LEARN php

PHP Introduction

2012-08-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

PHP is a server-side scripting language.

What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

HTML/XHTML
JavaScript

If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page .

What is PHP?

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
PHP scripts are executed on the server
PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
PHP is an open source software
PHP is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts
PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a database server
MySQL is ideal for both small and large applications
MySQL supports standard SQL
MySQL compiles on a number of platforms
MySQL is free to download and use

PHP + MySQL

PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (you can develop in Windows and serve on a Unix platform)

Why PHP?

PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side

Where to Start?

To get access to a web server with PHP support, you can:

Install Apache (or IIS) on your own server, install PHP, and MySQL
Or find a web hosting plan with PHP and MySQL support

PHP TUTORIAL VIDEO PAGE 5

2011-08-27T23:46:00.000-07:00

29)CHECKING USERNAME FOR GAME

30)CHECK FOR DUPLICATE NAMES IN GAMES

31)TEST FOR SPAMMERS AND HACKER ON PHP GAME

32)EMAIL CONFIRMATION FOR PHP

33)GETTING TEMPRORY DATA FOR PHP GAME

34)CREATING TABLES FOR PHP GAME

35)DELETING DATA FROM TEMP TABLE FOR PHP

PAGE NO. 1 2 3 4 5

PHP TUTORIAL VIDEO PAGE 4

2011-08-27T23:45:00.000-07:00

22)CREATING A MY SQL DATABASE

23)ADDING TABLE TO MY SQL DATABASE

24)CONNECTING TO MY SQL DATABASE

25)SELECTING A MY SQL DATABASE

26)TESTING THE DATABASE CONNETION

27)CREATING COMPUTER GAME

28)CREATING CONNECTION AND TABLE FOR GAME

PAGE NO. 1 2 3 4 5

PHP TUTORIAL VIDEO PAGE 3

2011-08-27T23:42:00.001-07:00

15)FUNCTIONS

16)PARAMETRIC FUNCTIONS

17)RETURN VAULUES

18)BEGINING FORMS

19)MORE ON FORMS

20)DATE FUNCTION

21)INCLUDE FUNCTION

PAGE NO. 1 2 3 4 5

PHP TUTORIAL VIDEO PAGE 2

2011-08-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

8)DO LOOP

9)FOR LOOP

10)ARRAYS

11)ASSOCIATIVE ARRAY

12)ADDING AND MODIFYING ELEMENTS

IN ARRAY

13)ARRAYS WITH LOOP

14)FOREACH ARRAY LOOP

PAGE NO. 1 2 3 4 5

PHP BASICS

2011-08-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

PHP is a server-side scripting language.

What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

HTML/XHTML
JavaScript

If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page .

What is PHP?

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
PHP scripts are executed on the server
PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
PHP is an open source software
PHP is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts
PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a database server
MySQL is ideal for both small and large applications
MySQL supports standard SQL
MySQL compiles on a number of platforms
MySQL is free to download and use

PHP + MySQL

PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (you can develop in Windows and serve on a Unix platform)

Why PHP?

PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side

Where to Start?

To get access to a web server with PHP support, you can:

Install Apache (or IIS) on your own server, install PHP, and MySQL
Or find a web hosting plan with PHP and MySQL support

PHP Date() Function

2011-08-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

PHP Date() Function

The PHP date() function is used to format a time and/or date.

PHP Date() - Format the Date

The required format parameter in the date() function specifies how to format the date/time.

Here are some characters that can be used:

d - Represents the day of the month (01 to 31)
m - Represents a month (01 to 12)
Y - Represents a year (in four digits)

A list of all the characters that can be used in the format parameter, can be found in our PHP Date reference.

Other characters, like"/", ".", or "-" can also be inserted between the letters to add additional formatting:

<?php
echo date("Y/m/d") . " ";
echo date("Y.m.d") . " ";
echo date("Y-m-d");
?>

The output of the code above could be something like this:

Output

2009/05/11
2009.05.11
2009-05-11

PHP Functions

2011-08-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

PHP Functions

The real power of PHP comes from its functions.

In PHP, there are more than 700 built-in functions.

PHP Built-in Functions

For a complete reference and examples of the built-in functions, please visit our PHP Reference.

PHP Functions

In this chapter we will show you how to create your own functions.

To keep the script from being executed when the page loads, you can put it into a function.

A function will be executed by a call to the function.

You may call a function from anywhere within a page.

