Comments in PHP

In PHP, we use // to make a single-line comment or /* and */ to make a large comment block.

<html>

<body>

<?php

//This is a comment

/*

This is

a comment

block

*/

?>

</body>

</html> Variables in PHP

Variables are used for storing a values, like text strings, numbers or arrays.

When a variable is set it can be used over and over again in your script

All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol.

The correct way of setting a variable in PHP:

$var_name = value; New PHP programmers often forget the $ sign at the beginning of the variable. In that case it will not work.

Let's try creating a variable with a string, and a variable with a number:

<?php

$txt = "Hello World!";

$number = 16;

?>

PHP is a Loosely Typed Language

In PHP a variable does not need to be declared before being set.

In the example above, you see that you do not have to tell PHP which data type the variable is.

PHP automatically converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on how they are set.

In a strongly typed programming language, you have to declare (define) the type and name of the variable before using it.

In PHP the variable is declared automatically when you use it.

Variable Naming Rules

A variable name must start with a letter or an underscore "_"

A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (a-Z, 0-9, and _ )

A variable name should not contain spaces. If a variable name is more than one word, it should be separated with underscore ($my_string), or with capitalization ($myString)

Strings in PHP

String variables are used for values that contains character strings.

In this tutorial we are going to look at some of the most common functions and operators used to manipulate strings in PHP.

After we create a string we can manipulate it. A string can be used directly in a function or it can be stored in a variable.

Below, the PHP script assigns the string "Hello World" to a string variable called $txt:

<?php

$txt="Hello World";

echo $txt;

?> The output of the code above will be:

Hello World Now, lets try to use some different functions and operators to manipulate our string.

The Concatenation Operator

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⏰ Last updated: Jan 14, 2010 ⏰

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