PHP

Section 1: PHP and PHP-Related Documentation and Manuals

Within the PHP and Related Documentation and Manuals section you'll find annotated links to official sources for PHP documentation and manuals in a variety of formats for use online, to download, integrated within your applications, and more, along with PEAR documentation and manuals and related documentation, such as Smarty Template Engine documentation. There's plenty of PHP help here for PHP programming within the official documentation.

Know of some great PHP help, PHP programming tutorials, tips, tools, documentation, manuals, software, tools, Web sites, books, or other PHP resources? Recommendations are welcome and appreciated!

On this page:

PHP Documentation and Manuals
- A Few References Within the PHP Manuals and Documentation
PEAR Documentation and Manuals
Other PHP-Related Documentation and Manuals

Also within PHP:

PHP Home (6 pages total)
Section 2: Articles and Tutorials on PHP Programming (1 page)
Section 3: Discussion Lists, and Newsgroups on PHP Programming (1 page)
Section 4: Sites, Other Resources, and Books on PHP Programming (1 page)
Section 5: PHP Tools - PHP Editors, Modules and Add-ons, Support Applications, Template Engines, and More (1 page)

Books on PHP
Recommended by WebsiteTips.com

Read short reviews and find more book recommendations on Web site-related topics in our Recommended Books, Software section!

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PHP Documentation and Manuals

PHP.net
Main, official site for PHP. Downloads, documentation, resources, links to more PHP-related sites, more. [Information, documentation via php.net.]
PHP Manual
Download the PHP manual from PHP.net in a variety of languages and formats (PDF, HTML, Palm Pilot doc, more). [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual in Extended CHM Format
Includes many more features than the standards CHM format PHP Manual. The CHM format also integrates into several applications already in addition to opening in Windows. Available only in English as of February 2006 but development continues. [Manual via php.net. Hat tip: HomeSite/PHP Add-on's and Resources.]
PHP Manual for HomeSite
This is a direct link to download the 2.2MB .zip file, "massaged to make it work under HomeSite's help." See HomeSite/PHP Add-on's and Resources site for details. [Manual via PHP4HS, by Jeff Wilkinson.]
PHP Manual FAQ: Chapter 56. PHP and HTML
FAQ covers:
- What encoding/decoding do I need when I pass a value through a form/URL?
- I'm trying to use an <input type="image"> tag, but the $foo.x and $foo.y variables aren't available. $_GET['foo.x'] isn't existing either. Where are they?
- How do I create arrays in a HTML <form>?
- How do I get all the results from a select multiple HTML tag?
- How can I pass a variable from Javascript to PHP?
[Manual/FAQ via php.net.]

A Few References Within the PHP Manuals and Documentation

PHP Control Structures

PHP Manual: Chapter 16. Control Structures
if, else, elseif, alternative syntax for control structures, while, do-while, for, foreach, break, continue, switch, declare, return, require(), include(), require_once(), include_once(). [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual: Control Structures: Include
PHP includes are quite popular. Here's the information from the manual on PHP includes. [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual: Control Structures: Switch
“The switch statement is similar to a series of IF statements on the same expression. In many occasions, you may want to compare the same variable (or expression) with many different values, and execute a different piece of code depending on which value it equals to. This is exactly what the switch statement is for.” [Manual via php.net.]

PHP Functions

PHP Manual: VI. Function Reference
Index page listing links to all the PHP functions in the manual. [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual Quick Reference: PHP Function List
Index listing with links to all the PHP functions in the PHP manual. Handy page to quickly find PHP functions. [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual: Functions: Date/Time: mktime
Helpful information within the documentation and with the user comments for various date and time PHP scripts. [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual: Date and Time Functions: Date: date
Format a local time, date. Charts for day, week, month, year, times formatted in a variety of ways. For example:
PHP Code - Current Local Time
PHP Code Output
<?php echo date('h:i A, T');?> 01:49 PM, CDT
<?php echo date('H:i:s');?> 13:49:39
PHP Code - Today's Date (Month, Date, Year)
PHP Code Output
<?php echo date('F j, Y');?> March 30, 2020
<?php echo date('M. j, Y');?> Mar. 30, 2020
<?php echo date('m-j-y');?> 03-30-20
PHP Code - Today's Date (Day, Month, Date, Year)
PHP Code Output
<?php echo date('l, F j, Y');?> Monday, March 30, 2020
<?php echo date('D, M. j, Y');?> Mon, Mar. 30, 2020
PHP Code - ISO 8601, RFC 2822 Dates
Name PHP Code Output
ISO 8601 date <?php echo date(c);?> 2020-03-30T13:49:39-05:00
RFC 2822 date <?php echo date(r);?> Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:49:39 -0500
[Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual: Functions: php_strip_whitespace
For PHP5 and above. “Returns the PHP source code in filename with PHP comments and whitespace removed. This may be useful for determining the amount of actual code in your scripts compared with the amount of comments.” Also helps with reducing bandwidth for Web sites. [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual: Functions: Regular Expressions Functions (Perl-Compatible)
Introduction to PHP regex functions, configuration and installation information, table of predefined constants, and table of contents also includes links to more on each of these:
- Pattern Modifiers - Describes possible modifiers in regex patterns
- Pattern Syntax - Describes PCRE regex syntax
- preg_grep - Return array entries that match the pattern
- preg_last_error - Returns the error code of the last PCRE regex execution
- preg_match_all - Perform a global regular expression match
- preg_match - Perform a regular expression match
- preg_quote - Quote regular expression characters
- preg_replace_callback - Perform a regular expression search and replace using a callback
- preg_replace - Perform a regular expression search and replace
- preg_split - Split string by a regular expression
Also lots of helpful comments, PHP code snippets, and more within the comments area, too. [Manual via php.net.]

PHP Code - Current Local Time
PHP Code	Output
`<?php echo date('h:i A, T');?>`	01:49 PM, CDT
`<?php echo date('H:i:s');?>`	13:49:39

PHP Code - Today's Date (Month, Date, Year)
PHP Code	Output
`<?php echo date('F j, Y');?>`	March 30, 2020
`<?php echo date('M. j, Y');?>`	Mar. 30, 2020
`<?php echo date('m-j-y');?>`	03-30-20

PHP Code - Today's Date (Day, Month, Date, Year)
PHP Code	Output
`<?php echo date('l, F j, Y');?>`	Monday, March 30, 2020
`<?php echo date('D, M. j, Y');?>`	Mon, Mar. 30, 2020

PHP Code - ISO 8601, RFC 2822 Dates
Name	PHP Code	Output
ISO 8601 date	`<?php echo date(c);?>`	2020-03-30T13:49:39-05:00
RFC 2822 date	`<?php echo date(r);?>`	Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:49:39 -0500

PHP MySQL Functions

PHP Manual: MySQL Functions
As the title implies, these PHP functions allow access to mySQL database servers. Directions included. [Manual via php.net.]

PHP Variables

PHP Manual: Predefined Variables
Predefined server variables, environment variables, HTTP Cookies, HTTP GET variables, HTTP POST variables, HTTP File upload variables, Request variables, Session variables, Global variables, The previous error message, and helpful comments. [Manual via php.net.]
PHP Manual: Variables from outside PHP
HTML Forms (GET and POST), IMAGE SUBMIT variable names, HTTP cookies, dots in incoming variable names, determining variable types. [Manual via php.net.]

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PEAR Documentation and Manuals

PEAR - PHP Extension and Application Repository
Official site for PEAR. Downloads, documentation, resources, more. [Information, documentation via pear.php.net.]
PEAR Manual
Read online or download the PEAR manual from PHP.net in a variety of languages and formats (PDF, HTML, Palm Pilot doc, more). [Manual via pear.php.net.]

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PHP

Section 1: PHP and PHP-Related Documentation and Manuals