Welcome to Everything PHP, another new series here on the BlueFur Blog. During this series we will be teaching you everything you need to know about PHP. To ensure everybody understands what PHP is and can be used for, we will be using this initial post to talk about PHP. Next week we’ll be getting into the code.

What is it?

PHP is a programming language intended for use on the web. It is an interpreted language, meaning it is not compiled ahead of time, which allows you to adjust code and deploy it quickly and efficiently. PHP’s syntax is based off of other programming languages such as Perl.

PHP is a recursive acryonom which stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

What is it used for?

PHP is used to create dynamic websites. It can either be used in conjunction with XHTML in the same file, and exists in it’s own file. PHP can be used to create user interaction or to make calculations on-the-fly. While that may sound daunting and complicated, it really isn’t. You could simply use PHP to output the current date and time onto your website, or dynamically rotate a set of pictures around with each pageload.

PHP can be used for the simplest or most complex uses; it’s a very flexible programming language.