Create a PHP Function

A function will be executed by a call to the function.

Syntax

function functionName()
{
code to be executed;
}

PHP function guidelines:

Give the function a name that reflects what the function does
The function name can start with a letter or underscore (not a number)

Example

A simple function that writes my name when it is called:

PHP Code

function writeName()
{
echo "SamGenius";
}

echo "My name is ";
writeName();

output

My name is Samgenius

PHP Functions - Adding parameters

To add more functionality to a function, we can add parameters. A parameter is just like a variable.

Parameters are specified after the function name, inside the parentheses.

Example 1

The following example will write different first names, but equal last name:

PHP Code

function writeName($fname)
{
echo $fname . " Refsnes. ";
}

echo "My name is ";
writeName("Kai Jim");
echo "My sister name is ";
writeName("Hege");
echo "My brother name is ";
writeName("Stale");

output

My name is Kai Jim Refsnes.
My sister name is Hege Refsnes.
My brother name is Stale Refsnes.

PHP Functions - Return values

To let a function return a value, use the return statement.

Example

<?php

function add($x,$y)

{

$total=$x+$y;

return $total;

}

echo "1 + 16 = " . add(1,16);

PHP Looping - For Loops

2011-08-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

PHP Looping - For Loops

Loops execute a block of code a specified number of times, or while a specified condition is true.
The for Loop
The for loop is used when you know in advance how many times the script should run.

Syntax

for (init; condition; increment)
{
code to be executed;
}

Parameters:

init: Mostly used to set a counter (but can be any code to be executed once at the beginning of the loop)
condition: Evaluated for each loop iteration. If it evaluates to TRUE, the loop continues. If it evaluates to FALSE, the loop ends.
increment: Mostly used to increment a counter (but can be any code to be executed at the end of the loop)

Note: Each of the parameters above can be empty, or have multiple expressions (separated by commas).

Example

The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as i is less than, or equal to 5. i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:

PHP Code

for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . "
";
}

OUTPUT

The number is 1
The number is 2
The number is 3
The number is 4
The number is 5

The foreach Loop

The foreach loop is used to loop through arrays.

Syntax

foreach ($array as $value)
{
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) - so on the next loop iteration, you will be looking at the next array value.

Example

The following example demonstrates a loop that will print the values of the given array:

PHP Code

$x=array("one","two","three");
foreach ($x as $value)
{
echo $value . "
";
}

OUTPUT
one
two
three

try it your self

<?php
for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . " ";
}

//----------www.phptry.com-----------

$x=array("one","two","three");
foreach ($x as $value)
{
echo $value . " ";
}

?>

PHP Looping - While Loops

2011-08-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

PHP Looping - While Loops

Loops execute a block of code a specified number of times, or while a specified condition is true.
PHP Loops
Often when you write code, you want the same block of code to run over and over again in a row. Instead of adding several almost equal lines in a script we can use loops to perform a task like this.
In PHP, we have the following looping statements:
while - loops through a block of code while a specified condition is true

do...while - loops through a block of code once, and then repeats the loop as long as a specified condition is true

for - loops through a block of code a specified number of times

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

The while Loop
The while loop executes a block of code while a condition is true.
Syntax

Syntax

while (condition)
{
code to be executed;
}

Example

The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as i is less than, or equal to 5. i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:

PHP Code

$i=1;
while($i<=5)
 {
 echo "The number is " . $i . " ";
 $i++;
 }

OUTPUT

The number is 1
The number is 2
The number is 3
The number is 4
The number is 5

The do...while Statement

The do...while statement will always execute the block of code once, it will then check the condition, and repeat the loop while the condition is true.

Syntax

do
{
code to be executed;
}
while (condition);

Example

The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. It will then increment i with 1, and write some output. Then the condition is checked, and the loop will continue to run as long as i is less than, or equal to 5:

PHP Code

$i=1;
do
 {
 $i++;
 echo "The number is " . $i . " ";
 }
while ($i<=5);

OUTPUT

The number is 2
The number is 3
The number is 4
The number is 5
The number is 6

The for loop and the foreach loop will be explained in the next chapter.

<?php
$i=1;
while($i<=5)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . " ";
$i++;
}

$j=0;
do
{
$j++;
echo "The number is " . $j . " ";
}
while ($j<=5);
?>

PHP Arrays

2011-08-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

PHP Arrays

An array stores multiple values in one single variable.

What is an Array?

A variable is a storage area holding a number or text. The problem is, a variable will hold only one value.

