Prerequisite Before learning PHP, you must have the basic knowledge of HTML. What is PHP PHP stands for HyperText Preprocessor. Earlier called as Personal Home Page PHP is an interpreted language, i.e. there is no need for compilation. PHP is a server side scripting language. PHP is faster than other scripting language e.g. asp and jsp. PHP supports various databases like MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Informix etc. PHP is an open source software and it is free to download and use. PHP is an object-oriented language. Advantages of PHP 1. Free of Cost: PHP is open source and all its components are free to use and distribute. 2. Platform independent: PHP is platform independent and can be run on all major operating systems. 3. Compatible with almost all servers: PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today. 4. Secure: PHP has multiple layers of security to prevent threats and other malicious attacks. 5. Easy to learn: PHP has a very easy and understandable syntax. Its codes are based on C, C++ and embedded with HTML so it is very easy to learn for a programmer. 6. Embedded: PHP code can be easily embedded within HTML tags and script. Install PHP To install PHP, we will suggest you to install AMP(Apache,MySQL, PHP) software stack. It is available for all operating systems. There are many AMP options available in the market that are given below: 1. WAMP for Windows 2. LAMP for Linux 3. MAMP for Mac 4. SAMP for Solaris 5. FAMP for FreeBSD 6. XAMPP (Cross, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl) for Cross Platform: It includes some other components too such as FileZilla, OpenSSL, Webalizer, OpenSSL, Mercury Mail etc. PHP Syntax A PHP script can be placed anywhere in the document. A PHP script starts with <?php and ends with ?>: <?php // PHP code goes here ?> The default file extension for PHP files is ".php". A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, and some PHP scripting code Example <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <body> <h1>My first PHP page</h1> <?php echo "Hello World!"; ?> </body> </html> Output: My first PHP page Hello World! Note: PHP statements end with a semicolon (;). PHP Echo PHP echo is a language construct not a function, so you don't need to use parenthesis with it. But if you want to use more than one parameters, it is required to use parenthesis. he syntax of PHP echo is given below: void echo ( string $arg1 [, string $... ] ) PHP echo statement can be used to print string, multi line strings, escaping characters, variable, array etc. <?php echo "Hello by PHP echo"; ?>