PHP Work Book

PHP Workbook
PHP WORKBOOK
Brendan Riordan
Matthew Green
School of Computing and IT
University of Wolverhampton
Brendan Riordan & Matthew Green - Page 1 of 25
PHP Workbook
Chapter 1
What is PHP ?
Self- referentially short for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source, server-side, HTML
embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. Webopedia
What does this mean ? Open Source the source code is generally available to the public,
who may update or modify it. Generally, the production of the code is a collaborative venture
between programmers, and is a response to proprietary code produced by corporations such as
Microsoft. The software is, therefore, FREE. Server-Side in a client-server model, such as
the Web, the scripts are run on the Web Server and not the clients PC. This is in contrast to
JavaScript, which is executed on the clients PC. Dynamic Web Pages are pages which
can change every time a client access them (changes may be due to the clients location, the
time of day, profile of the viewer etc). In this case Dynamic Web Pages means HTML
extensions that will enable a Web page to react to user input without sending requests to the
Web server.
PHP was created sometime in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. During mid 1997, PHP development
entered the hands of other contributors. Two of them, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans,
rewrote the parser from scratch to create PHP version 3 (PHP3). At the time of writing (Jan
2003) the latest version is 4.3.0.
PHP scripts are embedded within HTML code, and is differentiated from the HTML by the
use of tags, eg
<html>
<?php
php code goes here;
?>
</html>
The <?php tag indicates where the PHP code begins, and the ?> tag indicates where it ends.
Note that you can either use <?php ?> or you can use <? ?>. The longer tag <?php
avoids confusion with processing instructions that can be used with HTML and so is used
throughout this work book.
The main purpose of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated
web pages quickly, but you can do much more with PHP. PHP can perform any task that any
CGI program can do, but its strength lies in its compatibility with many types of databases,
such as MySQL. The home of PHP is at www.php.net Here you will find updates, the online manual, tutorials, utilities, examples of code, discussions etc
A good book on PHP and MySQL is Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL,
Hugh E.Williams & David Lane, OReilly (2002), 9-780596-000417
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How do I get started ?

You will need to either identify a web server which supports PHP, and upload your scripts to
it, or to run some web server software on your PC to test your scripts.
A web server is available in SCIT which supports both PHP and MySQL, the URL is
http://www.clun.scit.wlv.ac.uk Any PHP scripts you wish to execute/test should be place in
your user area on this server. Scripts may uploaded using the FTP software provided in the
Windows Comms folder on all University PCs.
If you want to run PHP on your machine at home, please note the following:
You will need to install some Web Server software, before you can install and run
PHP
The usual choice for home users is Microsofts Personal Web Server which is on the
Windows CD.
Microsofts PWS does not run on Windows XP (Home Edition), although it does with
Windows XP (Professional Edition). It is suggested that if you are running Windows
XP (Professional Edition), IIS should be installed Start, Control Panel, Add or
Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components, Internet Information
Services IIS
If you are not running Windows XP (Professional Edition), you are advised to install
PHPTriad. This is piece of freeware, which will install Apache for Windows 1.3, PHP
4.0, MySQL 3.23 and Perl. It takes less than five minutes to have all the software up
and running, and requires you only to use the winmysqladmin software to set
yourself up an account in MySQL. The software may be downloaded from Brendan
Riordans web site at www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Brendan
Whilst PHP Triad is easy to install, support is beyond the scope of this work book. If
in doubt, use a PHP-enabled web sever such as www.clun.scit.wlv.ac.uk.
Details on installing PHP manually within a Windows environment, can be
downloaded form the local version of the online manual at
http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/appdocs/php/install.windows.html
How do I create a PHP page ?

