What is PHP? The PHP Programming Language Meaning Explained

PHP is one of the most popular and widely-used server-side scripting languages in the world today. It powers a large portion of the web, including many major websites and platforms that we use on a daily basis. But what exactly is PHP, and why has it become such an integral part of the Internet? Let‘s take an in-depth look at the meaning, history, and usage of this versatile programming language.

What Does PHP Stand For?

PHP originally stood for "Personal Home Page" when it was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. At the time, Lerdorf used it to track visits to his online resume. However, as PHP grew in scope and capability over the years, the acronym was later repurposed to recursively stand for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".

Today, PHP is a fully-featured, general-purpose scripting language that is especially well-suited for web development. It can be embedded directly into HTML code or used in combination with web frameworks and content management systems. PHP code is usually processed by an interpreter on a web server, generating dynamic web page content on the fly.

Key Features and Advantages of PHP

So what makes PHP such a popular choice for building websites and web applications? Here are some of its main benefits and distinguishing features:

1. Open Source – PHP is free, open source software released under the PHP License. Anyone can use, modify and distribute the source code without paying royalties, making it accessible to a huge global community of developers.

2. Cross-Platform Compatibility – PHP code can be deployed on all major operating systems, including Linux, Unix, macOS, and Windows. This allows developers to build apps that aren‘t tied to a particular server environment.

3. Ease of Learning – PHP has a gradual learning curve compared to many other programming languages. Its syntax is clear and easy to understand, borrowing elements from C, Java, and Perl. There are also tons of tutorials and resources available for learning PHP development.

4. Database Support – PHP offers excellent support for interacting with databases, especially MySQL. It also has extensions available for connecting to PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and many other database management systems.

5. Large Developer Community – With such widespread usage, PHP has built up a massive worldwide community of developers. This makes it easy to find help, support, and additional tools or modules when working on a PHP project.

Popular Websites and Platforms Built With PHP

To further prove PHP‘s dominance as a web technology, you only need to look at some of the hugely popular sites and systems built using the language. For example:

• Facebook – The social media giant uses a PHP runtime engine called HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine) to serve billions of web requests
• Wikipedia – The collaborative online encyclopedia relies on PHP and MediaWiki, a PHP-based web application
• WordPress – This PHP-powered content management system is used by over 40% of all websites on the Internet
• Drupal and Joomla – Two other widely-used, PHP-based CMSes for building feature-rich websites
• Mailchimp – The email marketing platform uses PHP for its web application and backend services

This is just a small sampling of the many successful PHP projects out there. Others include Yahoo, Tumblr, Flickr, iStock Photo, and PrestaShop, to name a few.

Is PHP Really Dying?

In recent years, there has been much debate within the web development community over whether PHP is on the decline. The rise of newer server-side languages like Node.js, Python, Go, and Ruby on Rails has led some to question if PHP is still relevant.

However, by most metrics, PHP is still going strong. According to W3Techs, PHP is used by 78.9% of all websites with a known server-side language as of January 2023. It also consistently ranks as one of the most in-demand programming skills on job sites like Indeed, with an average yearly salary of $86,000 for PHP developers in the United States.

While it‘s true that PHP may not be the best fit for every type of web project, it remains a solid, battle-tested option with a proven track record. Especially for content-heavy sites, blogs, and e-commerce stores, PHP frameworks like Laravel provide a fast, scalable foundation for development.

Writing Your First PHP Program

Now that you have a better understanding of PHP‘s history and role in web development, let‘s walk through the process of setting up a local environment and writing your first PHP script.

The quickest way to start using PHP is to install a web server solution stack, such as WAMP (Windows), MAMP (Mac), or LAMP (Linux). These packages include Apache web server, MySQL database, and PHP, providing everything you need to run PHP scripts on your own computer.

For this example, we‘ll use WAMP on a Windows PC:

1. Download the latest version of WAMP Server from www.wampserver.com and run the installer
2. Launch the WAMP Server and wait for the taskbar icon to turn green, indicating the server is running
3. Open a text editor and create a new file called hello.php
4. Write the following code and save the file to the www directory in your WAMP installation (e.g. C:\wamp64\www\hello.php)

<?php
  echo "Hello World!";
?>

5. Open a web browser and go to http://localhost/hello.php to view your PHP script output

Alternatively, you can use PHP variables to store text or other values in your script:

<?php
  $greeting = "Hello World!";
  echo $greeting;
?>

PHP code can also be embedded within HTML files. Here‘s an example of a PHP script that displays different greetings on the page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>My First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Welcome to My Website!</h1>
  <p>
    <?php 
      $time = date("H");
      if ($time < "12") {
        echo "Good morning!";
      } elseif ($time < "18") {
        echo "Good afternoon!"; 
      } else {
        echo "Good evening!";
      }
    ?>
  </p>
</body>
</html>

This script uses the built-in date() function to get the current hour in 24-hour format. It then prints a different greeting message based on the time of day.

Learning More PHP

Congratulations, you‘ve just written your first PHP programs! Of course, this only scratches the surface of what‘s possible with the language. PHP includes a huge collection of built-in functions, object-oriented programming features, and web-specific extensions for doing everything from sending email to drawing graphics.

To dive deeper into PHP web development, you can explore some of the following resources:

• The official PHP Manual and Function Reference on php.net
• Freecodecamp‘s PHP Tutorial for building a CRUD app with MySQL
• Popular PHP frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, and CakePHP
• Laracasts video tutorials on modern PHP practices and tools
• PHP: The Right Way, a collection of best practices and coding standards

As you can see, PHP offers web developers a powerful toolkit for building just about any kind of website or application backend imaginable. Its enduring popularity and active community ensure that PHP will continue to play a critical role in the Web ecosystem for years to come. So if you‘re looking to launch a career in web development or expand your programming skill set, PHP is definitely a language worth learning.