PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor and is used as a scripting language that is embedded in HTML and runs on the web server. The PHP code is run on the server when the page is requested

Anyone who knows HTML and the C or C++ language can easily program PHP. PHP uses much of the same syntax of C, but is much easier to use and provides access to variables and their values as submitted using HTML forms without the need to parse information. Also PHP is designed to work easily with most SQL servers including the open source SQL server, MySQL.

PHP is a powerful tool for making dynamic and interactive Web pages. PHP is the widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft's ASP. In our PHP tutorial you will learn about PHP, and how to execute scripts on your server.

How Does PHP Work?

PHP scripts are executed on the server, before the web page is displayed to the user (this is what we mean by "server-side"). The user only sees the end result, which consists of client-side markup and scripts (i.e. HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc). Therefore, the user/browser doesn't actually see any PHP code. If the user views the source code, all they would see is HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc - they wouldn't see any PHP code.

This happens because, whenever the server processes a file with the .php extension, it knows to look for PHP code. When it encounters the PHP code, it processes it. Generally, the same .php file will also have client side code such as HTML. The server knows to process the PHP bits and output the client-side bits. You, as the programmer, determine which pieces of HTML will be displayed and when. You do this using PHP code.