WEB TECHNOLOGIES 2

Variables & Regular Expression

Lec2

Mohammed Sultan
1
 Outlines
• Variables& variables scope in php
• Data Types
• Constants in php
• Printing in php
• Operators in php
• Conditional statements
• Loops

2
 Variables
• Variables are "containers" for storing information.

• Variable in php starts with the $ sign, followed by

the name of the variable

• Ex:
<?php
$txt = "Hello world!";
$x = 5;
$y = 10.5;
?>

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 Naming Rules
• A variable starts with the $ sign, followed by the name of the
variable

• A variable name must start with a letter or the underscore

character

• A variable name cannot start with a number

• A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters

and underscores (A-z, 0-9, and _ )

• Variable names are case-sensitive ($age and $AGE are two

different variables)

4
 Output Variables
• The PHP echo statement is often used to
output data to the screen.

$txt = “PHP";
echo "I love $txt!";

• The following example will produce the same

output as the example above:
$txt = “PHP";
echo "I love " . $txt . "!";
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 PHP is a Loosely Typed Language
• PHP automatically associates a data type to the variable,
depending on its value. Since the data types are not set
in a strict sense, you can do things like adding a string to
an integer without causing an error. (strict in Functions)

• Ex:
<?php
$x = 5;
$y = 4;
echo $x + $y;
?>
Note :
In PHP 7, type declarations were added. 6
 PHP Data Types
• Variables can store data of different types, and different
data types can do different things.

• PHP supports the following data types:

– String
– Integer
– Float (floating point numbers - also called double)
– Boolean
– Array
– Object
– NULL
– Resource

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 String
• A string is a sequence of characters, like "Hello
world!".
• A string can be any text inside quotes.
• Ex:
– <?php
– $x = "String example!";
– echo $x;
– ?>
You can assign the same value to multiple variables in one line:

$x = $y = $z = "var"; 8
 Numbers
• There are three main numeric types in PHP:
– Integer $a = 5;
– Float $b = 5.34;
$c = "25";
– Number Strings

• In addition, PHP has two more data types

used for numbers:
– Infinity
– NaN

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 Numbers
• An integer data type is a non-decimal number between -2,147,483,648 and
2,147,483,647.
• Ex:
– <?php
– $x = 5985;
– var_dump($x); //
– var_dump(is_int($x));// it is a functions to check if the type of a variable is integer
– ?>

• A float (floating point number) is a number with a decimal point or a number in

exponential form.
• Ex:
– <?php
– $x = 10.365;
– var_dump($x); //
– var_dump(is_float($x));//It is a functions to check if the type of a variable is float
– ?>

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 PHP Numerical Strings
• The PHP is_numeric() function can be used to
find whether a variable is numeric. The
function returns true if the variable is a
number or a numeric string, false otherwise.

$x = "5985"; $x = "10a";
var_dump(is_numeric($x)); $y = $x * 5;
$x = "59.85" + 100; echo $y; //50
var_dump(is_numeric($x));

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 Boolean & NULL Value
• A Boolean represents two possible states: TRUE or FALSE :
– $x = true;
– $y = false;

• Null is a special data type which can have only one value:
NULL.
• Null has no value assigned to it.
• Variables can also be emptied by setting the value to NULL.
• Ex:
– <?php
– $x = null;
– var_dump($x);
– ?>

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 Array, object & Resource
• An array stores multiple values in one single
variable.(will be discussed in Array lecture)

• Classes and objects are the two main aspects of

object-oriented programming .(will be discussed in
OOP lecture)

• The special resource type is not an actual data

type. It is the storing of a reference to functions
and resources external to PHP.(it is an advanced
topic)

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 PHP Constants
• The value of constant cannot be changed during the
script.
• A valid constant name starts with a letter or
underscore (no $ sign before the constant name).
• define() function used to create constant
– define(name, value, case-insensitive)
<?php
define("GREETING", "Welcome! ", true);
echo greeting;
Output is:
?> Welcome!

Note:Constants are automatically global 14

 PHP const Keyword
• You can also create a constant by using the const keyword.

• const vs. define()

– Const:
• are always case-sensitive
• const cannot be created inside another block scope, like inside a
function or inside an if statement.
– define():
• has a case-insensitive option.
• can be created inside another block scope.

Note: See PHP Magic Constants like ( --LINE -- ) for return The current line number. 15
 PHP Casting
• Sometimes you need to cast a numerical value into another
data type.
• The (int) , (integer) , and intval() functions are often used to
convert a value to an integer.
• Cast float and string to integer:

// Cast float to int // Cast string to int $x = 5;

$x = 23465.768; $x = "23465.768"; $x = (string) $x;
var_dump($x);
$int_cast = (int)$x; $int_cast = (int)$x;
echo $int_cast; echo $int_cast;

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 Variables scope
• Global
• Local
• Static

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 Printing statements
• Echo
• Print
• Printf
• Print_r
• Var_dump

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 Echo & Print
• There are two basic ways to get output.
• echo and print are more or less the same.
– They are both used to output data to the screen.

