Learn PHP By Your Self

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Introduction To PHP: ............................................................................................................................. 4
PHP - What is it? ................................................................................................................................... 4
PHP - What's it do? ............................................................................................................................... 4
What You Should Know.......................................................................................................................... 4
PHP - Necessary Setup .......................................................................................................................... 5
Installing PHP ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Installing MySQL ................................................................................................................................... 5
PHP - Syntax ........................................................................................................................................ 6
How to Save Your PHP Pages ................................................................................................................. 6
Example Simple HTML & PHP Page ......................................................................................................... 6
The Semicolon! ..................................................................................................................................... 7
White Space ......................................................................................................................................... 7
PHP - Variables ..................................................................................................................................... 8
A Quick Variable Example ...................................................................................................................... 8
PHP Variable Naming Conventions .......................................................................................................... 8
PHP - Echo ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Outputting a String ............................................................................................................................... 8
Careful When Echoing Quotes! ............................................................................................................... 9
Echoing Variables .................................................................................................................................. 9
Echoing Variables and Text Strings ....................................................................................................... 10
PHP Echo - Not a Function ................................................................................................................... 10
PHP - Strings ...................................................................................................................................... 10
PHP - String Creation .......................................................................................................................... 10
PHP - String Creation Single Quotes ..................................................................................................... 11
PHP - String Creation Double-Quotes ................................................................................................... 11
PHP - String Creation Heredoc ............................................................................................................. 12
PHP - Operators .................................................................................................................................. 12
Assignment Operators ......................................................................................................................... 12
Arithmetic Operators ........................................................................................................................... 13
Comparison Operators ......................................................................................................................... 13
String Operators ................................................................................................................................. 14
Combination Arithmetic & Assignment Operators .................................................................................. 14
Pre/Post-Increment & Pre/Post-Decrement ........................................................................................... 14
Using Comments in PHP ...................................................................................................................... 15
PHP Comment Syntax: Single Line Comment ........................................................................................ 15
PHP Comment Syntax: Multiple Line Comment ...................................................................................... 16
Good Commenting Practices ................................................................................................................ 16
PHP Include ........................................................................................................................................ 16
An Include Example ............................................................................................................................ 17
What do Visitors See? ......................................................................................................................... 17
Include Recap ..................................................................................................................................... 18
PHP Require ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Require vs Include .............................................................................................................................. 18
The If Statement ................................................................................................................................ 19
The PHP If Statement .......................................................................................................................... 19
If Statement Example ......................................................................................................................... 19
A False If Statement ........................................................................................................................... 20
If/Else Conditional Statment ................................................................................................................ 20
If/Else an Example .............................................................................................................................. 20
Execute Else Code with False ............................................................................................................... 21
PHP - Elseif ........................................................................................................................................ 21
PHP - Elseif What is it? ........................................................................................................................ 21
PHP - Using Elseif with If...Else ............................................................................................................ 22
PHP Switch Statement ......................................................................................................................... 22
PHP Switch Statement: Speedy Checking ............................................................................................. 22
PHP Switch Statement Example ........................................................................................................... 23
PHP Switch Statement: Default Case .................................................................................................... 23
Using PHP With HTML Forms ................................................................................................................ 24
Creating the HTML Form ...................................................................................................................... 24
PHP Form Processor ............................................................................................................................ 25
PHP & HTML Form Review .................................................................................................................... 26

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PHP - Functions .................................................................................................................................. 26
Creating Your First PHP Function .......................................................................................................... 27
Using Your PHP Function ...................................................................................................................... 27
PHP Functions - Parameters ................................................................................................................. 28
PHP Functions - Returning Values ......................................................................................................... 29
PHP Functions - Practice Makes Perfect ................................................................................................. 30
PHP Array ........................................................................................................................................... 30
PHP - A Numerically Indexed Array ...................................................................................................... 30
PHP - Associative Arrays...................................................................................................................... 31
PHP - While Loop ................................................................................................................................ 31
Simple While Loop Example ................................................................................................................. 32
A Real While Loop Example .................................................................................................................. 32
PHP - For Loop .................................................................................................................................... 33
For Loop Example ............................................................................................................................... 34
PHP For Each Loop .............................................................................................................................. 35
PHP For Each: Example ....................................................................................................................... 35
Foreach Syntax: $something as $key => $value ................................................................................... 35
PHP - Do While Loop ........................................................................................................................... 36
PHP - While Loop and Do While Loop Contrast ...................................................................................... 36
PHP - POST & GET .............................................................................................................................. 36
POST - Review .................................................................................................................................... 37
PHP - GET .......................................................................................................................................... 37
Security Precautions ........................................................................................................................... 38
PHP - Magic Quotes ............................................................................................................................. 38
Magic Quotes - Are They Enabled? ....................................................................................................... 38
Magic Quotes in Action ........................................................................................................................ 38
Removing Backslashes - stripslashes() ................................................................................................. 39
PHP htmlentities Function .................................................................................................................... 39
PHP - Converting HTML into Entities ..................................................................................................... 40
When Would You Use htmlentities? ....................................................................................................... 41
PHP - Files .......................................................................................................................................... 41
PHP - Files: Be Careful ........................................................................................................................ 41
PHP - Files: Overview .......................................................................................................................... 41
PHP - File Create ................................................................................................................................ 41
PHP - Creating Confusion .................................................................................................................... 41
PHP - How to Create a File .................................................................................................................. 41
PHP - Permissions ............................................................................................................................... 42
PHP - File Open .................................................................................................................................. 42
PHP - Different Ways to Open a File ..................................................................................................... 42
PHP - Explanation of Different Types of fopen ....................................................................................... 44
PHP - File Open: Advanced .................................................................................................................. 44
PHP - File Open: Cookie Cutter ............................................................................................................ 44
PHP - File Open: Summary .................................................................................................................. 44
PHP - File Close .................................................................................................................................. 44
PHP - File Close Description ................................................................................................................. 44
PHP - File Close Function ..................................................................................................................... 45
PHP - File Write .................................................................................................................................. 45
PHP - File Open: Write ........................................................................................................................ 45
PHP - File Write: fwrite Function .......................................................................................................... 45
PHP - File Write: Overwriting ............................................................................................................... 46
PHP - File Read ................................................................................................................................... 46
PHP - File Open: Read ......................................................................................................................... 46
PHP - File Read: fread Function ............................................................................................................ 46
PHP - File Read: gets Function ............................................................................................................. 47
PHP - File Delete ................................................................................................................................. 47
PHP - File Unlink ................................................................................................................................. 48
PHP - Unlink Function .......................................................................................................................... 48
PHP - Unlink: Safety First! ................................................................................................................... 48
PHP - File Append ............................................................................................................................... 48
PHP - File Open: Append ..................................................................................................................... 48
PHP - File Write: Appending Data ......................................................................................................... 49

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PHP - Append: Why Use It? ................................................................................................................. 49
PHP - File Truncate ............................................................................................................................. 49
PHP - File Open: Truncate .................................................................................................................... 49
PHP - Truncate: Why Use It? ................................................................................................................ 49
PHP - File Upload ................................................................................................................................ 50
PHP - File Upload: HTML Form ............................................................................................................. 50
PHP - File Upload: What's the PHP Going to Do? ................................................................................... 50
PHP - File Upload: uploader.php ........................................................................................................... 51
PHP - File Upload: move_uploaded_file Function ................................................................................... 51
PHP - File Upload: Safe Practices! ........................................................................................................ 52
PHP - String Position - strpos .............................................................................................................. 52
Searching a String with strpos ............................................................................................................. 52
Finding All Occurrences in a String with Offset ...................................................................................... 53
PHP str_replace Function ..................................................................................................................... 54
str_replace Parameters ....................................................................................................................... 54
str_replace Simple Example................................................................................................................. 54
str_replace Arrays: Multiple Replaces in One ........................................................................................ 54
PHP substr_replace Function ................................................................................................................ 56
substr_replace's Four Parameters ........................................................................................................ 56
substr_replace On Your Mark ............................................................................................................... 56
substr_replace Specifying a Length ...................................................................................................... 57
substr_replace Perform an Insert ......................................................................................................... 57
PHP - String Capitalization Functions .................................................................................................... 58
Converting a String to Upper Case - strtoupper .................................................................................... 58
Converting a String to Lower Case - strtolower ..................................................................................... 59
Capitalizing the First Letter - ucwords .................................................................................................. 59
PHP - String Explode ........................................................................................................................... 60
The explode Function .......................................................................................................................... 60
explode Function - Setting a Limit ........................................................................................................ 60
PHP - Array implode ............................................................................................................................ 61
PHP implode - Repairing the Damage ................................................................................................... 61
PHP Date - Robust Dates and Times ..................................................................................................... 62
PHP Date - The Timestamp .................................................................................................................. 62
PHP Date - What Time Is It? ................................................................................................................ 62
PHP Date - Supplying a Timestamp ...................................................................................................... 63
PHP Date - Reference .......................................................................................................................... 63
PHP Sessions - Why Use Them? ........................................................................................................... 64
PHP Sessions - Overview ..................................................................................................................... 64
Starting a PHP Session ........................................................................................................................ 64
Storing a Session Variable ................................................................................................................... 65
PHP Sessions: Using PHP's isset Function ............................................................................................. 65
Cleaning and Destroying your Session .................................................................................................. 66
PHP Cookies - Background ................................................................................................................... 66
Creating Your First PHP Cookie ............................................................................................................ 66
Retrieving Your Fresh Cookie ............................................................................................................... 67

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Introduction To PHP:
If you want to learn the basics of PHP, then you've come to the right place. The goal of this tutorial is
to teach you the basics of PHP so that you can:
Customize PHP scripts that you download, so that they better fit your needs.
Begin to understand the working model of PHP, so you may begin to design your own PHP projects.
Give you a solid base in PHP, so as to make you more valuable in the eyes of future employers.
PHP stands for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor.
PHP - What is it?
Taken directly from PHP's home, PHP.net, "PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its
syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The
goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly."
This is generally a good definition of PHP. However, it does contain a lot of terms you may not be used
to. Another way to think of PHP is a powerful, behind the scenes scripting language that your visitors
won't see!
When someone visits your PHP webpage, your web server processes the PHP code. It then sees which
parts it needs to show to visitors (content and pictures) and hides the other stuff (file operations, math
calculations, etc.) then translates your PHP into HTML. After the translation into HTML, it sends the
webpage to your visitor's web browser.
PHP - What's it do?
It is also helpful to think of PHP in terms of what it can do for you. PHP will allow you to:
Reduce the time to create large websites.
Create a customized user experience for visitors based on information that you have gathered from
them.
Open up thousands of possibilities for online tools. Check out PHP – Hot Scripts for examples of the
great things that are possible with PHP.
Allow creation of shopping carts for e-commerce websites.
What You Should Know
Before starting this tutorial it is important that you have a basic understanding and experience in the
following:

HTML Know the syntax and especially HTML Forms.

Basic programming This isn't required, but if you have any traditional programming
knowledge experience it will make learning PHP a great deal easier.

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PHP - Necessary Setup

To begin working with PHP you must first have access to either of the following:
A web hosting account that supports the use of PHP web pages and grants you access to MySQL
databases. If you do not have a host, but are interested in signing up for one, we recommend that you
first read our Web Host Guide to educate yourself about web hosting and avoid getting ripped off.
Have PHP and MySQL installed on your own computer. Read this lesson thoroughly for more
information on installing PHP.
Although MySQL is not absolutely necessary to use PHP, MySQL and PHP are wonderful complements
to one another and some topics covered in this tutorial will require that you have MySQL access.

Installing PHP
For those who are experienced enough to do this yourself, simply head over to PHP.net - Downloads
and download the most recent version of PHP.
However, if you are like most of us, you will most likely want to follow a guide to installing PHP onto
your computer. These guides are kindly provided by PHP.net based on the operating system that you
are using.

PHP - Windows - Windows Installation Guide

PHP - Mac - Mac Installation Guide
PHP - Linux - Linux Installation Guide

Installing MySQL
As we mentioned before, MySQL is not a requirement to use PHP, however they often go hand in hand.
Visit MySQL's MySQL Installation Guide for help on installing MySQL.

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PHP - Syntax
Before we talk about PHP's syntax, let us first define what syntax is referring to.
Syntax - The rules that must be followed to write properly structured code.
PHP's syntax and semantics are similar to most other programming languages (C, Java, Perl) with the
addition that all PHP code is contained with a tag, of sorts. All PHP code must be contained within the
following...

PHP Code:
<?php
?>

or the shorthand PHP tag that requires shorthand support to be enabled

on your server...

<?
?>

If you are writing PHP scripts and plan on distributing them, we suggest that you use the standard
form (which includes the ?php) rather than the shorthand form. This will ensure that your scripts will
work, even when running on other servers with different settings.
How to Save Your PHP Pages
If you have PHP inserted into your HTML and want the web browser to interpret it correctly, then you
must save the file with a .php extension, instead of the standard .html extension. So be sure to check
that you are saving your files correctly. Instead of index.html, it should be index.php if there is PHP
code in the file.
Example Simple HTML & PHP Page
Below is an example of one of the easiest PHP and HTML page that you can create and still follow web
standards.

PHP and HTML Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>My First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hello World!";
?>
</body>
</html>

Display:
Hello World!
If you save this file (e.g. helloworld.php) and place it on PHP enabled server and load it up in your web
browser, then you should see "Hello World!" displayed. If not, please check that you followed our
example correctly.
We used the PHP command echo to write "Hello World!" and we will be talking in greater depth about
how echo is special later on in this tutorial.
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The Semicolon!
As you may or may not have noticed in the above example, there was a semicolon after the line of PHP
code. The semicolon signifies the end of a PHP statement and should never be forgotten. For example,
if we repeated our "Hello World!" code several times, then we would need to place a semicolon at the
end of each statement.

PHP and HTML Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>My First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
?>
</body>
</html>

Display:
Hello World! Hello World! Hello World! Hello World! Hello World!

White Space
As with HTML, whitespace is ignored between PHP statements. This means it is OK to have one line of
PHP code, then 20 lines of blank space before the next line of PHP code. You can also press tab to
indent your code and the PHP interpreter will ignore those spaces as well.

PHP and HTML Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>My First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hello World!";
echo "Hello World!";
?>
</body>
</html>

Display:
Hello World!Hello World!
This is perfectly legal PHP code.

