>
<?php
if (isset($_COOKIE["uname"]))
echo "Welcome " . $_COOKIE["uname"] . "!<br />";
else
echo "You are not logged in!<br />";
?>
</body>
</html>
