Beginner’s Essential
PHP CHEAT SHEET
Fast, flexible and pragmatic scripting language.
U WebsiteSetupTable of Contents
PHP Basics
Variables and Constants
PHP Arrays - Grouped Values
PHP Strings
PHP Operators
Loops in PHP
Conditional Statements
Working with Forms in PHP
Regular Expressions
PHP Functions
PHP Filters
HTTP Functions in PHP
Working with MySQL.
Date and Time
PHP Errors
13
24
23
23
24
26
28
29
34
31
36
40PHP BASICS
Including PHP in a File
Writing Comments
Ws
Denotes comments that only span on one line
#
Another way of producing single-line comments
Tet
Everything between /* and */ is not executed, also works across
several lines
Outputting Data
PHP Cheat Sheet"; ?>
Writing PHP Functions
function NameOfTheFunction() {
//place PHP code here
)
VARIABLES AND CONSTANTS
Defining Variables
Types of Data
Integers
Integers are non-decimal numbers between -2,147,483,648 and
2,147,483,647. They must have at least one digit and no decimal point.
Can be in decimal, hexadecimal or octal.
Floats
This is the name for numbers with a decimal point or in exponential
form.
Strings
This simply means text, we will talk about it in detail further below.
Boolean values
Meaning true/false statements.
Arrays
Arrays are variables that store several values. We will talk about
them in detail further below.
Objects
Objects store both data and information on how to process it.
Resources
These are references to functions and resources outside of PHP
NULL
A variable that is NULL doesn’t have any value
Variable Scope
function myFunction() {
global $a, $b;
$b = $a - $)
WebsitesetupPredefined Variables
$GLOBALS
Used to access global variables from anywhere inside a PHP script.
$_SERVER
Contains information about the locations of headers, paths and
scripts.
$Ger
can collect data that was sent in the URL or submitted in an HTML
form.
$_Post
Used to gather data from an BTML form and to pass variables
$_REQUEST
Also collects data after submitting an HTML form
Variable-handling Functions
boolval
Used to retrieve the boolean value of a variable
debug_zval_dump
Outputs a string representation of an internal zend value
empty
Checks whether a variable is empty or not
floatval
Get the float value of a variable (doubleval is another possibility)
get_defined_vars
Returns an array of all defined variables
get_resource_type
Returns the resource type
gettype
Retrieves the variable type
WebsiteSetuporg - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheetimport_request_variables
Import GET/POST/Cookie variables into the global scope
intval
Find the integer value of a variable
is_array
Checks whether a variable is an array
is_bool
Finds out if a variable is a boolean of 538
is_callable
Verify whether you can call the contents of a variable as a function
is_countable
Check whether the contents of a variable are countable
is_float
Find out if the type of a variable is float, alternatives: is double
and is_real
is_int
Check if the type of a variable is an integer, is_integer and is_long
also works
is_iterable
Verify that a variable’s content is an iterable value
is_null
Checks whether a variable’s value is NULL
is_numeric
Find out if a variable is a number or a numeric string
is_object
Determines whether a variable is an object
Check if a variable is a resource
is_scalar
Tests if a variable is a scalar
WebsiteSetup.org - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheetis_string
Find out whether the type of a variable is a string
isset
Determine if a variable has been set and is not NULL
print:
Provides human-readable information about a variable
serialize
Generates a representation of a value that is storable
settype
Sets a variable’s type
strval
Retrieves the string value of a variable
unserialize
Creates a PHP value from a stored representation
unset
Unsets a variable
var_dump
Dumps information about a variable
var_export
Outputs or returns a string representation of a variable that can be
parsed
Constants
define(name, value, true/false)
Aside from user-defined constants, there also a number
of default PHP constants:
ecIneee
Denotes the number of the current line in a file
perieee
Is the full path and filename of the file
VebsiteSetup.org - Beginner's PHP CheDIR
The directory of the file
_FUNCTION__
Name of the function
CLASS.
