2.1. Introduction

PHP borrows a bit of its syntax from other languages such as C, shell, Perl, and even Java. It is really a hybrid language, taking the best features from other languages and creating an easy-to-use and powerful scripting language.

When you finish reading this chapter, you will have learned

  • The basic language structure of PHP

  • How PHP is embedded in HTML

  • How to write comments

  • Managing variables and basic data types

  • Defining constants for simple values

  • The most common control structures, most of which are available in other programming languages

  • Built-in or user-defined functions

If you are an experienced PHP 4 developer, you might want to skip to the next chapter, which covers object-oriented support of the language that has changed ...

Get PHP 5 Power Programming now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial