PHP (Hyper Text Preprocessor)

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is a very popular and widely-used open source server-side
scripting language to write dynamically generated web pages. PHP was originally created by Rasmus
Lerdorf in 1994. It was initially known as Personal Home Page.

PHP scripts are executed on the server and the result is sent to the web browser as plain HTML. PHP can
be integrated with the number of popular databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL
Server, Sybase, and so on. The current major version of PHP is 7.

What You Can Do with PHP

There are lot more things you can do with PHP.

• You can generate pages and files dynamically.

• You can create, open, read, write and close files on the server.
• You can collect data from a web form such as user information, email, phone no, etc.
• You can send emails to the users of your website.
• You can send and receive cookies to track the visitor of your website.
• You can store, delete, and modify information in your database.
• You can restrict unauthorized access to your website.
• You can encrypt data for safe transmission over internet.

The list does not end here, there are many other interesting things that you can do with PHP.

Advantages of PHP over Other Languages

If you're familiar with other server-side languages like ASP.NET or Java, you might be wondering what
makes PHP so special. There are several advantages why one should choose PHP.

• Easy to learn: PHP is easy to learn and use. For beginner programmers who just started out in web
development, PHP is often considered as the preferable choice of language to learn.
• Open source: PHP is an open-source project. It is developed and maintained by a worldwide community
of developers who make its source code freely available to download and use.
• Portability: PHP runs on various platforms such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc. and it is
compatible with almost all servers used today such Apache, IIS, etc.
• Fast Performance: Scripts written in PHP usually execute or runs faster than those written in other
scripting languages like ASP, Ruby, Python, Java, etc.
• Vast Community: Since PHP is supported by the worldwide community, finding help or documentation
related to PHP online is extremely easy.

PHP Getting Started

Install Wampserver or XAMPP on your PC to quickly create web applications with Apache, PHP and a
MySQL database.

Setting Up a Local Web Server

PHP script execute on a web server running PHP. So before you start writing any PHP program you need
the following program installed on your computer.

▪ The Apache Web server

▪ The PHP engine
▪ The MySQL database server

You can either install them individually or choose a pre-configured package for your operating system like
Linux and Windows. Popular pre-configured package are XAMPP and WampServer.

WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with
Apache2, PHP and a MySQL database. It will also provide the MySQL administrative tool PhpMyAdmin to
easily manage your databases using a web browser.

Creating Your First PHP Script

Now that you have successfully installed WampServer on your computer. In this section we will create a
very simple PHP script that displays the text "Hello, world!" in the browser window.
Ok, click on the WampServer icon somewhere on your Windows task bar and select the "www directory".
Alternatively, you can access the "www" directory through navigating the C:\wamp\www. Create a
subdirectory in "www" directory let's say "project".

Now open up your favorite code editor and create a new PHP file then type the following code:
Example:
<?php
// Display greeting message
echo "Hello, world!";
?>
Now save this file as "hello.php" in your project folder (located at C:\wamp\www\project), and view the
result in your browser through visiting this URL: http://localhost/project/hello.php.

Alternatively, you can access the "hello.php" file through selecting the localhost option and then select the
project folder from the WampSever menu on the taskbar.

PHP can be embedded within a normal HTML web page. That means inside your HTML document you can
write the PHP statements, as demonstrated in the follwoing example:
Example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Application</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
// Display greeting message
echo 'Hello World!';
?>
</body>
</html>

Standard PHP Syntax

A PHP script starts with the <?php and ends with the ?> tag.

The PHP delimiter <?php and ?> in the following example simply tells the PHP engine to treat the enclosed
code block as PHP code, rather than simple HTML.
Example:
<?php
// Some code to be executed
echo "Hello, world!";
?>
Every PHP statement end with a semicolon (;) — this tells the PHP engine that the end of the current
statement has been reached.

Embedding PHP within HTML

PHP files are plain text files with .php extension. Inside a PHP file you can write HTML like you do in
regular HTML pages as well as embed PHP codes for server side execution.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>A Simple PHP File</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1><?php echo "Hello, world!"; ?></h1>
</body>
</html>
The above example shows how you can embed PHP codes within HTML to create well-formed dynamic
web pages. If you view the source code of the resulting web page in your browser, the only difference you
will see is the PHP code <?php echo "Hello, world!"; ?> has been replaced with the output "Hello,
world!".

What happend here is? when you run this code the PHP engine exacuted the instructions between
the <?php … ?> tags and leave rest of the thing as it is. At the end the web server send the final output
back to your browser which is completely in HTML.

PHP Comments
A comment is simply text that is ignored by the PHP engine. The purpose of comments is to make the
code more readable. It may help other developer (or you in the future when you edit the source code) to
understand what you were trying to do with the PHP.
PHP support single-line as well as multi-line comments. To write a single-line comment either start the
line with either two slashes (//) or a hash symbol (#). For example:

Example
<?php
// This is a single line comment
# This is also a single line comment
echo "Hello, world!";
?>
However to write multi-line comments, start the comment with a slash followed by an asterisk (/*) and
end the comment with an asterisk followed by a slash ( */), like this:

Example
<?php
/*
This is a multiple line comment block
that spans across more than
one line
*/
echo "Hello, world!";
?>

Case Sensitivity in PHP

Variable names in PHP are case-sensitive. As a result the variables $color, $Color and $COLOR are treated
as three different variables.

Example
<?php
// Assign value to variable
$color = "blue";

// Try to print variable value

echo "The color of the sky is " . $color . "<br>";
echo "The color of the sky is " . $Color . "<br>";
echo "The color of the sky is " . $COLOR . "<br>";
?>
If you try to run the above example code it will only display the value of the variable $color and produce
the "Undefined variable" warning for the variable $Color and $COLOR.

However the keywords, function and classes names are case-insensitive. As a result calling
the gettype() or GETTYPE() produce the same result.

Example
<?php
// Assign value to variable
$color = "blue";

// Get the type of a variable

echo gettype($color) . "<br>";
echo GETTYPE($color) . "<br>";
?>
If you try to run the above example code both the functions gettype() and GETTYPE() gives the same
output, which is: string.

What is Variable in PHP

Variables are used to store data, like string of text, numbers, etc. Variable values can change over the
course of a script. Here're some important things to know about variables:

▪ In PHP, a variable does not need to be declared before adding a value to it. PHP automatically
converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on its value.
▪ After declaring a variable it can be reused throughout the code.
▪ The assignment operator (=) used to assign value to a variable.

In PHP variable can be declared as: $var_name = value;

Example
<?php
// Declaring variables
$txt = "Hello World!";
$number = 10;

// Displaying variables value

echo $txt; // Output: Hello World!
echo $number; // Output: 10
?>
In the above example we have created two variables where first one has assigned with a string value and
the second has assigned with a number. Later we've displayed the variables values in the browser using
the echo statement. The PHP echo statement is often used to output data to the browser. We will learn
more about this in upcoming chapter.

Naming Conventions for PHP Variables

These are the following rules for naming a PHP variable:

• All variables in PHP start with a $ sign, followed by the name of the variable.
• A variable name must start with a letter or the underscore character _.
• A variable name cannot start with a number.
• A variable name in PHP can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (A-z, 0-9, and _).
• A variable name cannot contain spaces.

PHP Constants
In this tutorial you will learn how use constants for storing fixed values in PHP.

What is Constant in PHP

A constant is a name or an identifier for a fixed value. Constant are like variables, except that once they
are defined, they cannot be undefined or changed (except magic constants).
Constants are very useful for storing data that doesn't change while the script is running. Common
examples of such data include configuration settings such as database username and password, website's
base URL, company name, etc.

Constants are defined using PHP's define() function, which accepts two arguments: the name of the
constant, and its value. Once defined the constant value can be accessed at any time just by referring to
its name. Here is a simple example:

Example
<?php
// Defining constant
define("SITE_URL", "https://www.tutorialrepublic.com/");

// Using constant
echo 'Thank you for visiting - ' . SITE_URL;
?>
The output of the above code will be:

Thank you for visiting - https://www.tutorialrepublic.com/

The PHP echo statement is often used to display or output data to the web browser. We will learn more
about this statement in the next chapter.

PHP Echo and Print Statements

The PHP echo Statement
The echo statement can output one or more strings. In general terms, the echo statement can display
anything that can be displayed to the browser, such as string, numbers, variables values, the results of
expressions etc.

Since echo is a language construct not actually a function (like if statement), you can use it without
parentheses e.g. echo or echo(). However, if you want to pass more than one parameter to echo, the
parameters must not be enclosed within parentheses.

Display Strings of Text

The following example will show you how to display a string of text with the echo statement:

Example
<?php
// Displaying string of text
echo "Hello World!";
?>
The output of the above PHP code will look something like this:

Hello World!
Display HTML Code
The following example will show you how to display HTML code using the echo statement:

Example
<?php
// Displaying HTML code
echo "<h4>This is a simple heading.</h4>";
echo "<h4 style='color: red;'>This is heading with style.</h4>";
?>
The output of the above PHP code will look something like this:
This is a simple heading.
This is heading with style.

Display Variables
The following example will show you how to display variable using the echo statement:

Example
<?php
// Defining variables
$txt = "Hello World!";
$num = 123456789;
$colors = array("Red", "Green", "Blue");

// Displaying variables
echo $txt;
echo "<br>";
echo $num;
echo "<br>";
echo $colors[0];
?>
The output of the above PHP code will look something like this:

Hello World!
123456789
Red

The PHP print Statement

You can also use the print statement (an alternative to echo) to display output to the browser. Like echo
the print is also a language construct not a real function. So you can also use it without parentheses
like: print or print().

Both echo and print statement works exactly the same way except that the print statement can only
output one string, and always returns 1. That's why the echo statement considered marginally faster than
the print statement since it doesn't return any value.

Display Strings of Text

The following example will show you how to display a string of text with the print statement:

Example
<?php
// Displaying string of text
print "Hello World!";
?>
The output of the above PHP code will look something like this:

Hello World!

Display HTML Code

The following example will show you how to display HTML code using the print statement:

Example
<?php
// Displaying HTML code
print "<h4>This is a simple heading.</h4>";
print "<h4 style='color: red;'>This is heading with style.</h4>";
?>
The output of the above PHP code will look something like this:
This is a simple heading.
This is heading with style.

Display Variables
The following example will show you how to display variable using the print statement:

Example
<?php
// Defining variables
$txt = "Hello World!";
$num = 123456789;
$colors = array("Red", "Green", "Blue");

// Displaying variables
print $txt;
print "<br>";
print $num;
print "<br>";
print $colors[0];
?>
The output of the above PHP code will look something like this:

Hello World!
123456789
Red

Data Types in PHP

The values assigned to a PHP variable may be of different data types including simple string and numeric
types to more complex data types like arrays and objects.

PHP supports total eight primitive data types: Integer, Floating point number or Float, String, Booleans,
Array, Object, resource and NULL. These data types are used to construct variables. Now let's discuss each
one of them in detail.

PHP Integers
Integers are whole numbers, without a decimal point (..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ...). Integers can be specified in
decimal (base 10), hexadecimal (base 16 - prefixed with 0x) or octal (base 8 - prefixed with 0) notation,
optionally preceded by a sign (- or +).

Example
<?php
$a = 123; // decimal number
var_dump($a);
echo "<br>";

$b = -123; // a negative number

var_dump($b);
echo "<br>";

$c = 0x1A; // hexadecimal number

var_dump($c);
echo "<br>";

$d = 0123; // octal number

var_dump($d);
?>

PHP Strings
Strings are sequences of characters, where every character is the same as a byte.

A string can hold letters, numbers, and special characters and it can be as large as up to 2GB (2147483647
bytes maximum). The simplest way to specify a string is to enclose it in single quotes (e.g. 'Hello world!'),
however you can also use double quotes ("Hello world!").

Example
<?php
$a = 'Hello world!';
echo $a;
echo "<br>";

$b = "Hello world!";
echo $b;
echo "<br>";

$c = 'Stay here, I\'ll be back.';

echo $c;
?>
You will learn more about strings in PHP Strings tutorial.

PHP Floating Point Numbers or Doubles

Floating point numbers (also known as "floats", "doubles", or "real numbers") are decimal or fractional
numbers, like demonstrated in the example below.

Example
<?php
$a = 1.234;
var_dump($a);
echo "<br>";

$b = 10.2e3;
var_dump($b);
echo "<br>";

$c = 4E-10;
var_dump($c);
?>

PHP Booleans
Booleans are like a switch it has only two possible values either 1 (true) or 0 (false).

Example
<?php
// Assign the value TRUE to a variable
$show_error = true;
var_dump($show_error);
?>

PHP Arrays
An array is a variable that can hold more than one value at a time. It is useful to aggregate a series of
related items together, for example a set of country or city names.

An array is formally defined as an indexed collection of data values. Each index (also known as the key) of
an array is unique and references a corresponding value.

Example
<?php
$colors = array("Red", "Green", "Blue");
var_dump($colors);
echo "<br>";

$color_codes = array(
"Red" => "#ff0000",
"Green" => "#00ff00",
"Blue" => "#0000ff"
);
var_dump($color_codes);
?>
You will learn more about arrays in PHP Array tutorial.

PHP Objects
An object is a data type that not only allows storing data but also information on, how to process that
data. An object is a specific instance of a class which serve as templates for objects. Objects are created
based on this template via the new keyword.

Every object has properties and methods corresponding to those of its parent class. Every object instance
is completely independent, with its own properties and methods, and can thus be manipulated
independently of other objects of the same class.

Here's a simple example of a class definition followed by the object creation.

Example
<?php
// Class definition
class greeting{
// properties
public $str = "Hello World!";

// methods
function show_greeting(){
return $this->str;
}
}
// Create object from class
$message = new greeting;
var_dump($message);
?>

PHP NULL
The special NULL value is used to represent empty variables in PHP. A variable of type NULL is a variable
without any data. NULL is the only possible value of type null.

Example
<?php
$a = NULL;
var_dump($a);
echo "<br>";

$b = "Hello World!";
$b = NULL;
var_dump($b);
?>
When a variable is created without a value in PHP like $var; it is automatically assigned a value of null.
Many novice PHP developers mistakenly considered both $var1 = NULL; and $var2 = ""; are same, but
this is not true. Both variables are different — the $var1 has null value while $var2indicates no value
assigned to it.

PHP Resources
A resource is a special variable, holding a reference to an external resource.

Resource variables typically hold special handlers to opened files and database connections.

Example
<?php
// Open a file for reading
$handle = fopen("note.txt", "r");
var_dump($handle);
echo "<br>";

// Connect to MySQL database server with default setting

$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "");
var_dump($link);
?>

PHP Strings
In this tutorial you will learn how to store and manipulate strings in PHP.

What is String in PHP

A string is a sequence of letters, numbers, special characters and arithmetic values or combination of all.
The simplest way to create a string is to enclose the string literal (i.e. string characters) in single quotation
marks ('), like this:
$my_string = 'Hello World';

You can also use double quotation marks ("). However, single and double quotation marks work in
different ways. Strings enclosed in single-quotes are treated almost literally, whereas the strings delimited
by the double quotes replaces variables with the string representations of their values as well as specially
interpreting certain escape sequences.

The escape-sequence replacements are:

• \n is replaced by the newline character

• \r is replaced by the carriage-return character
• \t is replaced by the tab character
• \$ is replaced by the dollar sign itself ($)
• \" is replaced by a single double-quote (")
• \\ is replaced by a single backslash (\)

Here's an example to clarify the differences between single and double quoted strings:
Example
<?php
$my_str = 'World';
echo "Hello, $my_str!<br>"; // Displays: Hello World!
echo 'Hello, $my_str!<br>'; // Displays: Hello, $my_str!

echo '<pre>Hello\tWorld!</pre>'; // Displays: Hello\tWorld!

echo "<pre>Hello\tWorld!</pre>"; // Displays: Hello World!
echo 'I\'ll be back'; // Displays: I'll be back
?>

Manipulating PHP Strings

PHP provides many built-in functions for manipulating strings like calculating the length of a string, find
substrings or characters, replacing part of a string with different characters, take a string apart, and many
others. Here are the examples of some of these functions.

Calculating the Length of a String

The strlen() function is used to calculate the number of characters inside a string. It also includes the
blank spaces inside the string.

Example
<?php
$my_str = 'Welcome to Tutorial Republic';

// Outputs: 28
echo strlen($my_str);
?>

Counting Number of Words in a String

The str_word_count() function counts the number of words in a string.

Example
<?php
$my_str = 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.';

// Outputs: 9
echo str_word_count($my_str);
?>

Replacing Text within Strings

The str_replace() replaces all occurrences of the search text within the target string.

Example
<?php
$my_str = 'If the facts do not fit the theory, change the facts.';

// Display replaced string

echo str_replace("facts", "truth", $my_str);
?>
The output of the above code will be:

If the truth do not fit the theory, change the truth.

You can optionally pass the fourth argument to the str_replace() function to know how many times the
string replacements was performed, like this.

Example
<?php
$my_str = 'If the facts do not fit the theory, change the facts.';

// Perform string replacement

str_replace("facts", "truth", $my_str, $count);

// Display number of replacements performed

echo "The text was replaced $count times.";
?>
The output of the above code will be:

The text was replaced 2 times.

Reversing a String
The strrev() function reverses a string.

Example
<?php
$my_str = 'You can do anything, but not everything.';

// Display reversed string

echo strrev($my_str);
?>
The output of the above code will be:

.gnihtyreve ton tub ,gnihtyna od nac uoY

PHP Operators
In this tutorial you will learn how to manipulate or perform the operations on variables and values using
operators in PHP.

What is Operators in PHP

Operators are symbols that tell the PHP processor to perform certain actions. For example, the addition ( +)
symbol is an operator that tells PHP to add two variables or values, while the greater-than (>) symbol is an
operator that tells PHP to compare two values.

The following lists describe the different operators used in PHP.

PHP Arithmetic Operators

The arithmetic operators are used to perform common arithmetical operations, such as addition,
subtraction, multiplication etc. Here's a complete list of PHP's arithmetic operators:

Operator Description Example Result

+ Addition $x + $y Sum of $x and $y

- Subtraction $x - $y Difference of $x and $y.

* Multiplication $x * $y Product of $x and $y.

/ Division $x / $y Quotient of $x and $y

% Modulus $x % $y Remainder of $x divided by $y

The following example will show you these arithmetic operators in action:

Example
<?php
$x = 10;
$y = 4;
echo($x + $y); // 0utputs: 14
echo($x - $y); // 0utputs: 6
echo($x * $y); // 0utputs: 40
echo($x / $y); // 0utputs: 2.5
echo($x % $y); // 0utputs: 2
?>

PHP Assignment Operators

The assignment operators are used to assign values to variables.

Operator Description Example Is The Same As

= Assign $x = $y $x = $y

+= Add and assign $x += $y $x = $x + $y

-= Subtract and assign $x -= $y $x = $x - $y

*= Multiply and assign $x *= $y $x = $x * $y

/= Divide and assign quotient $x /= $y $x = $x / $y

%= Divide and assign modulus $x %= $y $x = $x % $y

The following example will show you these assignment operators in action:

Example
<?php
$x = 10;
echo $x; // Outputs: 10

$x = 20;
$x += 30;
echo $x; // Outputs: 50

$x = 50;
$x -= 20;
echo $x; // Outputs: 30

$x = 5;
$x *= 25;
echo $x; // Outputs: 125

$x = 50;
$x /= 10;
echo $x; // Outputs: 5

$x = 100;
$x %= 15;
echo $x; // Outputs: 10
?>

PHP Comparison Operators

The comparison operators are used to compare two values in a Boolean fashion.

Operator Name Example Result

== Equal $x == $y True if $x is equal to $y

=== Identical $x === $y True if $x is equal to $y, and they are of the same type

!= Not equal $x != $y True if $x is not equal to $y

<> Not equal $x <> $y True if $x is not equal to $y

!== Not identical $x !== $y True if $x is not equal to $y, or they are not of the same
type

< Less than $x < $y True if $x is less than $y

> Greater than $x > $y True if $x is greater than $y

>= Greater than or equal to $x >= $y True if $x is greater than or equal to $y

<= Less than or equal to $x <= $y True if $x is less than or equal to $y

The following example will show you these comparison operators in action:

Example
<?php
$x = 25;
$y = 35;
$z = "25";
var_dump($x == $z); // Outputs: boolean true
var_dump($x === $z); // Outputs: boolean false
var_dump($x != $y); // Outputs: boolean true
var_dump($x !== $z); // Outputs: boolean true
var_dump($x < $y); // Outputs: boolean true
var_dump($x > $y); // Outputs: boolean false
var_dump($x <= $y); // Outputs: boolean true
var_dump($x >= $y); // Outputs: boolean false
?>
PHP Incrementing and Decrementing Operators
The increment/decrement operators are used to increment/decrement a variable's value.

Operator Name Effect

++$x Pre-increment Increments $x by one, then returns $x

$x++ Post-increment Returns $x, then increments $x by one

--$x Pre-decrement Decrements $x by one, then returns $x

$x-- Post-decrement Returns $x, then decrements $x by one

The following example will show you these increment and decrement operators in action:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
$x = 10;
echo ++$x; // Outputs: 11
echo $x; // Outputs: 11

$x = 10;
echo $x++; // Outputs: 10
echo $x; // Outputs: 11

$x = 10;
echo --$x; // Outputs: 9
echo $x; // Outputs: 9

$x = 10;
echo $x--; // Outputs: 10
echo $x; // Outputs: 9
?>

PHP Logical Operators

The logical operators are typically used to combine conditional statements.

Operator Name Example Result

and And $x and $y True if both $x and $y are true

or Or $x or $y True if either $x or $y is true

xor Xor $x xor $y True if either $x or $y is true, but not both

&& And $x && $y True if both $x and $y are true

|| Or $x || $y True if either $$x or $y is true

! Not !$x True if $x is not true

The following example will show you these logical operators in action:

Example
<?php
$year = 2014;
// Leap years are divisible by 400 or by 4 but not 100
if(($year % 400 == 0) || (($year % 100 != 0) && ($year % 4 == 0))){
echo "$year is a leap year.";
} else{
echo "$year is not a leap year.";
}
?>

PHP String Operators

There are two operators which are specifically designed for strings.

Operator Description Example Result

. Concatenation $str1 . $str2 Concatenation of $str1 and $str2

.= Concatenation assignment $str1 .= $str2 Appends the $str2 to the $str1

The following example will show you these string operators in action:

Example
<?php
$x = "Hello";
$y = " World!";
echo $x . $y; // Outputs: Hello World!

$x .= $y;
echo $x; // Outputs: Hello World!
?>

PHP Array Operators

The array operators are used to compare arrays:

Operator Name Example Result

+ Union $x + $y Union of $x and $y

== Equality $x == $y True if $x and $y have the same key/value pairs

=== Identity $x === $y True if $x and $y have the same key/value pairs in the same order and of
the same types

!= Inequality $x != $y True if $x is not equal to $y

<> Inequality $x <> $y True if $x is not equal to $y

!== Non- $x !== $y True if $x is not identical to $y

identity

The following example will show you these array operators in action:

Example
<?php
$x = array("a" => "Red", "b" => "Green", "c" => "Blue");
$y = array("u" => "Yellow", "v" => "Orange", "w" => "Pink");
$z = $x + $y; // Union of $x and $y
var_dump($z);
var_dump($x == $y); // Outputs: boolean false
var_dump($x === $y); // Outputs: boolean false
var_dump($x != $y); // Outputs: boolean true
var_dump($x <> $y); // Outputs: boolean true
var_dump($x !== $y); // Outputs: boolean true
?>

PHP Spaceship Operator PHP 7

PHP 7 introduces a new spaceship operator (<=>) which can be used for comparing two expressions. It is
also known as combined comparison operator.

The spaceship operator returns 0 if both operands are equal, 1 if the left is greater, and -1 if the right is
greater. It basically provides three-way comparison as shown in the following table:

Operator <=> Equivalent

$x < $y ($x <=> $y) === -1

$x <= $y ($x <=> $y) === -1 || ($x <=> $y) === 0

$x == $y ($x <=> $y) === 0

$x != $y ($x <=> $y) !== 0

$x >= $y ($x <=> $y) === 1 || ($x <=> $y) === 0

$x > $y ($x <=> $y) === 1

The following example will show you how spaceship operator actually works:
Example
<?php
// Comparing Integers
echo 1 <=> 1; // Outputs: 0
echo 1 <=> 2; // Outputs: -1
echo 2 <=> 1; // Outputs: 1

// Comparing Floats
echo 1.5 <=> 1.5; // Outputs: 0
echo 1.5 <=> 2.5; // Outputs: -1
echo 2.5 <=> 1.5; // Outputs: 1

// Comparing Strings
echo "x" <=> "x"; // Outputs: 0
echo "x" <=> "y"; // Outputs: -1
echo "y" <=> "x"; // Outputs: 1
?>

PHP If…Else Statements

PHP Conditional Statements
Like most programming languages, PHP also allows you to write code that perform different actions
based on the results of a logical or comparative test conditions at run time. This means, you can create
test conditions in the form of expressions that evaluates to either true or false and based on these
results you can perform certain actions.

There are several statements in PHP that you can use to make decisions:

• The if statement
• The if...else statement
• The if...elseif....else statement
• The switch...case statement

We will explore each of these statements in the coming sections.

The if Statement
The if statement is used to execute a block of code only if the specified condition evaluates to true. This is
the simplest PHP's conditional statements and can be written like:

if(condition){
// Code to be executed
}

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

Example
<?php
$d = date("D");
if($d == "Fri"){
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
}
?>

The if...else Statement

You can enhance the decision making process by providing an alternative choice through adding
an else statement to the if statement. The if...else statement allows you to execute one block of code if the
specified condition is evaluates to true and another block of code if it is evaluates to false. It can be
written, like this:

if(condition){
// Code to be executed if condition is true
} else{
// Code to be executed if condition is false
}

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

Example
<?php
$d = date("D");
if($d == "Fri"){
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
} else{
echo "Have a nice day!";
}
?>

The if...elseif...else Statement

The if...elseif...else a special statement that is used to combine multiple if...else statements.

if(condition1){
// Code to be executed if condition1 is true
} elseif(condition2){
// Code to be executed if the condition1 is false and condition2 is true
} else{
// Code to be executed if both condition1 and condition2 are false
}

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

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!";
}
?>
You will learn about PHP switch-case statement in the next chapter.

The Ternary Operator

The ternary operator provides a shorthand way of writing the if...else statements. The ternary operator is
represented by the question mark (?) symbol and it takes three operands: a condition to check, a result
for true, and a result for false.

To understand how this operator works, consider the following examples:

Example
<?php
if($age < 18){
echo 'Child'; // Display Child if age is less than 18
} else{
echo 'Adult'; // Display Adult if age is greater than or equal to 18
}
?>
Using the ternary operator the same code could be written in a more compact way:

Example
<?php echo ($age < 18) ? 'Child' : 'Adult'; ?>
The ternary operator in the example above selects the value on the left of the colon (i.e. 'Child') if the
condition evaluates to true (i.e. if $age is less than 18), and selects the value on the right of the colon (i.e.
'Adult') if the condition evaluates to false.

PHP Switch…Case Statements

PHP If…Else Vs Switch…Case
The switch-case statement is an alternative to the if-elseif-else statement, which does almost the same
thing. The switch-case statement tests a variable against a series of values until it finds a match, and then
executes the block of code corresponding to that match.

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 all labels
}
Consider the following example, which display a different message for each day.

Example
<?php
$today = date("D");
switch($today){
case "Mon":
echo "Today is Monday. Clean your house.";
break;
case "Tue":
echo "Today is Tuesday. Buy some food.";
break;
case "Wed":
echo "Today is Wednesday. Visit a doctor.";
break;
case "Thu":
echo "Today is Thursday. Repair your car.";
break;
case "Fri":
echo "Today is Friday. Party tonight.";
break;
case "Sat":
echo "Today is Saturday. Its movie time.";
break;
case "Sun":
echo "Today is Sunday. Do some rest.";
break;
default:
echo "No information available for that day.";
break;
}
?>
The switch-case statement differs from the if-elseif-else statement in one important way.
The switch statement executes line by line (i.e. statement by statement) and once PHP finds
a casestatement that evaluates to true, it's not only executes the code corresponding to that case
statement, but also executes all the subsequent case statements till the end of the switch block
automatically.

To prevent this add a break statement to the end of each case block. The break statement tells PHP to
break out of the switch-case statement block once it executes the code associated with the first true case.

PHP Arrays
What is PHP Arrays
Arrays are complex variables that allow us to store more than one value or a group of values under a
single variable name. Let's suppose you want to store colors in your PHP script. Storing the colors one by
one in a variable could look something like this:

Example
<?php
$color1 = "Red";
$color2 = "Green";
$color3 = "Blue";
?>
But what, if you want to store the states or city names of a country in variables and this time this not just
three may be hundred. It is quite hard, boring, and bad idea to store each city name in a separate variable.
And here array comes into play.

Types of Arrays in PHP

There are three types of arrays that you can create. These are:

• Indexed array — An array with a numeric key.

• Associative array — An array where each key has its own specific value.
• Multidimensional array — An array containing one or more arrays within itself.

Indexed Arrays
An indexed or numeric array stores each array element with a numeric index. The following examples
shows two ways of creating an indexed array, the easiest way is:

Example
<?php
// Define an indexed array
$colors = array("Red", "Green", "Blue");
?>
This is equivalent to the following example, in which indexes are assigned manually:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
$colors[0] = "Red";
$colors[1] = "Green";
$colors[2] = "Blue";
?>

Associative Arrays
In an associative array, the keys assigned to values can be arbitrary and user defined strings. In the
following example the array uses keys instead of index numbers:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
// Define an associative array
$ages = array("Peter"=>22, "Clark"=>32, "John"=>28);
?>
The following example is equivalent to the previous example, but shows a different way of creating
associative arrays:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
$ages["Peter"] = "22";
$ages["Clark"] = "32";
$ages["John"] = "28";
?>

Multidimensional Arrays
The multidimensional array is an array in which each element can also be an array and each element in the
sub-array can be an array or further contain array within itself and so on. An example of a
multidimensional array will look something like this:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
// Define a multidimensional array
$contacts = array(
array(
"name" => "Peter Parker",
"email" => "[email protected]",
),
array(
"name" => "Clark Kent",
"email" => "[email protected]",
),
array(
"name" => "Harry Potter",
"email" => "[email protected]",
)
);
// Access nested value
echo "Peter Parker's Email-id is: " . $contacts[0]["email"];
?>

Viewing Array Structure and Values

You can see the structure and values of any array by using one of two statements —
var_dump() or print_r(). The print_r() statement, however, gives somewhat less information. Consider
the following example:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
// Define array
$cities = array("London", "Paris", "New York");

// Display the cities array

print_r($cities);
?>
The print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [0] => London [1] => Paris [2] => New York )

This output shows the key and the value for each element in the array. To get more information, use the
following statement:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
// Define array
$cities = array("London", "Paris", "New York");

// Display the cities array

var_dump($cities);
?>
This var_dump() statement gives the following output:

array(3) { [0]=> string(6) "London" [1]=> string(5) "Paris" [2]=> string(8) "New York" }

This output shows the data type of each element, such as a string of 6 characters, in addition to the key
and value. In the next chapter you will learn how to sort array elements.

PHP Sorting Arrays

PHP Functions For Sorting Arrays
In the previous chapter you've learnt the essentials of PHP arrays i.e. what arrays are, how to create them,
how to view their structure, how to access their elements etc. You can do even more things with arrays
like sorting the elements in any order you like.

PHP comes with a number of built-in functions designed specifically for sorting array elements in different
ways like alphabetically or numerically in ascending or descending order. Here we'll explore some of these
functions most commonly used for sorting arrays.

• sort() and rsort() — For sorting indexed arrays

• asort() and arsort() — For sorting associative arrays by value
• ksort() and krsort() — For sorting associative arrays by key

Sorting Indexed Arrays in Ascending Order

The sort() function is used for sorting the elements of the indexed array in ascending order
(alphabetically for letters and numerically for numbers).

Example
<?php
// Define array
$colors = array("Red", "Green", "Blue", "Yellow");

// Sorting and printing array

sort($colors);
print_r($colors);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [0] => Blue [1] => Green [2] => Red [3] => Yellow )

Similarly you can sort the numeric elements of the array in ascending order.

Example
<?php
// Define array
$numbers = array(1, 2, 2.5, 4, 7, 10);

// Sorting and printing array

sort($numbers);
print_r($numbers);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 2.5 [3] => 4 [4] => 7 [5] => 10 )
Sorting Indexed Arrays in Descending Order
The rsort() function is used for sorting the elements of the indexed array in descending order
(alphabetically for letters and numerically for numbers).

Example
<?php
// Define array
$colors = array("Red", "Green", "Blue", "Yellow");

// Sorting and printing array

rsort($colors);
print_r($colors);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [0] => Yellow [1] => Red [2] => Green [3] => Blue )

Similarly you can sort the numeric elements of the array in descending order.

Example
<?php
// Define array
$numbers = array(1, 2, 2.5, 4, 7, 10);

// Sorting and printing array

rsort($numbers);
print_r($numbers);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [0] => 10 [1] => 7 [2] => 4 [3] => 2.5 [4] => 2 [5] => 1 )

Sorting Associative Arrays in Ascending Order By Value

The asort() function sorts the elements of an associative array in ascending order according to the value.
It works just like sort(), but it preserves the association between keys and its values while sorting.

Example
<?php
// Define array
$age = array("Peter"=>20, "Harry"=>14, "John"=>45, "Clark"=>35);

// Sorting array by value and print

asort($age);
print_r($age);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [Harry] => 14 [Peter] => 20 [Clark] => 35 [John] => 45 )

Sorting Associative Arrays in Descending Order By Value

The arsort() function sorts the elements of an associative array in descending order according to the
value. It works just like rsort(), but it preserves the association between keys and its values while sorting.

Example
<?php
// Define array
$age = array("Peter"=>20, "Harry"=>14, "John"=>45, "Clark"=>35);

// Sorting array by value and print

arsort($age);
print_r($age);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [John] => 45 [Clark] => 35 [Peter] => 20 [Harry] => 14 )

Sorting Associative Arrays in Ascending Order By Key

The ksort() function sorts the elements of an associative array in ascending order by their keys. It
preserves the association between keys and its values while sorting, same as asort() function.

Example
<?php
// Define array
$age = array("Peter"=>20, "Harry"=>14, "John"=>45, "Clark"=>35);
// Sorting array by key and print
ksort($age);
print_r($age);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [Clark] => 35 [Harry] => 14 [John] => 45 [Peter] => 20 )

Sorting Associative Arrays in Descending Order By Key

The krsort() function sorts the elements of an associative array in descending order by their keys. It
preserves the association between keys and its values while sorting, same as arsort() function.

