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PHP. Lessons for beginners

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PHP Variables

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What are variables?

Variables are "containers" for storing information.

Creating (Declaring) PHP Variables

In PHP, a variable starts with the $ sign, followed by the name of the variable:

Example

<?php
$txt = "Hello world!";
$x = 5;
$y = 10.5;
?>
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After the execution of the statements above, the variable $txt will hold the value Hello world!, the variable $x will hold the value 5, and the variable $y will hold the value 10.5.

Note: When you assign a text value to a variable, put quotes around the value.

Note: Unlike other programming languages, PHP has no command for declaring a variable. It is created the moment you first assign a value to it.

Think of variables as containers for storing data.

PHP Variables

A variable can have a short name (like x and y) or a more descriptive name (age, carname, total_volume).

Rules for PHP variables:

  • 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)

Remember that PHP variable names are case-sensitive!

Output Variables

The PHP echo statement is often used to output data to the screen.

The following example will show how to output text and a variable:

Example

<?php
$txt = "W3Schools.com";
echo "I love $txt!";
?>
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The following example will produce the same output as the example above:

Example

<?php
$txt = "W3Schools.com";
echo "I love " . $txt . "!";
?>
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The following example will output the sum of two variables:

Example

<?php
$x = 5;
$y = 4;
echo $x + $y;
?>
Try it Yourself »

Note: You will learn more about the echo statement and how to output data to the screen in the next chapter.

PHP is a Loosely Typed Language

In the example above, notice that we did not have to tell PHP which data type the variable is.

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.

In PHP 7, type declarations were added. This gives an option to specify the data type expected when declaring a function, and by enabling the strict requirement, it will throw a "Fatal Error" on a type mismatch.

You will learn more about strict and non-strict requirements, and data type declarations in the PHP Functions chapter.

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