• They are both used with or without parentheses

– echo or echo() <?php
• echo "<h2>PHP is Fun!</h2>";
$txt1 = "Learn PHP";
• echo "<h2>" . $txt1 . "</h2>";
– print or print() ?>
• print "<h2>PHP is Fun!</h2>";
• print "<h2>" . $txt1 . "</h2>";

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 Echo & Print differences
• echo is marginally faster than print.
• echo has no return value while print has a return value
of 1.
– Print can be used in expressions
– If(print(ok)) {
Code..... }

• echo can take multiple parameters (although such

usage is rare) while print can take one argument

• The short form of echo is <?=$x?>

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 Printf, print_r & var_dump
• Printf output a formatted string
– printf(string $format, mixed ...$values): int
– Printf("this is %dth day of the week", 4) ;//Outputs this is 4th
day of the week

• Print_r
– Printing array elements
– More readable than var_dump

• var_dump()
– function returns the data type and value.
– Print with data type.

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 PHP Operators
• Operators are used to perform operations on variables
and values.

• Arithmetic operators
• Assignment operators
• Comparison operators
• Increment/Decrement operators
• Logical operators
• String operators
• Array operators
• Conditional assignment operators

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 PHP Operators
• Arithmetic operators
– Addition, subtraction, multiplication.....
– $x + $y,$x - $y,$x * $y,$x ÷ $y

• Assignment Operators
– The basic assignment operator in PHP is "=".

• Comparison Operators
– The PHP comparison operators are used to compare two values
(number or string)
– == equal
– === Identical
– != Not equal

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 PHP Operators
• Increment / Decrement
– increment operators are used to increment a variable's
value.
• ++$x Pre-increment, $x++ Post-increment
– decrement operators are used to decrement a variable's
value.
• --$x Pre-decrement,$x-- Post-decrement

• Logical Operators
– The PHP logical operators are used to combine conditional
statements.
– && And, || Or and ! Not
• $x && $y

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 PHP Operators
• String Operators
– PHP has two operators that are specially designed for
strings.
• . Concatenation
• .= Concatenation assignment

• Conditional assignment operators are used to set a

value depending on conditions
– ?: Ternary
– $x = expr1 ? expr2 : expr3
– ?? Null coalescing
– echo $user = $_GET["user"] ?? "anonymous";

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 PHP if...else...elseif Statements
• Conditional statements are used to perform
different actions based on different
conditions.
• The if statement executes some code if one
condition is true.
– if (condition) {
– code to be executed if condition is true;
–}

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 PHP if...else...elseif Statements
• If.. Else Syntax :
– if (condition) {
– code to be executed if condition is true;
– } else {
– code to be executed if condition is false;
–}

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 switch
• The switch statement is used to perform different actions based on
different conditions.

– switch (n) {
– case label1:
– code to be executed if n=label1;
– break;
– case label2:
– code to be executed if n=label2;
– break;
– ...
– default:
– code to be executed if n is different from all labels;
– }

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 PHP Loops
• Loops are used to execute the same block of code again
and again, as long as a certain condition is true.

• loop types :
• while - loops through a block of code as long as the
specified condition is true
• do...while - loops through a block of code once, and then
repeats the loop as long as the specified condition is true
• for - loops through a block of code a specified number of
times
• foreach - loops through a block of code for each element
in an array

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 PHP Regular Expressions
• A regular expression is a sequence of characters
that forms a search pattern.

• A regular expression can be a single character,

or a more complicated pattern.

• regular expressions are strings composed of

delimiters, a pattern and optional modifiers.
– $exp = "/php/i";

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 Regular Expression Functions
• preg_match()
– Returns 1 if the pattern was found in the string
and 0 if not

– <?php
– $str = "PHP is Fun ";
– $pattern = "/PHP/i";
– echo preg_match($pattern, $str); // Outputs 1
– ?>

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 Regular Expression Functions
• preg_match_all()
– Returns the number of times the pattern was found
in the string, which may also be 0

– <?php
– $str = "The rain in SPAIN falls mainly on the plains.";
– $pattern = "/ain/i";
– echo preg_match_all($pattern, $str); // Outputs 4
– ?>

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 Regular Expression Functions
• preg_replace()
– Returns a new string where matched patterns have
been replaced with another string

– <?php
– $str = "Visit Microsoft!";
– $pattern = "/microsoft/i";
– echo preg_replace($pattern, "PHP", $str); //
Outputs "Visit PHP!"
– ?>

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Any Questions?

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