What’s PHP ?
The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a programming language that allows web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP is basically used for developing web based software applications.
What Is a Session?
A session is a logical object created by the PHP engine to allow you to preserve data across subsequent HTTP requests.
There is only one session object available to your PHP scripts at any time. Data saved to the session by a script can be retrieved by the same script or another script when requested from the same visitor.
Sessions are commonly used to store temporary data to allow multiple PHP pages to offer a complete functional transaction for the same visitor.
What is meant by PEAR in php?
Answer1:
PEAR is the next revolution in PHP. This repository is bringing higher level programming to PHP. PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components. It eases installation by bringing an automated wizard, and packing the strength and experience of PHP users into a nicely organised OOP library. PEAR also provides a command-line interface that can be used to automatically install “packages”
Answer2:
PEAR is short for “PHP Extension and Application Repository” and is pronounced just like the fruit. The purpose of PEAR is to provide:
A structured library of open-sourced code for PHP users
A system for code distribution and package maintenance
A standard style for code written in PHP
The PHP Foundation Classes (PFC),
The PHP Extension Community Library (PECL),
A web site, mailing lists and download mirrors to support the PHP/PEAR community
PEAR is a community-driven project with the PEAR Group as the governing body. The project has been founded by Stig S. Bakken in 1999 and quite a lot of people have joined the project since then.
How can we know the number of days between two given dates using PHP?
Simple arithmetic:
$date1 = date(’Y-m-d’);
$date2 = ‘2006-07-01′;
$days = (strtotime() – strtotime()) / (60 * 60 * 24);
echo “Number of days since ‘2006-07-01′: $days”;
What is the difference between $message and $$message?
Anwser 1:
$message is a simple variable whereas $$message is a reference variable. Example:
$user = ‘bob’
is equivalent to
$holder = ‘user’;
$$holder = ‘bob’;
Anwser 2:
They are both variables. But $message is a variable with a fixed name. $$message is a variable who’s name is stored in $message. For example, if $message contains “var”, $$message is the same as $var.
What Is a Persistent Cookie?
A persistent cookie is a cookie which is stored in a cookie file permanently on the browser’s computer. By default, cookies are created as temporary cookies which stored only in the browser’s memory. When the browser is closed, temporary cookies will be erased. You should decide when to use temporary cookies and when to use persistent cookies based on their differences:
*Temporary cookies can not be used for tracking long-term information.
*Persistent cookies can be used for tracking long-term information.
*Temporary cookies are safer because no programs other than the browser can access them.
*Persistent cookies are less secure because users can open cookie files see the cookie values.
What does a special set of tags do in PHP?
The output is displayed directly to the browser.
How do you define a constant?
Via define() directive, like define (”MYCONSTANT”, 100);
What are the differences between require and include, include_once?
Anwser 1:
require_once() and include_once() are both the functions to include and evaluate the specified file only once. If the specified file is included previous to the present call occurrence, it will not be done again.
But require() and include() will do it as many times they are asked to do.
Anwser 2:
The include_once() statement includes and evaluates the specified file during the execution of the script. This is a behavior similar to the include() statement, with the only difference being that if the code from a file has already been included, it will not be included again. The major difference between include() and require() is that in failure include() produces a warning message whereas require() produces a fatal errors.
Anwser 3:
All three are used to an include file into the current page.
If the file is not present, require(), calls a fatal error, while in include() does not.
The include_once() statement includes and evaluates the specified file during the execution of the script. This is a behavior similar to the include() statement, with the only difference being that if the code from a file has already been included, it will not be included again. It des not call a fatal error if file not exists. require_once() does the same as include_once(), but it calls a fatal error if file not exists.
Anwser 4:
File will not be included more than once. If we want to include a file once only and further calling of the file will be ignored then we have to use the PHP function include_once(). This will prevent problems with function redefinitions, variable value reassignments, etc.
What is meant by urlencode and urldecode?
Anwser 1:
urlencode() returns the URL encoded version of the given string. URL coding converts special characters into % signs followed by two hex digits. For example: urlencode(”10.00%”) will return “10%2E00%25″. URL encoded strings are safe to be used as part of URLs.
urldecode() returns the URL decoded version of the given string.
Anwser 2:
string urlencode(str) – Returns the URL encoded version of the input string. String values to be used in URL query string need to be URL encoded. In the URL encoded version:
Alphanumeric characters are maintained as is.
Space characters are converted to “+” characters.
Other non-alphanumeric characters are converted “%” followed by two hex digits representing the converted character.
string urldecode(str) – Returns the original string of the input URL encoded string.
For example:
$discount =”10.00%”;
$url = “http://domain.com/submit.php?disc=”.urlencode($discount);
echo $url;
You will get “http://domain.com/submit.php?disc=10%2E00%25″.
How To Get the Uploaded File Information in the Receiving Script?
Once the Web server received the uploaded file, it will call the PHP script specified in the form action attribute to process them. This receiving PHP script can get the uploaded file information through the predefined array called $_FILES. Uploaded file information is organized in $_FILES as a two-dimensional array as:
$_FILES[$fieldName][’name’] – The Original file name on the browser system.