As with HTML, the best way to learn is not to use a web development package such as
FrontPage, but to write all your code by hand. Therefore, the best development tool is
Notepad. However, for these workshops you may use a tool such as PHP Edit version 0.6
(www.phedit.net), which offers limited help with PHP syntax. Do not download version 0.7
as the author himself describes it as unstable. Note: The CHM version of the PHP Manual
may be downloaded from www.php.net and integrated in to the Help section of PHP Edit.
Details are available from http://help.phpedit.net/en/module.HelpIntegration.php
NB If you decide to use Notepad to edit your scripts, you must add the .php extension
when you do a Save As ... Failure to do this will mean that Notepad will add a .txt file
extension by default. Therefore, if you want to save a PHP file with the name of index,
select File, Save As , and enter the name index.php.
Be aware that any code you submit for assessment will be subject to a viva with your tutor,
during which you must give a full explanation of the code, demonstrating a clear
understanding, and leaving in no doubt that you are the author of the original code.
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Chapter 2
Note You are encouraged to type up all the examples given in this, and subsequent
chapters, and test them on a pHP-enabled server. You will learn a great deal by having to
test and de-bug your software.
Instructions
Instructions are separated the same as in C, Pascal or Perl - terminate each statement with a
semicolon. The closing tag (?>) also implies the end of the statement, so the following are
equivalent:
<?php
echo "This is a test";
?>
<?php echo "This is a test"

?>
You would normally expect to see PHP embedded within an HTML page, such as in the
following example
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World My First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor=#ffffff>
<h1>
// A Simple output statement
<?php
echo Hello World;
?>
</h1>
</body
</html>
In the example above note:

PHP is embedded within HTML code, differentiated by the PHP tags.
The PHP script is within a HTML <h1> tag, formatting the PHP output.
When a PHP script is run, the entire script is replaced by the output of the script
being run on the server.
A comment has been placed after //
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Output
It is good practice to comment your code. It clarifies the meaning of your code, allows easier
de-bugging, and if you ever inherit code that you must work with you will appreciate it if the
author has left comments explaining some of the more obscure algorithms used.
There are three forms of syntax for the comment command:
// This a single line comment

# This is also a single line comment
/* This shows how
you can break a comment
over several lines */
You may use any of the three forms of comment syntax, but this handbook will largely use
the first type, ie // comment .
The command to send output to the screen is either the echo command or print command.
Whilst they are fundamentally very similar, there are subtle differences between these two
commands.
echo hello;
// is exactly the same command as
echo (hello);
Note: if you use parentheses with the echo command, only one output parameter may be
used. However, they make no difference to the print command.
String Literals
It is possible to use either single quotation marks, or double quotation marks, ie
echo These quotation marks work;

echo and so do these;
Clearly there can be problems when you include quotation marks within the string itself. For
example, supposing you want to display the text:
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The student said PHP is easy to learn, and continued with his work.
If we used an echo command with these quotes, he PHP interpreter would get very confused
as to when the string began, and when it ended, ie
echo The student said PHP is easy to learn, and continued with his work.;
Start Printing
Stop Printing
Start Printing
Stop Printing
To avoid this confusion, the following syntax must be used when using quotation marks
within strings;
// these strings contain quotation marks

echo This string has a a single quote! ;
echo This string has a a double quote! ;
The quotation marks can be escaped using:
echo " This string has a \" double quote! ";

echo ' This string has a \' single quote! ';
If you have tried any of the above examples, and you should have !, you will find that
consecutive echo commands produces output on the same line, ie the code above produces
the following on screen:
This string has a " double quote!This string has a ' single quote!
If you wish to start output on a new line you must put a line break where required. Note that
the <br> tag is used (as in HTML), but the tag must be placed within the string. This is
demonstrated in the example below:
echo
echo
echo
echo
"This line is immediately followed";

"by this line - no breaks !<br>";
"However, this is on a new line<br>";
"and so is this !";
Produces on screen:
This line is immediately followedby this line - no breaks !
However, this is on a new line
and so is this !
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Print Statement
The print statement is usually used to output the value of variables (more on these later),
calculations, data from a database etc
A simple example would be as follows
echo "The value
print(8 + 4);
print "<br>";
echo "The value
print (8 - 4);
print "<br>";
echo "The value
print (8 * 4);
print "<br>";
echo "The value
print (8 / 4);
of 8 plus 4 is ";
of 8 minus 4 is ";
of 8 times 4 is ";
of 8 divided by 4 is ";
The output is:

The value of 8 plus 4 is 12
The value of 8 minus 4 is 4
The value of 8 times 4 is 32
The value of 8 divided by 4 is 2
Note the use of the print<br>; statement. What does it do ? (Hint: re-read the previous
page)
Other tags may be embedded within a print statement, in order to format text. Common
tags, with which you are familiar with from HTML, include:
echo "This word is <strong> bold </strong>,";

echo "this word is in <em>italics</em> ";
echo "and this word is <strong><em>both</em></strong>";
Produces:
This word is bold ,this word is in italics and this word is both
Try the following, more complex example:

print("<font face=\"Arial\" color\"#FF0000\">Hello and welcome to my website.</font>");
PHP Workbook
Chapter 3
Variables
A variable is a place in the computers memory where you can store some data. The stored
value can change, and is often as the result of some calculation or processing having taken
place.
A variable in PHP is identified by the first character being a dollar sign, $. Variables do not
have to be declared before using them, and they have no value until assigned one. The
process of assigning a value to the variable also defines what type of variable it is, e.g. text or
numeric. This process of implicitly defining a variable means that if the value is changed,
then it can be implicitly re-defined. The following line of code shows a variable called $num,
and assigns it a value of 17. This implicitly defines it as an integer (whole number).
$num = 17;
To re-define this variable, so it contains text (a string of characters), we use the following
code:
$num = University of Wolverhampton
Note, that this would not be a meaningful name for this variable. Perhaps a more meaningful
name might be $university. The process of re-defining variables can both be flexible and
dangerous, if not used with some care.
Look at the following example which uses both a string and an integer variable.
$students = 34;
$module = "CP1058";
echo "The class $module has $students enrolled on it";
This produces:
The class CP1058 has 34 enrolled on it
NB A common error is to use an undefined variable in an expression.
Types of Variable
There are four type of scalar (can contain a single value at any given time) variable supported
by PHP. These are:
Boolean
Float
Integer
String
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PHP also supports compound types (array or object). These can contain a number of scalar
values, such as the days of the week, the scores of students in an exam etc.
Variable names follow the same rules as other labels in PHP. A valid variable name starts
with a letter or underscore, followed by any number of letters, numbers, or underscores. The
underscore is used instead of a space (not permitted in PHP). For example, if you chose the
variable name $my age it would not be permitted. The variable $my_name would be.
Boolean these are very simple variables, in that they can only hold the values true or false.
They are often used to determine what action should be taken - according to their value.
// These are Booleans

$jackpot = false;
$male = true;
Integer A whole number, sometimes known as a counting number. Note, these can be
positive or negative, e.g. -37, 5, 4732, -162, 0, 56
// This is an integer
$distance = 42;
Float A number which has a fractional part. Note this may be a decimal, or represented in
exponential notation (scientific format).
// This is a float
$distance = 42.0;
// This is a float equal to 1120
$num = 1.12e3;
//This is a float equal to 0.02
$num = 2e-2;
String We have already seen numerous examples of string variables on previous pages. A
string can contain a single character, or numerous characters.
$initial = B;
$surname = Riordan;
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Constants
If variables are values which may vary during the life of a script, then a constant is a value
which remains constant (does not vary) during the life of that script. Therefore, it is
assigned a value which is used throughout the script. Examples would be the number of
hours in a day, the number of students on a course, the rate of VAT etc.
Define (pi, 3.142);
// output the value of twice pi
print (2 * pi);
This produces:
6.284
Note the syntax of the definition of pi, and the fact that unlike variables, constants do not have
a $ as their first character.
Constants are much underused by new programmers. If used to define the number of lines
used on a web page, it can be altered once, without having to make numerous changes
throughout the code.
Expressions, Operators and Variable Assignments

Some of examples of assigning a variable the value of an expression by using an equals sign,
e.g.
Assignment
$total = $first + $second + $third;
Variable
Expression
Exercise 1 type the following code as part of a web page. Insert your own echo or print
statements to output the various values to screen once they have been calculated. Check that
the output to screen is what you were expecting (check your answers; ensure there are
sufficient line breaks to produce a neat output).
$num = 1
$num = 4 +9;
// all the following add one to the value of $num
$num = $num + 1;
$num += 1;
$num++;
// all these subtract on from $num
$num = $num -1;
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$num -= 1;
$num--;
$num = 23;
// double the value of $num
$num = $num * 2;
$num *= 2;
$num = 100;
// halve the value of $num
$num = $num / 2;
$num /= 2;
$num = 8;
// A combination
$num = ((($num + 4) * 2) - 6) / 3);
Exercise 2 Write a PHP script which assigns the first three prime numbers to the variables
$prime1, $prime2 and $prime3. Two calculations should determine the total (addition) of
these three numbers, and the sum (multiplication) of the three numbers. Suitable lines of code
should output the results in this type of manner:
The total of <first number> + <second number> + <third number> = <answer>
PHP contains a library of mathematical functions which are available to you. These are well
documented elsewhere, and you are encouraged to research this topic.
Operator Precedence
When a mixed expression is presented to the PHP interpreter, the order in which the
calculation is to be performed must be determined - unless parentheses (brackets) clarify the
intended order. Without parentheses the expression is evaluated according to the oder of
precedence which amongst other things states that multiplication and division occur before
addition and subtraction). For example, what is the value of $num when this expression has
been evaluated:
$num = 2 * 3 + 4;
Is it 10 ? (2 times three is six, plus 4 is 10). Is it 14 ? ( twice 7 the three plus 4)
The rules of precedence can be confusing at first. Therefore it is strongly suggested that you
use parentheses, eg
// this produces an answer of 10

$num = (2 * 3) + 4;
//this produces an answer of 14
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$num = 2 * (3 + 4);
Type Conversion
At times you may wish to convert a variable from one type to another. An example might be
if someones age is stored as 23. This is a string of characters. If you wanted to do any
calculations with it, you will have to convert it in to an Integer. PHP offers functions that do
this for you, as well as some automatic type conversion.
Functions -
A string variable = strval(a mixed variable)

An integer variable = intval(a mixed variable)
A float variable = floatval(a mixed variable)
eg if a variable called $age contains the string value 23, and you want to calculate how
many years there are before that person reaches 40, the code would use the second of the
listed functions above, e.g.
// assigns the string value to $age

$age = "23";
//convert the string to an Integer
$int_age = intval($age);
$years_to_go = 40 - $int_age;
echo("The years to go before forty is $years_to_go");
This produces:
The years to go before forty is 17
Automatic Type Conversion This occurs when variables of two or more types are mixed
in an expression, with one of the variables being used as though it were of a different type.
Under these circumstances, PHP will automatically convert the variable. The conversion
follows set built- in rules, therefore it is best to ensure that you have clarity in all expressions
you write, or that you write code to do the conversion for you.
Type the following PHP code in to a web page. Predict what you think the output will be, and
insert appropriate print or echo statements to display the results on your page. Be careful,
the second three type conversions are not so obvious.
// $num is set as an integer = 115

$num = 100 + 15;
// $num is set as a float = 115.5
$num = 100 + 15.5;
// $title is set as a string = 39 steps
$title = 39 . steps;
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// $num is set as an integer = 39
$num = 39 + steps;
// $num is an integer = 42
$num = 40 + 2 blind mice;
// $num is a float, but what does it mean ?
$num = test * 4 + 3.14159;
Ensure you put some line breaks in to your code to improve appearance.
The code produces:
115
115.5
39 steps
39
42
3.14159
Exercise 3 Create a number of variables, assigning them with your personal details, as
though these had been entered on a form name, various fields of your address, post code,
phone number, etc. Using a web page, and as much PHP as possible, output these details,
using appropriate text formatting.
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Chapter 4
Decisions, Decisions
So far, we learnt to write some simple PHP code, the main feature of which is that every line
of code is executed. At times you may wish code to be executed only if certain conditions
apply. If statements are used to compare two values and carry out different actions based on
the results of the test. If statements take the form IF, THEN, ELSE. Basically the IF part
checks for a condition. If it is true, the then statement is executed. If not, the else statement is
executed. Sounds complicated ? Its not.
For example, if today is a weekday get up and go to University, else stay in bed. This can be
generally represented by:
IF (today = a weekday) [1]
Go to University [2]
Else
Stay in bed [3]
[1]
[2]
[3]
The test which is evaluated

