You create variables to represent data. For instance, the following variable holds a value for sales tax:
$sales_tax = 0.0875;
This variable holds a SQL statement:
$sql = "SELECT * FROM MY_TABLE";
You can refer to the value of other variables when determining the value of a new variable:
$tax_total = $sales_tax * $sub_total;
The following are true of variable names:
They begin with a dollar sign ($).
They cannot begin with a numeric character.
They can contain numbers and the underscore character (_).
They are case-sensitive.
Here are some common variable types:
floats
integers
strings
These types are determined by PHP, based on the context in which they appear.
Each of the following variables is a float, or floating-point number. Floats are also known as "numbers with decimal points."
$a = 1.552; $b = 0.964; $sales_tax = 0.875;
Integers are positive or negative whole numbers, zero, or "numbers without decimal points." Each of the following variables is an integer.
$a = 15; $b = -521;
A series of characters grouped within double quotes is considered a string:
$a - "I am a string."; $b = "<P>This book is <strong>cool</strong>!";
You can also reference other variables within your string, which will be replaced when your script is executed. For example:
$num = 57; // an integer $my_string = "I read this book $num times!"; // a string
When you run the script, $my_string will become "I read this book 57 times!"
Depending on the method of your HTML form (GET or POST), the variables will be part of the $_POST or $_GET superglobal associative array. The name of the input field will become the name of the variable. For example, when a form is sent using the POST method, the following input field produces the variable $_POST[first_name]:
<input type="text" name="first_name" size="20">
If the method of this form were GET, this variable would be $_GET[first_name].
Like variables from forms, variables from cookies are kept in a superglobal associative array called $_COOKIE. If you set a cookie called user with a value of Joe Smith, like so:
SetCookie ("user", "Joe Smith", time()+3600);
a variable called user is placed in $_COOKIE, with a value of Joe Smith. You then refer to $_COOKIE[user] to get that value.
When a Web browser makes a request of a Web server, it sends along with the request a list of extra variables called environment variables. They can be very useful for displaying dynamic content or authorizing users.
By default, environment variables are available to PHP scripts as $VAR_NAME. However, to be absolutely sure that you're reading the correct value, you can use the getenv() function to assign a value to a variable of your choice. Following are some common environment variables:
REMOTE_ADDR gets the IP address of the machine making the request. For example:
<?php $remote_address = getenv("REMOTE_ADDR"); echo "Your IP address is $remote_address."; ?>
HTTP_USER_AGENT gets the browser type, browser version, language encoding, and platform. For example:
<?php $browser_type = getenv("HTTP_USER_AGENT"); echo "You are using $browser_type."; ?>
For a list of HTTP environment variables and their descriptions, visit http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/env.html.
Simply put, arrays are sets of variables that are contained as a group. In the following example, $fave_colors is an array that contains strings representing array elements. In this case, the array elements (0 to 3) are names of colors.
$fave_colors[0] = "red"; $fave_colors[1] = "blue"; $fave_colors[2] = "black"; $fave_colors[3] = "white";
Array elements are counted with 0 as the first position in the numerical index.