PHP Essentials

• About this Book
• Intended Audience

1. The History of PHP
   • The Creation of PHP
   • PHP 3 Hits the Big Time
   • PHP 4 - Optimization, Scalabilty and More
   • PHP 5 - Object Orientation, Error Handling and XML
   • How Popular is PHP?
2. An Overview of PHP
   • What Exactly is PHP?
   • How Does PHP Work?
   • Why is PHP so Useful?
   • Summary
3. Creating a Simple PHP Script
   • The PHP Code Delimiters
   • Testing the PHP Installation
   • Emdedding PHP into an HTML File
   • Embedding HTML into a PHP Script
   • Summary
4. Commenting PHP Code
   • PHP Single Line Comments
   • PHP Multi-line Comments
   • Summary
5. An Introduction to PHP Variables
   • Naming and Creating a Variable in PHP
   • Assigning a Value to a PHP Variable
   • Accessing PHP Variable Values
   • Changing the Type of a PHP Variable
   • Checking Whether a Variable is Set
6. Understanding PHP Variable Types
   • The PHP Integer Variable Type
   • The PHP Float Variable Type
   • The PHP Boolean Variable Type
   • The PHP String Variable
   • Extracting and Writing String Fragments
   • Creating PHP heredoc Strings
7. PHP Constants
   • Defining a PHP Constant
   • Checking if a PHP Constant is Defined
   • Using a Variable as a Constant Name
   • Predefined PHP Constants
   • PHP Script and Environment Related Constants
   • PHP Mathematical Constants
8. PHP Operators
   • PHP Assignment Operators
   • PHP Arithmetic Operators
   • PHP Comparison Operators
   • PHP Logical Operators
   • PHP Increment and Decrement Operators
   • PHP String Concatenation Operator
   • Concatenation of Numbers and Strings in PHP
   • PHP Execution Operator - Executing Server Side Commands
9. PHP Flow Control and Looping
   • PHP Conditional Statements
   • The PHP if Statement
   • The PHP if ... else Statements
   • PHP Looping Statements
   • PHP for loops
   • PHP while loops
   • PHP do ... while loops
   • PHP switch Statements
   • Breaking a Loop
   • Breaking Out of Nested Loops
   • Skipping Statements in Current Loop Iteration
10. PHP Functions
    • What is a PHP Function?
    • How to Write a PHP Function
    • Returning a Value from a PHP Function
    • Passing Parameters to a PHP Function
    • Calling PHP Functions
    • Passing Parameters By Reference
    • Returning Values By Reference
    • Functions and Variable Scope
11. PHP Arrays
    • How to Create a PHP Array
    • Accessing Elements in a PHP Array
    • Creating an Associative Array
    • Accessing Elements of an Associative Array
    • Accessing Elements in a Multidimensional PHP Array
    • Using PHP Array Pointers
    • Changing, Adding and Removing PHP Array Elements
    • Looping through PHP Array Elements
    • Replacing Sections of an Array
    • Sorting a PHP Array
    • Sorting Associative Arrays
    • Getting Information About PHP Arrays & other Array Functions
    • Summary
12. Working with Strings and Text in PHP
    • Changing the Case of a PHP String
    • Converting to and from ASCII Values
    • Printing Formatted Strings in PHP
    • PHP printf formatting specifiers
    • Finding the Length of a PHP String
    • Converting a String into a PHP Array
    • Removing Leading and Trailing Whitespace from a PHP String
    • Comparing Strings in PHP
    • String Comparison Functions Return Value
    • Accessing and Modifiying Characters in String
    • Searching for Characters and Substrings in a PHP String
    • Extracting and Replacing Substrings in PHP
    • Replacing All Instances of a Word in a PHP String

• PHP, Filesystems and File I/O
• Working with Directories in PHP
• An Overview of HTML Forms
• PHP and HTML Forms
• PHP and Cookies - Creating, Reading and Writing
• Understanding PHP Sessions
• PHP Object Oriented Programming
• Using PHP with MySQL
• PHP and SQLite