Class name, includes the namespace it was declared in
__TRATT__
The trait name, also includes the namespace
_METHOD__
‘The class method name
_NAMESPACE__
Name of the current namespace
PHP ARRAYS - GROUPED VALUES
Indexed arrays
Arrays that have a numeric index
Associative arrays
Arrays where the keys are named
Multidimensional arrays
Arrays that contain one or more other arrays
Declaring an Array in PHP
Array Functions
array_change_key case
Changes all keys in an array to uppercase or lowercase
Websitesetup
3 - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheetarray_chunk
Splits an array into chunks
array_column
Retrieves the values from a single column in an array
array_combine
Merges the keys from one array and the values from another into a new
array
array_count_values
Counts all values in an array
array_diff
Compares arrays, returns the difference (values only
array diff assoc
Compares arrays, returns the difference (values and keys)
array diff key
Compares arrays, returns the difference (keys only)
array _diff_uassoc
Compares arrays (keys and values) through a user callback function
array _diff_ukey
Compares arrays (keys only) through a user callback function
array fill
Fills an array with values
array_fill_keys
Fills an array with values, specifying keys
array_filter
Filters the elements of an array via a callback function
array_flip
Exchanges all keys in an array with their associated values
array_intersect
Compare arrays and return their matches (values only)
WebsiteSetup.org - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheetarray_intersect_assoc
Compare arrays and return their matches (keys and values)
array_intersect_key
Compare arrays and return their matches (keys only)
array_intersect_uassoc
Compare arrays via a user-defined callback function (keys and values)
array_intersect_ukey
Compare arrays via a user-defined callback function (keys only)
array_key exists
Checks if a specified key exists in an array, alternative: key_exists
array_keys
Returns all keys or a subset of keys in an array
array_map
Applies a callback to the elements of a given array
array_merge
Merge one or several arrays
array_merge_recursive
Merge one or more arrays recursively
array_multisort
Sorts multiple or multi-dimensional arrays
array_pad
Inserts a specified number of items (with a specified value) into an
array
array_pop
Deletes an element from the end of an array
array_product
Calculate the product of all values in an array
array_push
Push one or several elements to the end of the array
WebsiteSetup.org - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheetarray_rand
Pick one or more random entries out of an array
array_reduce
Reduce the array to a single string using a user-defined function
array_replace
Replaces elements in the first array with values from following arrays
array_replace_recursive
Recursively replaces elements from later arrays into the first array
array_reverse
Returns an array in reverse order
array_search
Searches the array for a given value and returns the first key if
successful
array shift
Shifts an element from the beginning of an array
array_slice
Extracts a slice of an array
array_splice
Removes a portion of the array and replaces it
array_sum
Calculate the sum of the values in an array
array_udiff
Compare arrays and return the difference using a user function (values
only)
array_udiff_assoc
Compare arrays and return the difference using a default and a user
function (keys and values)
array_udiff_uassoc
Compare arrays and return the difference using two user functions
(values and keys)
array _uintersect
WebsiteSetuporg - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheet 10Compare arrays and return the matches via user function (values only)
array_uintersect_assoc
Compare arrays and return the matches via a default user function
(keys and values)
array_uintersect_uassoc
Compare arrays and return the matches via two user functions (keys and
values)
array_unique
Removes duplicate values from an array
array_unshift
Adds one or more elements to the beginning of an array
array_values
Returns all values of an array
array_walk
Applies a user function to every element in an array
array _walk recursive
Recursively applies a user function to every element of an array
arsort
Sorts an associative array in descending order according to the value
asort
Sorts an associative array in ascending order according to the value
compact,
Create an array containing variables and their values
count,
Count all elements in an array, alternatively use sizeof
current
Returns the current element in an array, an alternative is pos
each
Return the current key and value pair from an array
end
WebsiteSetuporg - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheet "Set the
extract
internal pointer to the last element of an array
Import variables from an array into the current symbol table
in_array
Checks if a value exists in an arraykeyFetches a key from an array
krsort
Sorts an associative array by key in reverse order
ksort
Sorts an associative array by key
list
Assigns
variables as if they were an array
natcasesort
Sorts an array using a “natural order” algorithm independent of case
natsort
Sorts an array using a “natural order” algorithm
next
Advance
prev
the internal pointer of an array
Move the internal array pointer backwards
range
Creates
reset
Set the
rsort
Sort an
shuffle
Shuffle
sort
an array from a range of elements
internal array pointer to its first element
array in reverse order
an array
tuporg - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheet 12Sorts an indexed array in ascending order
uasort
Sorts an array with a user-defined comparison function
uksort
Arrange an array by keys using a user-defined comparison function
usort
Categorize an array by values using a comparison function defined by
the user
PHP STRINGS
Defining Strings
Single quotes
This is the simplest way. Just wrap your text in ' markers and PHP
will handle it as a string.
