PHP For Beginners

PHP programming has climbed rapidly since its humble

beginnings in 1995. Since then, PHP has become the most popular programming language for Web applications. Many popular websites are powered by PHP, and an overwhelming majority of scripts and Web projects are built with the popular language.

Because of PHP’s huge popularity, it has become almost impossible for Web developers not to have at least a working knowledge of PHP. This tutorial is aimed at people who are just past the beginning stages of learning PHP and are ready to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty with the language. Listed below are 10 excellent techniques that PHP developers should learn and use every time they program. These tips will speed up proficiency and make the code much more responsive, cleaner and more optimized for performance.

PHP is a server scripting language, and a powerful tool for making dynamic and interactive Web pages.

PHP is a widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft’s ASP.

PHP 7 is the latest stable release.

What’s new in PHP 7

• PHP 7 is much faster than the previous popular stable release (PHP 5.6)
• PHP 7 has improved Error Handling
• PHP 7 supports stricter Type Declarations for function arguments
• PHP 7 supports new operators (like the spaceship operator: <=> )

How Does PHP Work?

As mentioned, PHP is a server-side, interpreted scripting language. Like JavaScript, Perl, ASP, Python, and Ruby, it’s mostly used to create back-end software. The goal is to create a web page or interface programmed with PHP that’s dynamic, interactive, responsive, and personalized. While these can be achieved using client-side scripting languages (HTML & CSS), PHP lets you design all the layers and nitty-gritty of your website, including the structure, database, design, content, and functionality.

Php Syntax

A PHP script starts with <?php and ends with ?>

<?php
// PHP code goes here
?>

Note: PHP statements end with a semicolon (;)