What is PHP?

PHP is an acronym for “PHP Hypertext Preprocessor”. PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language. PHP scripts are executed on the server.

PHP files can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code. PHP code are executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML. PHP files have extension ".php". PHP is a scripting language that is often embedded into HTML to add functions HTML alone can't do. PHP allows you to collect, process and utilize data to create a desired output. In short, it let's you interact with your pages.

PHP is able to perform a number of tasks including printing data, making numeric calculations (such as addition or multiplication), making comparisons (which is bigger, are they equal, etc) and making simple boolean choices. From this you can create more complex loops and functions to make your page generate more specialized data.

PHP and GD Library can create graphics - You can use PHP to create simple graphics on the fly. You can also use it to edit existing graphics. You might want to do this to resize images, rotate them, or greyscale them. Some practical applications for this are allowing users to edit their avatars or creating CAPTCHA verifications. You can also create dynamic graphics that are always changing.

PHP can interact with MySQL databases - And in doing this, the possibilities are endless. You can write users information to the database and you can retrieve information from the database. This allows you to create pages on the fly using the contents of the database. You can even do more complex things like setting up a login system, creating a website search feature, or keep your store's product catalogue and inventory online.

What Can PHP Do?                                                                                                                          

PHP can generate dynamic page content. PHP can create, open, read, write, delete, and close files on the server. PHP can collect form data. PHP can send and receive cookies. PHP can add, delete, modify data in your database. PHP can restrict users to access some pages on your website. PHP can encrypt data. With PHP you are not limited to output HTML. You can output images, PDF files, and even Flash movies. You can also output any text, such as XHTML and XML.

Why PHP?                                                                                                                                           

PHP runs on various platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.).PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.). PHP supports a wide range of databases. PHP is free. Download it from the official PHP resource: www.php.net. PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side