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PHP - Variables
If you have never had any programming, Algebra, or scripting experience, then the concept of
variables might be a new concept to you. A detailed explanation of variables is beyond the scope of
this tutorial, but we've included a refresher crash course to guide you.
A variable is a means of storing a value, such as text string "Hello World!" or the integer value 4. A
variable can then be reused throughout your code, instead of having to type out the actual value over
and over again. In PHP you define a variable with the following form:
$variable_name = Value;
If you forget that dollar sign at the beginning, it will not work. This is a common mistake for new PHP
programmers!
Note: Also, variable names are case-sensitive, so use the exact same capitalization when using a
variable. The variables $a_number and $A_number are different variables in PHP's eyes.
A Quick Variable Example
Say that we wanted to store the values that we talked about in the above paragraph. How would we
go about doing this? We would first want to make a variable name and then set that equal to the value
we want. See our example below for the correct way to do this.

PHP Code:
<?php
$hello = "Hello World!";
$a_number = 4;
$anotherNumber = 8;
?>

Note for programmers: PHP does not require variables to be deNaeemd before being initialized.
PHP Variable Naming Conventions
There are a few rules that you need to follow when choosing a name for your PHP variables.
PHP variables must start with a letter or underscore "_".
PHP variables may only be comprised of alpha-numeric characters and underscores. a-z, A-Z, 0-9, or _
Variables with more than one word should be separated with underscores. $my_variable
Variables with more than one word can also be distinguished with capitalization. $myVariable
PHP - Echo
As you saw in the previous lesson, the PHP command echo is a means of outputting text to the web
browser. Throughout your PHP career you will be using the echo command more than any other. So
let's give it a solid perusal!
Outputting a String
To output a string, like we have done in previous lessons, use PHP echo. You can place either a string
variable or you can use quotes, like we do below, to create a string that the echo function will output.

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PHP Code:
<?php
$myString = "Hello!";
echo $myString;
echo "<h5>I love using PHP!</h5>";
?>

Display:
Hello!

I love using PHP!

In the above example we output "Hello!" without a hitch. The text we are outputting is being sent to
the user in the form of a web page, so it is important that we use proper HTML syntax!
In our second echo statement we use echo to write a valid Header 5 HTML statement. To do this we
simply put the <h5> at the beginning of the string and closed it at the end of the string. Just because
you're using PHP to make web pages does not mean you can forget about HTML syntax!
Careful When Echoing Quotes!
It is pretty cool that you can output HTML with PHP. However, you must be careful when using
HTML code or any other string that includes quotes! Echo uses quotes to define the beginning
and end of the string, so you must use one of the following tactics if your string contains quotations:
Don't use quotes inside your string
Escape your quotes that are within the string with a backslash. To escape a quote just place a
backslash directly before the quotation mark, i.e. \"
Use single quotes (apostrophes) for quotes inside your string.
See our example below for the right and wrong use of echo:

PHP Code:
<?php
// This won't work because of the quotes around specialH5!
echo "<h5 class="specialH5">I love using PHP!</h5>";

// OK because we escaped the quotes!

echo "<h5 class=\"specialH5\">I love using PHP!</h5>";

// OK because we used an apostrophe '

echo "<h5 class='specialH5'>I love using PHP!</h5>";
?>

If you want to output a string that includes quotations, either use an apostrophe ( ' ) or escape the
quotations by placing a backslash in front of it ( \" ). The backslash will tell PHP that you want the
quotation to be used within the string and NOT to be used to end echo's string.
Echoing Variables
Echoing variables is very easy. The PHP developers put in some extra work to make the common task
of echoing all variables nearly foolproof! No quotations are required, even if the variable does not hold
a string. Below is the correct format for echoing a variable.

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PHP Code:
<?php
$my_string = "Hello Bilal. My name is: ";
$my_number = 4;
$my_letter = a;
echo $my_string;
echo $my_number;
echo $my_letter;
?>

Display:
Hello Bilal. My name is: 4a

Echoing Variables and Text Strings

You can also combine text strings and variables. By doing such a conjunction you save yourself from
having to do a large number of echo statements. Variables and text strings are joined together with a
period( . ). The example below shows how to do such a combination.

PHP Code:
<?php
$my_string = "Hello Bilal. My name is: ";
$newline = "<br />";
echo $my_string."Bilalettta".$newline;
echo "Hi, I'm Bilal. Who are you? ".$my_string.$newline;
echo "Hi, I'm Bilal. Who are you? ".$my_string."Bilaletta";
?>

Display:
Hello Bilal. My name is: Bilaletta
Hi, I'm Bilal. Who are you? Hello Bilal. My name is:
Hi, I'm Bilal. Who are you? Hello Bilal. My name is: Bilaletta
This combination can be done multiple times, as the example shows. This method of joining two or
more strings together is called concatenation and we will talk more about this and other forms of
string manipulation in our string lesson.
PHP Echo - Not a Function
Echo is not a function, rather it is a language construct. When you use functions in PHP, they have a
very particular form, which we will be going over later. For now, just know that echo is a special tool
that you'll come to know and love!
PHP - Strings
In the last lesson, PHP Echo, we used strings a bit, but didn't talk about them in depth. Throughout
your PHP career you will be using strings a great deal, so it is important to have a basic understanding
of PHP strings.
PHP - String Creation
Before you can use a string you have to create it! A string can be used directly in a function or it can
be stored in a variable. Below we create the exact same string twice: first storing it into a variable and
in the second case we send the string directly to echo.

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PHP Code:
$my_string = "Shoaib & Shakeel - Unlock your potential!";
echo "Shoaib & Shakeel - Unlock your potential!";
echo $my_string;

In the above example the first string will be stored into the variable $my_string, while the second
string will be used in the echo and not be stored. Remember to save your strings into variables if you
plan on using them more than once! Below is the output from our example code. They look identical
just as we thought.

Display:
Shoaib & Shakeel - Unlock your potential! Shoaib & Shakeel - Unlock your potential!

PHP - String Creation Single Quotes

Thus far we have created strings using double-quotes, but it is just as correct to create a string using
single-quotes, otherwise known as apostrophes.

PHP Code:
$my_string = 'Shoaib & Shakeel - Unlock your potential!';
echo 'Shoaib & Shakeel - Unlock your potential!';
echo $my_string;

If you want to use a single-quote within the string you have to escape the single-quote with a
backslash \ . Like this: \' !

PHP Code:
echo 'Shoaib & Shakeel - It\'s Neat!';

PHP - String Creation Double-Quotes

We have used double-quotes and will continue to use them as the primary method for forming strings.
Double-quotes allow for many special escaped characters to be used that you cannot do with a single-
quote string. Once again, a backslash is used to escape a character.

PHP Code:
$newline = "A newline is \n";
$return = "A carriage return is \r";
$tab = "A tab is \t";
$dollar = "A dollar sign is \$";
$doublequote = "A double-quote is \"";

Note: If you try to escape a character that doesn't need to be, such as an apostrophe, then the
backslash will show up when you output the string.

These escaped characters are not very useful for outputting to a web page because HTML ignore extra
white space. A tab, newline, and carriage return are all examples of extra (ignorable) white space.
However, when writing to a file that may be read by human eyes these escaped characters are a
valuable tool!

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PHP - String Creation Heredoc
The two methods above are the traditional way to create strings in most programming languages. PHP
introduces a more robust string creation tool called heredoc that lets the programmer create multi-line
strings without using quotations. However, creating a string using heredoc is more difficult and can
lead to problems if you do not properly code your string! Here's how to do it:

PHP Code:
$my_string = <<<TEST
Shoaib & Shakeel.com
Webmaster Tutorials
Unlock your potential!
TEST;

echo $my_string;

There are a few very important things to remember when using heredoc.
Use <<< and some identifier that you choose to begin the heredoc. In this example we chose TEST as
our identifier. Repeat the identifier followed by a semicolon to end the heredoc string creation. In this
example that was TEST; The closing sequence TEST; must occur on a line by itself and cannot be
indented! Another thing to note is that when you output this multi-line string to a web page, it will not
span multiple lines because we did not have any <br /> tags contained inside our string! Here is the
output made from the code above.

Display:
Shoaib & Shakeel.com Webmaster Tutorials Unlock your potential!

Once again, take great care in following the heredoc creation guidelines to avoid any headaches.

PHP - Operators
In all programming languages, operators are used to manipulate or perform operations on variables
and values. You have already seen the string concatenation operator "." in the Echo Lesson and the
assignment operator "=" in pretty much every PHP example so far.

There are many operators used in PHP, so we have separated them into the following categories to
make it easier to learn them all.

Assignment Operators
Arithmetic Operators
Comparison Operators
String Operators
Combination Arithmetic & Assignment Operators

Assignment Operators
Assignment operators are used to set a variable equal to a value or set a variable to another variable's
value. Such an assignment of value is done with the "=", or equal character. Example:

$my_var = 4;
$another_var = $my_var;
Now both $my_var and $another_var contain the value 4. Assignments can also be used in
conjunction with arithmetic operators.

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Arithmetic Operators
Operator English Example
+ Addition 2+4
- Subtraction 6-2
* Multiplication 5*3
/ Division 15 / 3
% Modulus 43 % 10

PHP Code:
$addition = 2 + 4;
$subtraction = 6 - 2;
$multiplication = 5 * 3;
$division = 15 / 3;
$modulus = 5 % 2;
echo "Perform addition: 2 + 4 = ".$addition."<br />";
echo "Perform subtraction: 6 - 2 = ".$subtraction."<br />";
echo "Perform multiplication: 5 * 3 = ".$multiplication."<br />";
echo "Perform division: 15 / 3 = ".$division."<br />";
echo "Perform modulus: 5 % 2 = " . $modulus
. ". Modulus is the remainder after the division operation has been performed.
In this case it was 5 / 2, which has a remainder of 1.";

Display:
Perform addition: 2 + 4 = 6
Perform subtraction: 6 - 2 = 4
Perform multiplication: 5 * 3 = 15
Perform division: 15 / 3 = 5
Perform modulus: 5 % 2 = 1. Modulus is the remainder after the division operation has been performed. In
this case it was 5 / 2, which has a remainder of 1.

Comparison Operators
Comparisons are used to check the relationship between variables and/or values. If you would like to
see a simple example of a comparison operator in action, check out our If Statement Lesson.
Comparison operators are used inside conditional statements and evaluate to either true or false. Here
are the most important comparison operators of PHP.
Assume: $x = 4 and $y = 5;

Operator English Example Result

== Equal To $x == $y false
!= Not Equal To $x != $y true
< Less Than $x < $y true
> Greater Than $x > $y false
<= Less Than or Equal To $x <= $y true
>= Greater Than or Equal To $x >= $y false

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String Operators
As we have already seen in the Echo Lesson, the period "." is used to add two strings together, or
more technically, the period is the concatenation operator for strings.

PHP Code:
$a_string = "Hello";
$another_string = " Billy";
$new_string = $a_string . $another_string;
echo $new_string . "!";

Display:
Hello Billy!

Combination Arithmetic & Assignment Operators

In programming it is a very common task to have to increment a variable by some fixed amount. The
most common example of this is a counter. Say you want to increment a counter by 1, you would
have:
$counter = $counter + 1;
However, there is shorthand for doing this.
$counter += 1;
This combination assignment/arithmetic operator would accomplish the same task. The downside to
this combination operator is that it reduces code readability to those programmers who are not used to
such an operator. Here are some examples of other common shorthand operators. In general, "+="
and "-=" are the most widely used combination operators.

Operator English Example Equivalent Operation

+= Plus Equals $x += 2; $x = $x + 2;
-= Minus Equals $x -= 4; $x = $x - 4;
*= Multiply Equals $x *= 3; $x = $x * 3;
/= Divide Equals $x /= 2; $x = $x / 2;
%= Modulo Equals $x %= 5; $x = $x % 5;
.= Concatenate Equals $my_str.="hello"; $my_str = $my_str . "hello";

Pre/Post-Increment & Pre/Post-Decrement

This may seem a bit absurd, but there is even a shorter shorthand for the common task of adding 1 or
subtracting 1 from a variable. To add one to a variable or "increment" use the "++" operator:

$x++; Which is equivalent to $x += 1; or $x = $x + 1;

To subtract 1 from a variable, or "decrement" use the "--" operator:

$x--; Which is equivalent to $x -= 1; or $x = $x - 1;

In addition to this "shorterhand" technique, you can specify whether you want to increment before the
line of code is being executed or after the line has executed. Our PHP code below will display the
difference.

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PHP Code:
$x = 4;
echo "The value of x with post-plusplus = " . $x++;
echo "<br /> The value of x after the post-plusplus is " . $x;
$x = 4;
echo "<br />The value of x with with pre-plusplus = " . ++$x;
echo "<br /> The value of x after the pre-plusplus is " . $x;

Display:
The value of x with post-plusplus = 4
The value of x after the post-plusplus is = 5
The value of x with with pre-plusplus = 5
The value of x after the pre-plusplus is = 5

As you can see the value of $x++ is not reflected in the echoed text because the variable is not
incremented until after the line of code is executed. However, with the pre-increment "++$x" the
variable does reflect the addition immediately.

Using Comments in PHP

Comments in PHP are similar to comments that are used in HTML. The PHP comment syntax always
begins with a special character sequence and all text that appears between the start of the comment
and the end will be ignored.

In HTML a comment's main purpose is to serve as a note to you, the web developer or to others who
may view your website's source code. However, PHP's comments are different in that they will not be
displayed to your visitors. The only way to view PHP comments is to open the PHP file for editing. This
makes PHP comments only useful to PHP programmers.

In case you forgot what an HTML comment looked like, see our example below.

HTML Code:
<!-- This is an HTML Comment -->

PHP Comment Syntax: Single Line Comment

While there is only one type of comment in HTML, PHP has two types. The first type we will discuss is
the single line comment. The single line comment tells the interpreter to ignore everything that occurs
on that line to the right of the comment. To do a single line comment type "//" or "#" and all text to
the right will be ignored by PHP interpreter.

PHP Code:
<?php
echo "Hello World!"; // This will print out Hello World!
echo "<br />Psst...You can't see my PHP comments!"; // echo "nothing";
// echo "My name is Humperdinkle!";
# echo "I don't do anything either";
?>

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Display:
Hello World!
Psst...You can't see my PHP comments!

Notice that a couple of our echo statements were not evaluated because we commented them out with
the single line comment. This type of line commenting is often used for quick notes about complex and
confusing code or to temporarily remove a line of PHP code.

PHP Comment Syntax: Multiple Line Comment

Similiar to the HTML comment, the multi-line PHP comment can be used to comment out large blocks
of code or writing multiple line comments. The multiple line PHP comment begins with " /* " and ends
with " */ ".

PHP Code:
<?php
/* This Echo statement will print out my message to the
the place in which I reside on. In other words, the World. */
echo "Hello World!";
/* echo "My name is Humperdinkle!";
echo "No way! My name is Uber PHP Programmer!";
*/
?>

Display:
Hello World!

Good Commenting Practices

One of the best commenting practices that I can recommend to new PHP programmers is....USE
THEM!! So many people write complex PHP code and are either too lazy to write good comments or
believe the commenting is not needed. However, do you really believe that you will remember exactly
what you were thinking when looking at this code a year or more down the road?

Let the comments permeate your code and you will be a happier PHPer in the future. Use single line
comments for quick notes about a tricky part in your code and use multiple line comments when you
need to describe something in greater depth than a simple note.

PHP Include
Without understanding much about the details of PHP, you can save yourself a great deal of time with
the use of the PHP include command. include takes a file name and simply inserts that file's contents
into the script that issued the include command.

Why is this a cool thing? Well, first of all, this means that you can type up a common header or menu
file that you want all your web pages to include. When you add a new page to your site, instead of
having to update the links on several web pages, you can simply change the Menu file.

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An Include Example
Say we wanted to create a common menu file that all our pages will use. A common practice for
naming files that are to be included is to use the ".php" extension. Since we want to create a common
menu let's save it as "menu.php".

menu.php Code:
<html>
<body>
<a href="http://www.example.com/index.php">Home</a> -
<a href="http://www.example.com/about.php">About Us</a> -
<a href="http://www.example.com/links.php">Links</a> -
<a href="http://www.example.com/contact.php">Contact Us</a> <br />

Save the above file as "menu.php". Now create a new file, "index.php" in the same directory as
"menu.php". Here we will take advantage of the include command to add our common menu.

index.php Code:
<?php include("menu.php"); ?>
<p>This is my home page that uses a common menu to save me time when I add
new pages to my website!</p>
</body>
</html>

Display:
Home - About Us - Links - Contact Us
This is my home page that uses a common menu to save me time when I add new pages to my website!

And we would do the same thing for "about.php", "links.php", and "contact.php". Just think how
terrible it would be if you had 15 or more pages with a common menu and you decided to add another
web page to that site. You would have to go in and manually edit every single file to add this new
page, but with include files you simply have to change "menu.php" and all your problems are solved.
Avoid such troublesome occasions with a simple include file.

What do Visitors See?

If we were to use the include command to insert a menu on each of our web pages, what would the
visitor see if they viewed the source of "index.php"? Well, because the include command is pretty
much the same as copying and pasting, the visitors would see:

View Source of index.php to a Visitor:

<html><body>
<a href="index.php">Home</a> -
<a href="about.php">About Us</a> -
<a href="links.php">Links</a> -
<a href="contact.php">Contact Us</a> <br />
<p>This is my home page that uses a common menu to save me time when I add
new pages to my website!</p>
</body></html>

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The visitor would actually see all the HTML code as one long line of HTML code, because we have not
inserted any new line characters. We did some formatting above to make it easier to read. We will be
discussing new line characters later.

Include Recap
The include command simply takes all the text that exists in the specified file and copies it into the file
that uses the include command. Include is quite useful when you want to include the same PHP, HTML,
or text segment on multiple pages of a website. The include command is used widely by PHP web
developers. Like PHP Echo, include is not a function, but a language construct.

The next lesson will talk about a slight variation of the include command: require. It is often best to
use the require command instead of the include command in your PHP Code. Read the next lesson to
find out why!

PHP Require
Just like the previous lesson, the require command is used to include a file into your PHP code.
However there is one huge difference between the two commands, though it might not seem that big
of a deal.

Require vs Include
When you include a file with the include command and PHP cannot find it you will see an error
message like the following:

PHP Code:
<?php
include("noFileExistsHere.php");
echo "Hello World!";
?>

Display:
Warning: main(noFileExistsHere.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in
/home/websiteName/FolderName/Shoaib & ShakeelScript.php on line 2 Warning: main(): Failed
opening 'noFileExistsHere.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in
/home/websiteName/FolderName/Shoaib & ShakeelScript.php on line 2

Hello World!
Notice that our echo statement is still executed, this is because a Warning does not prevent our PHP
script from running. On the other hand, if we did the same example but used the require statement we
would get something like the following example.

PHP Code:
<?php
require("noFileExistsHere.php");
echo "Hello World!";
?>

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Display:
Warning: main(noFileExistsHere.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in
/home/websiteName/FolderName/Shoaib & ShakeelScript.php on line 2
Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required 'noFileExistsHere.php'
(include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/websiteName/FolderName/Shoaib &
ShakeelScript.php on line 2

The echo statement was not executed because our script execution died after the require command
returned a fatal error! We recommend that you use require instead of include because your scripts
should not be executing if necessary files are missing or misnamed.
The If Statement
The PHP if statement is very similar to other programming languages use of the if statement, but for
those who are not familiar with it, picture the following:
Think about the decisions you make before you go to sleep. If you have something to do the next day,
say go to work, school, or an appointment, then you will set your alarm clock to wake you up.
Otherwise, you will sleep in as long as you like!
This simple kind of if/then statement is very common in every day life and also appears in
programming quite often. Whenever you want to make a decision given that something is true (you
have something to do tomorrow) and be sure that you take the appropriate action, you are using an
if/then relationship.
The PHP If Statement
The if statement is necessary for most programming, thus it is important in PHP. Imagine that on
January 1st you want to print out "Happy New Year!" at the top of your personal web page. With the
use of PHP if statements you could have this process automated, months in advance, occuring every
year on January 1st.
This idea of planning for future events is something you would never have had the opportunity of
doing if you had just stuck with HTML.
If Statement Example
The "Happy New Year" example would be a little difficult for you to do right now, so let us instead start
off with the basics of the if statement. The PHP if statement tests to see if a value is true, and if it is a
segment of code will be executed. See the example below for the form of a PHP if statement.

PHP Code:
$my_name = "someguy";

if ( $my_name == "someguy" ) {
echo "Your name is someguy!<br />";
}
echo "Welcome to my homepage!";

Display:
Your name is someguy!
Welcome to my homepage!
Did you get that we were comparing the variable $my_name with "someguy" to see if they were
equal? In PHP you use the double equal sign (==) to compare values. Additionally, notice that because
the if statement turned out to be true, the code segment was executed, printing out "Your name is
someguy!". Let's go a bit more in-depth into this example to iron out the details.
We first set the variable $my_name equal to "someguy".

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We next used a PHP if statement to check if the value contained in the variable $my_name was equal
to "someguy"
The comparison between $my_name and "someguy" was done with a double equal sign "==", not a
single equals"="! A single equals is for assigning a value to a variable, while a double equals is for
checking if things are equal.
Translated into english the PHP statement ( $my_name == "someguy" ) is ( $my_name is equal to
"someguy" ).
$my_name is indeed equal to "someguy" so the echo statement is executed.
A False If Statement
Let us now see what happens when a PHP if statement is not true, in other words, false. Say that we
changed the above example to:

PHP Code:
$my_name = "anotherguy";

if ( $my_name == "someguy" ) {
echo "Your name is someguy!<br />";
}
echo "Welcome to my homepage!";

Display:
Welcome to my homepage!
Here the variable contained the value "anotherguy", which is not equal to "someguy". The if statement
evaluated to false, so the code segment of the if statement was not executed. When used properly, the
if statement is a powerful tool to have in your programming arsenal!
If/Else Conditional Statment
Has someone ever told you, "if you work hard, then you will succeed"? And what happens if you do not
work hard? Well, you fail! This is an example of an if/else conditional statement.
If you work hard then you will succeed.
Else, if you do not work hard, then you will fail.
How does this translate into something useful for PHP developers? Well consider this:
Someone comes to your website and you want to ask this visitor her name if it is her first time coming
to your site. With an if statement this is easy. Simply have a conditional statement to check, "are you
visiting for the first time". If the condition is true, then take them to the "Insert Your Name" page, else
let her view the website as normal because you have already asked her for her name in the past.
If/Else an Example
Using these conditional statements can add a new layers of "cool" to your website. Here's the basic
form of an if/else statement in PHP.

PHP Code:
$number_three = 3;

if ( $number_three == 3 ) {
echo "The if statement evaluated to true";
} else {
echo "The if statement evaluated to false";}

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Display:
The if statement evaluated to true
This is a lot to digest in one sitting, so let us step through the code, line by line.
We first made a PHP variable called $number_three and set it equal to 3.
In this example we compared a variable to an integer value. To do such a comparison we use "==",
which in English means "Is Equal To".
$number_three is indeed Equal To 3 and so this statement will evaluate to true.
All code that is contained between the opening curly brace "{" that follows the if statement and the
closing curly brace "}" will be executed when the if statement is true.
The code contained within the else segment will not used.
Execute Else Code with False
On the other hand, if the if statement was false, then the code contained in the else segment would
have been executed. Note that the code within the if and else cannot both be executed, as the if
statement cannot evaluate to both true and false at one time! Here is what would happen if we
changed to $number_three to anything besides the number 3.

PHP Code:
$number_three = 421;

if ( $number_three == 3 ) {
echo "The if statement evaluated to true";
} else {
echo "The if statement evaluated to false";
}

Display:
The if statement evaluated to false
The variable was set to 421, which is not equal to 3 and the if statement was false. As you can see,
the code segment contained within the else was used in this case.

PHP - Elseif
An if/else statement is great if you only need to check for one condition. However, what would you do
if you wanted to check if your $employee variable was the company owner Bilal, the Vice President Ms.
Tanner, or a regular employee? To check for these different conditions you would need the elseif
statement.
PHP - Elseif What is it?
An if statement is made up of the keyword "if" and a conditional statement (i.e. $name == "Ted").
Just like an if statement, an elseif statement also contains a conditional statement, but it must be
preceded by an if statement. You cannot have an elseif statement without first having an if statement.

When PHP evaluates your If...elseif...else statement it will first see if the If statement is true. If that
tests comes out false it will then check the first elseif statement. If that is false it will either check the
next elseif statement, or if there are no more elseif statements, it will evaluate the else segment, if
one exists (I don't think I've ever used the word "if" so much in my entire life!). Let's take a look at a
real world example.

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PHP - Using Elseif with If...Else
Let's start out with the base case. Imagine we have a simpler version of the problem described above.
We simply want to find out if the employee is the Vice President Ms. Tanner. We only need an if else
statement for this part of the example.

PHP Code:
$employee = "Bilal";
if($employee == "Ms. Tanner"){
echo "Hello Ma'am";
} else {
echo "Morning";
}

Now, if we wanted to also check to see if the big boss Bilal was the employee we need to insert an
elseif clause.

PHP Code:
$employee = "Bilal";
if($employee == "Ms. Tanner"){
echo "Hello Ma'am";
} elseif($employee == "Bilal"){
echo "Good Morning Sir!";
}else {
echo "Morning";
}

Display:
Good Morning Sir!
PHP first checked to see if $employee was equal to "Ms. Tanner", which evaluated to false. Next, PHP
checked the first elseif statement. $employee did in fact equal "Bilal" so the phrase "Good Morning
Sir!" was printed out. If we wanted to check for more employee names we could insert more elseif
statements!
Remember that an elseif statement cannot be used unless it is preceded by an if statement!

PHP Switch Statement

In the previous lessons we covered the various elements that make up an If Statement in PHP.
However, there are times when an if statement is not the most efficient way to check for certain
conditions.
For example we might have a variable that stores travel destinations and you want to pack according
to this destination variable. In this example you might have 20 different locations that you would have
to check with a nasty long block of If/ElseIf/ElseIf/ElseIf/... statements. This doesn't sound like much
fun to code, let's see if we can do something different.
PHP Switch Statement: Speedy Checking
With the use of the switch statement you can check for all these conditions at once, and the great
thing is that it is actually more efficient programming to do this. A true win-win situation!
The way the Switch statement works is it takes a single variable as input and then checks it against all
the different cases you set up for that switch statement. Instead of having to check that variable one
at a time, as it goes through a bunch of If Statements, the Switch statement only has to check one
time.

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PHP Switch Statement Example
In our example the single variable will be $destination and the cases will be: Las Vegas, Amsterdam,
Egypt, Tokyo, and the Caribbean Islands.

PHP Code:
$destination = "Tokyo";
echo "Traveling to $destination<br />";
switch ($destination){
case "Las Vegas":
echo "Bring an extra $500";
break;
case "Amsterdam":
echo "Bring an open mind";
break;
case "Egypt":
echo "Bring 15 bottles of SPF 50 Sunscreen";
break;
case "Tokyo":
echo "Bring lots of money";
break;
case "Caribbean Islands":
echo "Bring a swimsuit";
break;
}

Display:
Traveling to Tokyo
Bring lots of money
The value of $destination was Tokyo, so when PHP performed the switch operating on $destination in
immediately did a search for a case with the value of "Tokyo". It found it and proceeded to execute the
code that existed within that segment.
You might have noticed how each case contains a break; at the end of its code area. This break
prevents the other cases from being executed. If the above example did not have any break
statements then all the cases that follow Tokyo would have been executed as well. Use this knowledge
to enhance the power of your switch statements!
The form of the switch statement is rather unique, so spend some time reviewing it before moving on.
Note: Beginning programmers should always include the break; to avoid any unnecessary confusion.
PHP Switch Statement: Default Case
You may have noticed the lack of a place for code when the variable doesn't match our condition. The
if statement has the else clause and the switch statement has the default case.
It's usually a good idea to always include the default case in all your switch statements. Below is a
variation of our example that will result in none of the cases being used causing our switch statement
to fall back and use the default case.
Note: there is no case before default.

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PHP Code:
$destination = "New York";
echo "Traveling to $destination<br />";
switch ($destination){
case "Las Vegas":
echo "Bring an extra $500";
break;
case "Amsterdam":
echo "Bring an open mind";
break;
case "Egypt":
echo "Bring 15 bottles of SPF 50 Sunscreen";
break;
case "Tokyo":
echo "Bring lots of money";
break;
case "Caribbean Islands":
echo "Bring a swimsuit";
break;
default:
echo "Bring lots of underwear!";
break;
}

Display:
Traveling to New York
Bring lots of underwear!

Using PHP With HTML Forms

It is time to apply the knowledge you have obtained thus far and put it to real use. A very common
application of PHP is to have an HTML form gather information from a website's visitor and then use
PHP to do process that information. In this lesson we will simulate a small business's website that is
implementing a very simple order form.
Imagine we are an art supply store that sells brushes, paint, and erasers. To gather order information
from our prospective customers we will have to make a page with an HTML form to gather the
customer's order.
Note: This is an oversimplified example to educate you how to use PHP to process HTML form
information. This example is not intended nor advised to be used on a real business website.
Creating the HTML Form
If you need a refresher on how to properly make an HTML form, check out the HTML Form Lesson
before continuing on.
We first create an HTML form that will let our customer choose what they would like to purchase. This
file should be saved as "order.html"
.