The action to be carried out if the test evaluates as True
The action to be carried out if the test evaluates as False
Note You may require that several lines are executed, rather than a single statement. In this
case we use braces or curly brackets. This is shown as follows:
if ($num > 10)
{
statement;
statement;
statement;
}
else
{
statement;
statement;
}
Note how the braces delineate the two blocks of code, the use of brackets in the IF statement,
and the semi-colons to mark the end of each of the five statements.
IF and Variables
One of the most common uses of an IF statement is to compare a variable to another piece of
text, a number, or another variable. For example:
if ($username == "webmaster")
which would compare the contents of the variable $username to see if it is exactly (hence the
two equals signs) the same as webmaster. If it is the then section of code will be
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executed. Exactly equal to means that if $username contained Webmaster or
WEBMASTER the test would evaluate as false.
Constructing The THEN Statment

To add to your script, you can now add a THEN statement:
{
echo "Please enter your password below";
}
This will only display this text if the username is webmaster. If not, nothing will be displayed.
You can actually leave an IF statement like this, as there is no actual requirement to have an
ELSE part. This is especially useful if you are using multiple IF statements.
Constructing The ELSE Statement

Adding The ELSE statement is as easy as the THEN statement. Just add some extra code:
{
echo "Please enter your password below";
}
else
{
echo "We are sorry but you are not a recognised user";
}
Of course, you are not limited to just one line of code. You can add any PHP commands in
between the braces. You can even include other IF statements (nested statements).
Other Comparisons
There are other ways you can use your IF statement to compare values. Firstly, you can
compare two different variables to see if their values match e.g.
if ($enteredpass == $password)
You can also use the standard comparison symbols to check to see if one variable is greater
than or less than another:
if ($age < "13")
Or :
if ($date > $finished)
You can also check for multiple tests in one IF statement. For instance, if you have a form and
you want to check if any of the fields were left blank you could use:
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if ($name == "" || $email == "" || $password == "")
{
echo "Please fill in all the fields";
}
ELSEIF
If a number of consecutive IF statements are required, these may be linked using theelseif
statement. The two boxes below show firstly, linked If, Then, Else statements, and secondly
the same functionality using ElseIf statements.
if ($num < 5)
echo Number is very small;
else
if ($num < 10 )
echo Number is small;
else
if ($num < 20)
echo Number is big;
else
if $num < 30)
echo Number is very big;
if ($num < 5)
echo Number is very small;
elseif ($num < 10 )
echo Number is small;
elseif ($num < 20)
echo Number is big;
elseif $num < 30)
echo Number is very big;
A programmer has the choice of using either format, however if these become unduly lengthy
then they are best replaced with the Switch statement.
Switch Statement
The switch statement is a more compact, readable and efficient form of dealing with
multiple If conditions. It is much easier to read, and de-bug. It is ideal for when an option
has to be chosen from a list of choices. The following code shows how the user has made a
choice, which has been stored in the variable $menu, and the code then selects what form of
action is necessary according to the users choice. In this case it merely repeats back the
users choice.
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Switch ($menu)
{
case 1:
echo You chose number one.;
break;
case 2:
echo You picked number two.;
break;
case 3:
echo You picked number three.;
break;
case 4:
echo You picked number four.;
break;
default:
echo You picked another option;
}
Note the following features: the braces which show the start and finish of this construct, the
use of the break statement (this ensures that only one of the options is executed, by finding a
matching option and breaking out of the switch construct at that point, the use of semicolons and the fact that more than one statement can be executed.
Conditional Expressions
Thus far, we have used the equals sign t see if two expressions are the same, or the double
equals sign to test if both sides are identical (including the case of the letters in a string).
There are conditional comparisons which can be used, particularly with the If statement.
We can use the inequality operator to test if a variable is not equal to an expression. Consider
this code:
$num = 0;
if ($num != 1)
echo Does not equal one 1;
