... lessons: the basic functions 01: writing in php

You may've seen on some PHP-sites, that in most functions on the site, they use a command called echo to give an output to the user in front of his screen. Writing something in PHP is very simple! Look at this:

This is written in PHP,
but this is written in HTML.

No cheating upthere ;)...I wrote the PHP-text in PHP and the HTML-text in HTML. You may have to know, that you sometimes have to use HTML-scripts in your PHP-writings, so you have to know a little bit of HTML, before you start on PHP. Now, the question is: How did I do that, and how can you learn it? Well, I told we could use the echo-command to write text. As simple, as it is, I'll here give you an example:

<?php echo "Hi, I'm something written in PHP!" ?>
And as an output, it will be transformed into this:
Hi, I'm something written in PHP!

Okay, I may explain the whole script to you, so you understand. The first part of script is "<?php", and I hope, you know, that this is the way to start a PHP-script. If your browser meets this in your HTML-code, it will automatically be transformed into another part of code, so your document doesn't contain the whole code in it's text. This next thing, we now use in the script is the command echo. If you use the quotation-marks after echo, it will be transformed into a string and will be written in your document. The "?>" ends the PHP-script and then the browser continues on doing the HTML-code, until it meets another script. Simple, huh? Yeah.

As well, you could use the command called print. print is used in the same way as echo; just simply put some quotation marks after print, and it will be transformed into a string, which will be written in your document. Now, there's a little fact, you'd probably like to know. Instead of using the "<?php" and "?>", you could simply remove the "php" and use "<?" and "?>" instead. Also, you could instead of these two use "<script language="php">" and "</script>", but still, I prefer "<?php" because of its way to say, that it is a PHP-script, we're talking 'bout.

Now, I want to make two sentences in one script. Simply, I do it like this:

<?php
   echo "Here's my first line...<br>";
   echo "...and here's my second...";
?>

Don't forget that semicolon! It's very important! It's always used at the end of every command, you use in PHP. Now, we want it a little easier. I want the two sentences pushed into one line in the script. Here's where the semicolon is very important:

<?php
   echo "First line"; echo "And second!"
?>

Simple, huh? Way to go! Clever little you...*pulls your cheek* ^___^ That was ya first PHP-script! Wanna learn more? Continue to the next step! I mean it!