Chapter 5

Server Side Scripting

language (PHP)
 Introduction
HTML- focuses on marking up information(define the
content of web pages)
CSS-focuses on formatting and presenting information
(specify the layout of web pages)
JavaScript to program the behavior of web pages (to add
dynamic features on the client side)
PHP is a server scripting language, and a powerful tool for
making dynamic and interactive Web pages. ( used to add
dynamic features on the server side…including database
interaction)
 Client-side Technologies

CLIENT
Server
SIDE

Browser

HTML
JavaScript
CSS

Script
Database Engine

3
 Server-Side

Browser Server

Apache

SERVER SIDE

Database Script PHP

MySQL Engine

4
 Client side vs Server side scripting

Client-side Server-side
Scripts are stored on the client (engine Scripts are stored on the server
is in browser) (engine is on server)

Scripts can be modified by the end Scripts cannot be modified by the end
user user

Browser-dependent Browser-independent
Source code can be viewed Source code can’t be viewed
Can’t communicate with a database Can communicate with a database

No network overhead Dependent on network bandwidth

Processing is done by the browser - Processing is done by the server -

fast slower
 How web server works?
 Client specifies document at a specific web address.
E.g. http://www.mau.edu.et/
 If the requested document is HTML or text, the server
simply forwards it back to the client.
 However, the requested document may be an executable
script, or it may be HTML with an embedded script, In
this cases, the server executes the script.
 If the entire document was a script, the server simply
sends the output back to the client
 If the document had an embedded script, the script
sections are replaced with the output and the modified
document is then sent to the client.
Note that the client never sees the server-side script code
 What is PHP?

• PHP is a scripting language, created in 1994 by Rasmus

Lerdorf from the Apache Group, that is designed for
producing dynamic Web content.
• PHP stands for : Hypertext Preprocessor
• PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language
executed on the server designed specifically for
development of dynamic web page.
• Its similarity to C’s syntax and open-source nature make
PHP relatively easy to learn.
 What is a PHP File?

• PHP files can contain text, HTML, JavaScript

code, and PHP code
• PHP code are executed on the server, and the
result is returned to the browser as plain HTML
• PHP files have a default file extension of
“.php"
 What Can PHP Do?
• PHP can generate dynamic page content
• PHP can create, open, read, write, and close files
on the server
• PHP can collect form data
• PHP can send and receive cookies
• PHP can add, delete, modify data in your database
• PHP can restrict users to access some pages on
your website
• PHP can encrypt data
 Why use PHP?
• Powerful and flexible,
• PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side
• PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac
OS X, etc.)
• PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache,
IIS, etc.)
• PHP has support for a wide range of databases(MySQL,
Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC,
etc)
• PHP is an open source software and free to download and use.
• Cheap
• Easy to set up
 Basic PHP Syntax
<?php <?php
echo "Hello World";
…
?>
?>
</body></html>
• A PHP scripting block always starts with <?php and ends with ?
>.
• A PHP scripting block can be placed (almost) anywhere in an
HTML document.
• Anything written within these tags will be treated by the Web
server as PHP.
• The PHP interpreter will process the code.
 Cont..
• All PHP code is contained in one of several script tags:
1. <?php
// Some code here
?>

2. <?
// Some code
?>

3. <script language=“PHP">
// Some code here
</script>
• When a PHP file is requested, the PHP interpreter parses the entire
file
• Any content within PHP delimiter tags is interpreted, and
the output substituted
• Any other content (i.e. not within PHP delimiter tags) is
simply passed on unchanged
• This allows us to easily mix PHP and other content (ex:
HTML)
• All PHP statements end with a semi-colon (;)
• The semicolon is a separator which is used to distinguish one set
of instructions from another.
• With PHP, there are two basic statements to output text in the
browser: echo and print.
 Example 1

HTML 5 Document
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html> Root HTML Tag
<head>
<title>Simple PHP Example</title>
Document Head
</head>
<body>
<?php echo "<p><h1>Output</h1>";
D print"<h2>Output</h2>";
O Print"<h3>Output</h3></p>";
C PHP Code
?>
<script language="PHP">
B echo "<b>More PHP Output</b>";
O echo "New line in source but not rendered";
D
echo "<br/>";
Y
echo "New line rendered but not in source";
</script>
</body>
</html>
Example2
<html>
<head>
<title> Hello world </title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
print 'Hello, World!';
echo "<br/>";
echo "Hello, World!";
echo phpversion();
?>
</body></html>
 The use of include() function

• Used to include external PHP file into another PHP code

Example
setdate.php:
<?php $today=getdate(time());?>
footer.php:
<b>Today is <?php print$today['weekday'];?></b>
Index.php:

<?php
include ("setdate.php");
?>
<H2>Today's Headline:</H2>
<P ALIGN="center">
<?php
print "World Peace Declared";
?>
</P><HR>
<?php include ("footer.php");
 Script execution
• There are two methods for executing PHP scripts:
 via the Web server, and
 The command-line interface (CLI).
• The first method will be used almost exclusively in this course,
so you may ignore the CLI for now.
1. Upload your .php file to your Web account (i.e., within the
www-home directory on wapserver or httdocs directory on
xampserver).
2. Make sure the permissions are set correctly;
3. Navigate to the file with a Web browser.

