What is PHP? Write your first PHP Program
Ankita Sharda
Senior Human Resource Executive || Hired for Adidas & KPMG (ex-clients) | MBA, Talent Acquisition- Corporate HR.
What is PHP?
PHP is a server side scripting language. that is used to develop Static websites or Dynamic websites or Web applications. PHP stands for Hypertext Pre-processor, that earlier stood for Personal Home Pages.
PHP scripts can only be interpreted on a server that has PHP installed.
The client computers accessing the PHP scripts require a web browser only.
A PHP file contains PHP tags and ends with the extension ".php".What is a Scripting Language?
A script is a set of programming instructions that is interpreted at runtime.
A scripting language is a language that interprets scripts at runtime. Scripts are usually embedded into other software environments.The purpose of the scripts is usually to enhance the performance or perform routine tasks for an application.
Server side scripts are interpreted on the server while client side scripts are interpreted by the client application.
PHP is a server side script that is interpreted on the server while java script is an example of a client side script that is interpreted by the client browser. Both PHP and JavaScript can be embedded into HTML pages.
Programming Language Vs Scripting Language
Programming languageScripting languageHas all the features needed to develop complete applications.Mostly used for routine tasksThe code has to be compiled before it can be executedThe code is usually executed without compilingDoes not need to be embedded into other languagesIs usually embedded into other software environments.
What does PHP stand for?
PHP means - Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive backronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
PHP code may be embedded into HTML code, or it can be used in combination with various web template systems, web content management system and web frameworks.Why use PHP?
You have obviously heard of a number of programming languages out there; you may be wondering why we would want to use PHP as our poison for the web programming. Below are some of the compelling reasons.
- PHP is open source and free.
- Short learning curve compared to other languages such as JSP, ASP etc.
- Large community document
- Most web hosting servers support PHP by default unlike other languages such as ASP that need IIS. This makes PHP a cost effective choice.
- PHP is regular updated to keep abreast with the latest technology trends.
- Other benefit that you get with PHP is that it’s a server side scripting language; this means you only need to install it on the server and client computers requesting for resources from the server do not need to have PHP installed; only a web browser would be enough.
- PHP has in built support for working hand in hand with MySQL; this doesn’t mean you can’t use PHP with other database management systems. You can still use PHP with
- Postgres
- Oracle
- MS SOL Server
- ODBC etc.
- PHP is cross platform; this means you can deploy your application on a number of different operating systems such as windows, Linux, Mac OS etc.