PHP is a server-side, general-purpose scripting language abbreviated as Hypertext Preprocessor. It was designed especially for web development but can also be used as a general-purpose programming language.
The key features of PHP include:
Server-Side Scripting: PHP operates as a server-side scripting language. This means that PHP code is executed on the server and the result is sent to the browser as HTML. Users can dynamically create web pages by running PHP code on a web server.
Extensive Library Support: PHP provides a wide range of functions through its standard library to perform various tasks. This library includes file handling, database interaction, XML processing, creating network sockets, data encryption, and much more.
Database Interaction: PHP offers various tools and classes to interact with popular databases (such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MongoDB, etc.). This facilitates database operations in dynamic web applications.
Designed for Web Development: PHP was initially designed for creating dynamic web pages. It can be embedded within HTML and respond to user interactions. Specifically, tasks like cookie management, session handling, form processing, and data validation can be easily performed with PHP.
Open Source and Free: PHP is an open-source project and is freely available for use. This allows PHP to have a large community and resources, enabling users to customize and develop PHP freely.
PHP is one of the most widely used tools for developing dynamic and interactive websites and applications. Particularly, the usage of popular PHP-based web application frameworks (such as Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter) has made PHP development even more accessible.