17
 Cont...
• The PHP processor has two modes: copy (HTML) and
interpret (PHP).
• PHP processor takes a PHP document as input and
produces an HTML document file
• When it finds HTML code in the input file, simply
copies it to the output file
• When it finds PHP script, it interprets it and send any
output of the script to the output file
• This new output file is sent to the requesting browser.
• The client never sees the PHP script.

18
 Basic PHP Facts
• PHP variables are case sensitive, but reserved
words and function names are not.
E.g
• while, WHILE, While, and wHiLe are same

19
 Comments in PHP
• A comment in PHP code is a line that is not executed as a part of the
program.
• Its only purpose is to be read by someone who is looking at the
code.
• In PHP, three different kinds
(a) // ... ; for single line
(b) # ... ; for single line
(c) /* ... */ ; for multiple-line
<html>
<body>
<?php
//This is a comment
# this is also a comment
/*
This is a comment
block
*/
?></body>
 PHP Variables
• Variables are containers used to temporarily store values.
• These values can be numbers, text, or much more complex
data.
• All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol.
<?php
$txt="Hello World!";
$x=16;
?>
• In PHP, a variable does not need to be declared before adding a
value to it.
 Rules for PHP variable
• A variable starts with the $ sign, followed by the name of the
variable
• A variable name must begin with a letter or the underscore
character.
• A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters
and underscores (A-z, 0-9, and _ )
• A variable name should not contain spaces
• Variable names are case sensitive ($y and $Y are two different
variables)
 Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<?php
$txt = "Php variable example!";
$x = 30;
$y = 20.5;
echo $txt;
echo "<br>";
echo $x;
echo "<br>";
echo $y;
?>
</body>
 PHP Variable Scopes
• PHP has three different variable scopes:
 local
 global
 static
 Local scope

• A variable declared within a PHP function is local and

can only be accessed within that function:
<?php
$x=5; // global scope
function myTest()
{
$x=6; // local scope
echo $x; // local scope
}
myTest();
?>
• Local variables are deleted as soon as the function is
completed
 Global scope

• A variable declared outside a function has a GLOBAL SCOPE

and can only be accessed outside a function:
• The global keyword is used to access a global variable from
within a function(use the global keyword before the variables
(inside the function))
<?php
$x=5; // global scope
$y=10; // global scope
function myTest(){
global $x,$y;
$y=$x+$y; }
myTest();
echo $y; // outputs 15
?>
• PHP also stores all global variables in an array called
$GLOBALS[index].
• The index holds the name of the variable.
• This array is also accessible from within functions and can be
used to update global variables directly.
<?php
$x=5;
$y=10;
function myTest()
{
$GLOBALS['y']=$GLOBALS['x']+$GLOBALS['y'];
}
myTest();
echo $y; // outputs 15
?>
 Static scope

• When a function is completed/executed, all of its variables are normally

deleted. However, sometimes you want a local variable to not be
deleted for future use.
• To do this, use the static keyword when you first declare the variable:
<?php
function myTest()
{
static $x=0;
echo $x;
$x++;
}
myTest(); // 0
echo "<br/>";
myTest(); // 1
echo "<br/>";
myTest(); // 2
?>
 PHP Data Types
• Variables can store data of different types, and different data
types can do different things.
• PHP supports the following data types:
• String
• Integer
• Float (floating point numbers - also called double)
• Boolean
• Array
• Object
• NULL
• Resource

29
Fundamental variable types
• Numeric
 integer. Integers (±2 raised 31); values outside this range
are converted to floating-point.
 float. Floating-point numbers.
• Boolean: true or false; PHP internally resolves these to 1 (one)
and 0 (zero) respectively.
• string: String of characters.
• array: An array stores multiple values in one single variable.
• object :an object is a data type which stores data and
information on how to process that data. In PHP, an object
must be explicitly declared.
e.g. $myCar = new Car("black", "Volvo");

30
 Cont…
• Resource:
• A handle to something that is not PHP data (e.g., image data, database query
result).
• Or in other words, Resource is to represent a PHP extension resource (e.g.
Database query, open file, database connection, etc).
• Null :
• Null is a special data type which can have only one value: NULL.
• A variable of data type NULL is a variable that has no value assigned to it.
• Variables can also be emptied by setting the value to NULL:
<?php
$x = "Hello world!";
$x = null;
var_dump($x);
?> 31
 Cont....
• PHP has a useful function named var_dump() that prints the
current type and value for one or more variables.
• Arrays and objects are printed recursively with their values
indented to show structure.
<?php
$a = 35; Output of the code
int(35)
$b = "Programming is fun!";
string(19) "Programming is
$c = array(1, 1, 2, 3.5); fun!"
array(4) {
var_dump($a,$b,$c); [0]=> int(1)
?> [1]=>int(1)
[2]=>int(2)
[3]=>float(3.5)) }
}}}]]]]]]]]]][[[[[

