Lecture 8: PHP Variables

Think of a variable as a bucket. Literally, a bucket. That bucket can hold stuff in it — like food, or dirt. In PHP, variables are buckets, but instead of holding food or dirt, they hold information — like numbers, text, images, or logic! All you need to know at this point is that variables are buckets that store information for later use. We'll get to how we actually use the variables in an upcoming lecture.

The basic syntax of a variable is a dollar sign ($) directly followed by a variable name (using text, with no spaces), then an equal sign, followed by the contents of the variable, ending with a semi-colon. Ex: $variable_name = 'my first variable';

There are 4 basic variable types, and each type of variable (or "bucket") is meant to hold specific information. Watch the lecture or download the PDF to learn what the 4 basic variable types are.

1. Welcome to the Course
2. What is PHP?
3. What Does PHP Do?
4. Tools to Get Started
5. Download Course Files
6. Your First PHP Page
7. PHP Syntax
8. PHP Variables
9. More Variables
10. Defining Constants
11. Get Your Hands Dirty
12. Arrays
13. Associative Arrays
14. Multi-Dimensional Arrays
15. Get Your Hands Dirty
16. If Statements
17. Else
18. Else If
19. Get Your Hands Dirty
20. Comparison Operators
21. Logical Operators
22. Arithmetic Operators
23. String Operators
24. Assignment Operators
25. While Loop
26. For Loop
27. Foreach Loop
28. Do While Loop
29. PHP Functions
30. Custom Functions
31. Simple Arguments
32. Final Website
33. Basic Layout
34. Global Header & Footer
35. Copyright & Hours of Operation
36. Team Member Array & Template
37. Menu Array & Template
38. Understanding $_GET
39. Menu Item Template
40. Contact Form
41. Understanding $_POST
42. Form Validation
43. Form Submission
44. Upload Your Website Live
45. Wrap Up

This course is a Total Beginner's Guide to Coding Your Very Own Dynamic Websites with PHP, so you need no prior knowledge or experience — although it's a good idea that you know some HTML (my beginner's guide "Build a Website from Scratch with HTML & CSS" will get teach you everything you need to know).

So — why learn PHP? Well, PHP is a very powerful scripting language used by millions of websites. Some of the most popular websites and frameworks utilize PHP to build their dynamic websites. PHP works very well with HTML, and therefore will allow you to start coding dynamic websites quickly without having to learn some of the more complicated scripting languages out there.