Double quotes
As an alternative you can use ". When you do, it’s possible to use the
escape characters below to display special characters.
heredoc
Begin a string with <<< and an identifier, then put the string in a
new line. Close it in another line by repeating the identifier.
heredoc behaves like double-quoted strings.
nowdoc
Is what heredoc is for double-quoted strings but for single quotes. It
works the same way and eliminates the need for escape characters.
Escape Characters
\n — Line feed
\r - Carriage return
\t — Horizontal tab
\v — Vertical tab
\e - Escape
\f — Form feed
\\ - Backsiash
\g - Dollar sign
WebsiteSetuporg - 8
13\" = Single quote
\" = Double quote
\[0-71{1,3) — Character
\x[0-9a-Fa-£]{1,2} | — Character
\u{ [0-9A-Fa-£]+} - String as
String Functions
addcslashes ()
Returns a string with backslashes
addslashes ()
Returns a string with backslashes
be escaped
bin2hex()
in octal notation
in hexadecimal notation
UTF-8 representation
in front of specified characters
in front of characters that need to
Converts a string of ASCII characters to hexadecimal values
chop ()
Removes space or other characters
chr ()
from the right end of a string
Returns a character from a specified ASCII value
chunk_split ()
Splits a string into a series of smaller chunks
convert_cyr_string()
Converts a string from a Cyrillic
anotherconvert_uudecode ()
Decodes a uuencoded
stringconvert_wuencode()
Encodes a string using
wuencodecount_chars ()
character set to
Returns information about the characters in a string
ere32()
Calculates a 32-bit CRC for a string
crypt ()
iteSetuporg - B
ner’s PHP Cheat Sheet 14Returns a hashed string
echo() or echo ''
Outputs one or several strings
explode ()
Breaks down a string into an array
Eprints ()
Writes a formatted string to a specified output stream
get_html_translation_table()
Returns the translation table used by htmlspecialchars() and
htmlentities ()
hebrev()
‘Transforms Hebrew text to visual
texthebrevc ()
Converts Hebrew text to visual text and implements HTML line breaks
hex2bin()
Translate hexadecimal values to ASCII characters
html_entity_decode()
Turns HTML entities to characters
htmlentities ()
Converts characters to HTML entities
htmlspecialchars decode ()
‘Transforms special HTML entities to characters
htmlspecialchars ()
Switches predefined characters to HTML entities
implode ()
Retrieves a string from the elements of an array, same as join()
lefirst ()
Changes a string’s first character to lowercase
levenshtein()
ner’s PHP Cheat Sheet 15
iteSetuporg - BCalculates the Levenshtein distance between two strings
Localeconv()
Returns information about numeric and monetary formatting for the
locale
Ltrim()
Removes spaces or other characters from the left side of a string
md5 ()
Calculates the MD5 hash of a string and returns it
md5_file()
Calculates the MD5 hash of a file
metaphone ()
Provides the metaphone key of a string
money_format ()
Returns a string as a currency string
nl_langinfo()
Gives specific locale information
nl2br ()
Inserts HTML line breaks for each new line in a string
number_format ()
Formats a number including grouped thousands
ord()
Returns the ASCII value of a string’s first character
parse_str ()
Parses a string into variables
print()
Outputs one or several strings
printé()
outputs a formatted string
quoted_printable_decode ()
ner’s PHP Cheat Sheet 16
iteSetuporg - BConverts a quoted-printable string to 8-bit binary
Goes from 8-bit string to a quoted-printable string
quotemeta()
Returns a string with a backslash before metacharacters
xtrim()
Strips whitespace or other characters from the right side of a string
setlocale()
Sets locale information
shal()
calculates a string’s SHA-1 hash
shal_file()
Does the same for a file
similar_text()
Determines the similarity between two strings
soundex ()
Calculates the soundex key of a string
sprinté()
Returns a formatted string
sscan£()
Parses input froma string according to a specified format
str_getesv()
Parses a CSV string into an array
str_ireplace()
Replaces specified characters in a string with specified replacements
