PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is widely used for web development. It was created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. PHP stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor," which is a recursive acronym. PHP scripts are executed on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client. PHP files can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code. PHP is free to download and use.
Some key features of PHP include:
- Server-side scripting: PHP scripts are executed on the server.
- Web development: PHP is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.
- Dynamic page content: PHP can generate dynamic page content.
- File manipulation: PHP can create, open, read, write, delete, and close files on the server.
- Form data collection: PHP can collect form data.
- Database manipulation: PHP can add, delete, and modify data in databases.
- User access control: PHP can be used to control user access.
PHP is used for web content management systems including MediaWiki, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Moodle, eZ Publish, eZ Platform, and SilverStripe. It is also used for web hosting platforms such as BlueHost, SiteGround, and Hostinger. PHP is a versatile scripting language that is great for both beginners and experts. It is powerful enough to be at the core of the biggest blogging system on the web (WordPress) and deep enough to run large social networks.
