PHP

PHP is a language that is embedded within an HTML file. It doesn't have to be within an HTML document, though.

Syntax

PHP code must be enclosed within special tags: <?php and ?>

<?php
  $hello = "Hello"
  $world = "world"
  // Say hello
  echo "${hello}, " . "${world}!";
?>

Variables

Variables are prefaced by a $.

$x = 4;
$y = "Yeah";
$z = True;

String formatting can be performed as it is in shell scripts, by using double quotes.

$name = "John";
$greeting = "Hello, $name";

Function

Functions are defined similar to Javascript:

function example($arg1, $arg2 = "Yeah") {
  echo "Yay";
  return 1;
}

example("1");
example("1", "2");

// Anonymous function;

$add = function($num1, $num2) {
  return $num1 + $num2;
}

$add(5, 5);

$sub = fn($num1, $num2) => $num1 - $num2;

$sub(5, 5);

Scope

Functions create a scope where variables defined within are only accessible within, but also that variables defined outside of the scope are not readily accessible. To access a globally scoped variable, the variable must be introduced with a global call.

$outside = "test";

function example() {
  // echo $outside;  This will error out
  global $outside;
  echo $outside;

  $inside = "We are no longer " . $outside;

  return 1;
}

// echo $inside;  This will error out

Super Globals[3]

Super globals are variables that are available at all levels. These include syste information, request information, cookies, etc.

Name	Description
`$GLOBALS`	A superglobal variable that holds information about any variables in global scope.
`$_GET`	Contains information about variables passed through a URL or a form.
`$_POST`	Contains information about variables passed through a form.
`$_COOKIE`	Contains information about variables passed through a cookie.
`$_SESSION`	Contains information about variables passed through a session.
`$_SERVER`	Contains information about the server environment.
`$_ENV`	Contains information about the environment variables.
`$_FILES`	Contains information about files uploaded to the script.
`$_REQUEST`	Contains information about variables passed through the form or URL.

Data Types

String: single or double quotes
Integer
Float
Boolean
Array
Objects
null
Resource

String Methods

Strings can be concatenated using ..

$str = "Hello, " . "World!";
$str .= " Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.";

htmlspecialchars(str) will escape all HTML characters in a string, making you safer from script injections.

Alternatively, if the input string is a cookie, GET value, etc., you can use filter_input[4], which has special rules and helper variables.

Arrays

$numbers = [1,2,3,4];
// or
$numbers = array(1,2,3,4);

$first_item = $numbers[0];

Associative arrays are like Javascript objects or Python dictionaries.

$people = {
  "john" => 55,
  "jane" => 19,
  "bob" => 11,
  "jill" => 92
};

$john_age = $people["john"];

Methods

Method	Args	Effect
`array_push(arr, val1[, val2...])`		Add elements to end of array
`array_pop(arr)`		Pop element off end of array
`array_shift(arr)`		Pop element off beginning of array
`array_unset(arr[n])`	`n`: Index of element	Delete element from array while maintaining order
`array_chunk(arr, n)`	`n`: Max number of elements per "chunk"	Break up array into an array of regular sized subarrays
`array_merge(arr1, arr2)`		Concatenate `arr2` to the end of `arr1` and return concatenated array
`[...arr1, ...arr2]`		Same as above
`array_combine(arr1, arr2)`		Create associative array using `arr1` as keys and `arr2` as values. Like Python's `zip`.
`array_keys(assArr1)`		Make array of keys from an associative array
`array_flip(assArr1)`		Flip keys and values in an associative array
`range(start, end)`		Create array of values from start to end, inclusive
`array_map(fn(n) => any, arr)`		For each item in array, run callback and add return to resulting array
`array_filter(arr, fn(n) => bool)`	For each item in array, if result of callback is true, add value to return array.
`array_reduce(arr, fn(lastResult, n) => result)`		For each item in array, run callback and use previous result of array as `lastResult` of next iteration, ending with the final result as return. For instance, if you had an array of numbers you can sum all the values.

Conditionals

Conditionals are written the same way as Javascript, in terms of if blocks, except elseif is together instead of separated. Ternary statements and switch cases are the same as well.

Like Javascript, PHP has double- and triple-equals for testing equality; double is for testing equal in value, triple is for testing identical in value and type.

Conditional HTML

PHP can render HTML conditionally without resorting to running echo everywhere.

<?php if ($loggedIn) { ?>
  <h1>You are logged in!</h1>
  <p>Any valid HTML will be conditionally rendered</p>
<?php } else if ($var === 1) { ?>
  <p>Something else</p>
<?php } else { ?>
  <p>Last thing</p>
<?php } ?>

Loops

For loops, while loops, and do while loops are the same as Javascript.

The foreach loop is unique to PHP in that it is similar to Javascript's .forEach method on iterables, but is a statement that takes in an array or associative array as an expression:

$posts = ["title1", "title2", "title3"];

foreach ($posts as $post) {
  echo $post;
}

$posts = {
  "title1" => "Content1",
  "title2" => "Content2",
  "title3" => "Content3"
};

foreach ($posts as $key => $value) {
  echo $key . " - " . $value;
}

Common Functions

echo (multiple values), print (single value), print_r (for arrays).

When debugging, use var_dump for more info or var_export for type representation.

Requests

To set a cookie, use setcookie(name, value, exp).

References

Incoming Links

MySQL

Last modified: 202401040446