The expression evaluates to be True (1 does not equal 0), and therefore the echo statement is
executed.
It may also be necessary to evaluate whether or not two conditions both hold true, or if one of
two conditions hold true. If we wish to evaluate that both conditions are true we use AND,
if only one or the other needs to be true we use OR. This is best shown in the following
examples:
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Condition A Is it a Weekday ?
Condition B Is it good weather ?
Result If A and B are both True, walk to work
Result If either A or B are not True, then think about it
Is it a weekday ?
Is it good weather ?
True
True
True
False
False
True
False
False
Description
It is a weekday, the
weather is good
It is a weekday, but
the weather is bad
It is not a weekday,
the weather is good
the weather is bad
Result
Walk to work
Think about it
Think about it
Think about it
This could be represented by the following code, which uses two Boolean variables
$weekday and $good_weather
// Note that Booleans hold the value true or false, not the strings true or false
$weekday = true;
$good_weather = false;
if ($weekday = true) && ($good_weather = true)
echo It is a nice day, why not walk to work ?;
else
echo Think about it !;
If the above were to be evaluate, you would not walk to work since you need both conditions
to be true. In this example it is a weekday, but the weather is not good. The && symbol
means AND so the If statement can be paraphrased as If it is a weekday, and the weather
is good, then walk to work, else think about it.
The other common conditional operator is OR. This is used when only one condition or the
other needs to be true, for the statement to be executed. Using the example above leads to
some interesting results, as is shown:
Condition A Is it a Weekday ?
Condition B Is it good weather ?
Result If A or B are True, walk to work
Result If both A and B are not True, then think about it
Is it a weekday ?
Is it good weather ?
True
True
True
False
False
True
False
False
Description
It is a weekday, the
weather is good
It is a weekday, but
the weather is bad
the weather is good
the weather is bad
Result
Walk to work
Walk to work
Walk to work
Think about it
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Note in this example we will walk to work at weekends (Is it a weekday = False), because the
weather is nice. Remember if only one or the other of the conditions are true it evaluates
overall as true.
The code for this is as follows:
// Note that Booleans hold the value true or false, not the strings true or false
$weekday = true;
$good_weather = false;
if ($weekday = true) ($good_weather = true)
echo It is a nice day, why not walk to work ?;
else
echo Think about it !;
In the code above the symbol represents OR.
Mathematical Comparisons
We have already seen the use of = and the use of = =. PHP version 4 introduced a new
comparison that is not implemented in any other programming language. The comparison is
= = =, and it means the expression evaluates as being equal and the arguments are of the
same type . The other normal mathematical operators apply, and are summarised below.
=
==
===
!=
Equal to
Exactly equal
Exactly equal, same type
Not equal to
>=
<=
>
<
Greater than or equal to

Less than or equal to
Greater than
Less than
Unary Not Operator

Any of the Boolean expressions you have seen so far can be negated with the unary not
operator. If an expression evaluates to be True, and we negate it, it becomes false, and vice
versa. For example:
$num = 1;
echo variable = 1
$num != 1;
echo variable is NOT equal to one;
!$num !=1;
echo variable IS equal to one;
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Exercise 1 Assign a value to a variable called $num. Write an If statement to determine if
the number is even or not, and display an appropriate message.
Exercise 2 Assign values to two variables called $num1 and $num2. If $num1 is greater
than $num2 then display the message The first number is larger, otherwise display the
message The second number is larger.
Exercise 3 Adapt the last exercise to deal with the occasion when both numbers are equal to
each other.
Exercise 4 Assign a value (in the range 1900 to 1999) to a variable called $year. Using a
Switch statement, determine which decade the year fell in and output an appropriate
message, eg The year was in the noughties, The year was in the tens, The year was in the
twenties etc
Exercise 5 - Declare a constant string value called password with the value wolf. A second
variable called $guess should contain a string of your own choosing. Determine if the two
stings are:
Not the Same
The Same
Exactly the Same
and output the appropriate message to screen. Change the value of $guess to test all options.
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Chapter 5
I Feel Like I Am Going Around in Circles

