There are a lot of begginer tutorials on the web if you search for them, many of them are here at dev articles. If you know any other programming or scripting language, then picking up the basiscs of PHP.
Here are just some basics for you though(there are other ways of doign some of the stuff I say, but this is just for you to get started with)
#1.
http://www.php.net/manual/en is the location of the PHP manual in english. As you learn PHP (and probably true if you are a guru too) it is your best friend becuase it tells you everything about php although it lacks some of the great examples you cna find in tutorials throughout the web,
All php script code is held basically between an open and close tag like any other html tag
<?php ?>
Comments can be made in two ways. Using a double forward slash for a single line comment or "/* */" for multi line comments
PHP Code:
<?php
//This is a single line comment
/*This is a multi-
line comment*/
?>
to print text in php without leaving php you use the echo statement which is followed by what ever you want to say which is between either single quotes or double quotes
PHP Code:
<?php
echo 'Yo, I am a PHP script, you got a problem with that?';
//Would print into your web browsers screen if the script was run "Yo, I am a PHP script, you got a problem with that?"
/* strings surrounded by single quotes can never have variables attached to them (don't worry, this comment will make more sense later on */
echo"Yo, I am a PHP script, you got a problem with that?";
//Would print into your web browser screen if this script was run "Yo, I am a PHP script, you got a problem with that?"
/* Strings surrounded by double quotes can have variables attached ot them */
?>
Unlike some other programming languages PHP can automattically tell what type a variable is. To declare a variable you would put a dollar sign followed by the name of the variable.Then you would put an "=" and what the variable can equal. A variable can equal a number, a string(surrounded by quotes or double quotes), a function(not gonna explain this part here)
PHP Code:
<?php
$foo=1;//variable that is called foo is = to the number 1
$bar='Yo';//variable called bar is a string
$today=getdate()//the variable called today is calling a function
$year=$today[year];//This variable is taking part of the information gathered in the function getdate
echo "I am printing these variables to the screen ".$foo.$bar.$year;
/* This will print to your browsers screen:
I am printing these variables to the screen 1Yo2004*/
?>
If you tried echoing the variables without using double quotes on the string you are echoing out without a variable it will not work correctly. You can echo a variable without a string attached to it ie.
PHP Code:
<?php
$foo=1;
echo $foo;//Would print out "1" onto your browsers screen
?>
I hope this is enough to get you started
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May 27th, 2004, 09:44 PM
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