Chapter 1

Getting Started with PHP

PHP Programming with MySQL

2nd Edition
 Objectives
• Install and configure a Web server
• Install and configure PHP
• Install and configure MySQL
• Create basic PHP scripts and PHP code blocks
• Variables and constants
• Data types
• Expressions and operators
• Casting data types of variables
• Operator precedence
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 2
 Installing Software
• Install a Web server
– [Link]
• Install PHP
– [Link]
• Install MySQL
– [Link]

• Portable WAMP server

– [Link]
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 3
 Understanding Binary and Source
Code Installations
• Binary format (or binaries) refer to compiled
files, such as executable installation programs
• Source code is the original programming code
in which an application was written
• Source code must be compiled, or processed,
and assembled into an executable format before
it is used
• Compiled programs only need to be recompiled
when their code changes

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 4

 Installing and Configuring a Web
Server
• Apache is the most popular Web server software
used on the Internet
• Microsoft IIS for Windows is the second most
popular server software
• In Windows, a service refers to a program that
performs a specific function to support other
programs

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 5

 Testing Your Web Server
1. Open your Web browser
2. Type [Link] in the Address box, click
Enter

Apache’s default Web page

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 6
 Testing Your Web Server
(continued)
3. Type [Link] in the Address box, click
Enter

Web page informing you that IIS is running

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 7
 Configuring Apache
• To configure ports and other settings you must
edit the [Link] file
• For UNIX/Linux
– /usr/local/apache2/conf
• For Windows
– C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf
• Lines that begin with the pound sign (#) are
informational comments
• Lines without pound signs contain directives
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 8
 Configuring Apache (continued)

[Link]
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 9
 Configuring Apache (continued)
• Directives define information about how a
program should be configured
• The DocumentRoot directive identifies the
default directory from where Apache serves
Web pages
• The Alias directive identifies other directories
that Apache can use to serve Web pages

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 10

 Configuring Internet Information
Services

Default Web Site Properties dialog box

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 11
 Configuring Apache for PHP on
UNIX/Linux Platforms
1. Open the [Link] file from the
/usr/local/apache2/conf directory
2. Search for the LoadModule directive:
LoadModule php5_module libexec/[Link]
3. Add the AddType directive to the end of
the file:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

4. Save and close the [Link] file

5. Restart Apache with the command:
/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 12

 Configuring Apache for PHP on
Windows
1. Click the Start menu and point to All
Programs
2. Select the Edit the Apache [Link]
Configuration File command
3. Add the following to the end of the file:
ScriptAlias /PHP/ “C:/PHP/”
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Action application/x-httpd-php “/PHP/[Link]”
4. Save and close the [Link] file
5. Restart Apache and select the Restart
command
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 13
 Configuring PHP

The [Link] configuration file

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 14

 Testing the MySQL Server
1. Check to see if MySQL is running
• For UNIX/Linux systems:
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
• For Windows, use the Services window
2. Run the mysqladmin version command
• For UNIX/Linux systems:
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin version
• For Windows, change to the C:\Program
Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 4.1\bin\ directory
and run:
mysqladmin version
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 15
 Configuring the Uniform Server
– [Link] is located in:
\UniServer\usr\local\php

– [Link] is located in:

\UniServer\usr\local\apache2\conf

– my is located in:
\UniServer\usr\local\mysql

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 16

 Creating Basic PHP Scripts
• Embedded language refers to code that is embedded
within a Web page (XHTML document)
• PHP code is typed directly into a Web page as
a separate section
• A Web page document containing PHP code must have
an extension of .php
• PHP code is never sent to a client’s Web browser

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 17

 Creating Basic PHP Scripts
(continued)
• The Web page generated from the PHP code,
and HTML or XHTML elements found within the
PHP file, is returned to the client
• A PHP file that does not contain any PHP code
should have an .html extension
• .php is the default extension that most Web
servers use to process PHP scripts

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 18

 Creating PHP Code Blocks
• Code declaration blocks are separate sections
within a Web page that are interpreted by the
scripting engine
• There are four types of code declaration blocks:
– Standard PHP script delimiters
– The <script> element
– Short PHP script delimiters
– ASP-style script delimiters