Example
<?php
// Define array
$age = array("Peter"=>20, "Harry"=>14, "John"=>45, "Clark"=>35);

// Sorting array by key and print

krsort($age);
print_r($age);
?>
This print_r() statement gives the following output:

Array ( [Peter] => 20 [John] => 45 [Harry] => 14 [Clark] => 35 )

PHP Loops
Different Types of Loops in PHP
Loops are used to execute the same block of code again and again, as long as a certain condition is met.
The basic idea behind a loop is to automate the repetitive tasks within a program to save the time and
effort. PHP supports four different types of loops.

• while — loops through a block of code as long as the condition specified evaluates to true.
• do…while — the block of code executed once and then condition is evaluated. If the condition is true the
statement is repeated as long as the specified condition is true.
• for — loops through a block of code until the counter reaches a specified number.
• foreach — loops through a block of code for each element in an array.

You will also learn how to loop through the values of array using foreach() loop at the end of this
chapter. The foreach() loop work specifically with arrays.

PHP while Loop

The while statement will loops through a block of code as long as the condition specified in
the while statement evaluate to true.
while(condition){
// Code to be executed
}

The example below define a loop that starts with $i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as $i is less
than or equal to 3. The $i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:

Example
<?php
$i = 1;
while($i <= 3){
$i++;
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br>";
}
?>

PHP do…while Loop

The do-while loop is a variant of while loop, which evaluates the condition at the end of each loop
iteration. With a do-while loop the block of code executed once, and then the condition is evaluated, if
the condition is true, the statement is repeated as long as the specified condition evaluated to is true.
do{
// Code to be executed
}
while(condition);
The following example define a loop that starts with $i=1. It will then increase $i with 1, and print the
output. Then the condition is evaluated, and the loop will continue to run as long as $i is less than, or
equal to 3.

Example
<?php
$i = 1;
do{
$i++;
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br>";
}
while($i <= 3);
?>

Difference Between while and do…while Loop

The while loop differs from the do-while loop in one important way — with a while loop, the condition to
be evaluated is tested at the beginning of each loop iteration, so if the conditional expression evaluates to
false, the loop will never be executed.

With a do-while loop, on the other hand, the loop will always be executed once, even if the conditional
expression is false, because the condition is evaluated at the end of the loop iteration rather than the
beginning.

PHP for Loop

The for loop repeats a block of code as long as a certain condition is met. It is typically used to execute a
block of code for certain number of times.
for(initialization; condition; increment){
// Code to be executed
}

The parameters of for loop have following meanings:

• initialization — it is used to initialize the counter variables, and evaluated once unconditionally before
the first execution of the body of the loop.
• condition — in the beginning of each iteration, condition is evaluated. If it evaluates to true, the loop
continues and the nested statements are executed. If it evaluates to false, the execution of the loop ends.
• increment — it updates the loop counter with a new value. It is evaluate at the end of each iteration.

The example below defines a loop that starts with $i=1. The loop will continued until $i is less than, or
equal to 3. The variable $i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:

Example
<?php
for($i=1; $i<=3; $i++){
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br>";
}
?>

PHP foreach Loop

The foreach loop is used to iterate over arrays.
foreach($array as $value){
// Code to be executed
}

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

Example

<?php
$colors = array("Red", "Green", "Blue");

// Loop through colors array

foreach($colors as $value){
echo $value . "<br>";
}
?>
There is one more syntax of foreach loop, which is extension of the first.
foreach($array as $key => $value){
// Code to be executed
}
Example
<?php
$superhero = array(
"name" => "Peter Parker",
"email" => "[email protected]",
"age" => 18
);

// Loop through superhero array

foreach($superhero as $key => $value){
echo $key . " : " . $value . "<br>";
}
?>

PHP Functions
PHP Built-in Functions
A function is a self-contained block of code that performs a specific task.

PHP has a huge collection of internal or built-in functions that you can call directly within your PHP scripts
to perform a specific task, like gettype(), print_r(), var_dump, etc.

Please check out PHP reference section for a complete list of useful PHP built-in functions.

PHP User-Defined Functions

In addition to the built-in functions, PHP also allows you to define your own functions. It is a way to create
reusable code packages that perform specific tasks and can be kept and maintained separately form main
program. Here are some advantages of using functions:

• Functions reduces the repetition of code within a program — Function allows you to extract
commonly used block of code into a single component. Now you can perform the same task by calling
this function wherever you want within your script without having to copy and paste the same block of
code again and again.
• Functions makes the code much easier to maintain — Since a function created once can be used
many times, so any changes made inside a function automatically implemented at all the places without
touching the several files.
• Functions makes it easier to eliminate the errors — When the program is subdivided into
functions, if any error occur you know exactly what function causing the error and where to find it.
Therefore, fixing errors becomes much easier.
• Functions can be reused in other application — Because a function is separated from the rest of
the script, it's easy to reuse the same function in other applications just by including the php file
containing those functions.

The following section will show you how easily you can define your own function in PHP.

Creating and Invoking Functions

The basic syntax of creating a custom function can be give with:
function functionName(){
// Code to be executed
}

The declaration of a user-defined function start with the word function, followed by the name of the
function you want to create followed by parentheses i.e. () and finally place your function's code between
curly brackets {}.

This is a simple example of an user-defined function, that display today's date:

Example
<?php
// Defining function
function whatIsToday(){
echo "Today is " . date('l', mktime());
}
// Calling function
whatIsToday();
?>
Functions with Parameters
You can specify parameters when you define your function to accept input values at run time. The
parameters work like placeholder variables within a function; they're replaced at run time by the values
(known as argument) provided to the function at the time of invocation.
function myFunc($oneParameter, $anotherParameter){
// Code to be executed
}

You can define as many parameters as you like. However for each parameter you specify, a corresponding
argument needs to be passed to the function when it is called.

The getSum() function in following example takes two integer values as arguments, simply add them
together and then display the result in the browser.

Example
<?php
// Defining function
function getSum($num1, $num2){
$sum = $num1 + $num2;
echo "Sum of the two numbers $num1 and $num2 is : $sum";
}

// Calling function
getSum(10, 20);
?>
The output of the above code will be:

Sum of the two numbers 10 and 20 is : 30

Functions with Optional Parameters and Default Values

You can also create functions with optional parameters — just insert the parameter name, followed by an
equals (=) sign, followed by a default value, like this.

Example
<?php
// Defining function
function customFont($font, $size=1.5){
echo "<p style=\"font-family: $font; font-size: {$size}em;\">Hello, world!</p>";
}

// Calling function
customFont("Arial", 2);
customFont("Times", 3);
customFont("Courier");
?>
As you can see the third call to customFont() doesn't include the second argument. This causes PHP
engine to use the default value for the $size parameter which is 1.5.

Returning Values from a Function

A function can return a value back to the script that called the function using the return statement. The
value may be of any type, including arrays and objects.

Example
<?php
// Defining function
function getSum($num1, $num2){
$total = $num1 + $num2;
return $total;
}

// Printing returned value

echo getSum(5, 10); // Outputs: 15
?>
A function can not return multiple values. However, you can obtain similar results by returning an array, as
demonstrated in the following example.

Example
<?php
// Defining function
function divideNumbers($dividend, $divisor){
$quotient = $dividend / $divisor;
$array = array($dividend, $divisor, $quotient);
return $array;
}

// Assign variables as if they were an array

list($dividend, $divisor, $quotient) = divideNumbers(10, 2);
echo $dividend; // Outputs: 10
echo $divisor; // Outputs: 2
echo $quotient; // Outputs: 5
?>

Passing Arguments to a Function by Reference

In PHP there are two ways you can pass arguments to a function: by value and by reference. By default,
function arguments are passed by value so that if the value of the argument within the function is
changed, it does not get affected outside of the function. However, to allow a function to modify its
arguments, they must be passed by reference.

Passing an argument by reference is done by prepending an ampersand (&) to the argument name in the
function definition, as shown in the example below:

Example
<?php
/* Defining a function that multiply a number
by itself and return the new value */
function selfMultiply(&$number){
$number *= $number;
return $number;
}

$mynum = 5;
echo $mynum; // Outputs: 5

selfMultiply($mynum);
echo $mynum; // Outputs: 25
?>

Understanding the Variable Scope

However, you can declare the variables anywhere in a PHP script. But, the location of the declaration
determines the extent of a variable's visibility within the PHP program i.e. where the variable can be used
or accessed. This accessibility is known as variable scope.

By default, variables declared within a function are local and they cannot be viewed or manipulated from
outside of that function, as demonstrated in the example below:

Example
<?php
// Defining function
function test(){
$greet = "Hello World!";
echo $greet;
}

test(); // Outputs: Hello World!

echo $greet; // Generate undefined variable error

?>
Similarly, if you try to access or import an outside variable inside the function, you'll get an undefined
variable error, as shown in the following example:

Example
<?php
$greet = "Hello World!";

// Defining function
function test(){
echo $greet;
}

test(); // Generate undefined variable error

echo $greet; // Outputs: Hello World!

?>
As you can see in the above examples the variable declared inside the function is not accessible from
outside, likewise the variable declared outside of the function is not accessible inside of the function. This
separation reduces the chances of variables within a function getting affected by the variables in the main
program.

The global Keyword

There may be a situation when you need to import a variable from the main program into a function, or
vice versa. In such cases, you can use the global keyword before the variables inside a function. This
keyword turns the variable into a global variable, making it visible or accessible both inside and outside
the function, as show in the example below:
Example
<?php
$greet = "Hello World!";

// Defining function
function test(){
global $greet;
echo $greet;
}

test(); // Outpus: Hello World!

echo $greet; // Outpus: Hello World!

// Assign a new value to variable

$greet = "Goodbye";

test(); // Outputs: Goodbye

echo $greet; // Outputs: Goodbye
?>
You will learn more about visibility and access control in PHP classes and objects chapter.

Creating Recursive Functions

A recursive function is a function that calls itself again and again until a condition is satisfied. Recursive
functions are often used to solve complex mathematical calculations, or to process deeply nested
structures e.g., printing all the elements of a deeply nested array.

The following example demonstrates how a recursive function works.

Example
<?php
// Defining recursive function
function printValues($arr) {
global $count;
global $items;

// Check input is an array

if(!is_array($arr)){
die("ERROR: Input is not an array");
}

/*
Loop through array, if value is itself an array recursively call the
function else add the value found to the output items array,
and increment counter by 1 for each value found
*/
foreach($arr as $a){
if(is_array($a)){
printValues($a);
} else{
$items[] = $a;
$count++;
}
}

// Return total count and values found in array

return array('total' => $count, 'values' => $items);
}

// Define nested array

$species = array(
"birds" => array(
"Eagle",
"Parrot",
"Swan"
),
"mammals" => array(
"Human",
"cat" => array(
"Lion",
"Tiger",
"Jaguar"
),
"Elephant",
"Monkey"
),
"reptiles" => array(
"snake" => array(
"Cobra" => array(
"King Cobra",
"Egyptian cobra"
),
"Viper",
"Anaconda"
),
"Crocodile",
"Dinosaur" => array(
"T-rex",
"Alamosaurus"
)
)
);

// Count and print values in nested array

$result = printValues($species);
echo $result['total'] . ' value(s) found: ';
echo implode(', ', $result['values']);
?>

PHP Math Operations

Performing Math Operations
PHP has several built-in functions that help you perform anything from simple additions or subtraction to
advanced calculations. You've already seen how to perform basic mathematical operations in PHP
operators chapter. Let's check out one more example:

Example
<?php
echo 7 + 3; // 0utputs: 10
echo 7 - 2; // 0utputs: 5
echo 7 * 2; // 0utputs: 14
echo 7 / 2; // 0utputs: 3.5
echo 7 % 2; // 0utputs: 1
?>
Every math operation has a certain precedence level; generally multiplication and division are performed
before addition and subtraction. However, parentheses can alter this precedence; expressions enclosed
within parentheses are always evaluated first, regardless of the operation's precedence level, as
demonstrated in the following example:

Example
<?php
echo 5 + 4 * 10; // 0utputs: 45
echo (5 + 4) * 10; // 0utputs: 90
echo 5 + 4 * 10 / 2; // 0utputs: 25
echo 8 * 10 / 4 - 2; // 0utputs: 18
echo 8 * 10 / (4 - 2); // 0utputs: 40
echo 8 + 10 / 4 - 2; // 0utputs: 8.5
echo (8 + 10) / (4 - 2); // 0utputs: 9
?>
In the following section we're going to look at some built-in PHP functions that are most frequently used
in performing mathematical operations.

