varplay

Please send questions to st10@humboldt.edu .

<html>

<head>
    <title> Playing with variables (part 1) </title>
</head>

<body>

    <?php
        // variable names start with a $, and no type declarations are
        //    needed

        $welcome = 'Hello and welcome';

        $num1 = 2;
        $num2 = 4.35;

        print $welcome;
        print "<br>\n";
        print $num1;
        print "<br>\n";
        print $num2;
        print "<br>\n";

        // what if I need to escape special characters?
        // precede the needed character with a \

        // for example, to have both single and double quotes in a string:

        print "Here is a single quote ' and here is double quote \" ";
        print "<br>\n";
        print 'Here is a single quote \' and here is double quote " ';
        print "<br>\n";

        // like Perl, if you put a variable in a double-quoted string,
        //    the variable is replaced with its value;
        // in a single-quoted string, it is not.

        print "I am double-quoted: $welcome";
        print "<br>\n";        
        print 'I am single-quoted: $welcome';
        print "<br>\n";        

        // what if I'd like to have both? one way: backslash the $

        print "The value of \$num1 is: $num1";
        print "<br>\n";        

        // note that echo can be used as well as print....

        echo "How are you?";
        echo "<br>\n";

        // and note that you can concatenate with a . not a +

        echo $num1 + $num2;
        
        // (and you can have a newline in a string literal in PHP...?)
        echo "<br>
             ";
        echo $num1 . $num2;

        print $welcome . " and salutations! <br>\n";

        // what happens if you try to use + with strings?

        print $welcome + " and salutations! <br>\n";

    ?>

</body>

</html>