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order.html Code:
<html><body>
<h4>Shoaib & Shakeel Art Supply Order Form</h4>
<form>
<select>
<option>Paint</option>
<option>Brushes</option>
<option>Erasers</option>
</select>
Quantity: <input type="text" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body></html>

Display:

Shoaib & Shakeel Art Supply Order Form

Paint Submit Query
Quantity:
Bottom of Form
Remember to review HTML Forms if you do not understand any of the above HTML code. Next we must
alter our HTML form to specify the PHP page we wish to send this information to. Also, we set the
method to "post".

order.html Code:
<html><body>
<h4>Shoaib & Shakeel Art Supply Order Form</h4>
<form action="process.php" method="post">
<select name="item">
<option>Paint</option>
<option>Brushes</option>
<option>Erasers</option>
</select>
Quantity: <input name="quantity" type="text" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body></html>

Now that our "order.html" is complete, let us continue on and create the "process.php" file which will
process the HTML form information.
PHP Form Processor
We want to get the "item" and "quantity" inputs that we have specified in our HTML form. Using an
associative array (this term is explained in the array lesson), we can get this information from the
$_POST associative array.
The proper way to get this information would be to create two new variables, $item and $quantity and
set them equal to the values that have been "posted". The name of this file is "process.php".

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process.php Code:
<html><body>
<?php
$quantity = $_POST['quantity'];
$item = $_POST['item'];

echo "You ordered ". $quantity . " " . $item . ".<br />";
echo "Thank you for ordering from Shoaib & Shakeel Art Supplies!";

?>
</body></html>

As you probably noticed, the name in $_POST['name'] corresponds to the name that we specified in
our HTML form.
Now try uploading the "order.html" and "process.php" files to a PHP enabled server and test them out.
If someone selected the item brushes and specified a quantity of 6, then the following would be
displayed on "process.php":

process.php Code:
You ordered 6 brushes.
Thank you for ordering from Shoaib & Shakeel Art Supplies!

PHP & HTML Form Review

A lot of things were going on in this example. Let us step through it to be sure you understand what
was going on.
1. We first created an HTML form "order.html" that had two input fields specified, "item" and
"quantity".
2. We added two attributes to the form tag to point to "process.php" and set the method to "post".
3. We had "process.php" get the information that was posted by setting new variables equal to the
values in the $_POST associative array.
4. We used the PHP echo function to output the customers order.
Remember, this lesson is only to teach you how to use PHP to get information from HTML forms. The
example on this page should not be used for a real business.

PHP - Functions
A function is just a name we give to a block of code that can be executed whenever we need it. This
might not seem like that big of an idea, but believe me, when you understand and use functions you
will be able to save a ton of time and write code that is much more readable!
For example, you might have a company motto that you have to display at least once on every
webpage. If you don't, then you get fired! Well, being the savvy PHP programmer you are, you think
to yourself, "this sounds like a situation where I might need functions."
Tip: Although functions are often thought of as an advanced topic for beginning programmers to learn,
if you take it slow and stick with it, functions can be just minor speedbump in your programming
career. So don't give up if you functions confuse you at first!

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Creating Your First PHP Function
When you create a function, you first need to give it a name, like myCompanyMotto. It's with this
function name that you will be able to call upon your function, so make it easy to type and understand.
The actual syntax for creating a function is pretty self-explanatory, but you can be the judge of that.
First, you must tell PHP that you want to create a function. You do this by typing the keyword function
followed by your function name and some other stuff (which we'll talk about later).
Here is how you would make a function called myCompanyMotto. Note: We still have to fill in the code
for myCompanyMotto.

PHP Code:
<?php
function myCompanyMotto(){
}
?>

Note: Your function name can start with a letter or underscore "_", but not a number!
With a properly formatted function in place, we can now fill in the code that we want our function to
execute. Do you see the curly braces in the above example "{ }"? These braces define where our
function's code goes. The opening curly brace "{" tells php that the function's code is starting and a
closing curly brace "}" tells PHP that our function is done!
We want our function to print out the company motto each time it's called, so that sounds like it's a
job for the echo command!

PHP Code:
<?php
function myCompanyMotto(){
echo "We deliver quantity, not quality!<br />";
}
?>

That's it! You have written your first PHP function from scratch! Notice that the code that appears
within a function is just the same as any other PHP code.
Using Your PHP Function
Now that you have completed coding your PHP function, it's time to put it through a test run. Below is
a simple PHP script. Let's do two things: add the function code to it and use the function twice.

PHP Code:
<?php
echo "Welcome to Shoaib & Shakeel.com <br />";
echo "Well, thanks for stopping by! <br />";
echo "and remember... <br />";
?>

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PHP Code with Function:

<?php
function myCompanyMotto(){
echo "We deliver quantity, not quality!<br />";
}
echo "Welcome to Shoaib & Shakeel.com <br />";
myCompanyMotto();
echo "Well, thanks for stopping by! <br />";
echo "and remember... <br />";
myCompanyMotto();
?>

Display:
Welcome to Shoaib & Shakeel.com
We deliver quantity, not quality!
Well, thanks for stopping by!
and remember...
We deliver quantity, not quality!
Although this was a simple example, it's important to understand that there is a lot going on and there
are a lot of areas to make errors. When you are creating a function, follow these simple guidelines:
Always start your function with the keyword function
Remember that your function's code must be between the "{" and the "}"
When you are using your function, be sure you spell the function name correctly
Don't give up!
PHP Functions - Parameters
Another useful thing about functions is that you can send them information that the function can then
use. Our first function myCompanyMotto isn't all that useful because all it does, and ever will do, is
print out a single, unchanging string.
However, if we were to use parameters, then we would be able to add some extra functionality! A
parameter appears with the parentheses "( )" and looks just like a normal PHP variable. Let's create a
new function that creates a custom greeting based off of a person's name.
Our parameter will be the person's name and our function will concatenate this name onto a greeting
string. Here's what the code would look like.

PHP Code with Function:

<?php
function myGreeting($firstName){
echo "Hello there ". $firstName . "!<br />";
}
?>

When we use our myGreeting function we have to send it a string containing someone's name,
otherwise it will break. When you add parameters, you also add more responsibility to you, the
programmer! Let's call our new function a few times with some common first names.

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PHP Code:
<?php
function myGreeting($firstName){
echo "Hello there ". $firstName . "!<br />";
}
myGreeting("Ali");
myGreeting("Ahmed");
myGreeting("Javed");
myGreeting("Kashif");
?>

Display:
Hello there Ali!
Hello there Ahmed!
Hello there Javed!
Hello there Kashif!
It is also possible to have multiple parameters in a function. To separate multiple parameters PHP uses
a comma ",". Let's modify our function to also include last names.

PHP Code:
<?php
function myGreeting($firstName, $lastName){
echo "Hello there ". $firstName ." ". $lastName ."!<br />";
}
myGreeting("Ali", "Khan");
myGreeting("Ahmed", "Bilgrami");
myGreeting("Javed", "Iqbal");
myGreeting("Kashif", "Jibran");
?>

Display:
Hello there Ali Khan!
Hello there Ahmed Bilgrami!
Hello there Javed Iqbal!
Hello there Kashif Jibran!

PHP Functions - Returning Values

Besides being able to pass functions information, you can also have them return a value. However, a
function can only return one thing, although that thing can be any integer, float, array, string, etc. that
you choose!
How does it return a value though? Well, when the function is used and finishes executing, it sort of
changes from being a function name into being a value. To capture this value you can set a variable
equal to the function. Something like:
$myVar = somefunction();
Let's demonstrate this returning of a value by using a simple function that returns the sum of two
integers.

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PHP Code:
<?php
function mySum($numX, $numY){
$total = $numX + $numY;
return $total;
}
$myNumber = 0;
echo "Before the function, myNumber = ". $myNumber ."<br />";
$myNumber = mySum(3, 4); // Store the result of mySum in $myNumber
echo "After the function, myNumber = " . $myNumber ."<br />";
?>

Display:
Before the function, myNumber = 0
After the function, myNumber = 7
When we first print out the value of $myNumber it is still set to the original value of 0. However, when
we set $myNumber equal to the function mySum, $myNumber is set equal to mySum's result. In this
case, the result was 3 + 4 = 7, which was successfully stored into $myNumber and displayed in the
second echo statement!
PHP Functions - Practice Makes Perfect
If you are new to programming, then this lesson might or might not seem like overkill. If you are
having a hard time understanding lessons, the best piece of advice would be to do your best the first
time, then be sure to come back tomorrow and next week and see if it makes anymore sense. Chances
are, after going through this tutorial more than once, with breaks in between, this topic will be
mastered.

PHP Array
An array is a data structure that stores one or more values in a single value. For experienced
programmers it is important to note that PHP's arrays are actually maps (each key is mapped to a
value).
PHP - A Numerically Indexed Array
If this is your first time seeing an array, then you may not quite understand the concept of an array.
Imagine that you own a business and you want to store the names of all your employees in a PHP
variable. How would you go about this?
It wouldn't make much sense to have to store each name in its own variable. Instead, it would be nice
to store all the employee names inside of a single variable. This can be done, and we show you how
below.

PHP Code:
$employee_array[0] = "Bilal";
$employee_array[1] = "Sohail";
$employee_array[2] = "Anwer";
$employee_array[3] = "Naeem";

In the above example we made use of the key / value structure of an array. The keys were the
numbers we specified in the array and the values were the names of the employees. Each key of an
array represents a value that we can manipulate and reference. The general form for setting the key of
an array equal to a value is:
$array[key] = value;

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If we wanted to reference the values that we stored into our array, the following PHP code would get
the job done.
Note: As you may have noticed from the above code example, an array's keys start from 0 and not 1.
This is a very common problem for many new programmers who are used to counting from 1 and lead
to "off by 1" errors. This is just something that will take experience before you are fully comfortable
with it.

PHP Code:
echo "Two of my employees are "
. $employee_array[0] . " & " . $employee_array[1];
echo "<br />Two more employees of mine are "
. $employee_array[2] . " & " . $employee_array[3];

Display:
Two of my employees are Bilal & Sohail
Two more employees of mine are Anwer & Naeem
PHP arrays are quite useful when used in conjunction with loops, which we will talk about in a later
lesson. Above we showed an example of an array that made use of integers for the keys (a
numerically indexed array). However, you can also specify a string as the key, which is referred to as
an associative array.
PHP - Associative Arrays
In an associative array a key is associated with a value. If you wanted to store the salaries of your
employees in an array, a numerically indexed array would not be the best choice. Instead, we could
use the employees names as the keys in our associative array, and the value would be their respective
salary.

PHP Code:
$salaries["Bilal"] = 2000;
$salaries["Sohail"] = 4000;
$salaries["Anwer"] = 600;
$salaries["Naeem"] = 0;

echo "Bilal is being paid - $" . $salaries["Bilal"] . "<br />";

echo "Sohail is being paid - $" . $salaries["Sohail"] . "<br />";
echo "Anwer is being paid - $" . $salaries["Anwer"] . "<br />";
echo "Naeem is being paid - $" . $salaries["Naeem"];

Display:
Bilal is being paid - $2000
Sohail is being paid - $4000
Anwer is being paid - $600
Naeem is being paid - $0
Once again, the usefulness of arrays will become more apparent once you have knowledge of for and
while loops.

PHP - While Loop

Repetitive tasks are always a burden to us. Deleting spam email, sealing 50 envelopes, and going to
work are all examples of tasks that are repeated. The nice thing about programming is that you can
avoid such repetitive tasks with a little bit of extra thinking. Most often these repetitive tasks are
conquered in the loop.
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The idea of a loop is to do something over and over again until the task has been completed. Before
we show a real example of when you might need one, let's go over the structure of the PHP while loop.
Simple While Loop Example
The function of the while loop is to do a task over and over as long as the specified conditional
statement is true. This logical check is the same as the one that appears in a PHP if statement to
determine if it is true or false. Here is the basic structure of a PHP while loop:

Pseudo PHP Code:

while ( conditional statement is true){
//do this code;
}

This isn't valid PHP code, but it displays how the while loop is structured. Here is the break down of
how a while loop functions when your script is executing:

1. The conditional statement is checked. If it is true, then (2) occurs. If it is false, then (4) occurs.
2. The code within the while loop is executed.
3. The process starts again at (1). Effectively "looping" back.
4. If the conditional statement is false, then the code within is not executed and there is no more
looping. The code following the while loop is then executed like normal.

A Real While Loop Example

Imagine that you are running an art supply store. You would like to print out the price chart for
number of brushes and total cost. You sell brushes at a flat rate, but would like to display how much
different quantities would cost. This will save your customers from having to do the mental math
themselves.
You know that a while loop would be perfect for this repetitive and boring task. Here is how to go
about doing it.

Pseudo PHP Code:

$brush_price = 5;
$counter = 10;

echo "<table border=\"1\" align=\"center\">";

echo "<tr><th>Quantity</th>";
echo "<th>Price</th></tr>";
while ( $counter <= 100 ) {
echo "<tr><td>";
echo $counter;
echo "</td><td>";
echo $brush_price * $counter;
echo "</td></tr>";
$counter = $counter + 10;
}
echo "</table>";

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Display:
Quantity Price
10 50
20 100
30 150
40 200
50 250
60 300
70 350
80 400
90 450
100 500

Pretty neat, huh? The loop created a new table row and its respective entries for each quantity, until
our counter variable grew past the size of 100. When it grew past 100 our conditional statement failed
and the loop stopped being used. Let's review what is going on.

1. We first made a $brush_price and $counter variable and set them equal to our desired values.
2. The table was set up with the beginning table tag and the table headers.
3. The while loop conditional statement was checked, and $counter (10) was indeed smaller or
equal to 100.
4. The code inside the while loop was executed, creating a new table row for the price of 10
brushes.
5. We then added 10 to $counter to bring the value to 20.
6. The loop started over again at step 3, until $counter grew larger than 100.
7. After the loop had completed, we ended the table.

You may have noticed that we placed slashes infront the quotations in the first echo statement. You
have to place slashes before quotations if you do not want the quotation to act as the end of the echo
statement. This is called escaping a character and it is discussed in our PHP Strings lesson.
With proper use of loops you can complete large tasks with great ease.

PHP - For Loop

The for loop is simply a while loop with a bit more code added to it. The common tasks that are
covered by a for loop are:

8. Set a counter variable to some initial value.

9. Check to see if the conditional statement is true.
10. Execute the code within the loop.
11. Increment a counter at the end of each iteration through the loop.

The for loop allows you to define these steps in one easy line of code. It may seem to have a strange
form, so pay close attention to the syntax used!

