PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development. Fast, flexible, and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world. It is a server-side language, which means it runs on the server and is used to create dynamic content that interacts with databases.
PHP is widely used because it is easy to learn, open-source, and has a large community. It integrates well with HTML and databases like MySQL, making it a preferred choice for developing dynamic websites and applications. PHP frameworks like Laravel and CodeIgniter provide additional structure, security, and efficiency.
PHP scripts are executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML. PHP code is embedded in HTML files and begins with the <?php tag and ends with ?>.
<?php
echo "Hello, AIT!";
?>
To get started with PHP, you need a web server (like Apache) and a PHP interpreter. Popular stacks like XAMPP or WAMP make it easy to set up a local PHP development environment.