32
 PHP Strings
• A string is a sequence of characters, like "Hello world!".
• A string can be any text inside quotes. You can use single or
double quotes.
'I am a string in single quotes’
"I am a string in double quotes"
• All strings must start and finish with the same type of quote -
single or double.
• Only one type of quote mark is important when defining any
string, single (') or double (").
$string_1 = "This is a string in double quotes";
$string_0 = ‘’ // a string with zero characters

33
 String Concatenation Operator
• To concatenate two string variables together, use the dot (.)
operator:
E.g
<?php
$txt1="Hello World!";
$txt2="What a nice day!";
echo $txt1 ." " .$txt2;
?>
Output
Hello World! What a nice day!
 PHP String Functions
The strlen()function

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

E.G
<?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
?>
Output
12
• The length of a string is often used in loops or other functions,
when it is important to know when the string ends.
 The strpos()function
• The strpos() function is used to search for a string or character
within a string. (first position in the string is 0, and not 1.)
• If a match is found in the string, this function will return the
position of the first match. If no match is found, it will return
FALSE.
E.g
<?php
echo strpos("Hello world!","world"); // output=6
?>
 The str_word_count() function
• The PHP str_word_count() function counts the number of
words in a string:
E.g
<?php
echo str_word_count("Hello world!"); //output =2
?>

Reverse a String
• The PHP strrev() function reverses a string:
E.g <?php
echo strrev("Hello world!"); //output=!dlrow olleH
?>
 The str_replace() function
• The PHP str_replace() function replaces some
characters with some other characters in a string.
<?php
echo str_replace("world", “PHP", "Hello world!");
?> Output: Hello PHP!
• The example below replaces the text "world" with
“PHP":
 PHP Constants
• A constant is an identifier (name) for a simple value. The value cannot be changed
during the script.
• A valid constant name starts with a letter or underscore (no $ sign before the
constant name).
Note: Unlike variables, constants are automatically global across the entire script.
• Syntax
define(name, value, case-insensitive)
// name: Specifies the name of the constant // value: Specifies the value of the constant
//case-insensitive: Specifies whether the constant name should be case-insensitive.
Default is false
• E. g
<?php
define("GREETING", "Welcome to Mekdela Amba University!");
echo GREETING;
?>
or
<?php
define("GREETING", "Welcome to Mekdela Amba University!", true);
echo greeting;
Example PHP String functions

<?php
$txt1="Hello World!";
$txt2="What a nice day!";
echo $txt1 ." " .$txt2; // String concatenation function
echo "<br/>";
echo strlen($txt1); // string length function
echo "<br/>";
echo strpos("Hello world!","world"); // String position function
echo "<br/>";
echo str_word_count($txt1); // string words count function
echo "<br/>";
echo strrev($txt1); // string reverse function
echo "<br/>";
echo str_replace("world", "PHP", "Hello world!");// string replace
function
 PHP Operators
• Operators are used to perform operations on variables
and values.
• PHP divides the operators in the following groups:
 Arithmetic operators
 Assignment operators
 Comparison operators
 Increment/Decrement operators
 Logical operators
 String operators
 Array operators
 PHP Arithmetic Operators
Operator Name Example Result

+ Addition $x + $y Sum of $x and $y

- Subtraction $x - $y Difference of $x and $y

* Multiplication $x * $y Product of $x and $y

/ Division $x / $y Quotient of $x and $y

% Modulus $x % $y Remainder of $x divided by $y

** Exponentiation $x ** $y Result of raising $x to the $y'th power

(Introduced in PHP 5.6)
 PHP Assignment Operators
Assignment Same as... Description

x=y x=y The left operand gets set to the value of

the expression on the right

x += y x=x+y Addition

x -= y x=x-y Subtraction

x *= y x=x*y Multiplication

x /= y x=x/y Division

x %= y x=x%y Modulus
 PHP Comparison Operators
Operator Name Example Result
== Equal $x == $y Returns true if $x is equal to $y

=== Identical $x === $y Returns true if $x is equal to $y, and they are of the same
type

!= Not equal $x != $y Returns true if $x is not equal to $y

<> Not equal $x <> $y Returns true if $x is not equal to $y

!== Not identical $x !== $y Returns true if $x is not equal to $y, or they are not of the
same type

> Greater than $x > $y Returns true if $x is greater than $y

< Less than $x < $y Returns true if $x is less than $y

>= Greater than or $x >= $y Returns true if $x is greater than or equal to $y

equal to

<= Less than or equal to $x <= $y Returns true if $x is less than or equal to $y
 PHP Increment / Decrement Operators

Operator Name Description

++$x Pre-increment Increments $x by one,

then returns $x
$x++ Post-increment Returns $x, then
increments $x by one
--$x Pre-decrement Decrements $x by one,
then returns $x

$x-- Post-decrement Returns $x, then

decrements $x by one
 PHP Logical Operators
are used to combine conditional statements .