An array is a special variable, which can store multiple values in one single variable.

If you have a list of items (a list of car names, for example), storing the cars in single variables could look like this:

PHP Code

$cars1="Saab";
$cars2="Volvo";
$cars3="BMW";

However, what if you want to loop through the cars and find a specific one? And what if you had not 3 cars, but 300?

The best solution here is to use an array!

An array can hold all your variable values under a single name. And you can access the values by referring to the array name.

Each element in the array has its own index so that it can be easily accessed.

In PHP, there are three kind of arrays:

Numeric array - An array with a numeric index
Associative array - An array where each ID key is associated with a value
Multidimensional array - An array containing one or more arrays

Numeric Arrays

A numeric array stores each array element with a numeric index.

There are two methods to create a numeric array.

1. In the following example the index are automatically assigned (the index starts at 0):

PHP Code

$cars=array("Saab","Volvo","BMW","Toyota");

2. In the following example we assign the index manually:

PHP Code

$cars[0]="Saab";
$cars[1]="Volvo";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";

Example

In the following example you access the variable values by referring to the array name and index:

<?php

$cars[0]="Saab";

$cars[1]="Volvo";

$cars[2]="BMW";

$cars[3]="Toyota";

echo $cars[0] . " and " . $cars[1] . " are Swedish cars.";

PHP Switch Statement

2011-08-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

PHP Switch Statement

Conditional statements are used to perform different actions based on different conditions.

The PHP Switch Statement

Use the switch statement to select one of many blocks of code to be executed.

Syntax

PHP Code

switch (n)
{
case label1:
  code to be executed if n=label1;
  break;
case label2:
  code to be executed if n=label2;
  break;
default:
  code to be executed if n is different from both label1 and label2;
}

This is how it works: First we have a single expression n (most often a variable), that is evaluated once. The value of the expression is then compared with the values for each case in the structure. If there is a match, the block of code associated with that case is executed. Usebreak to prevent the code from running into the next case automatically. The default statement is used if no match is found.

Example

<?php

$x = 2; //number between 1 to 3

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";

}

PHP If...Else Statements

2011-08-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

PHP If...Else Statements

Conditional statements are used to perform different actions based on different conditions.

Conditional Statements

Very often when you write code, you want to perform different actions for different decisions.

You can use conditional statements in your code to do this.

In PHP we have the following conditional statements:

if statement - use this statement to execute some code only if a specified condition is true
if...else statement - use this statement to execute some code if a condition is true and another code if the condition is false
if...elseif....else statement - use this statement to select one of several blocks of code to be executed
switch statement - use this statement to select one of many blocks of code to be executed

The if Statement

Use the if statement to execute some code only if a specified condition is true.

Syntax

if (condition) code to be executed if condition is true;

The following example will output "Have a nice weekend!" if the current day is Friday:

PHP Code

$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri") echo "Have a nice weekend!";

Notice that there is no ..else.. in this syntax. The code is executed only if the specified condition is true.

The if...else Statement

Use the if....else statement to execute some code if a condition is true and another code if a condition is false.

Syntax

PHP Code

if (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
else
code to be executed if condition is false

Example

The following example will output "Have a nice weekend!" if the current day is Friday, otherwise it will output "Have a nice day!":

PHP Code

$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
else
echo "Have a nice day!";

If more than one line should be executed if a condition is true/false, the lines should be enclosed within curly braces:

PHP Code

$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
  {
  echo "Hello!";
  echo "Have a nice weekend!";
  echo "See you on Monday!";
  }

The if...elseif....else Statement

Use the if....elseif...else statement to select one of several blocks of code to be executed.

Syntax

PHP Code

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");

if ($d=="Fri")

echo "Have a nice weekend!";

elseif ($d=="Sun")

echo "Have a nice Sunday!";

else

echo "Have a nice day!";

PHP Operators

2011-08-22T22:36:00.001-07:00

PHP Operators

Operators are used to operate on values.

PHP Operators

This section lists the different operators used in PHP.