Find the Absolute Value of a Number

The absolute value of an integer or a float can be found with the abs() function, as demonstrated in the
following example:

Example
<?php
echo abs(5); // 0utputs: 5 (integer)
echo abs(-5); // 0utputs: 5 (integer)
echo abs(4.2); // 0utputs: 4.2 (double/float)
echo abs(-4.2); // 0utputs: 4.2 (double/float)
?>
As you can see if the given number is negative, the valued returned is positive. But, if the number is
positive, this function simply returns the number.

Round a Fractional Value Up or Down

The ceil() function can be used to round a fractional value up to the next highest integer value, whereas
the floor() function can be used to round a fractional value down to the next lowest integer value, as
demonstrated in the following example:

Example
<?php
// Round fractions up
echo ceil(4.2); // 0utputs: 5
echo ceil(9.99); // 0utputs: 10
echo ceil(-5.18); // 0utputs: -5

// Round fractions down

echo floor(4.2); // 0utputs: 4
echo floor(9.99); // 0utputs: 9
echo floor(-5.18); // 0utputs: -6
?>

Find the Square Root of a Number

You can use the sqrt() function to find the square root of a positive number. This function returns a
special value NAN for negative numbers. Here's an example:

Example
<?php
echo sqrt(9); // 0utputs: 3
echo sqrt(25); // 0utputs: 5
echo sqrt(10); // 0utputs: 3.1622776601684
echo sqrt(-16); // 0utputs: NAN
?>

Generate a Random Number

The rand() function can be used to generate a random number. You can optionally specify a range by
passing the min, max arguments, as shown in the following example:

Example
<?php
// Generate some random numbers
echo rand() . "<br>";
echo rand() . "<br>";

// Generate some random numbers between 1 and 10 (inclusive)

echo rand(1, 10) . "<br>";
echo rand(1, 10) . "<br>";
?>
If rand() function is called without the optional min, max arguments, it returns a pseudo-random number
between 0 and getrandmax(). The getrandmax() function show the largest possible random value, which is
only 32767 on Windows platform. So, if you require a range larger than 32767, you may simply specify
the min and max arguments.

Convert Decimal Numbers to Binary and Vice Versa

The decbin() function is used to convert a decimal number into binary number. Whereas its counterpart
the bindec() function converts a number from binary to decimal.

Example
Run this code »

<?php
// Convert Decimal to Binary
echo decbin(2); // 0utputs: 10
echo decbin(12); // 0utputs: 1100
echo decbin(100); // 0utputs: 1100100

// Convert Binary to Decimal

echo bindec(10); // 0utputs: 2
echo bindec(1100); // 0utputs: 12
echo bindec(1100100); // 0utputs: 100
?>

Convert Decimal Numbers to Hexadecimal and Vice Versa

The dechex() function is used to convert a decimal number into hexadecimal representation. Whereas,
the hexdec() function is used to converts a hexadecimal string to a decimal number.

Example
Run this code »

<?php
// Convert decimal to hexadecimal
echo dechex(255); // 0utputs: ff
echo dechex(196); // 0utputs: c4
echo dechex(0); // 0utputs: 0

// Convert hexadecimal to decimal

echo hexdec('ff'); // 0utputs: 255
echo hexdec('c4'); // 0utputs: 196
echo hexdec(0); // 0utputs: 0
?>

Convert Decimal Numbers to Octal and Vice Versa

The decoct() function is used to convert a decimal number into octal representation. Whereas,
the octdec() function is used to converts a octal number to a decimal number.
Example
<?php
// Convert decimal to octal
echo decoct(12); // 0utputs: 14
echo decoct(256); // 0utputs: 400
echo decoct(77); // 0utputs: 115

// Convert octal to decimal

echo octdec('14'); // 0utputs: 12
echo octdec('400'); // 0utputs: 256
echo octdec('115'); // 0utputs: 77
?>

Convert a Number from One Base System to Another

The base_convert() function can be used to convert a number from one base system to other. For
example, you can convert decimal (base 10) to binary (base 2), hexadecimal (base 16) to octal (base 8),
octal to hexadecimal, hexadecimal to decimal, and so on.

This function accepts three parameters: the number to convert, the base it's currently in, and the base it's
to be converted to. The basic syntax is as follows:
base_convert(number, frombase, tobase);

Here, the number can be either an integer or a string representing an integer.

Both frombase and tobase have to be between 2 and 36, inclusive. Digits in numbers with a base higher
than 10 will be represented with the letters a-z, where a means 10, b means 11 and z means 35. Here's a
simple example to show how this function works:

Example
<?php
// Convert decimal to binary
echo base_convert('12', 10, 2); // 0utputs: 1100
// Convert binary to decimal
echo base_convert('1100', 2, 10); // 0utputs: 12

// Convert decimal to hexadecimal

echo base_convert('10889592', 10, 16); // 0utputs: a62978
// Convert hexadecimal to decimal
echo base_convert('a62978', 16, 10); // 0utputs: 10889592

// Convert decimal to octal

echo base_convert('82', 10, 8); // 0utputs: 122
// Convert octal to decimal
echo base_convert('122', 8, 10); // 0utputs: 82

// Convert hexadecimal to octal

echo base_convert('c2c6a8', 16, 8); // 0utputs: 60543250
// Convert octal to hexadecimal
echo base_convert('60543250', 8, 16); // 0utputs: c2c6a8

// Convert octal to binary

echo base_convert('42', 8, 2); // 0utputs: 100010
// Convert binary to octal
echo base_convert('100010', 2, 8); // 0utputs: 42

// Convert hexadecimal to binary

echo base_convert('abc', 16, 2); // 0utputs: 101010111100
// Convert binary to hexadecimal
echo base_convert('101010111100', 2, 16); // 0utputs: abc
?>

PHP GET and POST

Methods of Sending Information to Server
A web browser communicates with the server typically using one of the two HTTP (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol) methods — GET and POST. Both methods pass the information differently and have different
advantages and disadvantages, as described below.

The GET Method

In GET method the data is sent as URL parameters that are usually strings of name and value pairs
separated by ampersands (&). In general, a URL with GET data will look like this:
http://www.example.com/action.php?name=john&age=24

The bold parts in the URL are the GET parameters and the italic parts are the value of those parameters.
More than one parameter=value can be embedded in the URL by concatenating with ampersands (&). One
can only send simple text data via GET method.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using the GET Method
• Since the data sent by the GET method are displayed in the URL, it is possible to bookmark the page with
specific query string values.
• The GET method is not suitable for passing sensitive information such as the username and password,
because these are fully visible in the URL query string as well as potentially stored in the client browser's
memory as a visited page.
• Because the GET method assigns data to a server environment variable, the length of the URL is limited.
So, there is a limitation for the total data to be sent.

PHP provides the superglobal variable $_GET to access all the information sent either through the URL or
submitted through an HTML form using the method="get".

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Example of PHP GET method</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if(isset($_GET["name"])){
echo "<p>Hi, " . $_GET["name"] . "</p>";
}
?>
<form method="get" action="<?php echo $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];?>">
<label for="inputName">Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="inputName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</body>

The POST Method

In POST method the data is sent to the server as a package in a separate communication with the
processing script. Data sent through POST method will not visible in the URL.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using the POST Method

• It is more secure than GET because user-entered information is never visible in the URL query string or in
the server logs.
• There is a much larger limit on the amount of data that can be passed and one can send text data as well
as binary data (uploading a file) using POST.
• Since the data sent by the POST method is not visible in the URL, so it is not possible to bookmark the
page with specific query.

Like $_GET, PHP provide another superglobal variable $_POST to access all the information sent via post
method or submitted through an HTML form using the method="post".

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Example of PHP POST method</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if(isset($_POST["name"])){
echo "<p>Hi, " . $_POST["name"] . "</p>";
}
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];?>">
<label for="inputName">Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="inputName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</body>

The $_REQUEST Variable

PHP provides another superglobal variable $_REQUEST that contains the values of both
the $_GETand $_POST variables as well as the values of the $_COOKIE superglobal variable.

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Example of PHP $_REQUEST variable</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if(isset($_REQUEST["name"])){
echo "<p>Hi, " . $_REQUEST["name"] . "</p>";
}
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];?>">
<label for="inputName">Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="inputName">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</body>

PHP Date and Time

In this tutorial you will learn how to extract or format the date and time in PHP.

The PHP Date() Function

The PHP date() function convert a timestamp to a more readable date and time.

The computer stores dates and times in a format called UNIX Timestamp, which measures time as a
number of seconds since the beginning of the Unix epoch (midnight Greenwich Mean Time on January 1,
1970 i.e. January 1, 1970 00:00:00 GMT ).

Since this is an impractical format for humans to read, PHP converts a timestamp to a format that is
readable to humans and dates from your notation into a timestamp the computer understands. The
syntax of the PHP date() function can be given with.

date(format, timestamp)

The format parameter in the date() function is required which specifies the format of returned date and
time. However the timestamp is an optional parameter, if not included then current date and time will be
used. The following statement displays today's date:

Example
Run this code »

<?php
$today = date("d/m/Y");
echo $today;
?>
Note: The PHP date() function return the current date and time according to the built-in clock of the web
server on which the script has been executed.

Formatting the Dates and Times with PHP

The format parameter of the date() function is in fact a string that can contain multiple characters
allowing you to generate a date string containing various components of the date and time, like day of
the week, AM or PM, etc. Here are some the date-related formatting characters that are commonly used
in format string:

• d - Represent day of the month; two digits with leading zeros (01 or 31)
• D - Represent day of the week in text as an abbreviation (Mon to Sun)
• m - Represent month in numbers with leading zeros (01 or 12)
• M - Represent month in text, abbreviated (Jan to Dec)
• y - Represent year in two digits (08 or 14)
• Y - Represent year in four digits (2008 or 2014)

The parts of the date can be separated by inserting other characters, like hyphens ( -), dots (.), slashes (/),
or spaces to add additional visual formatting.

Example
<?php
echo date("d/m/Y") . "<br>";
echo date("d-m-Y") . "<br>";
echo date("d.m.Y");
?>
Similarly you can use the following characters to format the time string:

• h - Represent hour in 12-hour format with leading zeros (01 to 12)

• H - Represent hour in in 24-hour format with leading zeros (00 to 23)
• i - Represent minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59)
• s - Represent seconds with leading zeros (00 to 59)
• a - Represent lowercase ante meridiem and post meridiem (am or pm)
• A - Represent uppercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem (AM or PM)

The PHP code in the following example displays the date in different formats:

Example
<?php
echo date("h:i:s") . "<br>";
echo date("F d, Y h:i:s A") . "<br>";
echo date("h:i a");
?>

The PHP time() Function

The time() function is used to get the current time as a Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since the
beginning of the Unix epoch: January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT).