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 19

 Standard PHP Script Delimiters
• A delimiter is a character or sequence of
characters used to mark the beginning and end
of a code segment
• The standard method of writing PHP code
declaration blocks is to use the <?php and ?>
script delimiters
• The individual lines of code that make up a PHP
script are called statements

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 20

 The <script> Element
• The <script> element identifies a script
section in a Web page document
• Assign a value of "php" to the language attribute
of the <script> element to identify the code
block as PHP

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 21

 Short PHP Script Delimiters
• The syntax for the short PHP script delimiters is
<? statements; ?>
• Short delimiters can be disabled in a Web
server’s [Link] configuration file
• PHP scripts will not work if your Web site ISP
does not support short PHP script delimiters
• Short delimiters can be used in XHTML
documents, but not in XML documents

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 22

 ASP-Style Script Delimiters
• The syntax for the ASP-style script delimiters is
<% statements; %>
• ASP-style script delimiters can be used in
XHTML documents, but not in XML documents
• ASP-style script delimiters can be enabled or
disabled in the [Link] configuration file
• To enable or disable ASP-style script delimiters,
assign a value of “On” or “Off ” to the asp_tags
directive in the [Link] configuration file
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 23
 Understanding Functions
• A function is a subroutine (or individual statements
grouped into a logical unit) that performs a specific task
– To execute a function, you must invoke, or call, it
from somewhere in the script
• A function call is the function name followed by
any data that the function needs
• The data (in parentheses following the function
name) are called arguments or actual parameters
• Sending data to a called function is called passing
arguments

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 24

 Displaying Script Results
• To return to the client the results of any
processing that occurs within a PHP code block,
you must use an echo() statement or the
print() statement
• The echo() and print() statements create
new text on a Web page that is returned as a
response to a client

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 25

 Displaying Script Results
(continued)

PHP Diagnostic Information Web page

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 26

 Displaying Script Results
(continued)
• The echo() and print() statements are
language constructs of the PHP programming
language
• A programming language construct refers to
a built-in feature of a programming language
• The echo() and print() statements are
virtually identical except:
– The print() statement returns a value of 1 if
it is successful
– It returns a value of 0 if it is not successful

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 27

 Displaying Script Results
(continued)
• Use the echo() and print() statements to
return the results of a PHP script within a Web
page that is returned to a client
• A text string, or literal string, is text that is
contained within double or single quotation
marks
• To pass multiple arguments to the echo() and
print() statements, separate them with
commas like arguments passed to a function

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 28

Creating Multiple Code Declaration
Blocks
• For multiple script sections in a document,
include a separate code declaration block for
each section
...
</head>
<body>
<h1>Multiple Script Sections</h1>
<h2>First Script Section</h2>
<?php echo “<p>Output from the first script section.</p>”;
?>
<h2>Second Script Section</h2>
<?php echo “<p>Output from the second script section.</p>”
;?>
</body>
</html>

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 29

Creating Multiple Code Declaration
Blocks (continued)
• PHP code declaration blocks execute on a Web
server before a Web page is sent to a client
...
</head>
<body>
<h1>Multiple Script Sections</h1>
<h2>First Script Section</h2>
<p>Output from the first script section.</p>
<h2>Second Script Section</h2>
<p>Output from the second script section.</p>
</body>
</html>

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 30

Creating Multiple Code Declaration
Blocks (continued)

Figure 1-9 Output of a document with two PHP script sections

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 31

 Case Sensitivity in PHP
• Programming language constructs in PHP are
mostly case insensitive

<?php
echo “<p>Explore <strong>Africa</strong>, <br />”;
Echo “<strong>South America</strong>, <br />”;
ECHO “ and <strong>Australia</strong>!</p>”;
?>

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 32

 Adding Comments to a PHP Script
• Comments are nonprinting lines placed in code
such as:
– The name of the script
– Your name and the date you created the program
– Notes to yourself
– Instructions to future programmers who might
need to modify your work

