PHP KB: PHP Topic

An Introduction to PHP. Installing PHP on Your Computer and Running your First Script.

Free trial of Delphi for PHP.

What PHP version does Delphi for PHP support?

Download page from PHP.Net.

PHP uses = for it's assignment operator.

Declare associative array with initial known values. You can also add to associative array. (You can just assign values without ever declaring it too!)

In .PHPhtml pages, you embed PHP code between <?PHP and ?>.

For PHP, JavaScript, Java,and C++, I prefer to put the first { at the end of the first line of the code block as in the example above because I see morePHP codeformatted that way (and on PHP.Net).

PHP Alternative Syntax

Although I don't like to use it, PHP offers an alternative syntax for if, while, for, foreach, and switch. These code blocks are surrounded by statement ending keywords that all use End with camel caps such as endif, endwhile, endfor, endforeach,and endswitch.

Commenting Code
Use the multi-line to comment out large blocks of code and to write multiple line comments.

Common comparison operators:

PHP 4 and above also offers === for indentical (equal plus same type) and !== for not identical (not equal or not same type).

In PHP, you declare constants using the define keyword:

Constants in PHP are case sensitive. A common standard in PHP is to use all-uppercase letters, with underscores to separate words within the name.

PHP uses functions and loosely typed parameters. Function definitions can come before or after their usage so my preference when mixing PHP in with a mostly HTML page is to put the functions after the </html> tag.

With PHP, you simply copy your files to a web server that is capable of running PHP pages.

Many developers just use a text editor. There are many PHP editors available including phpDesigner, and Delphi for PHP.

.php is the default extension for PHP although some developers will change the default extension in an effort to add an additional security level. If your code is tied to a particular version of PHP then some developers at the major PHP version number to the extension as in .php3, .php4, .php5, etc. 

.phtml is also sometimes used especially for files that contain both HTML and Perl code.

The PHP if statement consists of using if, elseif, and else.

In PHP you can use quotes, or apostraphies as in "Prestwood", and 'Prestwood'. Use a slash in front of a quote or apostrophe to embed same type as in \' and \".

PHP logical operators:

PHP

• Operator - No.
• Method -

PHP is a hybrid language with both traditional PHP and OOP features. PHP is widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP has been used to create some amazing web content, particularly outstanding message boards.

Target Platforms: PHP is most suitable for creating websites targeting any browser (any web server with PHP installed).

Because website development targets a client browser (a document interfaced GUI), a common solution is to simply output an HTML formatted page with black text and a white background (not much control but it does work for some situations).

PHP uses a period (.) known as a dot to concatenate strings.

A unary operator operates on only one value.

PHP Examples:

• ! negation operator
• ++ increment operator
• -- decrement operator

PHP is a loosely typed language. No variable types in PHP. Declaring and using variables are a bit different than in other languages. In PHP, you identify and use a variable with a $ even within strings!

You assign by reference with & as in &$MyVar.