So far, we have seen how to write sections of code where every line is executed, and where
conditional statements determine which lines of code are executed using If and Switch.
However, both type of code run from top to bottom and cease execution. Any real
application often requires that sections of code are repeated either a given number of times, or
until certain criteria have been met.
PHP supports four different types of loop structures:
while
do while
for
foreach
The first three type of loop are general purpose, and familiar to programmers in most
languages, the last is specific to arrays.
While
This is probably the simplest loop structure to use. The loop continues to execute one or more
instructions, whilst a condition remains true. The condition is checked first, and if found to
be true the loop is executed while the condition remains true. If at the first check the
condition is found to be false, the loop is never executed at all. It is essential that within the
body of the loop a statement is capable of making the condition false. Without this, the loop
will never cease to loop an infinite loop. This is a common error when first writing loop
structures in your code.
The following code prints the integers from 1 to 10 to screen, with a space between each.
$count = 1;
while ($count < 11)
{
echo $count;
echo ;
// increment the value of $count
$count = $count + 1;
}
Note the value of $count is given an initial value (1) outside the loop, the condition for the
loop is while $count has a value of less than 11, within the body of the loop a statement
changes the value of $count so that eventually the While condition is no longer true and
the loop ceases execution.
PHP Workbook
Do While
The fundamental difference between this and the While loop concerns where in the process
the condition is evaluated.
In a While loop the condition is evaluated at the start of the loop, and if
found not to be true the loop will not execute at all. Therefore, a while loop
may execute a number of times, or may not execute at all.
In a Do While loop the statement which evaluates whether the loop needs
to execute again is at the bottom of the block of code being executed.
Therefore, this loop will execute at least once.
The following loop has the same functionality as the While loop. Examine the code and see
the difference.
$count = 1;
do
{
echo $count;
echo ;
} While ($count <11);
What is the output from the following loop ?
$count = 1000;
do
{
echo $count;
echo ;
} While ($count <11);
This produces the number 1000, as the body of the loop is executed once, the condition fails
(1000 is not less than 11), and the loop stops executing.
This structure is the same as Repeat Until found in many programming languages, and is
not frequently used as it is unusual to have loop execute once even if a condition is false.
For
The syntax for this loop is the most complex, but it produces very tight code. The syntax is
described below:
for(initial statement; condition for the loop; end- loop condition)
PHP Workbook
Note that there are three sections, each separated by a semi-colon. To make things more
complex, each of the three parts is optional.
If we write the same structure as used in the last two types of loops in the form of a For
loop, the code is:
for($count=1; $count<11; $count = $count +1)

