Introduction to PHP

PHP, short for Hypertext Preprocessor, is a server-side scripting language widely used for web development. Its inception dates back to 1994 when Rasmus Lerdorf created it for managing his website’s tasks. Since then, PHP has grown into a robust language, empowering developers to generate dynamic content and interact with databases seamlessly. The following example illustrates introduction to PHP and a basic PHP script to greet users based on the time of the day:

<?php
$hour = date(‘H’);

if ($hour < 12) {
echo “Good morning!”;
} elseif ($hour < 18) {
echo “Good afternoon!”;
} else {
echo “Good evening!”;
}
?>

Client-side scripting:

Client-side scripting involves code executed on the user’s web browser. JavaScript is a popular client-side language. For example, the following JavaScript snippet alerts a user when they click a button:

<script>
function showAlert() {
alert(“Button clicked!”);
}
</script>

<button onclick=”showAlert()”>Click me</button>

Server-side scripting:

Server-side scripting, handled by PHP, processes data on the web server before sending the final web page to the user’s browser. Consider this PHP example that fetches data from a database and displays it on a web page:

<?php
// Assuming a database connection is established
$query = “SELECT * FROM products”;
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
echo “<p>{$row[‘product_name’]}</p>”;
}
?>

To start coding in PHP, you need a development environment. Here are three common setups:

PHP’s versatility makes it a key player in web development, enabling various functionalities such as: