PHP Syntax

The PHP script is executed on the server, and the plain HTML result is sent back to the browser.

Basic PHP Syntax

A PHP script always starts with <?php and ends with ?>. A PHP script can be placed anywhere in the document.

On servers with shorthand-support, you can start a PHP script with <? and end with ?>.

For maximum compatibility, we recommend that you use the standard form (<?php) rather than the shorthand form.

<?php
?>


A PHP file must have a .php extension.

A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, and some PHP scripting code.

Below, we have an example of a simple PHP script that sends the text "Hello World" back to the browser:

<html>
<body>

<?php
echo "Hello World";
?>

</body>
</html>


Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon. The semicolon is a separator and is used to distinguish one set of instructions from another.

There are two basic statements to output text with PHP: echo and print.

In the example above we have used the echo statement to output the text "Hello World".
Comments in PHP

In PHP, we use // to make a one-line comment or /* and */ to make a comment block:

<html>
<body>

<?php
//This is a comment

/*
This is
a comment
block
*/
?>

</body>
</html>


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