{
echo $count;
echo ;
}
The format used in this example is typical of many used in PHP, sets up a counter, checks the
counter and increments the counter.
It is possible to have more than one condition, and these are separated by commas. This leads
to quite complex syntax, an example of which is given below (if you find yourself writing
code this complex, go and lay down in a dark room until the urge to code any more passes !):
for($num1=0,$num2=0; $num1<100&&$num2<$num3; $num1++,$num2+=2);
A Practical Example
One of the classic examples for using loops is to produce a times table. We are going to
develop the code for a web page which shows the timetables up to 12 times. As we will see
this requires a loop inside another loop. This is called a nested loop and is not as complex
as it sounds. First lets examine the logic of what is required, and then the actual PHP code.
We will use HTML for the basic page, headings etc and PHP for the loops algorithms. The
intention is to produce a page that looks like this:
Notice that a loop is required to count from 1 to 12, this is to
first produce the one times table, then the two times table,
the three times table etc.
With each iteration of the loop we need to pause and have a
second loop from 1 to 12. To clarify, the first loop
determines which times table we are generating. When this
first loop reaches the first value we pause (at the value 1),
and then have a second loop generate 1 times 1, 1 times 2, 1
times 3 .1 times 12. At this point the second loop stops, as
it has done its job. The first loop continues and move on to
the value 2. We pause whilst the second loop starts again
and generates 2 times 1, 2 times 2, 2 times 3, up to 2 times
12.
Again the second loop ceases execution, and we continue
until eventually the first loop has reached the value 12.
PHP Workbook
The following is the code for this timetable. Read it carefully and ensure you understand how
the loops work, in particular how they are nested to work in tandem. Type it up, ensure it
works, and try amending the loop values to see the effect.
<html>
<head>
<title>The Times-Tables</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff">
<h1>The Times Tables</h1>
<?php
// Go through each table
for($table=1; $table<13; $table++)
{
echo "<p><b>The " . $table . " Times Table</b>\n";
// Produce 12 lines for each table
for($counter=1; $counter<13; $counter++)
{
$answer = $table * $counter;
// Is this an even-number counter?
if ($counter % 2 == 0)
// Yes, so print this line in bold
echo "<br><b>$counter x $table = " .
"$answer</b>";
else
// No, so print this in normal face
echo "<br>$counter x $table = $answer";
}
}
?>
</body>
</html>
The only command which is not familiar to you at this stage is in the line:
if ($counter % 2 == 0)
This uses % to carry out a Div function. It divides by 2 and looks at the remainder. If
the remainder is zero, having divided by two, it must be an even number (a useful technique,
please note). The if statement continues to print even numbers in bold, odd numbers in
plain text.
The two loops are table to determine which table is being calculated, and counter which
determines which number is being used in the table.
PHP Workbook
Exercise 1 - Produce a PHP script which counts from 1 to 100, and displays any numbers
which have a factor of four (Hint: see how to use the Div functio n above).
Exercise 2 Develop a page which on the first line writes a single 1, on the second line it
should produce two 2s, on the third line it should write three 3s, and so on up to 9.
Exercise 3 Write a nested loop, which displays a representation of a chess board. It should
have eight rows of eight columns, with each black square represented by a [X], and each
white square represented by [ ]. Again, the Div function will help you decide which are
black, and which are white squares. Remember, they alternate position after each row.
Exercise 4 Define a constant my_year to the year of your birth. A loop should randomly
generate numbers in the range 1900 to 1999, each number should be displayed on screen.
This should continue until the number which has been randomly generated matches the year
of your birth. The code to generate a random number in this range is given below:
$any_year = rand(1900, 1999);
print $any_year;
Exercise 5 Finally, for a bit of fun, write a PHP script which contains the single line
phpinfo();
Examine the environment variables, and research how you might use these to report back to a
viewr of your web site, their IP address, which version of Windows they are using, which
Internet browser they are using etc

PHP Work Book

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Brendan Riordan & Matthew Green - Page 1 of 25

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How do I get started ?

How do I create a PHP page ?

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<?php echo "This is a test"

In the example above note:

// This a single line comment

echo These quotation marks work;

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// these strings contain quotation marks

The quotation marks can be escaped using:

echo " This string has a \" double quote! ";

"This line is immediately followed";

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The output is:

echo "This word is <strong> bold </strong>,";

Try the following, more complex example:

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NB A common error is to use an undefined variable in an expression.

// These are Booleans

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Expressions, Operators and Variable Assignments

// this produces an answer of 10

A string variable = strval(a mixed variable)

// assigns the string value to $age

// $num is set as an integer = 115

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The test which is evaluated

Constructing The THEN Statment

Constructing The ELSE Statement

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In the code above the symbol represents OR.

Greater than or equal to

Unary Not Operator

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I Feel Like I Am Going Around in Circles

PHP supports four different types of loop structures:

Brendan Riordan & Matthew Green - Page 21 of 25

What is the output from the following loop ?

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for($count=1; $count<11; $count = $count +1)

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