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PHP

PHP's primary role is to create dynamic and interactive web pages. It brings a website
to life by allowing it to interact with databases, handle user input, manage sessions, and
much more.

1. Creating Dynamic Web Content

A "static" website is just HTML and CSS files that look the same for every user. A
"dynamic" website can change its content based on various factors.

Example: A news website. The homepage Bahmanisn't have a separate HTML file for
every single news article. Instead, it has a single PHP template. When you visit the site,
the PHP script:

 Connects to a database.
 Fetches the latest news headlines.
 Inserts those headlines into the HTML template.
 Sends the completed page to your browser.

The content is dynamic because it changes as the database is updated, without a

developer having to rewrite the HTML.

2. Interacting with Databases

This is one of PHP's most powerful and common uses. It can connect to almost any
database, with MySQL being the most famous partner.

Example: A user login system.

1. A user fills out a login form (username and password) and clicks "Submit."
2. The form data is sent to a PHP script on the server.
3. The PHP script takes the username, finds the corresponding user in the database,
and checks if the provided password matches the stored (hashed) password.
4. Based on the result, the PHP script either starts a "session" for the user and
redirects them to their dashboard, or shows an "invalid login" error message.

3. Handling HTML Forms

PHP is exceptionally good at collecting data from forms. When a form is submitted with
the method="post" or method="get", the data is sent to a PHP file specified in the
form's action attribute. PHP can then access this data, validate it, email it, or store it in a
database.

Example: A contact form.

 HTML Form has fields for name, email, and message.

 The form's action is process_form.php.
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 Inside process_form.php, you can access the data with $_POST['name'], $_POST['email'],
etc.
 The PHP script can then send an email to the site owner with the message
content.

4. Managing User Sessions and Cookies

PHP can track a user across multiple pages during a single visit. This is essential for
features like shopping carts or staying logged in while browsing a site.

 Sessions: PHP can create a unique session for each user and store data (like
their user ID or cart items) on the server for the duration of their visit.
 Cookies: PHP can also set cookies on the user's browser to remember
information (like a username) for a longer period.

5. Generating and Manipulating Files

PHP can create, open, read, write, and close files on the server. This is useful for tasks
like:

 Generating PDF reports.

 Creating cached versions of pages to improve performance.
 Parsing and processing data from uploaded files (like CSV files).

How PHP Works: A Step-by-Step Flow

To solidify the "server-side" concept, here is the typical lifecycle of a PHP request:

1. User Request: A user enters a web address

(e.g., [Link] in their browser or clicks a link.
2. Server Receives Request: The web server (like Apache or Nginx) receives the
request for the [Link] file.
3. PHP Interpreter Executes: The server recognizes the .php extension and hands
the file over to the PHP interpreter.
4. Code is Processed: The PHP interpreter runs all the code inside the <?php ... ?
> tags. This code might connect to a database, fetch the user's profile data, and
calculate what to display.
5. HTML is Sent Back: The PHP code outputs a final, pure HTML page. All the PHP
logic is stripped away, leaving only the result.
6. Browser Displays Page: The web server sends this clean HTML back to the
user's browser. The browser then renders it, and the user sees their profile page.

Crucially, the user never sees the actual PHP code—only the HTML it produced.
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PHP Variables and Data Types

Variables in PHP

What are Variables?

Variables are containers for storing data. In PHP, all variables start with a $ sign followed
by the variable name.

Variable Declaration and Naming Rules

<?php

// Variable declaration

$name = "Mohammad";

$age = 25;

$price = 19.99;

$is_active = true;

// Variable naming rules

$firstName = "Mohmmad"; // Camel case (recommended)

$first_name = "Mohmmad"; // Snake case (also common)

$FirstName = "Mohmmad"; // Pascal case (less common for variables)

// Valid variable names

$user1 = "Alice";

$_temp = "temporary";

$userName = "Bob";

// Invalid variable names

// $1user = "Invalid"; // Cannot start with number

// $user-name = "Invalid"; // Cannot use hyphen

// $user name = "Invalid"; // Cannot use spaces

?>
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Variable Scope

<?php

$global_var = "I'm global"; // Global scope

function testFunction() {

$local_var = "I'm local"; // Local scope

// echo $global_var; // This would cause an error

// To access global variable inside function

global $global_var;

echo $global_var; // Now it works

// Or use $GLOBALS array

echo $GLOBALS['global_var'];

testFunction();

// echo $local_var; // This would cause an error - undefined

?>

Variable Variables

<?php

$name = "username";

$$name = "Mohmmad Bahmani"; // Creates $username = "MohmmadBahmani"

echo $username; // Output: MohmmadBahmani

echo $$name; // Output: MohmmadBahmani

// Multiple levels

$foo = "bar";

$$foo = "baz";

echo $bar; // Output: baz

?>
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PHP Data Types

PHP supports 8 primitive data types divided into 3 categories:

1. Scalar Types (Single Value)

String

<?php

// Different ways to create strings

$string1 = "Hello World"; // Double quotes

$string2 = 'Hello World'; // Single quotes

$string3 = "Hello 'PHP' World"; // Mixing quotes

// String concatenation

$firstName = "Mohmmad";

$lastName = "Bahmani";

$fullName = $firstName . " " . $lastName; // Mohmmad Bahmani

strlen() - Get String Length

<?php

$text = "Hello World";

echo strlen($text); // 11

// With multibyte characters (UTF-8)

$unicode = "Hello 世界";

echo strlen($unicode); // 12 (bytes, not characters)

?>

str_word_count() - Count Words in String

<?php

$text = "Hello beautiful world";

echo str_word_count($text); // 3
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// Get words as array

print_r(str_word_count($text, 1));

// Output: Array ( [0] => Hello [1] => beautiful [2] => world )

// With positions

print_r(str_word_count($text, 2));

// Output: Array ( [0] => Hello [6] => beautiful [16] => world )

?>

substr() - Return Part of String

<?php

$text = "Hello World";

echo substr($text, 6); // World

echo substr($text, 0, 5); // Hello

echo substr($text, -5); // World

echo substr($text, 6, 3); // Wor

echo substr($text, -5, 3); // Wor

// Handling out-of-bounds

echo substr($text, 20); // (empty string)

?>

str_repeat() - Repeat String

<?php

echo str_repeat("-", 10); // ----------

echo str_repeat("Hello ", 3); // Hello Hello Hello

?>

str_split() - Convert String to Array

<?php

$text = "Hello";

print_r(str_split($text));

// Output: Array ( [0] => H [1] => e [2] => l [3] => l [4] => o )
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// With specified length

print_r(str_split($text, 2));

// Output: Array ( [0] => He [1] => ll [2] => o )

?>

Searching and Replacing

strpos() & stripos() - Find Position

<?php

$text = "Hello World, welcome to PHP World";

// Case-sensitive search

echo strpos($text, "World"); // 6

echo strpos($text, "world"); // false (not found)

// Case-insensitive search

echo stripos($text, "world"); // 6

// Search from specific position

echo strpos($text, "World", 10); // 25

// Check if substring exists

if (strpos($text, "PHP") !== false) {

echo "PHP found in text";

?>

strstr() & stristr() - Find First Occurrence

<?php

$email = "user@[Link]";

// Case-sensitive

echo strstr($email, "@"); // @[Link]

echo strstr($email, "@", true); // user (part before needle)

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// Case-insensitive

echo stristr("Hello World", "world"); // World

?>

str_replace() & str_ireplace() - Replace Text

<?php

$text = "I love apples and apples are great";

// Simple replacement

echo str_replace("apples", "oranges", $text);

// Output: I love oranges and oranges are great

// Case-insensitive replacement

echo str_ireplace("APPLES", "oranges", $text);

// Output: I love oranges and oranges are great

// Multiple replacements

$replacements = array("apples", "great");

$with = array("oranges", "amazing");

echo str_replace($replacements, $with, $text);

// Output: I love oranges and oranges are amazing

// Count replacements

$count = 0;

str_replace("apples", "oranges", $text, $count);

echo "Replacements made: " . $count; // 2

?>

substr_replace() - Replace Text at Position

<?php

$text = "Hello World";

// Replace from position

echo substr_replace($text, "PHP", 6); // Hello PHP

echo substr_replace($text, "PHP", 6, 5); // Hello PHP

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echo substr_replace($text, "Beautiful ", 6, 0); // Hello Beautiful World

// Multiple replacements

$text = "ABCDEFGHIJ";

$replacement = array("1", "2", "3");

echo substr_replace($text, $replacement, 0, 2); // 12CDEFGHIJ

?>

preg_replace() - Pattern Replacement

<?php

$text = "The price is $15.99 and $20.50";

// Replace numbers

echo preg_replace('/\d+/', 'X', $text);

// Output: The price is $X.X and $X.X

// Replace with callback

echo preg_replace_callback('/\d+/', function($matches) {

return $matches[0] * 2;

}, $text);

// Output: The price is $31.98 and $41.00

?>

String Modification

trim(), ltrim(), rtrim() - Remove Whitespace

<?php

$text = " Hello World \n";

echo "|" . trim($text) . "|"; // |Hello World|

echo "|" . ltrim($text) . "|"; // |Hello World |

echo "|" . rtrim($text) . "|"; // | Hello World|

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// Custom characters

$text = "...Hello World...";

echo trim($text, "."); // Hello World

?>

strtolower(), strtoupper(), ucfirst(), ucwords()

<?php

$text = "hello world";

echo strtolower("HELLO WORLD"); // hello world

echo strtoupper($text); // HELLO WORLD

echo ucfirst($text); // Hello world

echo ucwords($text); // Hello World

// Multibyte version for UTF-8

echo mb_strtolower("HELLO WORLD", 'UTF-8');

echo mb_strtoupper("hello world", 'UTF-8');

?>

// Heredoc syntax (for multi-line strings)

$longText = <<<EOT

This is a multi-line string

using heredoc syntax.

You can use "quotes" and 'apostrophes' freely.

Variables like $firstName will be parsed.

EOT;

// Nowdoc syntax (like single quotes)

$nowdocText = <<<'EOT'

This is a nowdoc string.

Variables like $firstName will NOT be parsed.

EOT;

?>

Integer

<?php

// Integer examples
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$age = 25;

$negative = -100;

$large_number = 1000000;

$octal = 0123; // Octal number (83 in decimal)

$hexadecimal = 0x1A; // Hexadecimal number (26 in decimal)

$binary = 0b11111111; // Binary number (255 in decimal)

// Integer range

echo PHP_INT_MAX; // Maximum integer value

echo PHP_INT_MIN; // Minimum integer value

echo PHP_INT_SIZE; // Integer size in bytes

// Integer functions

$number = "123";

var_dump(is_int($number)); // bool(false) - it's a string

var_dump(is_numeric($number)); // bool(true) - it's numeric

// Type casting

$string_num = "456";

$int_num = (int)$string_num; // Convert to integer

$int_num = intval($string_num); // Another way to convert

?>

Float (Floating Point Number / Double)

<?php

// Float examples

$price = 19.99;

$scientific = 1.2e3; // 1200

$negative_float = -3.14;

$large_float = 1.5e-10; // 0.00000000015

// Float precision and limits

echo PHP_FLOAT_MAX; // Maximum float value

echo PHP_FLOAT_MIN; // Minimum positive float value

// Float operations

$result = 0.1 + 0.2; // 0.30000000000000004 (floating point precision issue)

echo round($result, 2); // 0.30 - rounding to 2 decimal places

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// Checking float type

$number = 3.14;

var_dump(is_float($number)); // bool(true)

var_dump(is_double($number)); // bool(true) - float and double are same in PHP

?>

Boolean

<?php

// Boolean values

$is_active = true;

$is_completed = false;

// Values that evaluate to FALSE

$var1 = 0; // zero

$var2 = 0.0; // zero as float

$var3 = ""; // empty string

$var4 = "0"; // string zero

$var5 = array(); // empty array

$var6 = NULL; // null

// Values that evaluate to TRUE

$var7 = 1; // non-zero number

$var8 = -1; // negative number

$var9 = "hello"; // non-empty string

$var10 = array(1); // non-empty array

?>

2. Compound Types

Array

<?php

// Indexed arrays

$fruits = array("Apple", "Banana", "Orange");

$colors = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"]; // Short syntax

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// Accessing array elements

echo $fruits[0]; // Apple

echo $colors[1]; // Green

// Associative arrays

$person = array(

"name" => "Mohmmad",

"age" => 30,

"city" => "New York"

);

// Accessing associative array

echo $person["name"]; // Mohmmad

echo $person["age"]; // 30

// Multi-dimensional arrays

$matrix = [

[1, 2, 3],

[4, 5, 6],

[7, 8, 9]

];

echo $matrix[1][2]; // 6

// Array functions

$numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

echo count($numbers); // 5 - count elements

array_push($numbers, 6); // Add to end

array_pop($numbers); // Remove from end

sort($numbers); // Sort array

?>

Object

<?php

// Simple object from stdClass

$person = new stdClass();

$person->name = "Mohmmad";
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$person->age = 30;

$person->city = "New York";

echo $person->name; // Mohmmad

// Class-based object

class Car {

public $brand;

public $model;

public function __construct($brand, $model) {

$this->brand = $brand;

$this->model = $model;

public function getInfo() {

return $this->brand . " " . $this->model;

$myCar = new Car("Toyota", "Camry");

echo $myCar->getInfo(); // Toyota Camry

?>

3. Special Types

NULL

<?php

// NULL represents a variable with no value

$var1 = NULL;

$var2 = null; // case-insensitive

// Variables are NULL in these cases:

$var3; // declared but not assigned

$var4 = NULL; // explicitly assigned NULL

unset($var5); // after using unset()

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// Checking for NULL

$test_var = NULL;

var_dump(is_null($test_var)); // bool(true)

var_dump($test_var === NULL); // bool(true)

// NULL in conditions

if (is_null($test_var)) {

echo "Variable is NULL";

?>

Resource

<?php

// Resource is a special variable holding reference to external resource

$file_handle = fopen("[Link]", "r"); // File resource

$database_connection = mysqli_connect("localhost", "user", "pass", "db"); // Database resource

// Check resource type

var_dump($file_handle); // resource(3) of type (stream)

// Always close resources when done

fclose($file_handle);

mysqli_close($database_connection);

?>

Type Checking and Conversion

Type Checking Functions

<?php

$var = "Hello";

echo gettype($var); // string

var_dump($var); // string(5) "Hello"

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// Type checking functions

is_string($var); // true

is_int($var); // false

is_float($var); // false

is_bool($var); // false

is_array($var); // false

is_object($var); // false

is_null($var); // false

is_resource($var); // false

is_numeric($var); // false

?>

Type Conversion (Casting)

<?php

// Explicit type casting

$string = "123";

$int = (int)$string; // 123 (integer)

$float = (float)$string; // 123.0 (float)

$bool = (bool)$string; // true (boolean)

$array = (array)$string; // [123] (array)

// Using conversion functions

$number = "45.67";

$int_num = intval($number); // 45

$float_num = floatval($number); // 45.67

$str_num = strval(123); // "123"

// Automatic type conversion (type juggling)

$result = "5" + 2; // 7 (string "5" converted to int)

$result = "5" + "2"; // 7 (both strings converted to int)

$result = "5" . 2; // "52" (int 2 converted to string)

?>

Strict vs Loose Comparison

<?php

// Loose comparison (==) - compares values after type juggling

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var_dump(5 == "5"); // true

var_dump(0 == false); // true

var_dump(1 == true); // true

// Strict comparison (===) - compares both value AND type

var_dump(5 === "5"); // false

var_dump(0 === false); // false

var_dump(1 === true); // false

// Best practice: use strict comparison when possible

?>

Variable Usage in Real Scenarios

<?php

// User registration example

$username = "Mohmmad_Bahmani";

$email = "Mohmmad@[Link]";

$age = 25;

$is_verified = false;

$hobbies = ["reading", "gaming", "coding"];

// Product example

$product = [

"name" => "Laptop",

"price" => 999.99,

"in_stock" => true,

"specs" => ["8GB RAM", "256GB SSD", "Intel i5"]

];

// Configuration example

define('MAX_USERS', 100); // Constant

$site_name = "My Website";

$maintenance_mode = false;

$supported_languages = ["en", "es", "fr"];

?>
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Common Variable Operations

<?php

// Variable interpolation in strings

$name = "Mohmmad";

echo "Hello, $name!"; // Hello, Mohmmad!

echo "Hello, {$name}!"; // Hello, Mohmmad! (recommended)

echo 'Hello, ' . $name . '!'; // Hello, Mohmmad! (concatenation)

// Checking if variable exists

if (isset($username)) {

echo "Username is set";

// Unsetting variables

unset($username);

// Empty check

if (empty($input)) {

echo "Input is empty";

// Variable references

$original = "Hello";

$reference = &$original; // $reference points to same value

$reference = "World";

echo $original; // World (changed through reference)

?>