PHP Tutorial

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PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a server-side scripting language designed for the web. You embed PHP inside HTML, the server executes the PHP code, and the browser receives pure HTML/CSS/JS.

Tip: PHP powers content systems like WordPress and is great for forms, logins, REST APIs, and dashboards.

Quick Facts

File Extension	`.php`
Runs On	Server (Apache/Nginx/IIS) with PHP engine
Outputs	HTML/CSS/JavaScript (browser can’t see PHP code)
Common DBs	MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite
Use Cases	Forms, sessions, authentication, CMS, e-commerce, APIs

How PHP Works

[Browser] --requests--> [Web Server + PHP] --returns HTML--> [Browser renders page]

First PHP Example

<?php
  // Print Hello World
  echo "Hello, World!";
?>

Try it Yourself »

Embedding PHP inside HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
  <h3>Server Time</h3>
  <p>
  <?php echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s"); ?>
  </p>
</body>
</html>

Note: Save files as .php and run them through a server (XAMPP/WAMP/LAMP) — opening directly in the browser won’t execute PHP.

Prerequisite

Before learning PHP, you should know basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

HTML – structure of a web page
CSS – presentation and layout
JavaScript – client-side interactivity

If you want to study these subjects first, visit our Home page for the tutorials.

Why Learn PHP?

Benefit	What it means for you
Easy to start	Simple syntax, embed in HTML, quick results
Huge ecosystem	Frameworks (Laravel, CodeIgniter), CMS (WordPress)
Database friendly	Connects easily to MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite
Great for backend	Authentication, sessions, REST APIs, admin panels

Next steps: Move to Syntax & Comments to learn tags, statements, and printing values.

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