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For Loop Example
Let us take the example from the while loop lesson and see how it could be done in a for loop. The
basic structure of the for loop is as follows:

Pseudo PHP Code:

for ( initialize a counter; conditional statement; increment a counter){
do this code;
}

Notice how all the steps of the loop are taken care of in the for loop statement. Each step is separated
by a semicolon: initiliaze counter, conditional statement, and the counter increment. A semicolon is
needed because these are separate expressions. However, notice that a semicolon is not needed after
the "increment counter" expression.
Here is the example of the brush prices done with a for loop .

PHP Code:
$brush_price = 5;

echo "<table border=\"1\" align=\"center\">";

echo "<tr><th>Quantity</th>";
echo "<th>Price</th></tr>";
for ( $counter = 10; $counter <= 100; $counter += 10) {
echo "<tr><td>";
echo $counter;
echo "</td><td>";
echo $brush_price * $counter;
echo "</td></tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

Display:
Quantity Price
10 50
20 100
30 150
40 200
50 250
60 300
70 350
80 400
90 450
100 500

It is important to note that both the for loop and while loop implementation of the price chart table are
both OK at getting the job done. However, the for loop is somewhat more compact and would be
preferable in this situation. In later lessons we will see where the while loop should be used instead of
the for loop.

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PHP For Each Loop
Imagine that you have an associative array that you want to iterate through. PHP provides an easy
way to use every element of an array with the Foreach statement.
In plain english this statement will do the following:
For each item in the specified array execute this code.
While a For Loop and While Loop will continue until some condition fails, the For Each loop will continue
until it has gone through every item in the array.
PHP For Each: Example
We have an associative array that stores the names of people in our company as the keys with the
values being their age. We want to know how old everyone is at work so we use a Foreach loop to
print out everyone's name and age.

PHP Code:
$employeeAges;
$employeeAges["Latif"] = "28";
$employeeAges["Ali"] = "16";
$employeeAges["Rehan"] = "35";
$employeeAges["Raheel"] = "46";
$employeeAges["Gul Sher"] = "34";

foreach( $employeeAges as $key => $value){

echo "Name: $key, Age: $value <br />";
}

Display:
Name: Latif, Age: 28
Name: Ali, Age: 16
Name: Rehan, Age: 35
Name: Raheel, Age: 46
Name: Gul Sher, Age: 34
The syntax of the foreach statement is a little strange, so let's talk about it some.
Foreach Syntax: $something as $key => $value
This crazy statement roughly translates into: For each element of the $employeeAges associative array
I want to refer to the key as $key and the value as $value.
The operator "=>" represents the relationship between a key and value. You can imagine that the key
points => to the value. In our example we named the key $key and the value $value. However, it
might be easier to think of it as $name and $age. Below our example does this and notice how the
output is identical because we only changed the variable names that refer to the keys and values.

PHP Code:
$employeeAges;
$employeeAges["Latif"] = "28";
$employeeAges["Ali"] = "16";
$employeeAges["Rehan"] = "35";
$employeeAges["Raheel"] = "46";
$employeeAges["Gul Sher"] = "34";

foreach( $employeeAges as $name => $age){

echo "Name: $name, Age: $age <br />";}

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Display:
Name: Latif, Age: 28
Name: Ali, Age: 16
Name: Rehan, Age: 35
Name: Raheel, Age: 46
Name: Gul Sher, Age: 34

PHP - Do While Loop

A "do while" loop is a slightly modified version of the while loop. If you recal from one of the previous
lessons on While Loops the conditional statement is checked comes back true then the code within the
while loop is executed. If the conditional statement is false then the code within the loop is not
executed.
On the other hand, a do-while loop always executes its block of code at least once. This is because the
conditional statement is not checked until after the contained code has been executed.
PHP - While Loop and Do While Loop Contrast
A simple example that illustrates the difference between these two loop types is a conditional
statement that is always false. First the while loop:

PHP Code:
$cookies = 0;
while($cookies > 1){
echo "Mmmmm...I love cookies! *munch munch munch*";
}

Display:

As you can see, this while loop's conditional statement failed (0 is not greater than 1), which means
the code within the while loop was not executed. Now, can you guess what will happen with a do-while
loop?

PHP Code:
$cookies = 0;
do {
echo "Mmmmm...I love cookies! *munch munch munch*";
} while ($cookies > 1);

Display:
Mmmmm...I love cookies! *munch munch munch*
The code segment "Mmmm...I love cookies!" was executed even though the conditional statement was
false. This is because a do-while loop first do's and secondly checks the while condition!
Chances are you will not need to use a do while loop in most of your PHP programming, but it is good
to know it's there!

PHP - POST & GET

Recall from the PHP Forms Lesson where we used an HTML form and sent it to a PHP web page for
processing. In that lesson we opted to use the the post method for submitting, but we could have also
chosen the get method. This lesson will review both transferring methods.

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POST - Review
In our PHP Forms Lesson we used the post method. This is what the pertinent line of HTML code
looked like:

HTML Code Excerpt:

<form action="process.php" method="post">
<select name="item">
...
<input name="quantity" type="text" />

This HTML code specifies that the form data will be submitted to the "process.php" web page using the
POST method. The way that PHP does this is to store all the "posted" values into an associative array
called "$_POST". Be sure to take notice the names of the form data names, as they represent the keys
in the "$_POST" associative array.
Now that you know about associative arrays, the PHP code from "process.php" should make a litte
more sense.

PHP Code Excerpt:

$quantity = $_POST['quantity'];
$item = $_POST['item'];

The form names are used as the keys in the associative array, so be sure that you never have two
input items in your HTML form that have the same name. If you do, then you might see some
problems arise.
PHP - GET
As we mentioned before, the alternative to the post method is get. If we were to change our HTML
form to the get method, it would look like this:

HTML Code Excerpt:

<form action="process.php" method="get">
<select name="item">
...
<input name="quantity" type="text" />

The get method is different in that it passes the variables along to the "process.php" web page by
appending them onto the end of the URL. The URL, after clicking submit, would have this added on to
the end of it:
"?item=##&quantity=##"
The question mark "?" tells the browser that the following items are variables. Now that we changed
the method of sending information on "order.html", we must change the "process.php" code to use the
"$_GET" associative array.

PHP Code Excerpt:

$quantity = $_GET['quantity'];
$item = $_GET['item'];

After changing the array name the script will function properly. Using the get method displays the
variable information to your visitor, so be sure you are not sending password information or other
sensitive items with the get method. You would not want your visitors seeing something they are not
supposed to!

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Security Precautions
Whenever you are taking user input and using you need to be sure that the input is safe. If you are
going to insert the data into a MySQL database, then you should be sure you have thought about
preventing MySQL Injection. If you are going to make a user's input available to the public, then you
should think about PHP htmlentities.
PHP - Magic Quotes
Prior to PHP 6 there was a feature called magic quotes that was created to help protect newbie
programmers from writing bad form processing code. Magic quotes would automatically escape risky
form data that might be used for SQL Injection with a backslash \. The characters escaped by PHP
include: quote ', double quote ", backslash \ and NULL characters.
However, this newbie protection proved to cause more problems than it solved and is not in PHP 6. If
your PHP version is any version before 6 then you should use this lesson to learn more about how
magic quotes can affect you.
Magic Quotes - Are They Enabled?
First things first, you need to check to see if you have magic quotes enabled on you server. The
get_magic_quotes_gpc function will return a 0 (off) or a 1 (on). These boolean values will fit nicely
into an if statement where 1 is true and 0 is false.

PHP Code:
if(get_magic_quotes_gpc())
echo "Magic quotes are enabled";
else
echo "Magic quotes are disabled";

Display:
Magic quotes are enabled
If you received the message "Magic quotes are enabled" then you should definitely continue reading
this lesson, if not feel free to learn about it in case you are developing for servers that might have
quotes on or off.
Magic Quotes in Action
Now lets make a simple form processor to show how machines with magic quotes enabled will escape
those potentially risky characters. This form submits to itself, so you only need to make one file,
"magic-quotes.php" to test it out.

magic-quotes.php Code:
<?php
echo "Altered Text: ".$_POST['question'];
?>

<form method='post'>
Question: <input type='text' name='question'/><br />
<input type='submit'>

</form>

This simple form will display to you what magic quotes is doing. If you were to enter and submit the
string: Sandy said, "It's a beautiful day outside and I like to use \'s." You would receive the following
output.

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Display:
Altered Text: Sandy said, \"It\'s a beautiful day outside and I like to use \\\'s.\"

Question:
Submit Query

Bottom of Form
Magic quotes did a number on that string, didn't it? Notice that there is a backslash before all of those
risky characters we talked about earlier. After magic quotes:
A backslash \ becomes \\
A quote ' becomes \'
A double-quote " becomes \"
Now say that you wanted to remove the escaping that magic quotes puts in, you have two options:
disable magic quotes or strip the backslashes magic quotes adds.
Removing Backslashes - stripslashes()
Before you use PHP's backslash removal function stripslashes it's smart to add some magic quote
checking like our "Are They Enabled?" section above. This way you won't accidentally be removing
slashes that are legitimate in the future if your PHP's magic quotes setting changes in the future.

magic-quotes.php Code:
<?php
echo "Removed Slashes: ";
// Remove those slashes
if(get_magic_quotes_gpc())
echo stripslashes($_POST['question']);
else
echo $_POST['question'];

?>

<form method='post'>
Question: <input type='text' name='question'/><br />
<input type='submit'>

</form>

Our new output for our string containing risky characters would now be:

Display:
Removed Slashes: Sandy said, "It's a beautiful day outside and I like to use \'s."

Question:
Submit Query

PHP htmlentities Function

Whenever you allow your users to submit text to your website, you need to be careful that you don't
leave any security holes open for malicious users to exploit. If you are ever going to allow user
submitted text to be visible by the public you should consider using the htmlentities function to
prevent them from running html code and scripts that may be harmful to your visitors.

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PHP - Converting HTML into Entities
The htmlentities function takes a string and returns the same string with HTML converted into HTML
entities. For example, the string "<script>" would be converted to "&lt;script&gt;".
By converting the < and > into entities, it prevents the browser from using it as an HTML element and
it prevents the code from running if you were to display some user's input on your website.
This may seem a little complicated, but if you think of the way a browser works, in separate stages, it
becomes a little easier. Let's look at the way the function htmlentities changes the data at three
different levels: in PHP, in raw HTML and in the web browser. The sample string is a bad script that will
redirect visitors to the malicious user's own website.

PHP Code:
// An imaginary article submission from a bad user
// it will redirect anyone to example.com if the code is run in a browser
$userInput = "I am going to hax0r your site, hahaha!
<script type='text/javascript'>
window.location = 'http://www.example.com/'
</script>'";

//Lets make it safer before we use it

$userInputEntities = htmlentities($userInput);

//Now we can display it

echo $userInputEntities;

The HTML output of the above script would be as follows:

Safe Raw HTML Code:

I am going to hax0r your site, hahaha!
&lt;script type='text/javascript'&gt;
window.location = 'http://www.example.com/'
&lt;/script&gt;'

If we had not used htmlentities to convert any HTML code into safe entities, this is what the raw HTML
code would be and it would have redirect a visitor to example.com.

Dangerous Raw HTML Code:

I am going to hax0r your site, hahaha!
<script type='text/javascript'>
window.location = 'http://www.example.com/'
</script>'

Those two HTML code examples are what you would see if you were to view source on the web page.
However, if you were just viewing the output normally in your browser you would see the following.

Safe Display:
I am going to hax0r your site, hahaha! <script type='text/javascript'> window.location =
'http://www.example.com/' </script>'

Dangerous Display:
You'd see whatever spammer site that the malicious user had sent you to. Probably some herbal
supplement site or weight loss pills would be displayed.

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When Would You Use htmlentities?
Anytime you allow users to submit content to your website, that other visitors can see, you should
consider removing the ability to let them use HTML. Although this will remove a lot of cool things that
your users can do, like making heavily customized content, it will prevent your site from a lot of
common attacks. With some custom coding you can just remove specific tags from running, but that is
beyond the scope of this lesson.
Just remember, that when allowing users to submit content to your site you are also giving them
access to your website. Be sure you take the proper precautions.
PHP - Files
Manipulating files is a basic necessity for serious programmers and PHP gives you a great deal of tools
for creating, uploading, and editing files.
This section of the PHP tutorial is completely dedicated to how PHP can interact with files. After
completing this section you should have a solid understanding of all types of file manipulation in PHP!
PHP - Files: Be Careful
When you are manipulating files you must be very careful because you can do a lot of damage if you
do something wrong. Common errors include editing the wrong file, filling a hard-drive with garbage
data, and accidentally deleting a file's contents.
It is our hope that you will be able to avoid these and other slipups after reading this tutorial.
However, we know that there are so many places where code can take a wrong turn, so we urge you
to take extra care when dealing with files in PHP.
PHP - Files: Overview
The presentation of the file lessons will begin with how to create, open, and close a file. After
establishing those basics, we will then cover other important file tasks, such as: read, write, append,
truncate, and uploading files with PHP.
PHP - File Create
Before you can do anything with a file it has to exist! In this lesson you will learn how to create a file
using PHP.
PHP - Creating Confusion
In PHP, a file is created using a command that is also used to open files. It may seem a little
confusing, but we'll try to clarify this conundrum.
In PHP the fopen function is used to open files. However, it can also create a file if it does not find the
file specified in the function call. So if you use fopen on a file that does not exist, it will create it, given
that you open the file for writing or appending (more on this later).
PHP - How to Create a File
The fopen function needs two important pieces of information to operate correctly. First, we must
supply it with the name of the file that we want it to open. Secondly, we must tell the function what
we plan on doing with that file (i.e. read from the file, write information, etc).
Since we want to create a file, we must supply a file name and tell PHP that we want to write to the
file. Note: We have to tell PHP we are writing to the file, otherwise it will not create a new file.

PHP Code:
$ourFileName = "testFile.txt";
$ourFileHandle = fopen($ourFileName, 'w') or die("can't open file");
fclose($ourFileHandle);

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The file "testFile.txt" should be created in the same directory where this PHP code resides. PHP will see
that "testFile.txt" does not exist and will create it after running this code. There's a lot of information
in those three lines of code, let's make sure you understand it.
1. $ourFileName = "testFile.txt";
Here we create the name of our file, "testFile.txt" and store it into a PHP String variable
$ourFileName.

2. $ourFileHandle = fopen($ourFileName, 'w') or die("can't open file");

This bit of code actually has two parts. First we use the function fopen and give it two
arguments: our file name and we inform PHP that we want to write by passing the character
"w".
Second, the fopen function returns what is called a file handle, which will allow us to manipulate
the file. We save the file handle into the $ourFileHandle variable. We will talk more about file
handles later on.

3. fclose($ourFileHandle);

We close the file that was opened. fclose takes the file handle that is to be closed. We will talk more about this
more in the file closing lesson.

