A large part of writing scripts, and for that matter programming in general, involves the handling and manipulation of data. Data can take many forms, ranging from single characters, words and sentences to integers, floating point numbers and true and false values. In object oriented environments such as PHP, data can also take the form of an ''object'', a self contained module which is capable of encapsulating any number of data values of numerous different types.

A large part of writing scripts and for that matter programming in general, involves the handling and manipulation of data. Data can take many forms, ranging from single characters, words and sentences to integers, floating point numbers and true and false values. In object oriented environments such as PHP, data can also take the form of an ''object'', a self contained module which is capable of encapsulating any number of data values of numerous different types.

When working with data values in PHP, we need some convenient way to store these values so that we can easily access them and make reference to them whenever necessary. This is where PHP variables come in.

When working with data values in PHP, we need some convenient way to store these values so that we can easily access them and make reference to them whenever necessary. This is where PHP variables come in.