Operato Name Example Result

r
and And $x and $y True if both $x and $y are true

or Or $x or $y True if either $x or $y is true

xor Xor $x xor $y True if either $x or $y is true,

but not both

&& And $x && $y True if both $x and $y are true

|| Or $x || $y True if either $x or $y is true

! Not !$x True if $x is not true

 PHP String Operators
PHP has two operators that are specially designed for strings.

Operator Name Example Result

. Concatenati $txt1 . $txt2 Concatenation of

on $txt1 and $txt2

.= Concatenati $txt1 .= $txt2 Appends $txt2 to

on $txt1
assignment
 PHP Array Operators
are used to compare arrays.
Operator Name Example Result
+ Union $x + $y Union of $x and $y. The union of two
sets A and B is the set of elements which
are in A, in B, or in both A and B.
== Equality $x == $y Returns true if $x and $y have
the same key/value pairs
=== Identity $x === $y Returns true if $x and $y have
the same key/value pairs in the
same order and of the same
types
!= Inequality $x != $y Returns true if $x is not equal to
$y
<> Inequality $x <> $y Returns true if $x is not equal to
$y
!== Non-identity $x !== $y Returns true if $x is not identical
to $y
 PHP Conditional Statements

• Conditional statements are used to perform different

actions based on different conditions
• In PHP we have the following conditional statements:
• if statement - executes some code only if a specified
condition is true
• if...else statement - executes some code if a condition
is true and another code if the condition is false
• if...elseif....else statement - specifies a new condition
to test, if the first condition is false
• switch statement - selects one of many blocks of
code to be executed
 PHP - The if Statement

• The if statement is used to execute some code only if a specified

condition is true or ignored if the condition fails.
• Syntax
if (condition) {
code to be executed if condition is true;
}
• Example
<?php
$t = date("H"); //24 hours format of an hour
if ($t <"15") {
echo "Have a good day!";
}
?>
 PHP - The if...else Statement

The “if else” statement allows us to specify two alternative statements:

• One which will be executed if a condition is satisfied and
• Another which will be executed if the condition is not satisfied.
• Syntax
if (condition) {
code to be executed if condition is true;
} else {
code to be executed if condition is false;
}
• Example
<?php
$t = date("H");
if ($t < "20") {
echo "Have a good day!";
}
else {
echo "Have a good night!";
} ?>
 PHP - The if...elseif....else Statement
• The “if… elseif” statement allows us to specify more than two alternative
statements each will be executed based on testing one or more conditions.
• Syntax
if (condition) {
code to be executed if condition is true;
} elseif (condition) {
code to be executed if condition is true;
} else {
code to be executed if condition is false;
}
Example
<?php
$d=date("D"); // A textual representation of a day (three letters)
if($d=="Fri")
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
Else if($d=="Sun")
echo "Have a nice Sunday!";
else
echo "Have a nice day!";
?>
 PHP switch statement
• The Switch statement in PHP is used to perform one of several
different actions based on one of several different conditions.
• 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 PHP switch statement
<html><body>
<?php
$x=2;
switch ($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>
 PHP looping statements
While Loops
 The while statement (also called while loop) provides a way of
repeating a statement or a block as long as a condition is true.
while(expression)

<?php statements;

$i=1;
while($i<=5)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
$i++;
}
?>
 PHP Looping - For Loops

• The “for” statement (also called loop) is used to repeatedly execute a

block of instructions until a specific condition fails.

E.g
<?php for(initialization; condition; increment)

for ($x = 0; $x <= 10; $x++) statements;

{
echo "The number is: $x <br>";
}
?>
 Foreach loop

• foreach - loops through a block of code for each element in an array.

• The foreach loop works only on arrays, and is used to loop through each
key/value pair in an array.
foreach($array as $key=>$value)
• Syntax
foreach ($array as $value) { {
code to be executed; Code to be executed;
} }

• For every loop iteration, the value of the current array element is assigned to
$value and the array pointer is moved by one, until it reaches the last array
element.
E.g. <?php
$age = array("Peter"=>"35", "Ben"=>"37",
<?php
"Joe"=>"43");
$x=array("one","two","three");
foreach($x as $value) foreach($age as $x => $val) {
{ echo "$x = $val<br>";
echo $value . "<br />"; }
?>
}
 PHP Functions
• A function is a block of statements that can be used repeatedly in a
program.
• A function will be executed by a call to the function.
• When called (or invoked), the function’s code is executed and
performs a particular task.
• A user-defined function declaration starts with the word function.
Syntax:

• Note: variables names are case sensitive in PHP, function names are
not!)
• A function name must start with a letter or an underscore.
 Example
<html>
<head><title>Writing PHP Function</title></head><body>
<?php
function writeMessage(){ // Defining a PHP Function
echo "You are really a nice person, Have a nice time!<br/>";
}
writeMessage(); /* Calling a PHP Function */
function addFunction($num1, $num2)
//Writing PHP Function with Parameters
{
$sum = $num1 + $num2;
return $sum;
}
$result= addFunction(10, 20); // Calling a PHP Function with parameter
echo "Sum of the two numbers is : $result<br/>";
?></body></html>
 PHP Functions - Return values

