php beginner's guideI have been working with PHP since early 2001, first as the nerdy hobby of a spotty teen and then later developing my skills into a full time career as a senior web developer.

I’ve used it to create everything from scripts and plugins, to personal utilities that parse my phone company’s .CSV export files so that I can keep track of most dialed numbers & costs etc (yes, I am that geeky). Follow my beginner’s guide to PHP and you too can be writing PHP scripts in no time :)

The PHP Guides

Part One

An introduction to PHP, checking for PHP support, & some basic definitions of PHP jargon.

Part Two

Learn about mathematical operators, variables and how we can display things on the page using the echo statement.

Part Three

Learn about comparison operators, logical operators, the if and else statements.

Part Four

Get stuck in to arrays and loops, and using foreach construct.

Part Five

All about looping with the PHP for construct, including top tips on keeping your for loops speedy & efficient.

Part Six

Learn how to write your very own PHP functions to create more efficient scripts, and what “scope” means to PHP.

Coming soon:
Beginner’s Guide to PHP – Part Seven (learn about global scope, and the superglobals)
Beginner’s Guide to PHP – Part Eight (handling data securely)

More on PHP

Some of my favourite and best posts on PHP from over the years.