Introduction in php part 2

Introduction in PHP
Part 2
by Bozhidar Boshnakov

Recap
• We talked about
– How to define variables in PHP – with $
– How to define Constants – with define(‘name’,value)
– How to deal with Strings
– Some predefined constants and superglobals

Table of contents
• How to install a Web Server that runs PHP
• How to create PHP files and run them on the browser
and inside the console
• Loops
• Conditional statements
• Functions and return values
• Include and require
• Variables scope

• PHP supports the C style while loop
– The body of the cycle will be executed until the
condition is met
– The body consists of one or more statements
• If more than one, surrounding brackets are required
– The condition expression is of type boolean
$a = 1;
while ($a < 100) {
$a ++;
echo $a;
}

• The do-while structure is similar to while-do
– The condition is checked after the body is
executed!
– The body is executed at least once!
$a = 1;
do {
$a ++;
echo $a;
} while ($a < 100);
// this will produce 2 3 4 … 100
// the while cycle would output 2 3 4 … 99

• PHP supports C style for cycles
– The for cycle requires initialization, iteration and
ending condition statement
• None of them are obligatory
• Each statement can consist of multiple comma
separated statements
for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
echo $i;
for ($i = 0, $j = 10; ; $i++, $j--)
if ($j > $i)
echo $i;
else break;

• Foreach is used to iterate over arrays
– For each element in the array the body of the
cycle will be called
– $value will be assigned the value of the current
element in the array
$arr = array (1,1,2,3,5,8);
foreach ($arr as $value)
echo $value;

• Foreach has second form
– Allows you to access the key, corresponding to
the value in the array
$arr = array ("one" => 1, "two" => 2);
foreach ($arr as $key => $value)
echo $key." => ".$value;

• You can leave a cycle with the break
command
• You can move immediately to next cycle
iteration with continue command
$i = 0;
while (true) {
$i ++;
if ($i == 10) break; // exit the cycle
if ($i%2 == 0) continue; // next iteration
echo $i;
}
// will print out 1 3 5 7 9

• if construct allows code to be executed only if
certain condition is met
– Note: assignment returns as value the one being
assigned. So we can have
$a = 5; $b = 7;
if ($a > $b)
echo "A is greater than B";
if ($a % 2) {
echo "A is odd";
$b = $a % 2;
echo "A%2 is :".$b;
}
if ($b = $a%2)
echo "A is odd - A%2 is :".$b;

• if-else construct is extension of if construct
and allows you to execute one code if
condition is met or another if not
$a = 5; $b = 7;
if ($a > $b)
else
echo "B is greater or equal to A";

• Extension of the if-else construct
– Allows you to add conditions for the else body
– It is similar to writing else if and have two
conditional statements
– You can have multiple elseif statements
if ($a > $b)
elseif ($a == $b)
echo "A is equal to B";
else
echo "B is greater than A";

• switch structure allows you to execute
different code, depending on the value of
variable
– It is similar to writing a lot if-s
– The switch body contains "case" clauses
• The engine finds the clause that matches the value
and jumps to that part of the code
switch ($a) {
case 0: echo "A is 0"; break;
}

• Similar to else, you can have default case in a
switch
– If no case option is found the engine jumps to
the default option
– The default case is not obligatory the last one
switch ($a) {
default:
echo "A is … something else";
break;
}

• When the engine moves to the found case it
does NOT exit after the code of that case but
moves on to the next one
– This example will output "A is 0 A is 1"
– The solution is to add break where necessary
– This applies to the default case too
$a = 0;
switch ($a) {
case 0: echo "A is 0";
case 1: echo "A is 1";
}

• Due to the behavior of the switch engine, you
can use empty cases
– They are without break so the engine will jump to
them and move on
– You can use this to combine multiple values with
single code
$a = 0;
switch ($a) {
case 1:
case 2: echo "A is 1 or 2"; break;
}

• You can use any scalar type of variable
(string, number, boolean, etc)
switch ($name) {
case "Dimitar": echo 1; break;
case "Bozhidar":
case "Boshnakov" : echo 2; break;
case false : echo "No name"; break;
default : echo "?!"; break;
}

• Keep in mind switch uses the loose
comparison "==" and may lead to unexpected
results!
• The solution:
$v = "";
switch (true) {
case ($v === false):
echo "it's boolean false"; break;
case ($v === 0):
echo "it's numeric zero"; break;
case ($v === null):
echo "it's null variable"; break;
case ($v === ""):
echo "it's empty string"; break;
}

• The ternary operator is short version of if-
else construct
– It is used only to return one value or another,
depending on condition
– The syntax is:
– You cannot use it like this:
<condition>?<value if true>:<value if false>
echo ($a<$b ? "a is smaller" : "b is smaller");
echo ($a>$b ? "a" : "b")." is greater";
$b = ($a % 2 ? 17 : 18);
($a > 17 ? echo "a" : echo "b" );

• Functions are sets of statements, combined
under unique name
– Declare with statement function
– Can accept parameters and return value
– Helps organize and reuse the code
– Echo, print and others are inbuilt functions
function sum ($a, $b) {
return $a + $b;
}
echo sum(5,7); // will output 12

• The name of the function must be unique
• Can accept unlimited number of arguments
– The are defined in brackets after the function
name
• Can return value with return statement
– Accepts one parameter – the return value

• Function can have predefined value for it's
parameters
– Simplifies it's usage
– The default value must be constant expression
– The defaulted arguments must be on the right side in
the function declaration!
function max ($a, $b, $strict = true) {
if (strict)
return ($a > $b);
else
return ($a >= $b);
}
echo max(3,3,false);
echo max(4,3,true);
echo max(3,3); // we can omit 3rd parameter

• By default PHP passes arguments to functions
by value
– This means change of argument value in the
function will not have effect after function ends
– You can force it to pass argument by reference
with & prefix of the argument
function double (&$a) {
$a *= 2;
}
$b = 7;
double ($b);
echo $b; // will return 14;

• PHP supports variable-length function
parameters
– You can pass any number of arguments to the
function
– The function can read the parameters with
func_num_args() and func_get_arg()
function sum(){
$res = 0;
for ($i=0, $n = func_num_args(); $i < $n; $i++)
$res += func_get_arg ($i);
return $res;
}
echo sum (4,5,6);

• Functions can return values with the return
statement
– Accepts only one argument – the value to be
returned
– Exits the function
– To return multiple values you can use arrays
– Function is not obligatory to return value
function foo ($a) {
return true;
// the following code will NOT be executed
echo $a + 1;
}

• You can use fixed-size arrays to return
multiple values and the list statement
– The list statement assigns multiple array items to
variables
• This is NOT a function like array
• Works only for numerical arrays and assumes indexes
start at 0
function small_numbers () {
return array (0,1,2);
}
list ($a, $b, $c) = small_numbers();

• PHP supports variable functions
– If variable name has parentheses appended to it
the engine tries to find function with name
whatever the function value is and executes it
– This doesn't work with some inbuilt functions
like echo, print, etc
function foo () {
echo "This is foo";
}
$a = 'foo';
$a(); // this calls the foo function

• You can check if function is declared with
function_exists(‘name’)
– Useful to create cross-platform scripts
• Functions can be declared inside other
functions
– They do not exist until the outer function is
called
• Functions can be defined conditionally
– Depending on condition function can be defined
or not

• include and require are statements to include
and evaluate a file
– Useful to split, combine and reuse the code
– Both accept single parameter – file name
– If file is not found include produces warning,
require produces fatal error
– File can be with any extension
require "header.php";
echo "body comes here";
require "footer.php";

• include_once and require_once are forms of
include and require
– With include and require you can include one file
many times and each time it is evaluated
– With include_once and require_once if file is
already included, nothing happens
– For instance if in the file you have declared
function, double including will produce error
"Function with same name already exists"

• Variables outside function are not accessible
in it
– They have to be global or function must declare
it will use them with global
$a = "test";
function $foo () {
echo $a; // this will not output anything
}
$a = "test";
function $foo () {
global $a;
echo $a; // this will output "test";
}

• Variables, declared in loops are accessible
after loop is over
– In the example you have to declare the array
before the loop
for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++) {
$arr[] = $i;
}
print_r ($arr); // outputs 5;
$arr = array();
for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++) {
$arr[] = $i;
}
print_r ($arr); // works too

• As PHP code can be embedded in HTML,
HTML code can be embedded in PHP code
– This is similar to writing echo "Hello John!";
– Very useful for long texts
<?php
if ($name == "John") {
?>
Hello John!
<?php
}
?>

• Resources
– http://php-uroci.devbg.org/
– http://academy.telerik.com/
– http://www.codecademy.com/

1. Write a program that prints the numbers
from 1 to 50
2. Write a program that prints the numbers
from 1 to 50 that are not divisible by 5 and 7
3. Write a program that prints HTML table with
N columns and N rows with the numbers 1,
2, 3, ... in its cells for a given N, defined as a
constant
4. Write a program that finds the minimal
element of an given indexed array

5. Write a program that calculates N! (factorial
1*2*..*N) for a defined constant N
6. Write a program that calculates N!*K!/(N-K)!
for defined constants N and K
7. Write a program that prints the binary
representation of a decimal number N, defined
by a constant
8. Write a program that prints the decimal
representation of a binary number, defined in a
string

Introduction in php part 2

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