PHP - Permissions
If you are trying to get this program to run and you are having errors, you might want to check that
you have granted your PHP file access to write information to the hard drive. Setting permissions is
most often done with the use of an FTP program to execute a command called CHMOD. Use CHMOD to
allow the PHP file to write to disk, thus allowing it to create a file.
In the near future Shoaib & Shakeel.com will have a more in-depth tutorial on how to use CHMOD to
set file permissions.
PHP - File Open
In the previous lesson we used the function fopen to create a new file. In this lesson we will be going
into the details of this important function and see what it has to offer.
PHP - Different Ways to Open a File
For many different technical reasons, PHP requires you to specify your intentions when you open a file.
Below are the three basic ways to open a file and the corresponding character that PHP uses.
Read: 'r'
Open a file for read only use. The file pointer begins at the front of the file.
Write: 'w’
Open a file for write only use. In addition, the data in the file is erased and you will begin writing data
at the beginning of the file. This is also called truncating a file, which we will talk about more in a later
lesson. The file pointer begins at the start of the file.
Append: 'a'
Open a file for write only use. However, the data in the file is preserved and you begin will writing data
at the end of the file. The file pointer begins at the end of the file.A file pointer is PHP's way of
remembering its location in a file. When you open a file for reading, the file pointer begins at the start
of the file. This makes sense because you will usually be reading data from the front of the file.
However, when you open a file for appending, the file pointer is at the end of the file, as you most
likely will be appending data at the end of the file. When you use reading or writing functions they
begin at the location specified by the file pointer.
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PHP - Explanation of Different Types of fopen
These three basic ways to open a file have distinct purposes. If you want to get information out of a
file, like search an e-book for the occurrences of "cheese", then you would open the file for read only.
If you wanted to write a new file, or overwrite an existing file, then you would want to open the file
with the "w" option. This would wipe clean all existing data within the file.
If you wanted to add the latest order to your "orders.txt" file, then you would want to open it to
append the data on to the end. This would be the "a" option.
PHP - File Open: Advanced
There are additional ways to open a file. Above we stated the standard ways to open a file. However,
you can open a file in such a way that reading and writing is allowable! This combination is done by
placing a plus sign "+" after the file mode character.
Read/Write: 'r+'
Opens a file so that it can be read from and written to. The file pointer is at the beginning of the file.
Write/Read: ' w+'
This is exactly the same as r+, except that it deletes all information in the file when the file is opened.
Append: 'a+'
This is exactly the same as r+, except that the file pointer is at the end of the file.
PHP - File Open: Cookie Cutter
Below is the correct form for opening a file with PHP. Replace the (X) with one of the options above
(i.e. r, w, a, etc).

Pseudo PHP Code:

$ourFileName = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($ourFileName, 'X') or die("Can't open file");
fclose($fh);

PHP - File Open: Summary

You can open a file in many different ways. You can delete everything and begin writing on a clean
slate, you can add to existing data, and you can simply read information from a file. In later lessons
we will go into greater detail on how each of these different ways to open a file is used in the real
world and give some helpful examples.
PHP - File Close
The next logical step after you have opened a file and finished your business with it is to close that file
down. You don't want an open file running around on your server taking up resources and causing
mischief!
PHP - File Close Description
In PHP it is not system critical to close all your files after using them because the server will close all
files after the PHP code finishes execution.
However the programmer is still free to make mistakes (i.e. editing a file that you accidentally forgot
to close). You should close all files after you have finished with them because it's a good programming
practice and because we told you to!

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PHP - File Close Function
In a previous tutorial, we had a call to the function fclose to close down a file after we were done with
it. Here we will repeat that example and discuss the importance of closing a file.

PHP Code:
$ourFileName = "testFile.txt";
$ourFileHandle = fopen($ourFileName, 'w') or die("can't open file");
fclose($ourFileHandle);

The function fclose requires the file handle that we want to close down. In our example we set our
variable "$fileHandle" equal to the file handle returned by the fopen function.
After a file has been closed down with fclose it is impossible to read, write or append to that file unless
it is once more opened up with the fopen function.
PHP - File Write
Now that you know how to open and close a file, lets get on to the most useful part of file
manipulation, writing! There is really only one main function that is used to write and it's logically
called fwrite.
PHP - File Open: Write
Before we can write information to our test file we have to use the function fopen to open the file for
writing.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w');

PHP - File Write: fwrite Function

We can use php to write to a text file. The fwrite function allows data to be written to any type of file.
Fwrite's first parameter is the file handle and its second parameter is the string of data that is to be
written. Just give the function those two bits of information and you're good to go!
Below we are writing a couple of names into our test file testFile.txt and separating them with a
carriaged return.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = "Bilalby Bopper\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "Tracy Tanner\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

The $fh variable contains the file handle for testFile.txt. The file handle knows the current file pointer,
which for writing, starts out at the beginning of the file.
We wrote to the file testFile.txt twice. Each time we wrote to the file we sent the string $stringData
that first contained Bilalby Bopper and second contained Tracy Tanner. After we finished writing we
closed the file using the fclose function.
If you were to open the testFile.txt file in NOTEPAD it would look like this:
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Contents of the testFile.txt File:
Bilal by Bopper
Tracy Tanner

PHP - File Write: Overwriting

Now that testFile.txt contains some data we can demonstrate what happens when you open an
existing file for writing. All the data contained in the file is wiped clean and you start with an empty
file. In this example we open our existing file testFile.txt and write some new data into it.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = "Welcome\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "to PHP\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

If you now open the testFile.txt file you will see that Bilalby and Tracy have both vanished, as we
expected, and only the data we just wrote is present.

Contents of the testFile.txt File:

Welcome
to PHP
In the next lesson we will show you how to get information out of a file by using PHP's read data
functions!
PHP - File Read
My apologies for taking so long to actually get to the point where you get information from files. In this
lesson we will teach you how to read data from a file using various PHP functions.
PHP - File Open: Read
Before we can read information from a file we have to use the function fopen to open the file for
reading. Here's the code to read-open the file we created in the PHP File Write lessons.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'r');

The file we created in the last lesson was named "testFile.txt". Your PHP script that you are writing
should reside in the same directory as "text.txt". Here are the contents of our file from File Write.

testFile.txt Contents:
Welcome
to PHP
Now that the file is open, with read permissions enabled, we can get started!
PHP - File Read: fread Function
The fread function is the staple for getting data out of a file. The function requires a file handle, which
we have, and an integer to tell the function how much data, in bytes, it is supposed to read.
One character is equal to one byte. If you wanted to read the first five characters then you would use
five as the integer.
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PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'r');
$theData = fread($fh, 3);
fclose($fh);
echo $theData;

Display:
Wel
The first five characters from the testFile.txt file are now stored inside $theData. You could echo this
string, $theData, or write it to another file.
If you wanted to read all the data from the file, then you need to get the size of the file. The filesize
function returns the length of a file, in bytes, which is just what we need! The filesize function requires
the name of the file that is to be sized up.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'r');
$theData = fread($fh, filesize($myFile));
fclose($fh);
echo $theData;

Display:
Welcome to PHP
Note: It is all on one line because our "testFile.txt" file did not have a <br /> tag to create an HTML
line break. Now the entire contents of the testFile.txt file is stored in the string variable $theData.
PHP - File Read: gets Function
PHP also lets you read a line of data at a time from a file with the gets function. This can or cannot be
useful to you, the programmer. If you had separated your data with new lines then you could read in
one segment of data at a time with the gets function.
Lucky for us our "testFile.txt" file is separated by new lines and we can utilize this function.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'r');
$theData = fgets($fh);
fclose($fh);
echo $theData;

testFile.txt Contents:
Welcome
The fgets function searches for the first occurrence of "\n" the newline character. If you did not write
newline characters to your file as we have done in File Write, then this function might not work the
way you expect it to.
PHP - File Delete
You know how to create a file. You know how to open a file in an assortment of different ways. You
even know how to read and write data from a file!

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Now it's time to learn how to destroy (delete) files. In PHP you delete files by calling the unlink
function.
PHP - File Unlink
When you view the contents of a directory you can see all the files that exist in that directory because
the operating system or application that you are using displays a list of filenames. You can think of
these filenames as links that join the files to the directory you are currently viewing.
If you unlink a file, you are effectively causing the system to forget about it or delete it!
Before you can delete (unlink) a file, you must first be sure that it is not open in your program. Use
the fclose function to close down an open file.
PHP - Unlink Function
Remember from the PHP File Create lesson that we created a file named testFile.txt.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w') or die("can't open file");
fclose($fh);

Now to delete testFile.txt we simply run a PHP script that is located in the same directory. Unlink just
needs to know the name of the file to start working its destructive magic.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
unlink($myFile);

The testFile.txt should now be removed.

PHP - Unlink: Safety First!
With great power comes a slough of potential things you can mess up! When you are performing the
unlink function be sure that you are deleting the right file!
PHP - File Append
So far we have learned how to open, close, read, and write to a file. However, the ways in which we
have written to a file so far have caused the data that was stored in the file to be deleted. If you want
to append to a file, that is, add on to the existing data, then you need to open the file in append mode.
PHP - File Open: Append
If we want to add on to a file we need to open it up in append mode. The code below does just that.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a');

If we were to write to the file it would begin writing data at the end of the file.

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PHP - File Write: Appending Data
Using the testFile.txt file we created in the File Write lesson , we are going to append on some more
data.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = "New Stuff 1\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = "New Stuff 2\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

You should noticed that the way we write data to the file is exactly the same as in the Write lesson.
The only thing that is different is that the file pointer is placed at the end of the file in append mode,
so all data is added to the end of the file.
The contents of the file testFile.txt would now look like this:

Contents of the testFile.txt File:

Welcome
to PHP
New Stuff 1
New Stuff 2

PHP - Append: Why Use It?

The above example may not seem very useful, but appending data onto a file is actually used
everyday. Almost all web servers have a log of some sort. These various logs keep track of all kinds of
information, such as: errors, visitors, and even files that are installed on the machine.
A log is basically used to document events that occur over a period of time, rather than all at once.
Logs: a perfect use for append!
PHP - File Truncate
As we have mentioned before, when you open a file for writing with the paramater 'w' it completely
wipes all data from that file. This action is also referred to as "truncating" a file. Truncate literally
means to shorten.
PHP - File Open: Truncate
To erase all the data from our testFile.txt file we need to open the file for normal writing. All existing
data within testFile.txt will be lost.

PHP Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w');
fclose($fh);

PHP - Truncate: Why Use It?

Truncating is most often used on files that contain data that will only be used for a short time, before
needing to be replaced. These type of files are most often referred to as temporary files.

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For example, you could create an online word processor that automatically saves every thirty seconds.
Every time it saves it would take all the data that existed within some HTML form text box and save it
to the server. This file, say tempSave.txt, would be truncated and overwritten with new, up-to-date
data every thirty seconds.
This might not be the most efficient program, but it is a nice usage of truncate.
PHP - File Upload
A very useful aspect of PHP is its ability to manage file uploads to your server. Allowing users to upload
a file to your server opens a whole can of worms, so please be careful when enabling file uploads.
PHP - File Upload: HTML Form
Before you can use PHP to manage your uploads, you must first build an HTML form that lets users
select a file to upload. See our HTML Form lesson for a more in-depth look at forms.

HTML Code:
<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="uploader.php" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="MAX_FILE_SIZE" value="100000" />
Choose a file to upload: <input name="uploadedfile" type="file" /><br />
<input type="submit" value="Upload File" />
</form>

Here is a brief description of the important parts of the above code:

enctype="multipart/form-data" - Necessary for our to-be-created PHP file to function properly.
action="uploader.php" - The name of our PHP page that will be created, shortly.
method="POST" - Informs the browser that we want to send information to the server using POST.
input type="hidden" name="MA... - Sets the maximum allowable file size, in bytes, that can be
uploaded. This safety mechanism is easily bypassed and we will show a solid backup solution in PHP.
We have set the max file size to 100KB in this example.
input name="uploadedfile" - uploadedfile is how we will access the file in our PHP script.
Save that form code into a file and call it upload.html. If you view it in a browser it should look like
this:

Display:
Upload File
Choose a file to upload:
Bottom of Form
After the user clicks submit, the data will be posted to the server and the user will be redirected to
uploader.php. This PHP file is going to process the form data and do all the work.
PHP - File Upload: What's the PHP Going to Do?
Now that we have the right HTML form we can begin to code the PHP script that is going to handle our
uploads. Typically, the PHP file should make a key decision with all uploads: keep the file or throw it
away. A file might be thrown away from many reasons, including:
The file is too large and you do not want to have it on your server.
You wanted the person to upload a picture and they uploaded something else, like an executable file
(.exe).
There were problems uploading the file and so you can't keep it.
This example is very simple and omits the code that would add such functionality.

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PHP - File Upload: uploader.php
When the uploader.php file is executed, the uploaded file exists in a temporary storage area on the
server. If the file is not moved to a different location it will be destroyed! To save our precious file we
are going to need to make use of the $_FILES associative array.
The $_FILES array is where PHP stores all the information about files. There are two elements of this
array that we will need to understand for this example.
uploadedfile - uploadedfile is the reference we assigned in our HTML form. We will need this to tell
the $_FILES array which file we want to play around with.
$_FILES['uploadedfile']['name'] - name contains the original path of the user uploaded file.
$_FILES['uploadedfile']['tmp_name'] - tmp_name contains the path to the temporary file that
resides on the server. The file should exist on the server in a temporary directory with a temporary
name.
Now we can finally start to write a basic PHP upload manager script! Here is how we would get the
temporary file name, choose a permanent name, and choose a place to store the file.

PHP Code:
// Where the file is going to be placed
$target_path = "uploads/";

/* Add the original filename to our target path.

Result is "uploads/filename.extension" */
$target_path = $target_path . basename( $_FILES['uploadedfile']['name']);
$_FILES['uploadedfile']['tmp_name'];

NOTE: You will need to create a new directory in the directory where uploader.php resides, called
"uploads", as we are going to be saving files there.
We now have all we need to successfully save our file to the server. $target_path contains the path
where we want to save our file to.
PHP - File Upload: move_uploaded_file Function
Now all we have to do is call the move_uploaded_file function and let PHP do its magic. The
move_uploaded_file function needs to know 1) The path of the temporary file (check!) 2) The path
where it is to be moved to (check!).

PHP Code:
$target_path = "uploads/";

$target_path = $target_path . basename( $_FILES['uploadedfile']['name']);

if(move_uploaded_file($_FILES['uploadedfile']['tmp_name'], $target_path)) {
echo "The file ". basename( $_FILES['uploadedfile']['name']).
" has been uploaded";
} else{
echo "There was an error uploading the file, please try again!";
}

If the upload is successful, then you will see the text "The file filename has been uploaded". This is
because $move_uploaded_file returns true if the file was moved, and false if it had a problem.
If there was a problem then the error message "There was an error uploading the file, please try
again!" would be displayed.

