Chapter 1. Basic PHP Development

IN THIS CHAPTER

• How PHP Scripts Work

• Basic PHP Syntax

• Basic PHP Data Types

• Variable Manipulation

• Control Structures

• User-Defined Functions

• Dynamic Variables and Functions

• Multiple File PHP Scripts

• References

• Strings in PHP

• Comparing Strings

• Advanced String Comparison

• Search, Replacement, and Explosion

• Formatting Strings

• Strings and Locales

• Formatting Date and Time Values

PHP represents a powerful Web-scripting language that has continued to grow since the release of PHP 3 in 1997. From a development standpoint, PHP supports such an incredible range of Internet technologies that it has become the favorite Web-scripting language on the Internet today. This chapter is designed to bring you up to speed with the fundamentals of PHP development, as well as lay the foundation for the remainder of this book. I'll be starting with the bare bones of PHP development and working my way through to some of the more complex fundamental aspects of PHP.