GarsGuide to PHP

PHP Introductions

Resources that give an introduction or overview of PHP.

What is PHP?
https://www.php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php

Overview of PHP from the official PHP site. Explains that PHP is easy for newcomers yet has advanced features. Includes a simple PHP script and has links for further information.

The Best PHP Examples
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-best-php-examples/

Despite the title, this is an overview of PHP, not a page of PHP coding examples. The article discusses what PHP is used for, how it works as a server-side scripting language, how to install PHP, common PHP frameworks, and basic PHP syntax.

PHP Cheat Sheets

Quick reference guides to the main features and characteristics of PHP.

PHP Cheat Sheet
https://overapi.com/php

Cheat sheet showing PHP functions and constants grouped into categories, plus additional resources. Each function in this cheat sheet is a link to a page with more detailed information.

Cheat Sheets Matching "PHP"
https://www.cheatography.com/explore/search/?q=PHP

Collection of PHP cheat sheets from Cheatography. Contains dozens of different cheat sheets from various authors. Some of these cheat sheets attempt to cover many PHP features, some concentrate on one feature. Most are written in English, some in other languages.

PHP Reference Guides

Resources that organize and document PHP features and syntax via explanations, charts, and tables.

PHP Manual
https://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php

Official PHP reference manual from the PHP Documentation Group. It consists of a table of contents with links to pages covering installing, configuring, securing, and working with PHP.

PHP The Right Way
https://phptherightway.com/

Quick reference guide to PHP with PHP coding standards, links to additional resources to dig deeper into each topic, and recommendations for PHP coding practices.

PHP Reference
https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_ref_overview.asp

W3Schools PHP reference guide to various categories of PHP functions and constants. Displays a grid of categories for PHP functions, keywords and constants. Clicking on a category shows the list of items in that category.

PHP Apprentice: An online book for learning PHP
https://phpapprentice.com/

Online, open source book about the PHP programming language. Includes a table of contents that can pop up or be dismissed as needed.

PHP Tutorials

Step by step guides to programming in PHP.

A simple tutorial
https://www.php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php

Tutorial from the official PHP website. It presents simple PHP concepts sufficient to get a new PHP programmer started. A table of contents to navigate through the chapters is displayed the first page of this tutorial and is repeated on each subsequent page.

PHP Tutorial
https://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp

PHP tutorial from W3Schools. It presents concepts covering most aspects of PHP programming in a way that is clear and concise. The tutorial is broken into individual chapters, each centered on one feature of PHP. Each chapter has explanatory text, worked examples, and the opportunity to try it yourself.

PHP Tools

Software tools (or collections of tools) to help you read, understand, or create programs using PHP.

5 PHP Tools to make your life more enjoyable.
https://dev.to/david_j_eddy/5-php-tools-to-make-your-life-more-enjoyable-1jl1

David J Eddy's Five go to tools to aid PHP development: xDebug for debugging, PHPStorm for IDE, xhprof for performance tuning, PHPUnit for testing, and PHPCS / PHPCPD / PHPMD for code quality assurance. For each tool there is a paragraph describing the benefits of using this tool.

6 Must-Have Tools in a PHP Developer
https://blog.teamtreehouse.com/6-must-have-tools-in-a-php-developers-toolkit

PHP teacher Alena Holligan's selections for the essential toolkit for the PHP programmer. In this article she writes one paragraph describing each tool she has selected.

12+ PHP Tools For Developers
https://www.template.net/business/tools/php-tools-for-developers/

Twelve PHP tools that make the lives of PHP developers a bit easier. These tools range from PHP editors to sets of PHP libraries.

18 PHP Tools for Developers of all Levels
https://stackify.com/php-tools-developers/

Guide to eighteen popular PHP development tools. It includes categories of tools such as development environments, performance tools, log monitors, debugging, version control, security, and miscellaneous. There is an image and a paragraph or more of explanation for each tool. The name of the tool is a hyperlink to download the tool. Please notice that not all of these tools are free.

23 Useful PHP Tools for the Everyday Web Developer
https://www.keycdn.com/blog/php-tools

23 tools for PHP developers. It includes categories of tools such as development environments, testing, debugging, documentation, security, and performance monitoring. Each tool includes an image, a paragraph of description, a discussion of the cost (if any), and a link to download the tool.

