PHP Full Form

The Full form of PHP is Hypertext Preprocessor and earlier it was abbreviated as Personal Home Page. It is a general-purpose programming language used to design a website or web application. It is the server-side scripting language embedded with HTML to develop Static website, Dynamic website, or Web applications. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. The syntax of PHP is similar to C, C++, and Java. It manages the dynamic content, database, session, cookies, etc of a dynamic website.

The websites like www.facebook.com, www.yahoo.com are also built on PHP. It can be easily embedded with HTML files and HTML codes can also be written in a PHP file. The thing that differentiates PHP and HTML is that PHP codes are executed on the server whereas HTML codes are directly rendered on the browser. PHP codes are first executed on the server and then the result is returned to the browser. The only information that the client or browser knows is the result returned after executing the PHP script on the server and not the actual PHP codes present in the PHP file. Also, PHP files can support other client-side scripting languages like CSS and JavaScript.

Basic Syntax of PHP

<?php
    echo "Welcome to GeeksforGeeks!";
?>

Characteristics of PHP 

• Server-Side Scripting: PHP is renowned for its server-side scripting capabilities, enabling the execution of code on the server before sending the result to the client's browser. This dynamic approach facilitates the creation of interactive and data-driven web pages.
• Database Connectivity: PHP seamlessly integrates with databases, providing support for various database management systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. This makes it a popular choice for building database-driven web applications.
• Open Source: It is an open-source programming language so it can download freely.
• Simplicity: Since PHP does not include libraries like C/C++ so its structure is simple. It contains lots of pre-defined functions to secure your data. Execution of PHP starts from (<?php) and end with closing escape sequence (?>).
• Efficiency: PHP 4.0 uses resource allocation mechanisms and object-oriented programming, in addition to session management features. It eliminates unnecessary memory allocation.
• Security: Many encryption functions are supported by PHP to secure the data.
• Flexibility: It is a very flexible language because it can be embedded with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, and many other languages. Also, the PHP code can be run on any device like Phone, Tabs, Laptops etc.
• Object-Oriented: The object-oriented programming features are added in PHP 4.0.

Advantages of PHP 

• It is supported by all Operating Systems like Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.
• It is integrated with other programming languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc) and databased.
• It is easy to connect with the database to store and retrieve data from the database. Multiple databases can also be integrated with PHP.
• It is the fastest programming language compared to other programming languages.
• PHP frameworks and tools are used to protect web applications from outer attacks and security threats.

Disadvantages of PHP

• Since PHP is an open-source programming language, so its code is visible to all programmers. If any bugs exist in the source code then its weakness can be explored by other programmers.
• It is not suitable for large applications because its maintenance is difficult.
• The error handling of a PHP framework is not good.