(case-insensitive)
str_pad()
Pads a string to a specified length
str_repeat ()
ner’s PHP Cheat Sheet 7
iteSetuporg - BRepeats a string a preset number of times
str_replace ()
Replaces specified characters in a string (case-sensitive)
stx_rotl3()
Performs ROT13 encoding on a string
str_shuffle()
Randomly shuffles the characters in a string
str_split()
Splits strings into arrays
stx_word_count ()
Returns the number of words in a string
strcasecmp ()
Case-insensitive comparison of two strings
stremp ()
Binary safe string comparison (case sensitive)
streoll()
Compares two strings based on locale
strespn ()
Returns the number of characters found in a string before the
occurrence of specified characters
strip_tags()
Removes HTML and PHP tags from a string
stripcslashes()
Opposite of addeslashes()
stripslashes ()
Opposite of addslashes ()
stripos()
Finds the position of the first occurrence of a substring within a
string (case insensitive)
stristr()
ner’s PHP Cheat Sheet 18
iteSetuporg - BCase-insensitive version of strstr ()
strien()
Returns the length of a string
strnatcasecmp()
Case-insensitive comparison of two strings using a “natural order”
algorithm
strnatemp()
Same as the aforementioned but case sensitive
strncasecmp ()
String comparison of a defined number of characters (case insensitive)
strnemp ()
Same as above but case-sensitive
strpbek ()
Searches a string for any number of characters
strpos ()
Returns the position of the first occurrence of a substring in a
string (case sensitive)
strrchr()
Finds the last occurrence of a string within another string
strrev()
Reverses a string
strripos()
Finds the position of the last occurrence of a string’s substring
(case insensitive)
strpos ()
Same as strripos() but case sensitive
strspn()
The number of characters in a string with only characters from a
specified list
strstr ()
iteSetuporg - B
ner’s PHP Cheat Sheet 19Case-sensitive search for the first occurrence of a string inside
another string
strtok ()
Splits a string into smaller chunks
strtolower ()
Converts all characters in a string to lowercase
strtoupper ()
Same but for uppercase letters
strtr()
Translates certain characters in a string, alternative: strchr()
substr()
Returns a specified part of a string
substr_compare ()
Compares two strings from a specified start position up to a certain
length, optionally case sensitive
substr_count ()
Counts the number of times a substring occurs within a string
substr_replace()
Replaces a substring with something else
trim()
Removes space or other characters from both sides of a string
ucfirst ()
Transforms the first character of a string to uppercase
ucwords ()
Converts the first character of every word in a string to uppercase
véprinté()
Writes a formatted string to a specified output stream
vprinté ()
outputs a formatted string
veprinté()
WebsiteSetuporg - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheet 20Writes a formatted string to a variable
wordwrap ()
Shortens a string to a given number of characters
PHP OPERATORS
Arithmetic Operators
+
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division
Modulo (the remainder of value divided by another)
Exponentiation
Assignment Operators
=
is
is
is
ppooo
voooT
the
the
the
the
the
same
same
same
Comparison Operators
Equal
Identical
Not equal
Not equal
Not identical
Less than
Greater than
Less than or equal to
Greater than or equal to
Less than, equal to, or greater than
Logical Operators
and —
or
xor =
sa
Wo-
and
or
Exclusive
Not
And
or
or
ner's PH
as
as
as
voooe
peooo
4
op oew
eNets
2Bitwise Operators
6 -And
1 — Or (inclusive or)
. — Xor (exclusive or)
~ = Not
<< — Shift left
>> — Shift right
Error Control Operator
You can use the @ sign to prevent expressions from generating error
messages. This is often important for security reasons, for example to
keep confidential information safe
Execution Operator
PHP supports one execution operator, which is ~* (backticks). These
are not single-quotes! PHP will attempt to execute the contents of the
backticks as a shell command.
