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PHP Tutorial >> Variables
PHP - Variables
If you have never had any
programming, Algebra, or scripting experience, then the concept of variables
will be a new to you.
A variable is a means of
storing a value, such as text string "Hello World!" or the integer value 4. A
variable can then be reused throughout your code, instead of having to type out
the actual value, over and over again.
In PHP you define a variable with the following form:
If you forget that dollar
sign at the beginning, it will not work. This is a common mistake for new PHP
programmers!
A Quick Variable Example
Say that we wanted to
store the values that we talked about in the above paragraph. How would we go
about doing this? We would first want to make a variable name and then set that
equal to the value we want. See our example below for the correct way to do
this.
PHPCode:
<?php
$hello = "Hello World!";
$a_number = 4;
?>
Note for programmers: PHP
does not require variables to be declared before being initialized.
PHP Variable Naming
Conventions
There are a few rules that
you need to follow when choosing a name for your PHP variables.
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PHP variables must
start with a letter.
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PHP variables may only
be comprised of alpha-numeric characters and underscores. a-z, A-Z, 0-9, or
_ .
-
Variables with more
than one word should be separated with underscores. $my_variable
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