<?php
function add($x,$y)
{
$total=$x+$y;
return $total;
}
echo "1 + 16 = " . add(1,16);
?>
 PHP Arrays

• An array stores multiple values in one single variable:

• An array is a data structure that stores one or more similar type of
values in a single value.
• In PHP, the array() function is used to create an array:
• In PHP, there are three types of arrays:
 Numeric array - An array with a numeric index. Values are
stored and accessed in linear fashion
 Associative array - An array with strings as index. This stores
element values in association with key values rather than in a
strict linear index order.
 Multidimensional arrays- Arrays containing one or more
arrays
 Numeric Array
• A numeric array stores each array element with a numeric
index.
E.g
<?php
<html><body> $cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
echo "I like " . $cars[0] . ", " . $cars[1] . "
<?php
and " . $cars[2] . ".";
$numbers = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5); ?>
foreach( $numbers as $value )
{ <?php
echo "Value is $value <br/>"; $cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota");
$arrlength = count($cars);
}
for($x = 0; $x < $arrlength; $x++) {
?> echo $cars[$x];
</body> echo "<br>";
}
</html> ?>
 Associative array

• Associative array will have their index as string so that you

can establish a strong association between key and values.
• To store the salaries of employees in an array, a numerically
indexed array would not be the best choice.
• Instead, we could use the employees names as the keys in our
associative array, and the value would be their respective
salary.
<?php
$salary= array("abel"=>3200, "Sam"=>3000, "bet"=>3400);
echo "Salary of Abel is ". $salary['abel'] . "<br />";
echo "Salary of bet is ". $salary['bet'] . "<br />";
echo "Salary of sam is ". $salary['Sam'] . "<br />";
?>
 Multidimensional array
• A multidimensional array is an array containing one or more arrays.
• A two-dimensional array is an array of arrays (a three-dimensional array is an
array of arrays of arrays).
• Values in the multi-dimensional array are accessed using multiple index.
<?php $cars = array (
$families = array( array("Volvo",22,18),
array("BMW",15,13),
"animal"=>array ("birds","fish","mammals"),
array(“Toyota",5,2),
"plant"=>array ("Trees"), array("Land Rover",17,15)
"Brown"=>array("Cleveland","Loretta","Junior") );
); for ($row = 0; $row < 4; $row++) {
echo "Is " . $families['animal'][2] . echo "<p><b>Row number
" are a type of Animals?"; $row</b></p>";
echo "<ul>";
?>
for ($col = 0; $col < 3; $col++) {
echo
"<li>".$cars[$row][$col]."</li>";
}
echo "</ul>";
}
<html><body>
<?php /*Accessing multi-dimensional
$marks = array( array values */
"abel" => array(
echo "Marks for abel in physics : " ;
echo $marks['abel']['physics'] .
"physics" => 35,
"<br />";
"maths" => 30,
echo "Marks for sam in maths : ";
"chemistry" => 39 ),
echo $marks['sam']['maths'] .
"<br />";
"sam" => array(
echo "Marks for sam in chemistry :
"physics" => 30,
";
"maths" => 32,
echo $marks['sam']['chemistry'] .
"chemistry" => 29 ),
"<br />";
?> </body></html>
"beti" => array
(
"physics" => 31,
"maths" => 22, 65
 Cont…..

In the example below, three literal arrays are declared as follows:

1. A numerically indexed array with indices running from 0 to 4.
2. An associative array with string indices.
3. A numerically indexed array, with indices running from 5 to 7.
If you set the first numeric key value, the added values will be keyed
incrementally thereafter:
– $days = array (1 => 'Sun', 'Mon', 'Tue');
– echo $days[3]; // Tue
Example
<?php
$array1 = array(2, 3, 5, 7, 11);
$array2 = array("one" => 1,
"two" => 2,
"three" => 3);
$array3 = array(5 => "five", "six", "seven");
Print ($array1[3].",".$array2["one"].",".$array3[6]);
 Get The Length of an Array

<?php
$cars=array("Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
echo count($cars);
?>
Loop Through an Indexed Array
<?php
$cars=array("Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
$arrlength=count($cars);
for($x=0;$x<$arrlength;$x++)
{
echo $cars[$x];
echo "<br>";
}
?>
 Loop Through an Associative Array

<?php
$age=array("Peter"=>"35","Ben"=>"37","Joe"=>"43");
foreach($age as $x=>$x_value)
{
echo "Key=" . $x. ", Value=" . $x_value;
echo "<br>";
}
?>
 PHP - Sort Functions For Arrays

• sort() - sort arrays in ascending order

• rsort() - sort arrays in descending order
• asort() - sort associative arrays in ascending order, according to
the value
• ksort() - sort associative arrays in ascending order, according to
the key
• arsort() - sort associative arrays in descending order, according
to the value
• krsort() - sort associative arrays in descending order, according
to the key.
Example: $names = array (‘ruta', ‘abel’,’Mohammed');
– sort($names);
 Example
<?php
$numbers=array(4,6,2,22,11);
<?php
sort($numbers); $age = array("Peter"=>"35",
$arrlength=count($numbers); "Ben"=>"37", "Joe"=>"43");
arsort($age);
for($x=0;$x<$arrlength;$x++) foreach($age as $x => $x_value)
{ {
echo $x_value;
echo $numbers[$x]; echo "<br>";
echo "<br>"; }
?>
}
?>
Handling User Input:
Using HTML forms
with PHP
 User Input Manipulation

