PHP 1: Sending Characters to a Web Page

To add php code to a page use these tags:

<?php

and

?>

The first of these opens php code, the second closes it.

To send a piece of text to a web browser use:

<?php
echo 'Hello World';
?>

Try it!

To send quotation marks inside a quoted string use '\' as an 'escape' character.

<?php
echo 'Hello World\'s End';
?>

Try it!

The word 'print' can be used instead of 'echo'.

<?php
print 'Hello World\'s End';
?>

Try it!

The 'printf' function is used for formatted output (here we see the origins of PHP in the C language).

To start a new line in PHP output use <br />:

<?php
print 'Hello <br />World\'s End'
?>

Try it!

This shows how a HTML tag can be included inside an echo or print function in php. It is thus possible to write pages to a web browser that contain no direct html tags and which have no tags inside the when the source is viewed.

We can now format text using a style sheet for the <p> tag:

<?php
print '<p>Hello World\'s End</p>'
?>

Try it!