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PHP - File Upload: Safe Practices!
Note: This script is for education purposes only. We do not recommend placing this on a web page
viewable to the public.
These few lines of code we have given you will allow anyone to upload data to your server. Because of
this, we recommend that you do not have such a simple file uploader available to the general public.
Otherwise, you might find that your server is filled with junk or that your server's security has been
compromised.
We hope you enjoyed learning about how to work with uploading files with PHP. In the near future we
will be adding an advanced lesson that will include more security and additional features!
PHP - String Position - strpos
Being able to manipulate strings is a valuable skill, especially in PHP. You'll most likely come across a
programming problem that requires you to find some data in a string. The beginning of a lot of your
string manipulation expertise will begin with the strpos function, which allows you to find data in your
string.
Searching a String with strpos
The way strpos works is it takes some string you want to search in as its first argument and another
string, which is what you are actually searching for, as the second argument. If the function can find a
search match, then it will return the position of the first match. However, if it can't find a match it will
return false.
To make this function crystal clear, lets search a numbered, in-order string, for the number five.

PHP Code:
$numberedString = "1234567890"; // 10 numbers from 1 to 0

$fivePos = strpos($numberedString, "5");

echo "The position of 5 in our string was $fivePos";

Display:
The position of 5 in our string was 4
Notice that the position is 4, which may seem confusing at first, until you realize that PHP starts
counting from 0.
The number 1 - Position 0 - No match
The number 2 - Position 1 - No match
The number 3 - Position 2 - No match
The number 4 - Position 3 - No match
The number 5 - Position 4 - Match
Although we only searched for a single character, you can use this function to search for a string with
any number of characters. Also, it is important to note that this function will return the position of the
start of the first match. So if we had searched the same string for "567890" we would again find a
match and position 4 because that is where the match starts.

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Finding All Occurrences in a String with Offset
One of the limitations of strpos is that it only returns the position of the very first match. If there are
5,000 other matches in the string you would be none the wiser, unless you take action!
There is a third (optional) argument to strpos that will let you specify where to begin your search of
the string. If you were to store the position of the last match and use that + 1 as an offset, you would
skip over the first match and be find the next one.

PHP Code:
$numberedString = "1234567890123456789012345678901234567890";

$fivePos = strpos($numberedString, "5");

echo "The position of 5 in our string was $fivePos";
$fivePos2 = strpos($numberedString, "5", $fivePos + 1);
echo "<br />The position of the second 5 was $fivePos2";

Display:
The position of 5 in our string was 4
The position of the second 5 was 14
By taking the first match's position of 4 and adding 1 we then asked strpos to begin searching after
the last match. The string it was actually searching after computing the offset was: 6789012345...
Letting us find the second 5 in the string.
If we use our knowledge of PHP While Loops we can find every single 5 in our string numberedString
with just a few lines of code.

PHP Code:
$numberedString = "1234567890123456789012345678901234567890";
$offset = 0; // initial offset is 0
$fiveCounter = 0;

// First check if there is a "5" at position 0.

if(strpos($numberedString, "5") == 0){
$fiveCounter++;
echo "<br />Five #$fiveCounter is at position - 0";
}

// Check the rest of the string for 5's

while($offset = strpos($numberedString, "5", $offset + 1)){
$fiveCounter++;
echo "<br />Five #$fiveCounter is at position - $offset";
}

Display:
Five #1 is at position - 4
Five #2 is at position - 14
Five #3 is at position - 24
Five #4 is at position - 34
That conditional statement in our while loop may look a little intimidating, but not if you break it down.
$offset = strpos($numberedString, "5", $offset + 1) - This is our conditional statement for our PHP
While Loop. If this ever is false the while loop will stop running. This conditional statement always runs
before each pass through the while loop.
strpos($numberedString, "5", $offset + 1) - This is the same code we used in a previous example. We
are going to search our string numberedString for the number 5 and use the last match's value (stored

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in $offset) + 1 to skip over the last match. The first $offset we use has a value of 0, so that we start at
the beginning of the string.
$offset = strpos(... We are going to store the location returned by strpos into $offset so that we can
skip this match the next time the while loop runs through the code. If strpos ever fails to find a match
then this will be set to false making our while loop stop executing.
PHP str_replace Function
Another key tool to have in your programming toolbox is the ability to quickly replace parts of a PHP
string with new values. The str_replace function is similar to a word processor's "Replace All"
command that lets you specify a word and what to replace it with, then replaces every occurrence of
that word in the document.
str_replace Parameters
str_replace has three parameters that are required for the function to work properly.
str_replace(search, replace, originalString).

1. search - This is what you want to search your string for. This can be a string or an array.
2. replace - All matches for search will be replaced with this value. This can be a string or an array.
3. originalString - This is what search and replace will be operating on. The str_replace function will
return a modified version of originalString when it completes.

str_replace Simple Example

Imagine we are working at a school district and need to create a webpage for the students' parents.
The webpage has an introduction string that we need to customize depending on if the student is male
or female. With str_replace this is mighty easy.

PHP Code:
//string that needs to be customized
$rawstring = "Welcome Birmingham parents. Your replaceme is a pleasure to have!";

//male string
$malestr = str_replace("replaceme", "son", $rawstring);

//female string
$femalestr = str_replace("replaceme", "daughter", $rawstring);

echo "Son: ". $malestr . "<br />";

echo "Daughter: ". $femalestr;

Display:
Son: Welcome Birmingham parents. Your son is a pleasure to have!
Daughter: Welcome Birmingham parents. Your daughter is a pleasure to have!
With these two gender customized strings created we could then provide a more engaging experience
for the student's parents when they logged into the school website with their kid's credentials.
str_replace Arrays: Multiple Replaces in One
In the last example we only needed to replace one word replaceme in our string, but what if we
wanted to replace many words? We could just use the function multiple times to get the job done, or
we could create an array of placeholders and a second array of replace values to get it all done in one
function call.

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The key thing to understand with this technique is that you are creating two arrays that will be used to
swap values. The first item in placeholders will be replaced by the first item in the replace values, the
second item of placeholders replaced with the second in replace values and so on and so forth.
Let's extend our simple example to be a complete form letter addressed to a student's parents.

PHP Code:
//string that needs to be customized
$rawstring = "Welcome Birmingham parent! <br />
Your offspring is a pleasure to have!
We believe pronoun is learning a lot.<br />
The faculty simple adores pronoun2 and you can often hear
them say \"Attah sex!\"<br />";

//placeholders array
$placeholders = array('offspring', 'pronoun', 'pronoun2', 'sex');
//male replace values array
$malevals = array('son', 'he', 'him', 'boy');
//female replace values array
$femalevals = array('daughter', 'she', 'her', 'girl');

//male string
$malestr = str_replace($placeholders, $malevals, $rawstring);

//female string
$femalestr = str_replace($placeholders, $femalevals, $rawstring);

echo "Son: ". $malestr . "<br />";

echo "Daughter: ". $femalestr;

Display:
Son: Welcome Birmingham parent!
Your son is a pleasure to have! We believe he is learning a lot.
The faculty simple adores he2 and you can often hear them say "Attah boy!"

Daughter: Welcome Birmingham parent!

Your daughter is a pleasure to have! We believe she is learning a lot.
The faculty simple adores she2 and you can often hear them say "Attah girl!"
Notice: there is a bug in this code. The placeholder pronoun2 did not get replaced in the way we
intended (our strings have he2 and she2 instead of him and her). This is because all instances of
pronoun were replaced first and the pronoun in pronoun2 was replaced at this time with he or she,
making he2 or she2. When it was pronoun2's turn to be replaced, there were no matches to be found,
so our string has no him or her.
To fix this bug you could simply make sure that pronoun2 comes first in the placeholders array and by
updating the values of the male and female replace values to reflect this.

PHP Code:
// ...snip
//placeholders array
$placeholders = array('offspring', 'pronoun2', 'pronoun', 'sex');
//male replace values array
$malevals = array('son', 'him', 'he', 'boy');
//female replace values array
$femalevals = array('daughter', 'her', 'she', 'girl');
//snip...

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Display:
Son: Welcome Birmingham parent!
Your son is a pleasure to have! We believe he is learning a lot.
The faculty simple adores him and you can often hear them say "Attah boy!"

Daughter: Welcome Birmingham parent!

Your daughter is a pleasure to have! We believe she is learning a lot.
The faculty simple adores her and you can often hear them say "Attah girl!"

PHP substr_replace Function

The function substr_replace introduces some additional functionality to compliment str_replace.
substr_replace is a more mathematically based replace function, which relies on starting points and
lengths to replace parts of strings, as opposed to searching and replacing.
substr_replace's Four Parameters
There are three required parameters for the substr_replace function (original string, replacement
string, starting point) and one that's optional (length).

1. original string - This is your original string that will be operated on.
2. replacement string - This string will be used to replace everything in the string from the
starting point to the ending point (specified by length).
3. starting point - This is the place in the original string that will be used to mark the
replacement's beginning. A negative value specifies the number of characters from the end of
the string.
4. optional length - How many characters from the original string will be replaced. If no length is
specified then the end of the string is used. If a value of 0 is used then no characters will be
replaced and an insert is performed. A negative value specifies the number of characters from
the end of the string.

substr_replace On Your Mark

This example of substr_replace shows what happens when you omit the length parameter at various
starting points.

PHP Code:
//string that needs to be customized
$original = "ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321";

//starting point 5
$sp5 = substr_replace($original, "Five", 5);
//starting point 12
$sp12 = substr_replace($original, "Twelve", 12);
//starting point 0
$sp0 = substr_replace($original, "Zero", 0);
//starting point -1
$spneg1 = substr_replace($original, "Negative 1", -1);

//Echo each string

echo "Original String: $original <br />";
echo "Starting Point 5: $sp5 <br />";
echo "Starting Point 12: $sp12 <br />";
echo "Starting Point 0: $sp0 <br />";
echo "Starting Point -1: $spneg1 ";

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Display:
Original String: ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321
Starting Point 5: ABC12Five
Starting Point 12: ABC123 HelloTwelve
Starting Point 0: Zero
Starting Point -1: ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow! DEF32Negative 1
As you can see, when you don't specify the fourth parameter, length, everything after the starting
point is replaced by the second parameter replacement string.
Note: The first replacement occurred at position 5, which in $original was the character 3. This 3 and
everything onward was replaced with the replacement string. Remember that you start counting
character to begin from zero. The $original string could be labeled as so:
Letter A - Position 0
Letter B - Position 1
Letter C - Position 2
Letter 1 - Position 3
Letter 2 - Position 4
Letter 3 - Position 5
substr_replace Specifying a Length
If you want to get any sort of precision out of this function you're going to have to get into the nitty
gritty of specifying the exact length of characters you want replaced in your original string.
Imagine that you want to get rid of those ugly pseudo references (ABC123, DEF321) at the beginning
and end of the string. Since both of those strings are a length of 6 and we know one is at the very
beginning of the string and the other is at the very end of the string we should probably use a starting
point of 0 for ABC123 and a value of -6 for DEF321. By having a replacement string of nothing "" we
can do something similar to select and delete that we often do in a word processor.

PHP Code:
//string that needs to be customized
$original = "ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321";

//remove ABC123 and store in $cleanedstr

$cleanedstr = substr_replace($original, "", 0, 6);
//remove DEF321 from $cleanedstr
$cleanedstr2 = substr_replace($cleanedstr, "", -6, 6);

//Echo each string

echo "Original String: $original <br />";
echo "Clean #1: $cleanedstr <br />";
echo "Clean #2: $cleanedstr2";

Display:
Original String: ABC123 Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321
Clean #1: Hello Mr. Cow! DEF321
Clean #2: Hello Mr. Cow!
Make sure that you play around with this function some on your own so you can get a feel for how the
starting point and length parameters effect this function.
substr_replace Perform an Insert
By setting the length parameter to zero you can stop substr_replace from removing anything from the
original string and just add to it. If we wanted to add a second and third person to our $original string

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we would want to do this insert operation. Note: instead of counting the characters we've used a
couple other PHP functions to figure out the starting positions for us.

PHP Code:
//string that needs to be customized
$original = "Hello Mr. Cow!";

// Get the position of Mr. Cow

$cowpos = strpos($original, "Mr. Cow");

// Find where Mr. Cow ends by adding the length of Mr. Cow
$cowpos_end = $cowpos + strlen("Mr. Cow");

// Insert Mrs. Bear after Mr. Cow

$mrsbear = substr_replace($original, " and Mrs. Bear", $cowpos_end, 0);

// Insert Sensei Shark before Mr. Cow

$senseishark = substr_replace($mrsbear, "Sensei Shark, ", $cowpos, 0);

//Echo each string

echo "Original String: $original <br />";
echo "After Mrs. Bear: $mrsbear <br />";
echo "After Sensei Shark: $senseishark";

Display:
Original String: Hello Mr. Cow!
After Mrs. Bear: Hello Mr. Cow and Mrs. Bear!
After Sensei Shark: Hello Sensei Shark, Mr. Cow and Mrs. Bear!
We snuck a new function strlen into that example, but it isn't that complicated of a function, as it
stands for "string length."
$cowpos_end = $cowpos + strlen("Mr. Cow");
The strlen function takes a string and then counts up how many characters are in it then returns that
number. So by calculating the length of "Mr. Cow" and adding that to the position, we find out where
the end point is!
PHP - String Capitalization Functions
If you've ever wanted to manipulate the capitalization of your PHP strings, then this lesson will be
quite helpful to you. PHP has three primary capitalization related functions: strtoupper, strtolower and
ucwords. The function names are pretty self-explanatory, but why they are useful in programming
might be new to you.
Converting a String to Upper Case - strtoupper
The strtoupper function takes one argument, the string you want converted to upper case and returns
the converted string. Only letters of the alphabet are changed, numbers will remain the same.

PHP Code:
$originalString = "String Capitalization 1234";

$upperCase = strtoupper($originalString);
echo "Old string - $originalString <br />";
echo "New String - $upperCase";

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Display:
Old string - String Capitalization 1234
New String - STRING CAPITALIZATION 1234
One might use this function to increase emphasis of a important point or in a title. Another time it
might be used with a font that looks very nice with all caps to fit the style of the web page design.
A more technical reason would be to convert two strings you are comparing to see if they are equal.
By converting them to the same capitalization you remove the possibility that they won't match simply
because of different capitalizations.
Converting a String to Lower Case - strtolower
The strtolower function also has one argument: the string that will be converted to lower case.