 One of the advantages of PHP is the ability to easily

manipulate information submitted by the user through an
HTML form.
 Sending data to a script via an HTML form with name and value
pairs using either post or get method.
 The PHP superglobals $_GET and $_POST are used to collect
form-data.
What is a HTML FORM?
• A form basically contains Text boxes and buttons
• Provides two-way communication between web servers and
browsers.
 FORM Tags and Attributes

• Form tag is used to enclose HTML form. All objects

must be inside of a form tag.
<form action=“registration.php" name=“reg" method=“post">
</form>
Attributes
 Action - the URL of the script that the data will be sent to.
 this is the page that will display once the submit button is clicked
 Name - the name of the form
 Method - the way the data is sent to the script.Two main
attributes: get and post
 PHP Forms and User Input

• The PHP $_GET and $_POST variables are used to retrieve

information from different forms.
• E.g registration.html
<html><body>
<form action="display.php" method=“post">
<p>First Name: <input type="text" name="fname" /></p>
<p>Last Name: <input type="text" name="lname" /></p>
<p>User Name: <input type="text" name="uname" /></p>
<p>Password: <input type="password" name="pass" /></p>
<input type="submit" value="Register" />
</form></body></html>
Output of the Form
• When the user fills out the form and clicks the submit button, the
form data is sent for processing to a PHP file named
“display.php".
• The form data is sent with the HTTP POST method.
display.php
<html>
<body>
<h1>Welcome <?php echo $_POST["fname"]; ?>
<?php echo $_POST["lname"]; ?><br></h1>
Your user Name: <?php echo $_POST["uname"]; ?><br>
Your Password: <?php echo $_POST["pass"]; ?>
</body></html>
Calculator.html
• <html><body>
• <h1><center>Calculator</center></h1>
• <form action="calculator.php" method="post">
• <table align="center">
• <th>Choose arithmetic operator</th>
• <th>Enter the values</th>
• <tr>
• <td>+<input type="radio" name="arithmetic" value="add" checked /></td>
• <td> V1:<input type="text" name="v1" /> </td>
• </tr>
• <tr>
• <td>- <input type="radio" name="arithmetic" value="minus" /></td>
• <td> V2:<input type="text" name="v2" /> </td>
• </tr> <tr>
• <td>/ <input type="radio" name="arithmetic" value="divide" /></td>
• </tr> <tr>
• <td>*<input type="radio" name="arithmetic" value="multiply" /></td>
• </tr>
• <tr>
• <td><input type="submit" value="Execute" /></td>
• </tr>
• </table>
• <h3>the Result</h3>
• </form></body></html> 77
 Calculator.php
<?php
$v1=$_POST['v1'];
$v2=$_POST['v2'];
$a=$_POST['arithmetic'];
require('calculator.html');
switch($a){
case 'add':
echo $v1+$v2;
break;
case 'minus':
echo $v1-$v2;
break;
case 'divide':
if ($v2==0)
echo"Cannot divide by zero";
else echo $v1/$v2;
break;
case 'multiply':
echo $v1*$v2;
break;
78
}
Calculator.html

79
 PHP GET and POST Methods

• The PHP $_GET and $_POST variables are used to retrieve

information from forms, like user input
• Form elements in an HTML/PHP page will automatically
be available to your PHP scripts.
• Before the browser sends the information, it encodes it using
a scheme called URL encoding. In this scheme, name/value
pairs are joined with equal signs and different pairs are
separated by the ampersand.
name1=value1&name2=value2&name3=value3
• Spaces are removed and replaced with the + character and
any other non-alphanumeric characters are replaced with a
hexadecimal values.
• After the information is encoded it is sent to the server.
80
 $_POST
• The $_POST variable is an array of variable names and values
sent by the HTTP POST method
• The $_POST variable is used to collect values from a form
with method="post“
• Information sent from a form with the POST method is
invisible to others and has no limits on the amount of
information to send.

81
 Example - $_POST

<!--“welcome.html” file --> <!--“welcome.php” file -->

<html> <body> <html> <head>

<form action=“welcome.php" <title>Grab form values</title>
method="post"> </head> <body>
Name: <input type="text" Welcome <?php echo
name="name"> $_POST["name"];?>.<br/>
Age: <input type="text" You are <?php echo
name="age"> $_POST["age"];?> years old
<input type="submit">
</form> </body> </html>
</body></html>

82
 $_GET
• The $_GET variable is an array of variable names and values
sent by the HTTP GET method
• The $_GET variable is used to collect values from a form
with method="get“
• This method should not be used when sending passwords
or other sensitive information!
• Information sent from a form with the GET method is visible
to everyone (it will be displayed in the browser's address
bar) and it has limits on the amount of information to send
(max. 2000 characters)

83
 Example - $_GET

<!--“welcome.html” file --> <!--“welcome.php” file -->

<html> <html>
<body> <head>
<title>get method</title>
<form action="welcome.php" </head>
method="get">
Name: <input type="text" <body>
name="name"> Welcome <?php echo
$_GET["name"];?>.<br/>
Age: <input type="text" name="age">
<input type="submit"> You are <?php echo $_GET["age"];?>
years old
</form>
</body> </body>
</html> </html>
84
The $_REQUEST Variable

• The PHP $_REQUEST variable can be used to get the result

from form data sent with both the GET and POST methods as
well as $_COOKIE.
Example
Welcome <?php echo $_REQUEST["name"]; ?>.<br />
You are <?php echo $_REQUEST["age"]; ?> years old!

