View source for PHP

{{Short description|Scripting language created in 1994}}
{{About|the scripting language}}
{{Infobox programming language
| logo = PHP-logo.svg
| logo size = 200px
| file ext = {{codes|.php|.phar|.phtml|.pht|.phps|d=,}}
| paradigm = [[Multi-paradigm programming language|Multi-paradigm]]: [[imperative programming|imperative]], [[functional programming|functional]], [[object-oriented programming|object-oriented]], [[procedural programming|procedural]], [[reflective programming|reflective]]
| released = {{start date and age|1995|06|08|df=y}}<ref name="Lerdorf-1995" /><ref name="Lerdorf-2007">{{cite web | last=Lerdorf | first=Rasmus | title=PHP on Hormones&nbsp;– history of PHP presentation by Rasmus Lerdorf given at the MySQL Conference in Santa Clara, California | date=26 April 2017| publisher=The Conversations Network | url=http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3298.html | archive-date=29 July 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729204354/http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3298.html | url-status=dead | access-date=22 June 2009 }}</ref>
| designer = [[Rasmus Lerdorf]]
| developer = {{URL|https://php.net/credits/|The PHP Development Team}}, [[Zend Technologies]], {{URL|https://thephp.foundation/|PHP Foundation}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|edit|reference|P548=Q2804309|P348}}
| latest release date    = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|single|P548=Q2804309|P348|P577}}}}
| typing = [[Dynamic typing|Dynamic]], [[strong and weak typing|weak]], [[gradual typing|gradual]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://secure.php.net/manual/en/functions.arguments.php#functions.arguments.type-declaration.strict|title=PHP: Function arguments – Manual|website=}}</ref>
| implementations = [[Zend Engine]], [[HHVM]], [[PeachPie]], [[Quercus (software)|Quercus]], [[Parrot virtual machine|Parrot]]
| dialects = 
| influenced by = [[Perl]], [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]],<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php | title = PHP: Preface – Manual}}</ref> [[Tcl]],<ref name="Lerdorf-2007" /> [[JavaScript]]<ref name="Stogov-2015">{{Cite tweet |user=dstogov |number=672864802474229760 |last=Stogov |first=Dmitry |date = 4 December 2015 |title=It's not a secret that some #PHP7 optimization ideas came from HHVM, LuaJIT and V8. Thank you @HipHopVM @SaraMG. #php7thankyou}}</ref>
| influenced = [[Hack (programming language)|Hack]], [[Jakarta Server Pages|JSP]], [[Active Server Pages|ASP]], [[React (JavaScript library)|React JS]]
| programming language = [[C (programming language)|C]] (primarily; some components in [[C++]])
| operating system = [[Unix-like]], [[Windows]], [[macOS]], [[IBM i]], [[OpenVMS]], [[IBM Z]]
| license = [[PHP License]]{{efn|most of Zend engine under [[Zend Engine License]]) for PHP&nbsp;4 and later versions (only; dual-licensed [[GNU General Public License]] version 2 or any later version and PHP License for PHP versions 3.0 or earlier.<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP: Release Archives (museum) |url=https://museum.php.net/php3/ |website=}}</ref>}}
| website = {{URL|https://www.php.net/|php.net}}
| wikibooks = PHP Programming
}}

'''PHP''' is a [[general-purpose programming language|general-purpose]] [[scripting language]] geared towards [[web development]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.php.net/|title=PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor|website=|access-date=12 February 2020}}</ref> It was  created by [[Danish Canadians|Danish-Canadian]] [[programmer]] [[Rasmus Lerdorf]] in 1993 and released in 1995.<ref name="Krill-2013">{{Cite web |last=Krill |first=Paul |date=18 November 2013 |title=Believe the hype: PHP founder backs Facebook's HipHop technology |url=https://www.infoworld.com/article/2609877/believe-the-hype--php-founder-backs-facebook-s-hiphop-technology.html |access-date=13 October 2022 |website=InfoWorld |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Announce: Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools) |url=https://groups.google.com/g/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi/c/PyJ25gZ6z7A/m/M9FkTUVDfcwJ?pli=1 |access-date=3 November 2022 |website=}}</ref> The PHP [[reference implementation]] is now produced by the PHP Group.<ref name="The PHP Group">{{cite web|access-date=25 February 2008|url=https://www.php.net/history|title=History of PHP and related projects |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref> PHP was originally an abbreviation of '''''Personal Home Page''''',<ref name="php.net-3">{{cite web |title=History of PHP |url=https://php.net/manual/en/history.php.php |website=php.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Olsson |first=Mikael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ahBAAAAQBAJ |title=PHP Quick Scripting Reference |date=4 September 2013 |publisher=Apress |isbn=978-1-4302-6284-8 |language=en}}</ref> but it now stands for the [[recursive acronym|recursive]] [[backronym]] '''''PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor'''''.<ref>[https://php.net/manual/en/preface.php PHP Manual: Preface], PHP.</ref>

PHP code is usually processed on a [[web server]] by a PHP [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] implemented as a [[plug-in (computing)|module]], a [[daemon (computing)|daemon]] or a [[Common Gateway Interface]] (CGI) executable. On a web server, the result of the interpreted and executed PHP code{{em dash}}which may be any type of data, such as generated [[HTML]] or [[binary number|binary]] image data{{em dash}}can form the whole or part of an [[HTTP]] response. Various [[web template system]]s, web [[content management system]]s, and [[web framework]]s exist that can be employed to orchestrate or facilitate the generation of that response. Additionally, PHP can be used for programming tasks outside the web context, though non-web uses are rare. PHP code can also be directly executed from the [[command-line interface|command line]].

