PHP

Brief Introduction to PHP

In this article on Brief Introduction to PHP, I discuss the features and drawbacks of using PHP.

Introduction to PHP Programming

In fact, PHP is a web-based programming language. PHP stands for hypertext preprocessing. Furthermore, we use PHP to create dynamic web applications. Although, PHP is easy to learn and use, it gives us all features to create a dynamic website. In other words, PHP allows us to process the form data, interact with the database, upload, and download files, send mails, state management, session management, and so on.

Features of PHP

  • Since PHP code can be used along with HTML, we don’t need a separate file to write code.
  • Basically, PHP is a scripting language.
  • However, it is much faster in comparison to other scripting languages
  • Unlike JavaScript, we use it for server-side web development.
  • Since it is open-source, it is one of the most popular web development languages. Moreover, there is lot of online documentation available making it easier to use. Also, it has a large developer community.
  • PHP is interpreted rather than compiled.
  • Also, it has object-oriented features that allow us to define our own classes and create objects.
  • Since it is a loosely-typed language, we don’t need to associate a specific data type while creating variables.
  • PHP is platform-independent.

In spite of these benefits of PHP, it has several drawbacks.

Drawbacks of PHP

  • PHP is not suitable for creating large enterprise applications.
  • It is less secure due to poor programming practices by many programmers.
  • The use of some of the PHP frameworks may cause performance degradation.
  • The code developed in PHP is less manageable.
  • PHP doesn’t have an adequate debugging facility.
  • Weak typing may result in unexpected bugs.

Further Reading

Examples of Array Functions in PHP

Basic Programs in PHP

Registration Form Using PDO in PHP

You may also like...