PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language widely used in web development.
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a widely used, general-purpose server-side scripting language that is especially suited for web development. The latest stable release, development changes, and development branches can be found on the PHP website.
See the UPGRADING and UPGRADING.INTERNALS files for release migration instructions.
For a quick start with PHP, you might use one of these applications, which include the Apache web-server and PHP [besides other components]:
Notice: To make an online demo for your question, you may use PhpFiddle which is acting as jsfiddle but for PHP.
Community
PHP has many active community forums, including:
- Stack Overflow PHP chat room
- Geeknet
- Linux Fund
- PHP Meetups
- freenode IRC channel ##php
More information
Online documentation
The PHP manual is the official documentation for the language syntax, featuring function search and URL shortcuts (for example http://php.net/explode). The API is well documented for native and additional extensions. Most additional extensions can be found in PECL. The PEAR repository contains a plethora of community supplied classes.
PHP Tutorials
PHP security related information
Free online tutorial
Free PHP Programming Books
- PHP Essentials
- Practical PHP Programming (wiki containing O'Reilly's PHP In a Nutshell)
- Symfony2
- Zend Framework: Survive the Deep End
- PHP: The Right Way (is a community-driven quick reference for PHP best practices and accepted coding standards)
Best PHP Books 2012
- Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites (Animal Guide)
- PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy
- PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition)
- Murach's PHP and MySQL (Murach: Training & Reference)
- PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide (4th Edition)
Database support
PHP supports a wide range of databases, relational and non-relational alike.
PHP is often paired with the MySQL relational database. PHP also includes great database support for PostgreSQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server (API reference), Oracle, IBM DB2 & Cloudscape, Apache Derby and even ODBC.
All modern versions of PHP include PDO, a built-in data-access abstraction library with comprehensive connectivity options. More recently, PECL extensions have surfaced that offer "NoSQL" database support, including Apache Thrift (for Apache Cassandra), MongoDB, Redis, and others.
Tag excerpt and wiki reference: adapted from Stack Overflow SE