Example
Run this code »

<?php
// Executed at March 05, 2014 07:19:18
$timestamp = time();
echo($timestamp);
?>
The above example produce the following output.

1394003958

We can convert this timestamp to a human readable date through passing it to the previously
introduce date() function.

Example
<?php
$timestamp = 1394003958;
echo(date("F d, Y h:i:s", $timestamp));
?>
The above example produce the following output.

March 05, 2014 07:19:18

The PHP mktime() Function

The mktime() function is used to create the timestamp based on a specific date and time. If no date and
time is provided, the timestamp for the current date and time is returned.

The syntax of the mktime() function can be given with:

mktime(hour, minute, second, month, day, year)

The following example displays the timestamp corresponding to 3:20:12 pm on May 10, 2014:

Example
<?php
// Create the timestamp for a particular date
echo mktime(15, 20, 12, 5, 10, 2014);
?>
The above example produce the following output.

1399735212

The mktime() function can be used to find the weekday name corresponding to a particular date. To do
this, simply use the 'l' (lowercase 'L') character with your timestamp, as in the following example, which
displays the day that falls on April 1, 2014:

Example
<?php
// Get the weekday name of a particular date
echo date('l', mktime(0, 0, 0, 4, 1, 2014));
?>
The above example produce the following output.

Tuesday
The mktime() function can also be used to find a particular date in future after a specific time period. As in
the following example, which displays the date which falls on after 30 month from the current date?

Example
<?php
// Executed at March 05, 2014
$futureDate = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m")+30, date("d"), date("Y"));
echo date("d/m/Y", $futureDate);
?>
The above example produce the following output.

05/09/2016

PHP Include and Require Files

Including a PHP File into Another PHP File
The include() and require() statement allow you to include the code contained in a PHP file within
another PHP file. Including a file produces the same result as copying the script from the file specified and
pasted into the location where it is called.

You can save a lot of time and work through including files — Just store a block of code in a separate file
and include it wherever you want using the include() and require() statements instead of typing the
entire block of code multiple times. A typical example is including the header, footer and menu file within
all the pages of a website.

The basic syntax of the include() and require() statement can be given with:
include("path/to/filename"); -Or- include "path/to/filename";
require("path/to/filename"); -Or- require "path/to/filename";

Tip: Like the print and echo statements, you can omit the parentheses while using
the include and require statements as demonstrated above.

The following example will show you how to include the common header, footer and menu codes which
are stored in separate 'header.php', 'footer.php' and 'menu.php' files respectively, within all the pages of
your website. Using this technique you can update all pages of the website at once by making the
changes to just one file, this saves a lot of repetitive work.

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Tutorial Republic</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php include "header.php"; ?>
<?php include "menu.php"; ?>
<h1>Welcome to Our Website!</h1>
<p>Here you will find lots of useful information.</p>
<?php include "footer.php"; ?>
</body>
</html>

Difference Between include and require Statements

You might be thinking if we can include files using the include() statement then why we need require().
Typically the require() statement operates like include().

The only difference is — the include() statement will only generate a PHP warning but allow script
execution to continue if the file to be included can't be found, whereas the require() statement will
generate a fatal error and stops the script execution.

Example
<?php require "my_variables.php"; ?>
<?php require "my_functions.php"; ?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title><?php displayTitle($home_page); ?></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php include "header.php"; ?>
<?php include "menu.php"; ?>
<h1>Welcome to Our Website!</h1>
<p>Here you will find lots of useful information.</p>
<?php include "footer.php"; ?>
</body>
</html>
The include_once and require_once Statements
If you accidentally include the same file (typically functions or classes files) more than one time within
your code using the include or require statements, it may cause conflicts. To prevent this situation, PHP
provides include_once and require_once statements. These statements behave in the same way
as include and require statements with one exception.

The include_once and require_once statements will only include the file once even if asked to include it a
second time i.e. if the specified file has already been included in a previous statement, the file is not
included again. To better understand how it works, let's check out an example. Suppose we've a
'my_functions.php' file with the following code:

Example
<?php
function multiplySelf($var){
$var *= $var; // multiply variable by itself
echo $var;
}
?>
Here's is the PHP script within which we've included the 'my_functions.php' file.

Example
<?php
// Including file
require "my_functions.php";
// Calling the function
multiplySelf(2); // Output: 4
echo "<br>";

// Including file once again

require "my_functions.php";
// Calling the function
multiplySelf(5); // Doesn't execute
?>
When you run the above script, you will see the error message something like this: "Fatal error: Cannot
redeclare multiplySelf()". This occurs because the 'my_functions.php' included twice, this means the
function multiplySelf() is defined twice, which caused PHP to stop script execution and generate fatal
error. Now rewrite the above example with require_once.

Example
<?php
// Including file
require_once "my_functions.php";
// Calling the function
multiplySelf(2); // Output: 4
echo "<br>";

// Including file once again

require_once "my_functions.php";
// Calling the function
multiplySelf(5); // Output: 25
?>

PHP File System

Working with Files in PHP
Since PHP is a server side programming language, it allows you to work with files and directories stored
on the web server. In this tutorial you will learn how to create, access, and manipulate files on your web
server using the PHP file system functions.

Opening a File with PHP fopen() Function

To work with a file you first need to open the file. The PHP fopen() function is used to open a file. The
basic syntax of this function can be given with:
fopen(filename, mode)

The first parameter passed to fopen() specifies the name of the file you want to open, and the second
parameter specifies in which mode the file should be opened. For example:

Example
<?php
$handle = fopen("data.txt", "r");
?>
The file may be opened in one of the following modes:
Modes What it does

r Open the file for reading only.

r+ Open the file for reading and writing.

w Open the file for writing only and clears the contents of file. If the file does not exist, PHP will attempt to
create it.

w+ Open the file for reading and writing and clears the contents of file. If the file does not exist, PHP will
attempt to create it.

a Append. Opens the file for writing only. Preserves file content by writing to the end of the file. If the file
does not exist, PHP will attempt to create it.

a+ Read/Append. Opens the file for reading and writing. Preserves file content by writing to the end of the file.
If the file does not exist, PHP will attempt to create it.

x Open the file for writing only. Return FALSE and generates an error if the file already exists. If the file does
not exist, PHP will attempt to create it.

x+ Open the file for reading and writing; otherwise it has the same behavior as 'x'.

If you try to open a file that doesn't exist, PHP will generate a warning message. So, to avoid these error
messages you should always implement a simple check whether a file or directory exists or not before
trying to access it, with the PHP file_exists() function.

Example
<?php
$file = "data.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Attempt to open the file
$handle = fopen($file, "r");
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>

Closing a File with PHP fclose() Function

Once you've finished working with a file, it needs to be closed. The fclose() function is used to close the
file, as shown in the following example:

Example
<?php
$file = "data.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Open the file for reading
$handle = fopen($file, "r") or die("ERROR: Cannot open the file.");

/* Some code to be executed */

// Closing the file handle

fclose($handle);
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>

Reading from Files with PHP fread() Function

Now that you have understood how to open and close files. In the following section you will learn how to
read data from a file. PHP has several functions for reading data from a file. You can read from just one
character to the entire file with a single operation.

Reading Fixed Number of Characters

The fread() function can be used to read a specified number of characters from a file. The basic syntax of
this function can be given with.
fread(file handle, length in bytes)
This function takes two parameter — A file handle and the number of bytes to read. The following
example reads 20 bytes from the "data.txt" file including spaces. Let's suppose the file "data.txt" contains a
paragraph of text "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

Example
<?php
$file = "data.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Open the file for reading
$handle = fopen($file, "r") or die("ERROR: Cannot open the file.");

// Read fixed number of bytes from the file

$content = fread($handle, "20");

// Closing the file handle

fclose($handle);

// Display the file content

echo $content;
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>
The above example will produce the following output:

The quick brown fox

Reading the Entire Contents of a File

The fread() function can be used in conjugation with the filesize() function to read the entire file at
once. The filesize() function returns the size of the file in bytes.

Example
<?php
$file = "data.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Open the file for reading
$handle = fopen($file, "r") or die("ERROR: Cannot open the file.");

// Reading the entire file

$content = fread($handle, filesize($file));

// Closing the file handle

fclose($handle);

// Display the file content

echo $content;
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>
The above example will produce the following output:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The easiest way to read the entire contents of a file in PHP is with the readfile() function. This function
allows you to read the contents of a file without needing to open it. The following example will generate
the same output as above example:

Example
<?php
$file = "data.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Reads and outputs the entire file
readfile($file) or die("ERROR: Cannot open the file.");
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>
The above example will produce the following output:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Another way to read the whole contents of a file without needing to open it is with
the file_get_contents() function. This function accepts the name and path to a file, and reads the entire
file into a string variable. Here's an example:
Example
<?php
$file = "data.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Reading the entire file into a string
$content = file_get_contents($file) or die("ERROR: Cannot open the file.");

// Display the file content

echo $content;
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>
One more method of reading the whole data from a file is the PHP's file() function. It does a similar job
to file_get_contents() function, but it returns the file contents as an array of lines, rather than a single
string. Each element of the returned array corresponds to a line in the file.

To process the file data, you need to iterate over the array using a foreach loop. Here's an example, which
reads a file into an array and then displays it using the loop:

Example
<?php
$file = "data.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Reading the entire file into an array
$arr = file($file) or die("ERROR: Cannot open the file.");
foreach($arr as $line){
echo $line;
}
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>

Writing the Files Using PHP fwrite() Function

Similarly, you can write data to a file or append to an existing file using the PHP fwrite() function. The
basic syntax of this function can be given with:
fwrite(file handle, string)

The fwrite() function takes two parameter — A file handle and the string of data that is to be written, as
demonstrated in the following example:

Example
<?php
$file = "note.txt";

// String of data to be written

$data = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";

// Open the file for writing

$handle = fopen($file, "w") or die("ERROR: Cannot open the file.");

// Write data to the file

fwrite($handle, $data) or die ("ERROR: Cannot write the file.");

// Closing the file handle

fclose($handle);

echo "Data written to the file successfully.";

?>
In the above example, if the "note.txt" file doesn't exist PHP will automatically create it and write the data.
But, if the "note.txt" file already exist, PHP will erase the contents of this file, if it has any, before writing
the new data, however if you just want to append the file and preserve existing contents just use
the mode a instead of w in the above example.

An alternative way is using the file_put_contents() function. It is counterpart

of file_get_contents() function and provides an easy method of writing the data to a file without
needing to open it. This function accepts the name and path to a file together with the data to be written
to the file. Here's an example:

Example
<?php
$file = "note.txt";

// String of data to be written

$data = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";
// Write data to the file
file_put_contents($file, $data) or die("ERROR: Cannot write the file.");

echo "Data written to the file successfully.";

?>
If the file specified in the file_put_contents() function already exists, PHP will overwrite it by default. If
you would like to preserve the file's contents you can pass the special FILE_APPEND flag as a third
parameter to the file_put_contents() function. It will simply append the new data to the file instead of
overwitting it. Here's an example:

Example
<?php
$file = "note.txt";

// String of data to be written

$data = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";

// Write data to the file

file_put_contents($file, $data, FILE_APPEND) or die("ERROR: Cannot write the file.");

echo "Data written to the file successfully.";

?>

Renaming Files with PHP rename() Function

You can rename a file or directory using the PHP's rename() function, like this:

Example
<?php
$file = "file.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Attempt to rename the file
if(rename($file, "newfile.txt")){
echo "File renamed successfully.";
} else{
echo "ERROR: File cannot be renamed.";
}
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>

Removing Files with PHP unlink() Function

You can delete files or directories using the PHP's unlink() function, like this:

Example
<?php
$file = "note.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Attempt to delete the file
if(unlink($file)){
echo "File removed successfully.";
} else{
echo "ERROR: File cannot be removed.";
}
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>
In the next chapter we will learn more about parsing directories or folders in PHP.

PHP Filesystem Functions

The following table provides the overview of some other useful PHP filesystem functions that can be used
for reading and writing the files dynamically.

Function Description

fgetc() Reads a single character at a time.

fgets() Reads a single line at a time.

fgetcsv() Reads a line of comma-separated values.

Function Description

filetype() Returns the type of the file.

feof() Checks whether the end of the file has been reached.

is_file() Checks whether the file is a regular file.

is_dir() Checks whether the file is a directory.

is_executable() Checks whether the file is executable.

realpath() Returns canonicalized absolute pathname.

rmdir() Removes an empty directory.

PHP Parsing Directories

Working with Directories in PHP
In the previous chapter you've learned how to work with files in PHP. Similarly, PHP also allows you to
work with directories on the file system, for example, you can open a directory and read its contents,
create or delete a directory, list all files in the directory, and so on.

Creating a New Directory

You can create a new and empty directory by calling the PHP mkdir() function with the path and name of
the directory to be created, as shown in the example below:

Example
<?php
// The directory path
$dir = "testdir";

// Check the existence of directory

if(!file_exists($dir)){
// Attempt to create directory
if(mkdir($dir)){
echo "Directory created successfully.";
} else{
echo "ERROR: Directory could not be created.";
}
} else{
echo "ERROR: Directory already exists.";
}
?>
To make the mkdir() function work, the parent directories in the directory path parameter has to exist
already, for example, if you specify the directory path as testdir/subdir than the testdir has to exist
otherwise PHP will generate an error.

Copying Files from One Location to Another

You can copy a file from one location to another by calling PHP copy() function with the file's source and
destination paths as arguments. If the destination file already exists it'll be overwritten. Here's an example
which creates a copy of "example.txt" file inside backup folder.

Example
<?php
// Source file path
$file = "example.txt";

// Destination file path

$newfile = "backup/example.txt";

// Check the existence of file

if(file_exists($file)){
// Attempt to copy file
if(copy($file, $newfile)){
echo "File copied successfully.";
} else{
echo "ERROR: File could not be copied.";
}
} else{
echo "ERROR: File does not exist.";
}
?>
To make this example work, the target directory which is backup and the source file i.e. "example.txt" has
to exist already; otherwise PHP will generate an error.

Listing All Files in a Directory

You can use the PHP scandir() function to list files and directories inside the specified path.

Now we're going to create a custom function that will recursively list all files in a directory using PHP. This
script will be helpful if you're working with deeply nested directory structure.

Example
<?php
// Define a function to output files in a directory
function outputFiles($path){
// Check directory exists or not
if(file_exists($path) && is_dir($path)){
// Scan the files in this directory
$result = scandir($path);

// Filter out the current (.) and parent (..) directories

$files = array_diff($result, array('.', '..'));

if(count($files) > 0){

// Loop through retuned array
foreach($files as $file){
if(is_file("$path/$file")){
// Display filename
echo $file . "<br>";
} else if(is_dir("$path/$file")){
// Recursively call the function if directories found
outputFiles("$path/$file");
}
}
} else{
echo "ERROR: No files found in the directory.";
}
} else {
echo "ERROR: The directory does not exist.";
}
}

// Call the function

outputFiles("mydir");
?>

Listing All Files of a Certain Type

While working on directory and file structure, sometimes you might need to find out certain types of files
within the directory, for example, listing only .text or .png files, etc. You can do this easily with the
PHP glob() function, which matches files based on the pattern.

The PHP code in the following example will search the documents directory and list all the files
with .text extension. It will not search the subdirectories.

Example
<?php
/* Search the directory and loop through
returned array containing the matched files */
foreach(glob("documents/*.txt") as $file){
echo basename($file) . " (size: " . filesize($file) . " bytes)" . "<br>";
}
?>
The glob() function can also be used to find all the files within a directory or its subdirectories. The
function defined in the following example will recursively list all files within a directory, just like we've
done in previous example with the scandir() function.

Example
<?php
// Define a function to output files in a directory
function outputFiles($path){
// Check directory exists or not
if(file_exists($path) && is_dir($path)){
// Search the files in this directory
$files = glob($path ."/*");
if(count($files) > 0){
// Loop through retuned array
foreach($files as $file){
if(is_file("$file")){
// Display only filename
echo basename($file) . "<br>";
} else if(is_dir("$file")){
// Recursively call the function if directories found
outputFiles("$file");
}
}
} else{
echo "ERROR: No such file found in the directory.";
}
} else {
echo "ERROR: The directory does not exist.";
}
}

// Call the function

outputFiles("mydir");
?>

PHP File Upload

Uploading Files with PHP
In this tutorial we will learn how to upload files on remote server using a Simple HTML form and PHP. You
can upload any kind of file like images, videos, ZIP files, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, as well as
executables files and a wide range of other file types.

Step 1: Creating an HTML form to upload the file

The following example will create a simple HTML form that can be used to upload files.

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>File Upload Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<form action="upload-manager.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<h2>Upload File</h2>
<label for="fileSelect">Filename:</label>
<input type="file" name="photo" id="fileSelect">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Upload">
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Only .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png formats allowed to a
max size of 5 MB.</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Note: In addition to a file-select field the upload form must use the HTTP post method and must
contain an enctype="multipart/form-data" attribute. This attribute ensures that the form data is encoded
as mulitpart MIME data — which is required for uploading the large quantities of binary data such as
image, audio, video, etc.

Step 2: Processing the uploaded file

Here's the complete code of our "upload-manager.php" file. It will store the uploaded file in a "upload"
folder on permanent basis as well as implement some basic security check like file type and file size to
ensure that users upload the correct file type and within the allowed limit.

Example
<?php
// Check if the form was submitted
if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST"){
// Check if file was uploaded without errors
if(isset($_FILES["photo"]) && $_FILES["photo"]["error"] == 0){
$allowed = array("jpg" => "image/jpg", "jpeg" => "image/jpeg", "gif" =>
"image/gif", "png" => "image/png");
$filename = $_FILES["photo"]["name"];
$filetype = $_FILES["photo"]["type"];
$filesize = $_FILES["photo"]["size"];

// Verify file extension

$ext = pathinfo($filename, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
if(!array_key_exists($ext, $allowed)) die("Error: Please select a valid file
format.");

// Verify file size - 5MB maximum

$maxsize = 5 * 1024 * 1024;
if($filesize > $maxsize) die("Error: File size is larger than the allowed
limit.");

// Verify MYME type of the file

if(in_array($filetype, $allowed)){
// Check whether file exists before uploading it
if(file_exists("upload/" . $filename)){
echo $filename . " is already exists.";
} else{
move_uploaded_file($_FILES["photo"]["tmp_name"], "upload/" .
$filename);
echo "Your file was uploaded successfully.";
}
} else{
echo "Error: There was a problem uploading your file. Please try again.";
}
} else{
echo "Error: " . $_FILES["photo"]["error"];
}
}
?>
Note: The above script prevents uploading a file with the same name as an existing file in the same folder.
However, if you want to allow this just prepend the file name with a random string or timestamp,
like $filename = time() . '_' . $_FILES["photo"]["name"];

You might be wondering what this code was all about. Well, let's go through each part of this example
code one by one for a better understanding of this process.

Explanation of Code
Once the form is submitted information about the uploaded file can be accessed via PHP superglobal
array called $_FILES. For example, our upload form contains a file select field called photo
(i.e. name="photo"), if any user uploaded a file using this field, we can obtains its details like the name,
type, size, temporary name or any error occurred while attempting the upload via
the $_FILES["photo"] associative array, like this:

• $_FILES["photo"]["name"] — This array value specifies the original name of the file, including the file
extension. It doesn't include the file path.
• $_FILES["photo"]["type"] — This array value specifies the MIME type of the file.
• $_FILES["photo"]["size"] — This array value specifies the file size, in bytes.
• $_FILES["photo"]["tmp_name"] — This array value specifies the temporary name including full path that is
assigned to the file once it has been uploaded to the server.
• $_FILES["photo"]["error"] — This array value specifies error or status code associated with the file
upload, e.g. it will be 0, if there is no error.

The PHP code in the following example will simply display the details of the uploaded file and stores it in
a temporary directory on the web server.

Example
<?php
if($_FILES["photo"]["error"] > 0){
echo "Error: " . $_FILES["photo"]["error"] . "<br>";
} else{
echo "File Name: " . $_FILES["photo"]["name"] . "<br>";
echo "File Type: " . $_FILES["photo"]["type"] . "<br>";
echo "File Size: " . ($_FILES["photo"]["size"] / 1024) . " KB<br>";
echo "Stored in: " . $_FILES["photo"]["tmp_name"];
}
?>
Tip: Once a file has been successfully uploaded, it is automatically stored in a temporary directory on the
server. To store this file on a permanent basis, you need to move it from the temporary directory to a
permanent location using the PHP's move_uploaded_file() function.

PHP File Download

Downloading Files with PHP
Normally, you don't necessarily need to use any server side scripting language like PHP to download
images, zip files, pdf documents, exe files, etc. If such kind of file is stored in a public accessible folder, you
can just create a hyperlink pointing to that file, and whenever a user click on the link, browser will
automatically downloads that file.

Example
<a href="downloads/test.zip">Download Zip file</a>
<a href="downloads/masters.pdf">Download PDF file</a>
<a href="downloads/sample.jpg">Download Image file</a>
<a href="downloads/setup.exe">Download EXE file</a>
Clicking a link that points to a PDF or an Image file will not cause it to download to your hard drive
directly. It will only open the file in your browser. Further you can save it to your hard drive. However, zip
and exe files are downloaded automatically to the hard drive by default.
Forcing a Download Using PHP
You can force images or other kind of files to download directly to the user's hard drive using the
PHP readfile() function. Here we're going to create a simple image gallery that allows users to download
the image files from the browser with a single mouse click.

Let's create a file named "image-gallery.php" and place the following code inside it.

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Simple Image Gallery</title>
<style type="text/css">
.img-box{
display: inline-block;
text-align: center;
margin: 0 15px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<?php
// Array containing sample image file names
$images = array("kites.jpg", "balloons.jpg");

// Loop through array to create image gallery

foreach($images as $image){
echo '<div class="img-box">';
echo '<img src="images/' . $image . '" width="200" alt="' .
pathinfo($image, PATHINFO_FILENAME) .'">';
echo '<p><a href="download.php?file=' . urlencode($image) .
'">Download</a></p>';
echo '</div>';
}
?>
</body>
</html>
If you see the above example code carefully, you'll find the download link pints to a "download.php" file,
the URL also contains image file name as a query string. Also, we've used PHP urlencode()function to
encode the image file names so that it can be safely passed as URL parameter, because file names may
contain URL unsafe characters.

Here's the complete code of "download.php" file, which force image download.

Example
<?php
if(isset($_REQUEST["file"])){
// Get parameters
$file = urldecode($_REQUEST["file"]); // Decode URL-encoded string
$filepath = "images/" . $file;

// Process download
if(file_exists($filepath)) {
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($filepath).'"');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filepath));
flush(); // Flush system output buffer
readfile($filepath);
exit;
}
}
?>
Similarly, you can force download other files formats like word doc, pdf files, etc.

PHP Cookies
In this tutorial you will learn how to store a small amount of information within the user's browser itself
using the PHP cookies.

What is a Cookie
A cookie is a small text file that lets you store a small amount of data (nearly 4KB) on the user's computer.
They are typically used to keeping track of information such as username that the site can retrieve to
personalize the page when user visit the website next time.

