Introduction to PHP: Getting Started

	Introduction		Getting Started		A Useful Example		Templates		Conclusion

PHP scripts are like HTML files, but instead of .htm or .html extension, they are given .php extension. Within the file, PHP code is contained in <?php ?> tags.

Let's take a look at a very simple PHP script, that displays "Hello, World!" in the browser window.

I have put the following in a text-only file called example1.php, and uploaded the file to the server.

Example 1: "Hello, World!"

	<html>
	   <head>
	      <title>Example 1</title>
	   </head>
	   <body>
	   <?php
	      // Say Hello!
	      echo "Hello, World!";
	   ?>
	   </body>
	</html>

See Example 1.

When we view the source of Example 1 in the browser, we notice the following.

Because the page is rendered on the server before it hits the browser, the browser does not see the PHP code.
The entire <?php ?> tag is replaced by the output of the code.
Line 7, which begins with two slashes, is a comment.
Every PHP statement ends with ;

Next: A Useful Example