$_FILES[$fieldName][’type’] – The file type determined by the browser.
$_FILES[$fieldName][’size’] – The Number of bytes of the file content.
$_FILES[$fieldName][’tmp_name’] – The temporary filename of the file in which the uploaded file was stored on the server.
$_FILES[$fieldName][’error’] – The error code associated with this file upload.
The $fieldName is the name used in the .
How can I execute a PHP script using command line?
Just run the PHP CLI (Command Line Interface) program and provide the PHP script file name as the command line argument. For example, “php myScript.php”, assuming “php” is the command to invoke the CLI program.
Be aware that if your PHP script was written for the Web CGI interface, it may not execute properly in command line environment.
I am trying to assign a variable the value of 0123, but it keeps coming up with a different number, what’s the problem?
PHP Interpreter treats numbers beginning with 0 as octal. Look at the similar PHP interview questions for more numeric problems.
Would I use print “$a dollars” or “{$a} dollars” to print out the amount of dollars in this example?
In this example it wouldn’t matter, since the variable is all by itself, but if you were to print something like “{$a},000,000 mln dollars”, then you definitely need to use the braces.
How can we encrypt the username and password using PHP?
Answer1
You can encrypt a password with the following Mysql>SET PASSWORD=PASSWORD(”Password”);
Answer2
You can use the MySQL PASSWORD() function to encrypt username and password. For example,
INSERT into user (password, …) VALUES (PASSWORD($password”)), …);
How do you pass a variable by value?
Just like in C++, put an ampersand in front of it, like $a = &$b
When are you supposed to use endif to end the conditional statement?
When the original if was followed by : and then the code block without braces.
How can we send mail using JavaScript?
No. There is no way to send emails directly using JavaScript.
But you can use JavaScript to execute a client side email program send the email using the “mailto” code. Here is an example:
function myfunction(form)
{
tdata=document.myform.tbox1.value;
location=”mailto:mailid@domain.com?subject=…”;
return true;
}
What is the functionality of the function strstr and stristr?
strstr() returns part of a given string from the first occurrence of a given substring to the end of the string. For example: strstr(”user@example.com”,”@”) will return “@example.com”.
stristr() is idential to strstr() except that it is case insensitive.
What is the difference between ereg_replace() and eregi_replace()?
eregi_replace() function is identical to ereg_replace() except that it ignores case distinction when matching alphabetic characters.
How do I find out the number of parameters passed into function9. ?
func_num_args() function returns the number of parameters passed in.
If the variable $a is equal to 5 and variable $b is equal to character a, what’s the value of $$b?
100, it’s a reference to existing variable.
How To Protect Special Characters in Query String?
If you want to include special characters like spaces in the query string, you need to protect them by applying the urlencode() translation function. The script below shows how to use urlencode():
<?php
print(””);
print(”
Please click the links below”
.” to submit comments about TECHPreparation.com:
”);
$comment = ‘I want to say: “It\’s a good site! :->”‘;
$comment = urlencode($comment);
print(”
”
.””
.”It’s an excellent site!
”);
$comment = ‘This visitor said: “It\’s an average site! :-(”‘;
$comment = urlencode($comment);
print(”
”);
print(””);
?>
Are objects passed by value or by reference?
Everything is passed by value.
How do you call a constructor for a parent class?
parent::constructor($value)
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ERRORS IN PHP?
Here are three basic types of runtime errors in PHP:
1. Notices: These are trivial, non-critical errors that PHP encounters while executing a script – for example, accessing a variable that has not yet been defined. By default, such errors are not displayed to the user at all – although you can change this default behavior.
2. Warnings: These are more serious errors – for example, attempting to include() a file which does not exist. By default, these errors are displayed to the user, but they do not result in script termination.
3. Fatal errors: These are critical errors – for example, instantiating an object of a non-existent class, or calling a non-existent function. These errors cause the immediate termination of the script, and PHP’s default behavior is to display them to the user when they take place.
Internally, these variations are represented by twelve different error types
What’s the special meaning of __sleep and __wakeup?
__sleep returns the array of all the variables than need to be saved, while __wakeup retrieves them.
How can we submit a form without a submit button?
If you don’t want to use the Submit button to submit a form, you can use normal hyper links to submit a form. But you need to use some JavaScript code in the URL of the link. For example:
Submit Me
Why doesn’t the following code print the newline properly?
Because inside the single quotes the \n character is not interpreted as newline, just as a sequence of two characters – \ and n.
Would you initialize your strings with single quotes or double quotes?
Since the data inside the single-quoted string is not parsed for variable substitution, it’s always a better idea speed-wise to initialize a string with single quotes, unless you specifically need variable substitution.
How can we extract string ‘abc.com ‘ from a string http://info@abc.com using regular expression of php?
We can use the preg_match() function with “/.*@(.*)$/” as
the regular expression pattern. For example:
preg_match(”/.*@(.*)$/”,”http://info@abc.com”,$data);
echo $data[1];
What are the differences between GET and POST methods in form submitting, give the case where we can use GET and we can use POST methods?
Anwser 1:
When we submit a form, which has the GET method it displays pair of name/value used in the form at the address bar of the browser preceded by url. Post method doesn’t display these values.
Anwser 2:
When you want to send short or small data, not containing ASCII characters, then you can use GET” Method. But for long data sending, say more then 100 character you can use POST method.
Once most important difference is when you are sending the form with GET method. You can see the output which you are sending in the address bar. Whereas if you send the form with POST” method then user can not see that information.
Anwser 3:
What are “GET” and “POST”?
GET and POST are methods used to send data to the server: With the GET method, the browser appends the data onto the URL. With the Post method, the data is sent as “standard input.”
Major Difference
In simple words, in POST method data is sent by standard input (nothing shown in URL when posting while in GET method data is sent through query string.
Ex: Assume we are logging in with username and password.
GET: we are submitting a form to login.php, when we do submit or similar action, values are sent through visible query string (notice ./login.php?username=…&password=… as URL when executing the script login.php) and is retrieved by login.php by $_GET[’username’] and $_GET[’password’].
POST: we are submitting a form to login.php, when we do submit or similar action, values are sent through invisible standard input (notice ./login.php) and is retrieved by login.php by $_POST[’username’] and $_POST[’password’].
POST is assumed more secure and we can send lot more data than that of GET method is limited (they say Internet Explorer can take care of maximum 2083 character as a query string).
Anwser 4:
In the get method the data made available to the action page ( where data is received ) by the URL so data can be seen in the address bar. Not advisable if you are sending login info like password etc. In the post method the data will be available as data blocks and not as query string in case of get method.
Anwser 5:
When we submit a form, which has the GET method it pass value in the form of query string (set of name/value pair) and display along with URL. With GET we can a small data submit from the form (a set of 255 character) whereas Post method doesn’t display value with URL. It passes value in the form of Object and we can submit large data from the form.
Anwser 6:
On the server side, the main difference between GET and POST is where the submitted is stored. The $_GET array stores data submitted by the GET method. The $_POST array stores data submitted by the POST method.
On the browser side, the difference is that data submitted by the GET method will be displayed in the browser’s address field. Data submitted by the POST method will not be displayed anywhere on the browser.
GET method is mostly used for submitting a small amount and less sensitive data. POST method is mostly used for submitting a large amount or sensitive data.
What is the difference between the functions unlink and unset?
unlink() is a function for file system handling. It will simply delete the file in context.
unset() is a function for variable management. It will make a variable undefined.
How come the code works, but doesn’t for two-dimensional array of mine?
Any time you have an array with more than one dimension, complex parsing syntax is required. print “Contents: {$arr[1][2]}” would’ve worked.
How can we register the variables into a session?
session_register($session_var);
$_SESSION[’var’] = ‘value’;
What is the difference between characters 23 and \x23?
The first one is octal 23, the second is hex 23.
With a heredoc syntax, do I get variable substitution inside the heredoc contents?
Yes.
How can we submit form without a submit button?
We can use a simple JavaScript code linked to an event trigger of any form field. In the JavaScript code, we can call the document.form.submit() function to submit the form. For example:
How can we create a database using PHP and mysql?
We can create MySQL database with the use of mysql_create_db($databaseName) to create a database.
How many ways we can retrieve the date in result set of mysql using php?
As individual objects so single record or as a set or arrays.
Can we use include (”abc.php”) two times in a php page “makeit.php”?
Yes.
For printing out strings, there are echo, print and printf. Explain the differences.
echo is the most primitive of them, and just outputs the contents following the construct to the screen. print is also a construct (so parentheses are optional when calling it), but it returns TRUE on successful output and FALSE if it was unable to print out the string. However, you can pass multiple parameters to echo, like:
and it will output the string “Welcome to techpreparations!” print does not take multiple parameters. It is also generally argued that echo is faster, but usually the speed advantage is negligible, and might not be there for future versions of PHP. printf is a function, not a construct, and allows such advantages as formatted output, but it’s the slowest way to print out data out of echo, print and printf.
I am writing an application in PHP that outputs a printable version of driving directions. It contains some long sentences, and I am a neat freak, and would like to make sure that no line exceeds 50 characters. How do I accomplish that with PHP?
On large strings that need to be formatted according to some length specifications, use wordwrap() or chunk_split().
What’s the output of the ucwords function in this example?
$formatted = ucwords(”TECHPREPARATIONS IS COLLECTION OF INTERVIEW QUESTIONS”);
print $formatted;
What will be printed is TECHPREPARATIONS IS COLLECTION OF INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.
ucwords() makes every first letter of every word capital, but it does not lower-case anything else. To avoid this, and get a properly formatted string, it’s worth using strtolower() first.
What’s the difference between htmlentities() and htmlspecialchars()?
htmlspecialchars only takes care of , single quote ‘, double quote ” and ampersand. htmlentities translates all occurrences of character sequences that have different meaning in HTML.