PHP Code:
$originalString = "String Capitalization 1234";

$lowerCase = strtolower($originalString);
echo "Old string - $originalString <br />";
echo "New String - $lowerCase";

Display:
Old string - String Capitalization 1234
New String - string capitalization 1234

Capitalizing the First Letter - ucwords

Titles of various media types often capitalize the first letter of each word and PHP has a time-saving
function that will do just this.

PHP Code:
$titleString = "a title that could use some hELP";

$ucTitleString = ucwords($titleString);
echo "Old title - $titleString <br />";
echo "New title - $ucTitleString";

Display:
Old title - a title that could use some hELP
New title - A Title That Could Use Some HELP
Notice that the last word "hELP" did not have the capitalization changed on the letters that weren't
first, they remained capitalized. If you want to ensure that only the first letter is capitalized in each
word of your title, first use the strtolower function and then the ucwords function.

PHP Code:
$titleString = "a title that could use some hELP";

$lowercaseTitle = strtolower($titleString);
$ucTitleString = ucwords($lowercaseTitle);
echo "Old title - $titleString <br />";
echo "New title - $ucTitleString";

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Display:
Old title - a title that could use some hELP
New title - A Title That Could Use Some Help

PHP - String Explode

The PHP function explode lets you take a string and blow it up into smaller pieces. For example, if you
had a sentence you could ask explode to use the sentence's spaces " " as dynamite and it would blow
up the sentence into separate words, which would be stored in an array. The sentence "Hello, I would
like to lose weight." would look like this after explode got done with it:

1. Hello,
2. I
3. would
4. like
5. to
6. lose
7. weight.

The dynamite (the space character) disappears, but the other stuff remains, but in pieces. With that
abstract picture of the explode function in mind, lets take a look at how it really works.
The explode Function
The first argument that explode takes is the delimiter (our dynamite) which is used to blow up the
second argument, the original string. explode returns an array of string pieces from the original and
they are numbered in order, starting from 0. Lets take a phone number in the form ###-###-####
and use a hyphen "-" as our dynamite to split the string into three separate chunks.

PHP Code:
$rawPhoneNumber = "800-555-5555";

$phoneChunks = explode("-", $rawPhoneNumber);

echo "Raw Phone Number = $rawPhoneNumber <br />";
echo "First chunk = $phoneChunks[0]<br />";
echo "Second chunk = $phoneChunks[1]<br />";
echo "Third Chunk chunk = $phoneChunks[2]";

Display:
Raw Phone Number = 800-555-5555
First chunk = 800
Second chunk = 555
Third Chunk chunk = 5555

explode Function - Setting a Limit

If you want to control the amount of destruction that explode can wreak on your original string,
consider using the third (optional) argument which allows you to set the number of pieces explode can
return. This means it will stop exploding once the number of pieces equals the set limit. Below we've
blown up a sentence with no limit and then with a limit of 4.

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PHP Code:
$someWords = "Please don't blow me to pieces.";

$wordChunks = explode(" ", $someWords);

for($i = 0; $i < count($wordChunks); $i++){
echo "Piece $i = $wordChunks[$i] <br />";
}

$wordChunksLimited = explode(" ", $someWords, 4);

for($i = 0; $i < count($wordChunksLimited); $i++){
echo "Limited Piece $i = $wordChunksLimited[$i] <br />";
}

Display:
Piece 0 = Please
Piece 1 = don't
Piece 2 = blow
Piece 3 = me
Piece 4 = to
Piece 5 = pieces.
Limited Piece 0 = Please
Limited Piece 1 = don't
Limited Piece 2 = blow
Limited Piece 3 = me to pieces.
The limited explosion has 4 pieces (starting from 0, ending at 3). If you forgot how a for loop works,
check out PHP For Loops.
PHP - Array implode
The PHP function implode operates on an array and is known as the "undo" function of explode. If you
have used explode to break up a string into chunks or just have an array of stuff you can use implode
to put them all into one string.
PHP implode - Repairing the Damage
The first argument of implode is the string of characters you want to use to join the array pieces
together. The second argument is the array (pieces).

PHP Code:
$pieces = array("Hello", "World,", "I", "am", "Here!");

$gluedTogetherSpaces = implode(" ", $pieces);

$gluedTogetherDashes = implode("-", $pieces);
for($i = 0; $i < count($pieces); $i++){
echo "Piece #$i = $pieces[$i] <br />";
}
echo "Glued with Spaces = $gluedTogetherSpaces <br />";
echo "Glued with Dashes = $gluedTogetherDashes";

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Display:
Piece #0 = Hello
Piece #1 = World,
Piece #2 = I
Piece #3 = am
Piece #4 = Here!
Glued with Spaces = Hello World, I am Here!
Glued with Dashes = Hello-World,-I-am-Here!
The implode function will convert the entire array into a string and there is no optional argument to
limit this as there was in the explode function.

PHP Date - Robust Dates and Times

While PHP's date() function may seem to have an overwhelming amount of options available, isn't it
always better to have more choices than not enough? With PHP's date function you format
timestamps, so they are more human readable.
This lesson will teach you how to display the current time, formating PHP's timestamp, and show you
all the various date arguments for reference purposes.
PHP Date - The Timestamp
The date function always formats a timestamp, whether you supply one or not. What's a timestamp?
Good question!
Timestamp: A timestamp is the number of seconds from January 1, 1970 at 00:00. Otherwise known
as the Unix Timestamp, this measurement is a widely used standard that PHP has chosen to utilize.
PHP Date - What Time Is It?
The date function uses letters of the alphabet to represent various parts of a typical date and time
format. The letters we will be using in our first example are:
D : The day of the month. The type of output you can expect is 01 through 31.
m: The current month, as a number. You can expect 01 through 12.
Y : The current year in two digits ##. You can expect 00 through 99
We'll tell you the rest of the options later, but for now let's use those above letters to format a simple
date! The letters that PHP uses to represent parts of date and time will automatically be converted by
PHP.
However, other characters like a slash "/" can be inserted between the letters to add additional
formatting. We have opted to use the slash in our example.

PHP Code:
<?php
echo date("m/d/y");
?>

If the 2010 Winter Olympics were just finishing up, you would see something like:

Display:
02/27/10
Be sure to test this out on your own PHP enabled server, it's really great to see the instant results
available with PHP date!

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PHP Date - Supplying a Timestamp
As our first example shows, the first argument of the date function tells PHP how you would like your
date and time displayed. The second argument allows for a timestamp and is optional.
This example uses the mktime function to create a timestamp for tomorrow. To go one day in the
future we simply add one to the day argument of mktime. For your future reference, we have the
arguments of mktime.
Note: These arguments are all optional. If you do not supply any arguments the current time will be
used to create the timestamp.
mktime(hour, minute, second, month, day, year, daylight savings time)

PHP Code:
<?php
$tomorrow = mktime(0, 0, 0, date("m"), date("d")+1, date("y"));
echo "Tomorrow is ".date("m/d/y", $tomorrow);
?>

Notice that we used one letter at a time with the function date to get the month, day and year. For
example the date("m") will return the month's number 01-12.
If we were to run our new script just after the 2010 Winter Olympics our display would look like:

Display:
Tomorrow is 02/28/10

PHP Date - Reference

Now that you know the basics of using PHP's date function, you can easily plug in any of the following
letters to format your timestamp to meet your needs.
Important Full Date and Time:
r: Displays the full date, time and timezone offset. It is equivalent to manually entering date("D, d M Y
H:i:s O")
Time:

a: am or pm depending on the time

A: AM or PM depending on the time
g: Hour without leading zeroes. Values are 1 through 12.
G: Hour in 24-hour format without leading zeroes. Values are 0 through 23.
h: Hour with leading zeroes. Values 01 through 12.
H: Hour in 24-hour format with leading zeroes. Values 00 through 23.
I : Minute with leading zeroes. Values 00 through 59.
S : Seconds with leading zeroes. Values 00 through 59.

Day:

d: Day of the month with leading zeroes. Values are 01 through 31.
j: Day of the month without leading zeroes. Values 1 through 31
D: Day of the week abbreviations. Sun through Sat
l: Day of the week. Values Sunday through Saturday
w: Day of the week without leading zeroes. Values 0 through 6.
z: Day of the year without leading zeroes. Values 0 through 365.

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Month:

m: Month number with leading zeroes. Values 01 through 12

n: Month number without leading zeroes. Values 1 through 12
M: Abbreviation for the month. Values Jan through Dec
F: Normal month representation. Values January through December.
t: The number of days in the month. Values 28 through 31.

Year:

L: 1 if it's a leap year and 0 if it isn't.

Y: A four digit year format
y: A two digit year format. Values 00 through 99.

Other Formatting:

U: The number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1, 1970)

O: This represents the Timezone offset, which is the difference from Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT).
100 = 1 hour, -600 = -6 hours

We suggest that you take a few minutes to create several timestamps using PHP's mktime function
and just try out all these different letters to get your feet wet with PHP's date function.

PHP Sessions - Why Use Them?

As a website becomes more sophisticated, so must the code that backs it. When you get to a stage
where your website need to pass along user data from one page to another, it might be time to start
thinking about using PHP sessions.
A normal HTML website will not pass data from one page to another. In other words, all information is
forgotten when a new page is loaded. This makes it quite a problem for tasks like a shopping cart,
which requires data(the user's selected product) to be remembered from one page to the next.
PHP Sessions - Overview
A PHP session solves this problem by allowing you to store user information on the server for later use
(i.e. username, shopping cart items, etc). However, this session information is temporary and is
usually deleted very quickly after the user has left the website that uses sessions.
It is important to ponder if the sessions' temporary storage is applicable to your website. If you require
a more permanent storage you will need to find another solution, like a MySQL database.
Sessions work by creating a unique identification(UID) number for each visitor and storing variables
based on this ID. This helps to prevent two users' data from getting confused with one another when
visiting the same webpage.
Note:If you are not experienced with session programming it is not recommended that you use
sessions on a website that requires high-security, as there are security holes that take some advanced
techniques to plug.
Starting a PHP Session
Before you can begin storing user information in your PHP session, you must first start the session.
When you start a session, it must be at the very beginning of your code, before any HTML or text is
sent.
Below is a simple script that you should place at the beginning of your PHP code to start up a PHP
session.

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PHP Code:
<?php
session_start(); // start up your PHP session!
?>

This tiny piece of code will register the user's session with the server, allow you to start saving user
information and assign a UID (unique identification number) for that user's session.
Storing a Session Variable
When you want to store user data in a session use the $_SESSION associative array. This is where you
both store and retrieve session data. In previous versions of PHP there were other ways to perform
this store operation, but it has been updated and this is the correct way to do it.

PHP Code:
<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['views'] = 1; // store session data
echo "Pageviews = ". $_SESSION['views']; //retrieve data
?>

Display:
Pageviews = 1
In this example we learned how to store a variable to the session associative array $_SESSION and
also how to retrieve data from that same array.
PHP Sessions: Using PHP's isset Function
Now that you know can easily store and retrieve data from the $_SESSION array, we can now explore
some of the real functionality of sessions. When you create a variable and store it in a session, you
probably want to use it in the future. However, before you use a session variable it is necessary that
you check to see if it exists already!
This is where PHP's isset function comes in handy. isset is a function that takes any variable you want
to use and checks to see if it has been set. That is, it has already been assigned a value.
With our previous example, we can create a very simple pageview counter by using isset to check if
the pageview variable has already been created. If it has we can increment our counter. If it doesn't
exist we can create a pageview counter and set it to one. Here is the code to get this job done:

PHP Code:
<?php
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['views']))
$_SESSION['views'] = $_SESSION['views']+ 1;
else
$_SESSION['views'] = 1;

echo "views = ". $_SESSION['views'];

?>

The first time you run this script on a freshly opened browser the if statement will fail because no
session variable views would have been stored yet. However, if you were to refresh the page the if
statement would be true and the counter would increment by one. Each time you reran this script you
would see an increase in view by one.

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Cleaning and Destroying your Session
Although a session's data is temporary and does not require that you explicitly clean after yourself,
you may wish to delete some data for your various tasks.
Imagine that you were running an online business and a user used your website to buy your goods.
The user has just completed a transaction on your website and you now want to remove everything
from their shopping cart.

PHP Code:
<?php
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['cart']))
unset($_SESSION['cart']);
?>

You can also completely destroy the session entirely by calling the session_destroy function.

PHP Code:
<?php
session_start();
session_destroy();
?>

Destroy will reset your session, so don't call that function unless you are entirely comfortable losing all
your stored session data!

PHP Cookies - Background

Cookies have been around for quite some time on the internet. They were invented to allow
webmaster's to store information about the user and their visit on the user's computer.
At first they were feared by the general public because it was believed they were a serious privacy
risk. Nowadays nearly everyone has cookies enabled on their browser, partly because there are worse
things to worry about and partly because all of the "trustworthy" websites now use cookies.
This lesson will teach you the basics of storing a cookie and retrieving a cookie, as well as explaining
the various options you can set with your cookie.
Creating Your First PHP Cookie
When you create a cookie, using the function setcookie, you must specify three arguments. These
arguments are setcookie(name, value, expiration):

1. name: The name of your cookie. You will use this name to later retrieve your cookie, so don't
forget it!
2. value: The value that is stored in your cookie. Common values are username(string) and last
visit(date).
3. expiration: The date when the cookie will expire and be deleted. If you do not set this
expiration date, then it will be treated as a session cookie and be removed when the browser is
restarted.

In this example we will be creating a cookie that stores the user's last visit to measure how often
people return to visit our webpage. We want to ignore people that take longer than two months to
return to the site, so we will set the cookie's expiration date to two months in the future!

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PHP Code:
<?php
//Calculate 60 days in the future
//seconds * minutes * hours * days + current time
$inTwoMonths = 60 * 60 * 24 * 60 + time();
setcookie('lastVisit', date("G:i - m/d/y"), $inTwoMonths);
?>

Don't worry if you can't follow the somewhat involved date calculations in this example. The important
part is that you know how to set a cookie, by specifying the three important arguments: name, value
and expiration date.
Retrieving Your Fresh Cookie
If your cookie hasn't expired yet, let's retrieve it from the user's PC using the aptly named $_COOKIE
associative array. The name of your stored cookie is the key and will let you retrieve your stored
cookie value!

PHP Code:
<?php
if(isset($_COOKIE['lastVisit']))
$visit = $_COOKIE['lastVisit'];
else
echo "You've got some stale cookies!";

echo "Your last visit was - ". $visit;

?>

This handy script first uses the isset function to be sure that our "lastVisit" cookie still exists on the
user's PC, if it does, then the user's last visit is displayed. If the user visited our site on February 28,
2008 it might look something like this:

Display:
Your last visit was - 11:48 - 02/28/08

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