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PHP Introduction

What Is PHP?

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open-source server-side scripting language designed for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, PHP now powers major platforms like WordPress, Facebook, and Wikipedia.

Why Use PHP?

  • Easy to learn and widely supported
  • Works with many databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)
  • Excellent for server-side scripting
  • Open source with a large community
  • Cross-platform and works with Apache, Nginx, IIS

What Can PHP Do?

  • Generate dynamic web page content
  • Handle forms and user input
  • Work with databases and file systems
  • Manage sessions and cookies
  • Encrypt and validate data

PHP File Characteristics

  • PHP files have a .php extension
  • They are executed on the server
  • The result is returned to the browser as plain HTML

Integration with HTML

You can embed PHP directly in HTML files:

<html>
<body>

<h1>My PHP Page</h1>
<p><?php echo "This is generated by PHP."; ?></p>

</body>
</html>

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