Tip: Each time the browser requests a page to the server, all the data in the cookie is automatically sent
to the server within the request.

Setting a Cookie in PHP

The setcookie() function is used to set a cookie in PHP. Make sure you call the setcookie()function
before any output generated by your script otherwise cookie will not set. The basic syntax of this function
can be given with:
setcookie(name, value, expire, path, domain, secure);

The parameters of the setcookie() function have the following meanings:

Parameter Description

name The name of the cookie.

value The value of the cookie. Do not store sensitive information since this value is stored on the user's
computer.

expires The expiry date in UNIX timestamp format. After this time cookie will become inaccessible. The default
value is 0.

path Specify the path on the server for which the cookie will be available. If set to /, the cookie will be
available within the entire domain.

domain Specify the domain for which the cookie is available to e.g www.example.com.

secure This field, if present, indicates that the cookie should be sent only if a secure HTTPS connection exists.

Tip: If the expiration time of the cookie is set to 0, or omitted, the cookie will expire at the end of the
session i.e. when the browser closes.

Here's an example that uses setcookie() function to create a cookie named username and assign the
value value John Carter to it. It also specify that the cookie will expire after 30 days (30 days * 24 hours
* 60 min * 60 sec).

Example
<?php
// Setting a cookie
setcookie("username", "John Carter", time()+30*24*60*60);
?>
Note: All the arguments except the name are optional. You may also replace an argument with an empty
string ("") in order to skip that argument, however to skip the expire argument use a zero (0) instead, since
it is an integer.

Warning: Don't store sensitive data in cookies since it could potentially be manipulated by the
malicious user. To store the sensitive data securely use sessions instead.

Accessing Cookies Values

The PHP $_COOKIE superglobal variable is used to retrieve a cookie value. It typically an associative array
that contains a list of all the cookies values sent by the browser in the current request, keyed by cookie
name. The individual cookie value can be accessed using standard array notation, for example to display
the username cookie set in the previous example, you could use the following code.

Example
<?php
// Accessing an individual cookie value
echo $_COOKIE["username"];
?>
The PHP code in the above example produce the following output.

John Carter

It's a good practice to check whether a cookie is set or not before accessing its value. To do this you can
use the PHP isset() function, like this:
Example
<?php
// Verifying whether a cookie is set or not
if(isset($_COOKIE["username"])){
echo "Hi " . $_COOKIE["username"];
} else{
echo "Welcome Guest!";
}
?>
You can use the print_r() function like print_r($_COOKIE); to see the structure of
this $_COOKIEassociative array, like you with other arrays.

Removing Cookies
You can delete a cookie by calling the same setcookie() function with the cookie name and any value
(such as an empty string) however this time you need the set the expiration date in the past, as shown in
the example below:

Example
Download

<?php
// Deleting a cookie
setcookie("username", "", time()-3600);
?>
Tip: You should pass exactly the same path, domain, and other arguments that you have used when you
first created the cookie in order to ensure that the correct cookie is deleted.

PHP Sessions
In this tutorial you will learn how to store certain data on the server on a temporary basis using PHP
session.

What is a Session
Although you can store data using cookies but it has some security issues. Since cookies are stored on
user's computer it is possible for an attacker to easily modify a cookie content to insert potentially harmful
data in your application that might break your application.

Also every time the browser requests a URL to the server, all the cookie data for a website is automatically
sent to the server within the request. It means if you have stored 5 cookies on user's system, each having
4KB in size, the browser needs to upload 20KB of data each time the user views a page, which can affect
your site's performance.

You can solve both of these issues by using the PHP session. A PHP session stores data on the server
rather than user's computer. In a session based environment, every user is identified through a unique
number called session identifier or SID. This unique session ID is used to link each user with their own
information on the server like emails, posts, etc.

Tip: The session IDs are randomly generated by the PHP engine which is almost impossible to guess.
Furthermore, because the session data is stored on the server, it doesn't have to be sent with every
browser request.

Starting a PHP Session

Before you can store any information in session variables, you must first start up the session. To begin a
new session, simply call the PHP session_start() function. It will create a new session and generate a
unique session ID for the user.

The PHP code in the example below simply starts a new session.

Example
Download

<?php
// Starting session
session_start();
?>
The session_start() function first checks to see if a session already exists by looking for the presence of
a session ID. If it finds one, i.e. if the session is already started, it sets up the session variables and if
doesn't, it starts a new session by creating a new session ID.
Note: You must call the session_start() function at the beginning of the page i.e. before any output
generated by your script in the browser, much like you do while setting the cookies
with setcookie() function.

Storing and Accessing Session Data

You can store all your session data as key-value pairs in the $_SESSION[] superglobal array. The stored
data can be accessed during lifetime of a session. Consider the following script, which creates a new
session and registers two session variables.

Example
<?php
// Starting session
session_start();

// Storing session data

$_SESSION["firstname"] = "Peter";
$_SESSION["lastname"] = "Parker";
?>
To access the session data we set on our previous example from any other page on the same web domain
— simply recreate the session by calling session_start() and then pass the corresponding key to
the $_SESSION associative array.

Example
<?php
// Starting session
session_start();

// Accessing session data

echo 'Hi, ' . $_SESSION["firstname"] . ' ' . $_SESSION["lastname"];
?>
The PHP code in the example above produce the following output.

Hi, Peter Parker

Note: To access the session data in the same page there is no need to recreate the session since it has
been already started on the top of the page.

Destroying a Session
If you want to remove certain session data, simply unset the corresponding key of
the $_SESSIONassociative array, as shown in the following example:

Example
<?php
// Starting session
session_start();

// Removing session data

if(isset($_SESSION["lastname"])){
unset($_SESSION["lastname"]);
}
?>
However, to destroy a session completely, simply call the session_destroy() function. This function does
not need any argument and a single call destroys all the session data.

Example
<?php
// Starting session
session_start();

// Destroying session
session_destroy();
?>
Note: Before destroying a session with the session_destroy() function, you need to first recreate the
session environment if it is not already there using the session_start() function, so that there is
something to destroy.

Every PHP session has a timeout value — a duration, measured in seconds — which determines how long
a session should remain alive in the absence of any user activity. You can adjust this timeout duration by
changing the value of session.gc_maxlifetime variable in the PHP configuration file (php.ini).
PHP Send Emails
In this tutorial you will learn how to send simple text or HTML emails directly from the script using the
PHP mail() function.

The PHP mail() Function

Sending email messages are very common for a web application, for example, sending welcome email
when a user create an account on your website, sending newsletters to your registered users, or getting
user feedback or comment through website's contact form, and so on.

You can use the PHP built-in mail() function for creating and sending email messages to one or more
recipients dynamically from your PHP application either in a plain-text form or formatted HTML. The basic
syntax of this function can be given with:
mail(to, subject, message, headers, parameters)

The following table summarizes the parameters of this function.

Parameter Description

Required — The following parameters are required

to The recipient's email address.

subject Subject of the email to be sent. This parameter i.e. the subject line cannot contain any newline
character (\n).

message Defines the message to be sent. Each line should be separated with a line feed-LF (\n). Lines should
not exceed 70 characters.

Optional — The following parameters are optional

headers This is typically used to add extra headers such as "From", "Cc", "Bcc". The additional headers should
be separated with a carriage return plus a line feed-CRLF (\r\n).

parameters Used to pass additional parameters.

Sending Plain Text Emails

The simplest way to send an email with PHP is to send a text email. In the example below we first declare
the variables — recipient's email address, subject line and message body — then we pass these variables
to the mail() function to send the email.

Example
<?php
$to = '[email protected]';
$subject = 'Marriage Proposal';
$message = 'Hi Jane, will you marry me?';
$from = '[email protected]';

// Sending email
if(mail($to, $subject, $message)){
echo 'Your mail has been sent successfully.';
} else{
echo 'Unable to send email. Please try again.';
}
?>

Sending HTML Formatted Emails

When you send a text message using PHP, all the content will be treated as simple text. We're going to
improve that output, and make the email into a HTML-formatted email.

To send an HTML email, the process will be the same. However, this time we need to provide additional
headers as well as an HTML formatted message.
Example
Download

<?php
$to = '[email protected]';
$subject = 'Marriage Proposal';
$from = '[email protected]';

// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set

$headers = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";

// Create email headers

$headers .= 'From: '.$from."\r\n".
'Reply-To: '.$from."\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

// Compose a simple HTML email message

$message = '<html><body>';
$message .= '<h1 style="color:#f40;">Hi Jane!</h1>';
$message .= '<p style="color:#080;font-size:18px;">Will you marry me?</p>';
$message .= '</body></html>';

// Sending email
if(mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)){
echo 'Your mail has been sent successfully.';
} else{
echo 'Unable to send email. Please try again.';
}
?>
Note: However, the PHP mail() function is a part of the PHP core but you need to set up a mail server on
your machine to make it really work.

PHP Form Handling

In this tutorial you'll learn how to collect user inputs submitted through a form using the PHP superglobal
variables $_GET, $_POST and $_REQUEST.

Creating a Simple Contact Form

In this tutorial we are going to create a simple HMTL contact form that allows users to enter their
comment and feedback then displays it to the browser using PHP.

Open up your favorite code editor and create a new PHP file. Now type the following code and save this
file as "contact-form.php" in the root directory of your project.

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Contact Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Contact Us</h2>
<p>Please fill in this form and send us.</p>
<form action="process-form.php" method="post">
<p>
<label for="inputName">Name:^*</label>
<input type="text" name="name" id="inputName">
</p>
<p>
<label for="inputEmail">Email:^*</label>
<input type="text" name="email" id="inputEmail">
</p>
<p>
<label for="inputSubject">Subject:</label>
<input type="text" name="subject" id="inputSubject">
</p>
<p>
<label for="inputComment">Message:^*</label>
<textarea name="message" id="inputComment" rows="5" cols="30"></textarea>
</p>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
<input type="reset" value="Reset">
</form>
</body>
</html>

Explanation of code
Notice that there are two attributes within the opening <form> tag:
• The action attribute references a PHP file "process-form.php" that receives the data entered into the form
when user submit it by pressing the submit button.
• The method attribute tells the browser to send the form data through POST method.

Rest of the elements inside the form are basic form controls to receive user inputs. To learn more about
HTML form elements please check out the HTML Forms tutorial.

Capturing Form Data with PHP

To access the value of a particular form field, you can use the following superglobal variables. These
variables are available in all scopes throughout a script.

Superglobal Description

$_GET Contains a list of all the field names and values sent by a form using the get method (i.e. via the URL
parameters).

$_POST Contains a list of all the field names and values sent by a form using the post method (data will not
visible in the URL).

$_REQUEST Contains the values of both the $_GET and $_POST variables as well as the values of
the $_COOKIE superglobal variable.

When a user submit the above contact form through clicking the submit button, the form data is sent to
the "process-form.php" file on the server for processing. It simply captures the information submitted by
the user and displays it to browser.

The PHP code of "process-form.php" file will look something like this:

Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Contact Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Thank You</h1>
<p>Here is the information you have submitted:</p>
<ol>
<li><em>Name:</em> <?php echo $_POST["name"]?></li>
<li><em>Email:</em> <?php echo $_POST["email"]?></li>
<li><em>Subject:</em> <?php echo $_POST["subject"]?></li>
<li><em>Message:</em> <?php echo $_POST["message"]?></li>
</ol>
</body>
</html>
The PHP code above is quite simple. Since the form data is sent through the post method, you can
retrieve the value of a particular form field by passing its name to the $_POST superglobal array, and
displays each field value using echo() statement.

In real world you cannot trust the user inputs; you must implement some sort of validation to filter the
user inputs before using them. In the next chapter you will learn how sanitize and validate this contact
form data and send it through the email using PHP.