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 33

 Adding Comments to a PHP Script
(continued)
• Line comments hide a single line of code
– Add // or # before the text
• Block comments hide multiple lines of code
– Add /* to the first line of code
– And */ after the last character in the code

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 34

 Adding Comments to a PHP Script
(continued)
<?php
/*
This line is part of the block comment.
This line is also part of the block comment.
*/
echo “<h1>Comments Example</h1>”; // Line comments can follow
code statements
// This line comment takes up an entire line.
# This is another way of creating a line comment.
/* This is another way of creating
a block comment. */
?>

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 35

 Using Variables and Constants
• The values stored in computer memory are
called variables
• The name you assign to a variable is called an
identifier and it:
– Must begin with a dollar sign ($)
– Cannot begin with an underscore (_) or a number
– Cannot include spaces
– Is case sensitive

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 36

 Declaring and Initializing Variables
• Specifying and creating a variable name is
called declaring the variable
• Assigning a first value to a variable is called
initializing the variable
• In PHP, you must declare and initialize a
variable in the same statement:
$variable_name = value;

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 37

 Displaying Variables
• To print a variable with the echo() statement,
pass the variable name to the echo()
statement without enclosing it in quotation marks:
$VotingAge = 18;
Echo $VotingAge;
• To print both text strings and variables, send
them to the echo() statement as individual
arguments, separated by commas:
echo "<p>The legal voting age is ", $VotingAge, ".</p>";

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 38

 Displaying Variables
• To print text strings and variables, you can send
them to the echo() statement as one argument
enclosed in double quotes:
echo "<p>The legal voting age is $VotingAge.</p>";
The legal voting age is 18.

• To print text strings and the variable name, you

can send them to the echo() statement as one
argument enclosed in single quotes:
echo ‘<p>The legal voting age is $VotingAge.</p>’;
The legal voting age is $VotingAge

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 39

 Modifying Variables
• You can modify a variable’s value at any point in a
script
$SalesTotal = 40;
echo "<p>Your sales total is
$$SalesTotal</p>";
$SalesTotal = 50;
echo "<p>Your new sales total is
$$SalesTotal</p>";

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 40

 Defining Constants
• A constant contains information that does not
change during the course of program execution
• Constant names do not begin with a dollar sign
• Constant names use all uppercase letters
• Use the define() function to create a constant
define("CONSTANT_NAME", value);
define("VOTING_AGE",18);
define("VOTING_AGE",18,TRUE);
• The value you pass to the define() function
can be a text string, number, or Boolean value
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 41
 Working with Data Types
• A data type is the specific category of
information that a variable contains
• Data types that can be assigned only a single
value are called primitive types

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 42

 Working with Data Types
(continued)
• The PHP language supports:
– A resource data type – a special variable that
holds a reference to an external resource such
as a database or XML file
– Reference or composite data types, which
contain multiple values or complex types of
information
– Two reference data types: arrays and objects

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 43

 Working with Data Types
(continued)
• Strongly typed programming languages
require you to declare the data types of
variables
• Static or strong typing refers to data types that
do not change after they have been declared
• Loosely typed programming languages do
not require you to declare the data types of
variables
• Dynamic or loose typing refers to data types
that can change after they have been declared
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 44
 Numeric Data Types
PHP supports two numeric data types:
• An integer is a positive or negative number with
no decimal places (-250, 2, 100, 10,000)
• A floating-point number is a number that
contains decimal places or that is written in
exponential notation (-6.16, 3.17, 2.7541)
– Exponential notation, or scientific notation, is
short for writing very large numbers or numbers
with many decimal places (2.0e11)

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 45

 Boolean Values
• A Boolean value is a value of true or false
• It decides which part of a program should
execute and which part should compare data
• In PHP programming, you can only use true or
false
• In other programming languages, you can use
integers such as 1 = true, 0 = false

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 46

 Dynamic Typing
• $Variable = "Hello World";
• $Variable = 8;
• $Variable = 5.367;
• $Variable = TRUE;
• $Variable = NULL;

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 47

 Arrays
• An array contains a set of data represented by a
single variable name

Figure 1-17 Conceptual example of an array

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 48

 Declaring and Initializing Indexed
Arrays
• An element refers to each piece of data that is
stored within an array
• An index is an element’s numeric position within
the array
– By default, indexes begin with the number zero
(0)
– An element is referenced by enclosing its index in
brackets at the end of the array name:
$Provinces[1]

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 49

 Creating an Array
• The array() construct syntax is:
$array_name = array(values);
$Provinces = array(
"Newfoundland and Labrador",
"Prince Edward Island",
"Nova Scotia",
"New Brunswick",
"Quebec",
"Ontario",
"Manitoba",
"Saskatchewan",
"Alberta",
"British Columbia"
);

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 50

 Creating an Array (continued)
• Array name and brackets syntax is:
$array_name[ ]
$Provinces[] = "Newfoundland and Labrador";
$Provinces[] = "Prince Edward Island";
$Provinces[] = "Nova Scotia";
$Provinces[] = "New Brunswick";
$Provinces[] = "Quebec";
$Provinces[] = "Ontario";
$Provinces[] = "Manitoba";
$Provinces[] = "Saskatchewan";
$Provinces[] = "Alberta";
$Provinces[] = "British Columbia";

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 51

 Accessing Element Information
echo "<p>Canada's smallest province is $Provinces[1].<br />";
echo "Canada's largest province is $Provinces[4].</p>";

Figure 1-18 Output of elements in the $Provinces[ ] array

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 52

 count() Function
• Use the count() function to find the total
number of elements in an array

$Provinces = array("Newfoundland and Labrador", "Prince Edward

Island", "Nova Scotia", "New Brunswick", "Quebec", "Ontario", "
Manitoba", "Saskatchewan", "Alberta", "British Columbia");
$Territories = array("Nunavut", "Northwest Territories", "Yukon
Territory");
echo "<p>Canada has ", count($Provinces), “ provinces and ",
count($Territories), “ territories.</p>";

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 53

 count() Function (continued)

Figure 1-19 Output of the count() function

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 54

 print_r(), var_export(), and
var_dump() Functions
• Use to print or return information about variables
• Most useful with arrays because they print the
index and value of each element

Figure 1-21 Output of the $Provinces[ ] array with the

print_r() function
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 55
 Modifying Elements
• Include the index for an individual element of the
array:
$HospitalDepts = array(
"Anesthesia", // first element(0)
"Molecular Biology", // second element (1)
"Neurology"); // third element (2)

To change the first array element in the

$HospitalDepts[] array from “Anesthesia” to
“Anesthesiology” use:
$HospitalDepts[0] = "Anesthesiology";

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 56

 Avoiding Assignment Notation
Pitfalls
• Assigns the string “Hello” to a variable named
$list
$list = "Hello";
• Assigns the string “Hello” to a new element
appended to the end of the $list array
$list[] = "Hello";
• Replaces the value stored in the first element
(index 0) of the $list array with the string “Hello”
$list[0] = "Hello";

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 57

 Building Expressions
• An expression is a literal value or variable that
can be evaluated by the PHP scripting engine to
produce a result
• Operands are variables and literals contained in
an expression
• A literal is a value such as a literal string or a
number
• Operators are symbols (+) (*) that are used in
expressions to manipulate operands

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 58

 Building Expressions (continued)

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 59

 Building Expressions (continued)

• A binary operator requires an operand before

and after the operator
– $MyNumber = 100;

• A unary operator requires a single operand

either before or after the operator

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 60

 Arithmetic Operators
• Arithmetic operators are used in PHP to
perform mathematical calculations (+ - x ÷)

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 61

 Arithmetic Operators (continued)
$DivisionResult = 15 / 6;
$ModulusResult = 15 % 6;
echo "<p>15 divided by 6 is
$DivisionResult.</p>"; // prints '2.5'
echo "The whole number 6 goes into 15 twice, with a
remainder of $ModulusResult.</p>"; // prints '3'

Figure 1-23 Division and modulus expressions

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 62

 Arithmetic Unary Operators
• The increment (++) and decrement (--) unary
operators can be used as prefix or postfix
operators
• A prefix operator is placed before a variable
• A postfix operator is placed after a variable

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 63

Arithmetic Unary Operators (continued)

Figure 1-24 Script that uses the prefix

increment operator

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 64

Arithmetic Unary Operators (continued)

Figure 1-25 Output of the prefix version of the student ID script

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 65

Arithmetic Unary Operators (continued)

Figure 1-26 Script that uses the postfix increment operator

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 66

Arithmetic Unary Operators (continued)

Figure 1-27 Output of the postfix version of the student ID script

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 67

 Assignment Operators
• Assignment operators are used for assigning
a value to a variable:
$MyFavoriteSuperHero = "Superman";
$MyFavoriteSuperHero = "Batman";
• Compound assignment operators perform
mathematical calculations on variables and
literal values in an expression, and then assign
a new value to the left operand

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 68

 Assignment Operators (continued)

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 69

 Assignment Operators
$x = 100;
$y = 200;
$x += $y;
echo $x;

$x = 10;
$y = 7;
$x -= $y;
echo $x;
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 70
 Comparison and Conditional
Operators
• Comparison operators are used to compare two
operands and determine how one operand
compares to another
• A Boolean value of true or false is returned after
two operands are compared
• The comparison operator compares values,
whereas the assignment operator assigns values
• Comparison operators are used with conditional
statements and looping statements

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 71

 Comparison and Conditional
Operators (continued)

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 72

 Comparison and Conditional
Operators (continued)
• The conditional operator executes one of two
expressions, based on the results of a
conditional expression
• The syntax for the conditional operator is:
conditional expression ? expression1 :
expression2;
• If the conditional expression evaluates to true,
expression1 executes
• If the conditional expression evaluates to false,
expression2 executes

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 73

 Comparison and Conditional
Operators (continued)
$BlackjackPlayer1 = 20;
($BlackjackPlayer1 <= 21) ? $Result =
"Player 1 is still in the game. " : $Result =
"Player 1 is out of the action.";
echo "<p>", $Result, "</p>";

Figure 1-31 Output of a script with a conditional operator

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 74

 Logical Operators
• Logical operators are used for comparing two
Boolean operands for equality
• A Boolean value of TRUE or FALSE is returned
after two operands are compared

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 75

 Logical Operators
<?php
$TrueValue = true;
$FalseValue = false;
!$TrueValue ? $ReturnValue = "true" :
$ReturnValue = "false";
echo "<p>$ReturnValue<br />";
!$FalseValue ? $ReturnValue = "true" :
$ReturnValue = "false";
echo "$ReturnValue<br />";
$TrueValue || $FalseValue ? $ReturnValue = "true" :
$ReturnValue = "false";
echo "$ReturnValue<br />";
$TrueValue && $FalseValue ? $ReturnValue = "true" :
$ReturnValue = "false";
echo "$ReturnValue<br />";
?>

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 76

 Special Operators

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 77

 Type Casting
• Casting or type casting copies the value
contained in a variable of one data type into a
variable of another data type
• The PHP syntax for casting variables is:
$NewVariable = (new_type) $OldVariable;
• (new_type) refers to the type-casting operator
representing the type to which you want to cast
the variable

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 78

 gettype() function
• Returns one of the following strings, depending
on the data type:
– Boolean
– Integer
– Double
– String
– Array
– Object
– Resource
– NULL
– Unknown type
PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 79
 gettype()and is*() functions
$MortgageRate = .0575;
echo gettype(MortgageRate);

$MortgageRate = .0575;
(is_double(MortgageRate)) ?Result =
“Contains decimal”:
Result = “No decimal”;
Echo $Result

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 80

 Understanding Operator
Precedence
• Operator precedence refers to the order in
which operations in an expression are evaluated
• Associativity is the order in which operators of
equal precedence execute
• Associativity is evaluated on a left-to-right or a
right-to-left basis

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 81

 Understanding Operator
Precedence (continued)

PHP Programming with MySQL, 2nd Edition 82