Siddharth Abbineni
PHP
Server-side scripting language useful for writing
CGI
Began as online tools by Rasmus Lerfdorf
PHP = Personal Home Page tools
Bottom-up development, has become extremely
popular today
Somewhat like C but much higher level
Especially with Apache/Linux/MySQL
Runs on both Unix and Windows platforms, with most web
servers
Used today with many commercial sites
Available for free
http://www.php.net
Documentation and many resources available online
I prefer the online documentation, easy to search (several
Simple PHP Script
Consider the following HTML file, example.html:
<html>
<head>
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
Hello world!<p>
</body>
</html>
Simple PHP Script
Here is an equivalent PHP script. PHP files have the extension
“.php” and may contain both HTML and PHP code, which is
enclosed inside <? code ?> tags, or alternately <?php
code ?>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?
print(“hello world!<p>”);
?>
</body>
</html>
Simple PHP Script
More interesting version, displays the date as known by the
server:
<html>
<head>
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?
print(“hello world! Timestamp: “ . time() . “<p>”);
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Time Stamp
The “.” is used to concatenate strings
The server parses the document and
interprets code within the <? ?> tags
instead of sending it directly to the client
i.e. you can write code to output the HTML
you desire
Output of previous:
hello world! Timestamp: 1050289182
Refresh two
hello world! Timestamp: 1050289184
Seconds later:
PHP Script
Often everything is placed inside the
PHP tags. The following is equivalent;
the header function specifies the MIME
Type; i.e. that the document is HTML (as
opposed
<? to graphics, etc.):
header("Content-Type: text/html");
print("<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>My Page</TITLE>");
print("</HEAD>");
print("<BODY>");
print("hello world! Timestamp: " . time() . "<p>");
print("</BODY></HTML>");
?>
Identifiers and Data
Types
Identifiers
Case-sensitive
Same rules as Java
Data Types
integer
double
string, surrounded by “ “ or by ‘ ‘
Weak typing; you do not declare variables, just use them
and the value assigned is the type of the variable; any
old value is gone
Can typecast just like Java
(int), (double), (string), etc.
Variables
A variable is an identifier prefaced by $
Example:
$x = 1;
$y = 3.4;
$z = $x + $y;
$a = true;
$s = "hello!";
print ($z . " " . $a . " " . $s);
Output: 4.4 1 hello!
Note: true = non zero or not empty. False = 0 or the empty
string “”
Common novice mistake: Forgetting the $
Variables
Interpreted; consider the following:
$x = 1;
$y = “x”;
print($$y);
Output: 1
Often {} are used to denote variable boundaries:
$x = 1;
$y = “x”;
print(${$y});
Form Variables
If an HTML form invokes a PHP script, the
PHP script can access all of the form
variables by name
Invoking FORM:
<form method=post action=“scr.php”>
<input type=text name=“foo”
value=“bar”>
<input type=submit value=“Submit”>
</form>
Inside scr.php:
print($_REQUEST['foo']); // Outputs “bar”
Sample
<?
PHP Form
header("Content-Type: text/html");
print("<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>My Page</TITLE>");
print("</HEAD>");
print("<BODY>");
print("foo = " . $_REQUEST[‘foo’] . ", bar = " .
$_REQUEST[‘bar’] . "<P>");
print("<form method=post action=\"example.php\">");
print("<input type=text name=\"foo\" value=\"zot\">");
print("<input type=hidden name=\"bar\" value=3>");
print("<input type=submit>");
print("</form>"); Note: \” escape character
print("</BODY></HTML>"); Could also use ‘ instead
?>
Sample PHP Form
First load:
Upon submit:
Webbrowser
What the web browser receives after the first
load. Note that we see no PHP code:
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>My Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>foo = , bar = <P>
<form method=post action="example.php">
<input type=text name="foo" value="zot">
<input type=hidden name="bar" value=3>
<input type=submit></form></BODY></HTML>
Accessing Unset
Variables
Depending upon the configuration of PHP,
you may or may not get error messages
when trying to access variables that have
not been set
Can avoid this issue using isset:
if (isset($_REQUEST[‘foo’], $_REQUEST[‘bar’]))
{
print("foo = " . $_REQUEST[‘foo’] . ", bar = " .
