PHP is known as server-side language for scripting. Primarily it is designed for web development but this is used as a general purpose language for programming too. PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. It is a scripting language which is HTML embedded. This denotes that you can insert the code into the HTML of a web page. While accessing a PHP web page, the code is parsed or read by the server on which the page exists.

Other server side scripting languages manipulate the data generally inside the database of the server. Scripting languages become popular due to the growth of the Internet as an effective mode of communication. Some well-known scripting languages are JSP, JavaScript, ASP, PHP, Python and Pearl etc. PHP programming is mainly used for server side scripting so it is possible to do anything that any other CGI program can. For example, generating dynamic page content, collecting form data, or obtaining and sending the cookies are possible.

PHP is designed mainly for web development but it is also used as the general purpose programming language. The scripts in PHP are executed by the operating system and the web server offers the result. A number of contemporary web servers can execute on-line languages for scripting like JSP, ASP, PHP, Pearl etc. Sometimes extension modules to the web server are used for executing the scripting languages.

PHP is called hypertext preprocessor since it has a compiled library. Whenever an individual requests for a PHP page through the browser, the request is sent to the server. The PHP files are interpreted by the server and return the response in the form of HTML. Now let us know some of the benefits of PHP programming:

It is free and open-source

Big community document

Updated regularly to cater the latest trends of the technology

In-built support for working with MySQL

Several web hosting servers are compatible with PHP

It is a server side scripting language

PHP includes a cross platform that means it can run on diverse operating systems

Regarding market share, millions of applications and websites on the Internet are developed by using the PHP programming. It is recommended to make the PHP code in specific tags since this will help the server recognize the PHP code from the HTML code. These tags are not case sensitive but it is recommended to use the lower case.