Arithmetic Operators

Operator	Description	Example	Result
+	Addition	x=2 x+2	4
-	Subtraction	x=2 5-x	3
*	Multiplication	x=4 x*5	20
/	Division	15/5 5/2	3 2.5
%	Modulus (division remainder)	5%2 10%8 10%2	1 2 0
++	Increment	x=5 x++	x=6
--	Decrement	x=5 x--	x=4

Assignment Operators

Operator	Example	Is The Same As
=	x=y	x=y
+=	x+=y	x=x+y
-=	x-=y	x=x-y
*=	x*=y	x=x*y
/=	x/=y	x=x/y
.=	x.=y	x=x.y
%=	x%=y	x=x%y

Comparison Operators

Operator	Description	Example
==	is equal to	5==8 returns false
!=	is not equal	5!=8 returns true
<>	is not equal	5<>8 returns true
>	is greater than	5>8 returns false
<	is less than	5<8 returns true
>=	is greater than or equal to	5>=8 returns false
<=	is less than or equal to	5<=8 returns true

Logical Operators

Operator	Description	Example
&&	and	x=6 y=3 (x < 10 && y > 1) returns true
\|\|	or	x=6 y=3 (x==5 \|\| y==5) returns false
!	not	x=6 y=3 !(x==y) returns true

The strlen() function

2011-08-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

The strlen() function

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

Let find the length of a string:

PHP Code

echo strlen("Hello world!"); // 12

The output of the code above will be:

The length of a string is often used in loops or other functions, when it is important to know when the string ends. (i.e. in a loop, we would want to stop the loop after the last character in the string).

The strpos() function

The strpos() function is used to search for a character/text within a string.

If a match is found, this function will return the character position of the first match. If no match is found, it will return FALSE.

Let see if we can find the string "world" in our string:

PHP Code

echo strpos("Hello world!","world"); // 6

The output of the code above will be:

The position of the string "world" in the example above is 6. The reason that it is 6 (and not 7), is that the first character position in the string is 0, and not 1.

<?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
echo " "; //line break
echo strpos("Hello world!","world");
?>

PHP String Variables

2011-08-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

PHP String Variables

A string variable is used to store and manipulate text.

String Variables in PHP

String variables are used for values that contain characters.

In this chapter we are going to look at the most common functions and operators used to manipulate strings in PHP.

After we create a string we can manipulate it. A string can be used directly in a function or it can be stored in a variable.

Below, the PHP script assigns the text "Hello World" to a string variable called $txt:

php code

$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;

The output of the code above will be:
OUTPUT
Hello World

Now, lets try to use some different functions and operators to manipulate the string.

The Concatenation Operator

There is only one string operator in PHP.

The concatenation operator (.) is used to put two string values together.

To concatenate two string variables together, use the concatenation operator:

<?php

$txt1="Hello World!";

$txt2="What a nice day!";

echo $txt1 . " " . $txt2;

If we look at the code above you see that we used the concatenation operator two times. This is because we had to insert a third string (a space character), to separate the two strings.

PHP Variables

2011-08-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

PHP Variables

A variable is used to store information.

Variables in PHP

Variables are used for storing values, like text strings, numbers or arrays.

When a variable is declared, it can be used over and over again in your script.

All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol.

The correct way of declaring a variable in PHP:

PHP Code

$var_name = value;

New PHP programmers often forget the $ sign at the beginning of the variable. In that case it will not work.

Let try creating a variable containing a string, and a variable containing a number:

PHP is a Loosely Typed Language

In PHP, a variable does not need to be declared before adding a value to it.

In the example above, you see that you do not have to tell PHP which data type the variable is.

PHP automatically converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on its value.

In a strongly typed programming language, you have to declare (define) the type and name of the variable before using it.

In PHP, the variable is declared automatically when you use it.

Naming Rules for Variables

A variable name must start with a letter or an underscore "_"
A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ )
A variable name should not contain spaces. If a variable name is more than one word, it should be separated with an underscore ($my_string), or with capitalization ($myString)

PHP Syntax

2011-08-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

PHP Syntax

PHP code is executed on the server, and the plain HTML result is sent to the browser.

Basic PHP Syntax

On servers with shorthand support enabled you can start a scripting block with .

For maximum compatibility, we recommend that you use the standard form

A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, just like an HTML file, and some PHP scripting code.

Below, we have an example of a simple PHP script which sends the text "Hello World" to the browser:

Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon. The semicolon is a separator and is used to distinguish one set of instructions from another.

There are two basic statements to output text with PHP: echo and print. In the example above we have used the echo statement to output the text "Hello World".

Note: The file must have a .php extension. If the file has a .html extension, the PHP code will not be executed.

<?php

echo "Hello World";

PHP Installation

2011-08-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

PHP Installation

Install Wamp Server to run your PHP Script as a LOCALHOST.
Download WampServe.