$_REQUEST[‘bar’] . "<P>");
}
GET and POST
Another way to hide the printing of
variables when the code is first loaded is
to detect if the program is invoked via
GET
<? or POST
header("Content-Type: text/html");
print("<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>My Page</TITLE>");
print("</HEAD>"); print("<BODY>");
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == ‘POST') {
print("foo = " . $_REQUEST[‘foo’] . ", bar = " .
$_REQUEST[‘bar’] . "<P>");
}
print("<form method=post action=\"example.php\">");
print("<input type=text name=\"foo\" value=\"zot\">");
print("<input type=hidden name=\"bar\" value=3>");
print("<input type=submit>");
print("</form>");
print("</BODY></HTML>");
?>
Operators
Same operators available as in Java:
+, -, *, /, %, ++, -- (both pre/post)
+=, -=, *=, etc.
<, >, <=, >=, ==, !=, &&, ||, XOR, !
Assignments
PHP will convert types for you to make
assignments work
Examples:
print(1 + "2"); // 3
print("3x" + 10.5); // 13.5
$s = "hello" . 55;
print("$s<p>"); // hello55
Arrays
Arrays in PHP are more like hash tables, i.e.
associative arrays
The key doesn’t have to be an integer
1D arrays
Use [] to access each element, starting at 0
Ex:
$arr[0] = “hello”;
$arr[1] = “there”;
$arr[2] = “zot”;
$i=0;
print(“$arr[$i] whats up!<p>”); // Outputs : hello whats up!
Arrays
Often we just want to add data to the end of
the array, we can do so by entering nothing in
the brackets:
$arr[] = “hello”;
$arr[] = “there”;
$arr[] = “zot”;
print(“$arr[2]!<p>”); // Outputs : zot!
Array Functions
See the text or reference for a list of array
functions; here are just a few:
count($arr); // Returns # items in the array
sort($arr); // Sorts array
array_unique($arr); // Returns $arr without duplicates
print_r($var); // Prints contents of a variable
// useful for outputting an entire array
// as HTML
in_array($val, $arr) // Returns true if $val in $arr
Multi-Dimensional Arrays
To make multi-dimensional arrays just add
more brackets:
$arr[0][0]=1;
$arr[0][1]=2;
$arr[1][0]=3;
..etc.
Arrays with Strings as
Key
So far we’ve only seen arrays used with integers
as the index
PHP also allows us to use strings as the index,
making the array more like a hash table
Example:
$fat[“big mac”] = 34;
$fat[“quarter pounder”]=48;
$fat[“filet o fish”]=26;
$fat[“large fries”]=26;
print(“Large fries have “ . $fat[“large fries”] . “ grams of
fat.”);
// Output : Large fries have 26 grams of fat
Source: www.mcdonalds.com
Iterating through Arrays with
foreach
PHP provides an easy way to iterate over an array with the
foreach clause:
Format: foreach ($arr as $key=>$value) { … }
Previous example:
foreach($fat as $key=>$value)
{
print(“$key has $value grams of fat.<p>”);
}
Output:
big mac has 34 grams of fat.
quarter pounder has 48 grams of fat.
filet o fish has 26 grams of fat.
large fries has 26 grams of fat.
Foreach
Can use foreach on integer indices too:
$arr[]="foo";
$arr[]="bar";
$arr[]="zot";
foreach ($arr as $key=>$value)
{
print("at $key the value is $value<br>");
}
Output:
at 0 the value is foo If only want the value,
at 1 the value is bar can ignore the $key variable
at 2 the value is zot
Control Statements
In addition to foreach, we have available our
typical control statements
If
While
Break/continue
Do-while
For loop
IF statement
Format:
if (expression1)
{
// Executed if expression1 true
}
elseif (expression2)
{
// Executed if expression1 false expresson2 true
}
…
else
{
// Executed if above expressions false
}
While Loop
Format:
while (expression)
{
// executed as long as expression true
}
Do-While
Format:
do
{
// executed as long as expression true
// always executed at least once
}
while (expression);
For Loop
Format:
for (initialization; expression; increment)
{
// Executed as long as expression true
}
Control Example
Counts # of random numbers generated between 0-10
srand(time()); // Seed random # generator with time
for ($i=0; $i<100; $i++) {
$arr[]=rand(0,10); // Random number 0-10, inclusive
}
$i=0;
while ($i<=10) { // Initialize array of counters to 0
$count[$i++]=0;
}
// Count the number of times we see each value
foreach ($arr as $key=>$value) {
$count[$value]++;
}
// Output results
foreach ($count as $key=>$value) {
print("$key appeared $value times.<br>");
}
Output
0 appeared 9 times.
