Guided Notes

Introduction to PHP

What PHP is, how a request becomes HTML, installing PHP, tags, statements, and comments.

What PHP is

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PHP is a server-side scripting language built for the web. It runs on the server, produces HTML (or JSON, or files), and sends only the result to the browser — visitors never see the PHP code.

It powers a huge share of the web: WordPress, Drupal, Moodle, Wikipedia (MediaWiki), and frameworks like Laravel and Symfony. PHP is free, runs on every major operating system and web server, and connects easily to databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.