Increment/Decrement Operators
+480
Increments a variable by one, then returns it
Suet
Returns a variable, then increments it by one
--$0
Decrements the variable by one, returns it afterward
$v--
Returns the variable then decrements it by one
String Operators
Used to concatenate (mean combine) arguments
Used to append the argument on the right to the left-side argument
s PHP Cheat Sheet 22LOOPS IN PHP
For Loop
for (starting counter value; ending counter value;
to increase) {
// code to execute goes here
)
Foreach Loop
foreach ($InsertYourArrayName as $value) {
/1 code to execute goes here
y
While Loop
while (condition that must apply) {
// code to execute goes here
)
Do. .While Loop
do {
// code to execute goes here;
} while (condition that must apply);
CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS
If Statement
if (condition) {
// code to execute if condition is met
)
If. .Else
if (condition) {
// code to execute if condition is met
} else {
// code to execute if condition is not met
,
WebsiteSetuporg - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheet
increment by which
23If..Elseif..Else
if (condition) {
// code to execute if condition is met
} elseif (condition) {
// code to execute if this condition is met
} else {
// code to execute if none of the conditions are met
,
Switch Statement
switch (n) {
case x:
code to execute if n=x;
break;
case y:
code to execute if
break;
code to execute if n=:
break;
// add more cases as needed
default:
code to execute if n is neither of the above;
WORKING WITH FORMS IN PHP
Using GET vs POST
GET collects data via URL parameters. That means all variable names
and their values are contained in the page address
The advantage of this is that you're able to bookmark the information.
Keep in mind that it also means that the information is visible to
everyone. For that reason, GET is not suitable for sensitive
information such as passwords. It also limits the amount of data that
can be sent in ca 2000 characters.
POST, on the other hand, uses the HTTP POST method to pass on
variables. This makes the data invisible to third parties, as it is
sent in the HTTP body. You are not able to bookmark it.
WebsiteSetuporg - 8
24With POST, there are no limits to the amount of information you can
send. Aside from that, it also has advanced functionality and is
therefore preferred by developers.
Form Security
PHP offers tools to thwart those attacks, namely:
htmlspecialchars ()
txim()
stripslashes ()
Required Fields, Error Messages and Data Validation
Aside from that, PHP is able to define required fields (you can’t
submit the form without filling them out), display error messages if
some information is missing and to validate data. We have already
talked about the necessary tools to do so.
For example, you can simply define variables for your form fields and
use the empty() function to check if they have values. After that,
create a simple if/else statement to either send the submitted data or
output an error message.
‘The next step is to check submitted data for validity. For that, PHP
offers a number of filters such as FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL to make sure
a submitted email address has the right format.
Regular Expressions (RegEx)
Syntax
Sexp
/w3schools/i";
RegEx Functions
preg_match()
Returns 1 if the pattern was found in the string and 0 if not
preg_match_all()
Returns the number of times the pattern was found in the string, which
may also be 0
25preg_replace()
Returns a new string where matched patterns have been replaced with
another string
RegEx Modifiers
Performs a case-insensitive search
Performs a multiline search (patterns that search for the beginning or
end of a string will match the beginning or end of each line)
u
Enables correct matching of UTF-8 encoded patterns
RegEx Patterns
[abe] - Find one character from the options between the brackets
[abe] - Find any character NOT between the brackets
[0-9] - Find one character from the range 0 to 9
Metacharacters
Find a match for any one of the patterns separated by | as in:
cat|dog|fish
Find just one instance of any character
Finds a match as the beginning of a string as in: “Hello
s
Finds a match at the end of the string as in: World
\a
Find a digit
\s
Find a whitespace character
tuporg - Beginner's PHP Cheat Sheet 26\v
Find a match at the beginning of a word like this: \bWORD, or at the
end of a word like this: WORD\b
\ wane
Find the Unicode character specified by the hexadecimal number xxxx
Quantifiers
nt
Matches any string that contains at least one n
Matches any string that contains zero or more occurrences of n
Matches any string that contains zero or one occurrences of n
n(x)
Matches any string that contains a sequence of X n's
n{x,y)
Matches any string that contains a sequence of X to ¥ n's
n{x,}
Matches any string that contains a sequence of at least X n's
Grouping
Use parentheses ( ) to apply quantifiers to entire patterns. They cal
also be used to select parts of the pattern to be used as a match.
a7
WebsiteSetuporg - 8PHP Functions
* A function is a block of statements that can be used repeatedly
in a program.
* A function will not execute automatically when a page loads.
* A function will be executed by a call to the function.
syntax
function functionName() {
code to be executed;
,
functiontiane ()
Function Arguments
";
)
>
Default Argument Value
";
+
setHeight (350) ;
setHeight(); // will use the default value of 50
setHeight (135) :
setHeight (80) ;
>
Returning values
" . sum(5, 10) . " "
sum(7, 13) . "