PHP Data Types

Resources that define, list, or explain the data types available in PHP to store data in variables.

Types
https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.php

Official PHP reference guide to PHP data types, formatted as a table of contents. Each data type in the table is a link to detailed information about that type.

PHP Data Types
https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_datatypes.asp

Introduction to PHP data types from W3Schools, part of their PHP tutorial. For each type, an example is given, along with an invitation to try it yourself.

PHP Operators

Resources that list and describe the operators and operations available in a PHP program.

Operators
https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.php

Official PHP reference guide to PHP operators, formatted as a table of contents. Each operator name in the table is a link to detailed information about that operator.

PHP Operators
https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_operators.asp

Introduction to PHP operators from the W3Schools PHP tutorial. The operators are grouped into eight categories. For each category there is a table describing the operator and giving an example of how to use it.

PHP Control Structures

Resources that list and describe the control structures available to determine the flow of statements in a PHP program.

Control Structures
https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.control-structures.php

Official PHP reference guide to PHP control structures, formatted as a table of contents. Each control structure in the table is a link to detailed information about that control structure.

PHP Control Structures and Loops: if, else, for, foreach, while, and More
https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php-control-structures-and-loops--cms-31999

Discussion of PHP control structures. For each control structure there is a flow chart illustrating the logic, an explanation, and examples showing how to use the control structure.

PHP Functions

Resources that list and describe PHP's built-in functions or explain how to create user-defined functions.

Functions
https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.functions.php

Official PHP reference guide to PHP functions, formatted as a table of contents. Each entry in the table is a link to a function category or to a topic related to PHP functions. Includes user-defined functions, function arguments, returning values, variable functions, internal (built-in) functions, and anonymous functions.

PHP Functions
https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_functions.asp

Overview of PHP functions, part of the PHP Reference provided by W3Schools. This overview describes user defined functions, function arguments, data types of arguments, default arguments, returning values from functions, type declarations, and passing arguments by reference.

PHP Filesystem Functions

Resources that list and describe the PHP functions that allow you to access and manipulate the PHP filesystem.

Filesystem Functions
https://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.filesystem.php

Official PHP reference guide to PHP file handling functions, formatted as a table of contents. File handling functions include everything from opening and closing files to reading, writing, and updating data to changing file permissions.

PHP Filesystem Functions
https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_ref_filesystem.asp

Introduction to PHP filesystem functions, part of the PHP Reference provided by W3Schools. This introduction consists primarily of two tables. The first table describes the runtime configuration of the filesystem functions, determined by settings in php.ini. The second table lists the PHP filesystem functions themselves.

PHP Samples and Examples

Collections of PHP programs demonstrating what can be done with PHP supplemented with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They showcase techniques you can use and demonstrate how complete applications can be constructed.

Example listing
https://www.php.net/manual/en/indexes.examples.php

List of example PHP programs from the official PHP reference. It consists of links to programs that illustrate how to use PHP to accomplish a variety of tasks.

PHP Examples
https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_examples.asp

List of example PHP programs from the W3Schools PHP tutorial. It consists of links to sample programs grouped by category.

PHP Related Information

Supplemental information and additional resources related to PHP.

Security
https://www.php.net/manual/en/security.php

Guide to security from the official PHP reference manual. Includes information on how to secure your website, your database, and your PHP programs.

Usage statistics of PHP for websites
https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php

Page of diagrams showing usage statistics of PHP as a server-side programming language on websites. The data is updated daily and there is a link to an explanation of the methodologies used.

PHP
https://dev.to/t/php

Online community for PHP developers to share what they know. Anyone can share articles, questions, discussions, etc. as long as they have the rights to the words they are sharing. Cross-posting from your own blog is welcome.

PHP sucks, can it suck less?
https://www.twodee.me/blog/2019/09/26/php

This blog points out the language that PHP has evolved into, especially since the advent of PHP 7. It explains why PHP was considered a "bad" language and why that is less true now. As the author points out, every language has strengths and weaknesses.

If PHP Were British
https://aloneonahill.com/blog/if-php-were-british/

Amusing article by Dave Child imagining how PHP would be different if it were British. You don't have to be a PHP programmer to appreciate the humor.