First contact with PHP: Understand what the PHP language is

First contact with PHP: Understand what the PHP language is

For beginners, learning a programming language may seem difficult. But for developing websites and web applications, PHP is a very useful programming language. PHP is widely used in web development to generate dynamic content encoded in html. In this article, we will learn the basics about PHP language.

1. Overview of PHP

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open source, server-side scripting language developed by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. PHP is executed on the server side, generating HTML code and sending it to the client. PHP files usually contain HTML, CSS and JavaScript code, as well as server-side PHP script code.

PHP can interact with many database servers, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc. It can be used to process form data, generate dynamic pages, create data files, etc. PHP scripts can send responses to the browser using standard output, and can also set up browser caching and redirections via HTTP headers.

2. Features of PHP

PHP is an interpreted language, which means that PHP code can be run directly on the server without compiling it into an executable file. This makes PHP ideal for the development of dynamic web applications.

PHP supports multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux and Unix. PHP can also interact with other programming languages ​​such as C and C++. Because PHP uses the Zend engine, it can achieve faster execution than other programming languages.

It is also very convenient to develop websites built using PHP. PHP uses a rich function library and provides a large number of development tools and modules, allowing developers to quickly develop high-quality Web applications.

3. PHP’s syntax

PHP’s syntax is similar to programming languages ​​such as C, Java, and Perl. A PHP file ends with a ".php" file. PHP scripts must be contained between the opening tag (in the form of "").

For example, the following is a PHP script that prints the current date and time:

<?php
echo "今天是 " . date("Y/m/d") . "<br>";
echo "现在是 " . date("h:i:sa");
?>

The above script uses PHP’s built-in date() function to obtain the current date and time , and use echo to output.

4. Installation of PHP

PHP can be installed on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Unix. Before installing PHP, you need a web server such as Apache, Nginx, IIS, etc. These servers also require installation and configuration.

For Windows, you can download the PHP installer from the official website and follow the prompts to install it. On Linux and Unix, you can install PHP using a package manager.

You can check whether you have PHP installed and view its version by entering the following command in the terminal or command prompt:

php -v

5. Way to learn PHP

If you are a beginner, it is recommended that you read the documentation provided by the PHP official website. The official PHP website provides tutorials from entry-level to advanced, including many examples and codes.

You can also participate in online tutorials or participate in PHP community events, such as PHP developer conferences. Many online learning platforms such as udemy, coursera, NetEase Cloud Classroom, etc. also provide courses and training on PHP.

6. Conclusion

PHP is a powerful, easy-to-learn programming language commonly used for web development and server-side scripting. In this article, we discussed PHP overview, features, syntax, and installation. If you want to learn more about PHP, check out the official documentation and reference books, and practice writing PHP scripts.

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