PHP and MySQL Basics: Introduction

PHP and MySQL Basics: Introduction

Posted by Daniel at 12:13 am

Hello this is the first part of the PHP and MySQL basic tutorial here in my blog. if you have any questions or other concerns feel free to leave a comment or contact me through my contact page. okey before we go deep in learning the PHP langauge. lets first define what php is..

WHAT IS PHP?

• It is a server-side, scripting language. - it does’nt need a compiler to run or it does’nt need to be compiled. Another example of scripting language is Javascript. but unlike Javascript, PHP runs on the web server. Javasript runs on the users browser.

• PHP’s syntax is very similar to C, Perl and Java.
• It is an HTML embedded scripting language. - it is used to output html in the browser. you need to change the extension file of your html to .php to tell the server process it as php.
• It can make your page more dynamic.

WHY USE PHP?

• It is open source - it is free to download and free to use.

• It is cross platform - it can run on windows, mac or linux server, and all browsers.

• Most opensource web applications are powered by PHP - Wordpress, Joomla, Mambo, PhpBB, etc. by learning php you may be able to work with these and also customize it.

• Almost 20Million webpages in the world uses PHP - just like google, friendster, multiply, facebook, etc..

• It is powerful, robust and scalable - it can deliver excellent performance even if your site is a high traffic site.

• it has built in database support -you can create database driven web applications immediately.

• Anything you can do with a regular programming laguages, you can do with PHP - you can perform calculations, validate user inputs, process forms, read and write files etc…