1 appeared 9 times.
2 appeared 11 times.
3 appeared 14 times.
4 appeared 6 times.
5 appeared 7 times.
6 appeared 8 times.
7 appeared 11 times.
8 appeared 5 times.
9 appeared 9 times.
10 appeared 11 times.
Functions
To declare a function:
function function_name(arg1, arg2, …)
{
// Code
// Optional: return (value);
}
Unlike most languages, no need for a return type
since PHP is weakly typed
Function Example:
Factorial
function fact($n)
{
if ($n <= 1) return 1;
return ($n * fact($n-1));
}
print(fact(5)); // Outputs 120
Scoping
Variables defined in a function are local to that function only and
by default variables are pass by value
function foo($x,$y)
{
$z=1;
$x=$y + $z;
print($x); // Outputs 21
}
$x=10;
$y=20;
foo($x,$y);
print(“$x $y<p>”); // Outputs 10 20
Arrays: Also Pass By
Value
Arrays also are passed by value!
function foo($x)
{
$x[0]=10;
print_r($x); Array ( [0] => 10 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 )
print("<p>");
}
$x[0]=1;
$x[1]=2;
$x[2]=3;
print_r($x); Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 )
print("<p>");
foo($x);
print_r($x); Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 )
print("<p>"); Not changed!
Pass by Reference
To pass a parameter by reference, use & in
the parameter list
function foo(&$x,$y)
{
$z=1;
$x=$y + $z;
print($x); // Outputs 21
}
$x=10;
$y=20;
foo($x,$y);
print(“$x $y<p>”); // Outputs 21 20
Dynamic Functions
Functions can be invoked dynamically too,
like we can do in Scheme
Useful for passing a function as an argument
to be invoked later
function foo()
{
print("Hi<p>");
}
$x="foo";
$x(); // Outputs “Hi”
Classes & Objects
PHP supports classes and inheritance
All instance variables are public in PHP 4 (PHP 5 allows
private, protected)
Format for defining a class; the extends portion is
optional
class name extends base-class
{
var varName;
…
function name() {… constructor code …}
function methodName() { … code … }
…
• }To access a variable or function, use $obj->var (no $ in front of the var)
• To access instance variables inside the class, use $this->var
needed to differentiate between member var and a new local var
Class Example
class user
{
var $name;
var $password;
function user($n, $p) Output:
{
$this->name=$n;
$this->password=$p; Joe Schmo - secret
}
function getSalary()
{ 50000
// if this was real, we might
// look this up in a database or something
return 50000;
}
}
$joe = new user("Joe Schmo","secret");
print($joe->name . " - " . $joe->password . "<p>");
print($joe->getSalary() . "<p>");
Objects in PHP 4
Assigning an object makes a new copy, not a
reference like Java:
$joe = new user("Joe Schmo","secret");
$fred = $joe;
$joe->password = "a4j1%";
print_r($joe); // user Object ( [name] => Joe Schmo [password] => a4j1% )
print("<p>");
print_r($fred); // user Object ( [name] => Joe Schmo [password] => secret )
print("<p>");
Objects in PHP 5
Assigning an object makes a reference to the
existing object, like Java:
$joe = new user("Joe Schmo","secret");
$fred = $joe;
$joe->password = "a4j1%";
print_r($joe); // user Object ( [name] => Joe Schmo [password] => a4j1% )
print("<p>");
print_r($fred); // user Object ( [name] => Joe Schmo [password] => a4j1% )
print("<p>");
Other new items in PHP 5
Mostly improvements in OOP model
Abstract classes and methods
Destructors
Cloning
instanceof
Reflection
