What is PHP?

PHP, which originally stood for Personal Home Page and now stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, is a popular server-side scripting language designed for web development. A scripting language is a type of programming language that is interpreted at runtime, which means that scripts (sets of instructions) are executed on-the-fly rather than being compiled in advance.

PHP is embedded within HTML code, which makes it a good choice for web development. It can be used to create dynamic content and to interact with databases, making it powerful for developing complex, data-driven websites. PHP runs on the server side, meaning it operates on the web server before the website is sent to the user's web browser.

What is PHP Used For?

Creating Dynamic Content

As already mentioned, PHP can create dynamic web pages. This means the content can change based on different factors, such as user input, time of day, or information pulled from a database.

Handling Forms

PHP can collect form data and process it on the server. This is useful for any sort of user input, like search queries or account registration.

Working with Databases

PHP can interact with databases to store, retrieve, update, or delete data. This is essential for any sort of website that needs to maintain persistent data, like user profiles or content posts.