85
Form Validation with PHP
What is form validation?
• validation: ensuring that form's values are correct
• some types of validation:
 preventing blank values (email address)
 ensuring the type of values
 integer, real number, currency, phone number, Social Security number,
postal address, email address, date, credit card number, ...
 ensuring the format and range of values (ZIP code must be a
5-digit integer)
 ensuring that values fit together (user types email twice, and
the two must match)

86
A real Form that uses validation

87
Client vs. server-side validation
• Validation can be performed:
 client-side (before the form is submitted)
 can lead to a better user experience, but not secure.
 server-side (in PHP code, after the form is
submitted)
 needed for truly secure validation, but slower
 both
 best mix of convenience and security, but requires most
effort to program.

88
Form validation=validation.php
<html>
<head>
<style>.error {color: #FF0000;} </style>
</head>
<body>
<?php
include ('validate.php');
?>
<h2>PHP Form Validation Example</h2>
<p>*required field.</span></p>
<form method="post" action='<?php $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]?>' >
Name: <input type="text" name="name" value="">
<span class="error">* <?php echo $nameErr;?></span>
<br><br>
E-mail: <input type="text" name="email" value="">
<span class="error">* <?php echo $emailErr;?></span>
<br><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</body>
<html>

• Let's validate this form's data on the server...

• The $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] is a super global variable that returns the filename of
the currently executing script. It sends the submitted form data to the page itself89
 Basic server-side validation code
<?php
$nameErr = $emailErr = $genderErr = "";
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
if (empty($_POST["name"])) {
$nameErr = "Name is required";
}
if (empty($_POST["email"])) {
$emailErr = "Email is required";
}
}
?>

• basic idea: examine parameter values, and if they are bad, show
an error message and abort

90
 Main PHP Validation Functions

• The first step in validation is making sure variables aren’t empty.

• Unfortunately, a field filled with spaces is not technically empty
• That’s why you need the trim() function
• How it works:
 Pass it a variable and It removes white spaces before or after a field
entry (in the variable)
 Do it like so
$name = trim($name);
e.g. <?php
// PHP program using trim()
$str = " Hay IT developer ";

// leading and trailing whitespaces are removed

echo trim($str);
?>
Main PHP Validation Functions
• empty() – checks to see if a variable is empty or not
 Pass it a variable
 E.g if( empty($_POST["name"])){
}
 If the variable has no value (it’s empty), it returns True
▪ “Yes, it is empty”
 If the variable does have a value (not empty), it returns False
▪ “No, it’s not empty”
 Typically, you use the empty() function to check to see if it is
not empty
▪ Place the exclamation mark (NOT) in front of the function
E.g if( !empty($_POST["name"])){
}
 One standard function to be used is isset( ), which tests if a variable has
a value (including 0, FALSE, or an empty string, but not NULL).
• Example:
//Validate the gender:
if (isset($_REQUEST['gender'])) {
$gender = $_REQUEST['gender'];
if ($gender == 'M') {
echo '<p><b>Good day, Sir!</b></p>';
} elseif ($gender == 'F') {
echo '<p><b>Good day, Madam!</b></p>';
}
else { // Unacceptable value.
$gender = NULL;
echo '<p class="error">Gender should be either "M" or
"F"!</p>';}
}
else {
$gender = NULL;
echo '<p class="error">You forgot to select your
gender!</p>';}
93
Basic Regular Expression

/abc/
• Regexes is a sequence of characters that forms a particular
pattern.
• Provide the foundation for pattern-matching functionality
• In PHP, regexes are strings that begin and end with /
• the simplest regexes simply match a particular substring
• the above regular expression matches any string containing
"abc":
– YES: "abc", "abcdef", "defabc", ".=.abc.=.", ...
– NO: "fedcba", "ab c", "PHP", ...

94
Regular expressions
• /[a-z]/at #cat, rat, bat…
• /[a-zA-Z]/
• ~[^a-z]~ #not a-z
• (very){1, 3} #counting “very” up to 3
• /^www/ #www at the beginning
• /com$/ #com at the end
Wildcards
• A dot . matches any character except a \n line break
 "/.oo.y/" matches "Doocy", "goofy", "LooNy", ...
• A trailing i at the end of a regex (after the closing / ) signifies
a case-insensitive match.
 "/xen/i" matches “Xenia", “xenophobic", “Xena the warrior
princess", “XEN technologies” ...
 Special characters: |, (), ^, \
• | means OR
 "/abc|def|g/" matches "abc", "def", or "g"
• () are for grouping
 "/(Homer|Marge) Simpson/" matches "Homer Simpson" or
"Marge Simpson"
• ^ matches the beginning of a line;
• $ the end
 "/^<!--$/" matches a line that consists entirely of "<!--“
• \ starts an escape sequence
 many characters must be escaped to match them literally: / \ $
.[]()^*+?
 "/<br \/>/" matches lines containing <br /> tags
96
Quantifiers: *, +, ?
• * means 0 or more occurrences
 "/abc*/" matches "ab", "abc", "abcc", "abccc", ...
 "/a(bc)*/" matches "a", "abc", "abcbc", "abcbcbc", ...
 "/a.*a/" matches "aa", "aba", "a8qa", "a!?_a", ...
• + means 1 or more occurrences
 "/a(bc)+/" matches "abc", "abcbc", "abcbcbc", ...
 "/Goo+gle/" matches "Google", "Gooogle", "Goooogle", ...
• ? means 0 or 1 occurrences
 "/a(bc)?/" matches "a" or "abc"

97
More quantifiers: {min,max}
• {min,max} means between min and max
occurrences (inclusive)
– "/a(bc){2,4}/" matches "abcbc", "abcbcbc", or
"abcbcbcbc"
• min or max may be omitted to specify any
number
 {2,} means 2 or more
 {,6} means up to 6
 {3} means exactly 3

98
Character sets: []
• [] group characters into a character set; will
match any single character from the set
 "/[bcd]art/" matches strings containing "bart",
"cart", and "dart"
 equivalent to "/(b|c|d)art/" but shorter
• inside [], many of the modifier keys act as
normal characters
 "/what[!*?]*/" matches "what", "what!", "what?
**!", "what??!",

99
Character ranges: [start-end]
• inside a character set, specify a range of characters with -
 "/[a-z]/" matches any lowercase letter
 "/[a-zA-Z0-9]/" matches any lower- or uppercase
letter or digit
• an initial ^ inside a character set negates it
 "/[^abcd]/" matches any character other than a, b, c,
or d
 "/[+\-]?[0-9]+/" matches an optional + or -, followed
by at least one digit

100
Escape sequences

• special escape sequence character sets:

 \d matches any digit (same as [0-9]);
 \D any non-digit ([^0-9])
 \w matches any “word character” (same as [a-zA-
Z_0-9]);
 \W any non-word
• char
 \s matches any whitespace character ( , \t, \n,
etc.); \S any non-whitespace

101
Regular expressions in PHP
• regex syntax: strings that begin and end
with /, such as "/[AEIOU]+/"
Function description
returns TRUE if string matches
preg_match(regex, string) regex
returns a new string with all
preg_replace(regex, substrings that match regex
replacement, string) replaced by replacement
returns an array of strings from
given string broken apart using
preg_split(regex, string) the given regex as the
delimiter (similar to explode
but more powerful)
CS382 102
 Regular expressions example
# replace vowels with stars
$str = "the quick brown fox";
$str = preg_replace("/[aeiou]/", "*", $str);
# "th* q**ck br*wn f*x"
# break apart into words
$words = preg_split("/[ ]+/", $str);
# ("th*", "q**ck", "br*wn", "f*x")

Or
<?php
$date = "1970-01-01 00:00:00";
$pattern = "/[-\s:]/";
$components = preg_split($pattern, $date);
print_r($components);
?> 103
PHP form validation w/ regexes
<?php
$state = $_REQUEST["state"];
if (!preg_match("/[A-Z]{2}/", $state)) {
<h2>Error, invalid state submitted.</h2>
}
?>
PHP

• using preg_match and well-chosen regexes allows you

to quickly validate query parameters against complex
patterns

104
• Use the preg_match() function stands for
perform a regular expressions match
Example
<?php
$age=$_POST["age"];
if(!preg_match("/^[0-9]$/",$age))
echo "You entered invalid input, please try again";
else
echo "Your age is ". $age;
?>

105
<?php
$age=$_POST["age"];
if(!preg_match("/^[0-9]{1,3}$/",$age))
echo "You enterd invaid input, please try
again";
else
echo "Your age is ". $age;
?>

106
 Cont..
• Using the preg_match function()
• preg_match() is a case sensitive function, which means
it treats “a” and “A” differently.
• Example
function check_field1($field_name_1)
{
if(!preg_match("/^ [a-zA-Z0-9]+$/”, $field_name_1))
return TRUE;
else The slashes “/” and “/” are delimiters, “^”
return FALSE; marks the start of string or line and the
Dollar sign “$” the end of the string, or
} line. The plus-symbol “+” means required.
107
 Cont....
/^[a-zA-Z0-9 _.,:"']+$/
• We translate this regexp as:
• From the beginning to the end of the address
string check if our character is one of the
following a-z, A-Z, 0-9, space, underscore, dot,
comma, colons, double and single quotes. You
can add any character that you think may be
part of an address(+).

108