What are the PHP Variables?

[shivendra]

Hi friends,
I am very new to the PHP. I have recently started doing the PHP. I don't know why the variables are used in PHP.?? Can someone explain me what are the PHP variables.? Also if possible, give me some example of PHP that is using the variable. Since, I am new, please don't give some tough example. Any other information regarding the variables are warmly welcomed.! So please help me to clear my doubt.!!

[opaper]

Variables can be defined as an identifiers to the memory location to store data. You can create any number of variables. In PHP all the variables begin with a dollar sign "$". PHP has no limit on the length of variable name as in the case of other programming languages. The variable name must start with a letter or underscore. The variable name must be a combination of letters, numbers and underscores. Other characters such as *, +, #, @ are not allowed and causes error if used.

[Reegan]

All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol.The correct way of declaring a variable in PHP:

$var_name = value;

Let's try creating a variable containing a string, and a variable containing a number:

<?php
$txt="Hello World!";
$x=20;
?>

[absolute55]

Variable names are case-sensitive, so use the exact same capitalization when using a variable. The variables $a_car and $A_car are different variables in PHP's point of view. Also PHP does not require variables to be declared before being initialized. Here is an example of that :

<?php
$hello = "Hello World!";
$a_number = 5;
$anotherNumber = 10;
?>

If you forget that dollar sign at the beginning, it will not work. This is a common mistake for new PHP programmers!

[Zecho]

You will have to follow some rules while writing a variable in PHP. I have mentioned the naming rules that are used for the variables :

• A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores. Like a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ .
• A variable name in PHP must start with a letter or an underscore "_".
• A variable name should not contain spaces. If a variable name is more than one word, it should be separated with an underscore. Like if you want variable my number, you can write it as $my_number and in capitalization as $my_Number.

[kelfro]

In PHP all the variables begin with a dollar sign "$" and the value can be assigned using the "=" operator as shown in following example :

$Name, $Name1, $First_Name, $Last_Name
$Name = "MiKe";
$Age = 22;

The other important thing in PHP is that all the statements must end with a semicolon ";". In PHP we needn't have to specify the variable type, as it takes the data type of the assigned value.