The standard PHP interpreter, powered by the [[Zend Engine]], is [[free software]] released under the [[PHP License]]. PHP has been widely ported and can be deployed on most web servers on a variety of [[operating system]]s and platforms.<ref name="O'Reilly-2001" />

== History ==
The PHP language at first evolved without a written [[formal specification]] or standard<!-- until 2014 -->, with the original [[implementation]] acting as the ''[[de facto]]'' standard that other implementations aimed to follow.<!-- PHP standard spec dropped at GitHub, besides would have been on old EOLed version of PHP: Since 2014, work has gone on to create a formal PHP specification.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Jackson|first1=Joab|title=PHP gets a formal specification, at last|url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2490649/php-gets-a-formal-specification--at-last.html|website=Computerworld|publisher=[[International Data Group|IDG]]|date=31 July 2014}}</ref> -->{{multiple image
| align = right
| width = 105
| image1 = Rasmus Lerdorf cropped.jpg
| image2 = Andi Gutmans 1.jpg
| image3 = Zeev Suraski 2005 cropped.jpg
| footer = [[Rasmus Lerdorf]], creator of PHP; and [[Andi Gutmans]] and [[Zeev Suraski]], creators of the [[Zend Engine]]
}}

=== Early history (1993 to 1997) ===
PHP development began in 1993<ref name="Krill-2013" /> when [[Rasmus Lerdorf]] wrote several [[Common Gateway Interface]] (CGI) programs in [[C-programming|C]],<ref name="Lerdorf-2012">{{cite web | url = https://twitter.com/rasmus/status/226405807305138176 | title = I wonder why people keep writing that PHP was ever written in Perl. It never was. #php | last = Lerdorf | first = Rasmus | publisher = Twitter | date = 2012-07-20 | access-date = 2014-09-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3298.html | title = PHP on Hormones | format = mp3 | last = Lerdorf | first = Rasmus | publisher = The Conversations Network | date = 2007-04-26 | access-date = 2009-06-22 | archive-date = 2019-01-06 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190106230504/http://web.archive.org/web/20130729204354id_/http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3298.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> which he used to maintain his [[personal homepage]]. He extended them to work with [[HTML form]]s and to communicate with [[database]]s, and called this implementation "Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter" or PHP/FI.

An example of the early PHP [[Syntax (programming languages)|syntax]]:<ref>{{cite web|last=Lerdorf|first=Rasmus|year=2007|title=Slide 3|url=http://talks.php.net/show/mysql07key/3|access-date=2009-06-22|work=slides for 'PHP on Hormones' talk|publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref>

<syntaxhighlight lang="html">
<!--include /text/header.html-->

<!--getenv HTTP_USER_AGENT-->
<!--if substr $exec_result Mozilla-->
  Hey, you are using Netscape!<p>
<!--endif-->

<!--sql database select * from table where user='$username'-->
<!--ifless $numentries 1-->
  Sorry, that record does not exist<p>
<!--endif exit-->
  Welcome <!--$user-->!<p>
  You have <!--$index:0--> credits left in your account.<p>

<!--include /text/footer.html-->
</syntaxhighlight>

PHP/FI could be used to build simple, [[dynamic web application]]s. To accelerate [[software bug|bug]] reporting and improve the code, Lerdorf initially announced the release of PHP/FI as "Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools) version 1.0" on the [[Usenet]] discussion group ''comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi'' on 8 June 1995.<ref name="Lerdorf-1995">{{cite web|url= https://groups.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi/msg/cc7d43454d64d133?pli=1 |title=Announce: Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools)|last=Lerdorf|first=Rasmus|date=June 8, 1995|access-date=7 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite newsgroup | title = Announce: Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools) | author = Lerdorf, Rasmus | date = 1995-06-08 | newsgroup = comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi | url = https://groups.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi/msg/cc7d43454d64d133 | access-date = 2006-09-17}}</ref> This release included basic functionality such as [[Local variable#Local variables in Perl|Perl-like variables]], form handling, and the ability to embed [[HTML]]. By this point, the [[syntax]] had changed to resemble that of [[Perl]], but was simpler, more limited, and less consistent.<ref name="php.net-3" /><ref name="The PHP Group" />

Early PHP was never intended to be a new [[Programming language theory|programming language]]; rather, it grew organically, with Lerdorf noting in retrospect: "I don't know how to stop it [...] there was never any intent to write a programming language [...] I have absolutely no idea how to write a programming language [...] I just kept adding the next logical step on the way."<ref name="Rasmus Lerdorf-2003">{{cite web|title = Rasmus Lerdorf, Senior Technical Yahoo: PHP, Behind the Mic|date = 2003-11-19|url =http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail58.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130728125152/http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail58.html|archive-date = 2013-07-28}}</ref> A development team began to form and, after months of work and [[Beta development stage|beta]] testing, officially released PHP/FI 2 in November 1997.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Alshetwi |first1=A.B. |last2=Rahmat |first2=R. A. A. O. |last3=Borhan |first3=M. N. |last4=Ismael |first4=S. |last5=Ali |first5=A. |last6=Irtema |first6=H. I. M. |last7=Alfakhria |first7=A. Y. |date=2018 |title=Web-Based Expert System for Optimizing of Traffic Road in Developing Countries |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326727672 |access-date=13 Feb 2024}}</ref>

The fact that PHP was not originally designed, but instead was developed organically has led to inconsistent naming of functions and inconsistent ordering of their parameters.<ref>{{cite web|title=Problems with PHP|url=http://toykeeper.net/soapbox/php_problems/|access-date=20 December 2010}}</ref> In some cases, the function names were chosen to match the lower-level libraries which PHP was "wrapping",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.php.net/php.internals/70950 |title=php.internals: Re: Function name consistency |website=news.php.net |date=2013-12-28 |access-date=2014-02-09}}</ref> while in some very early versions of PHP the length of the function names was used internally as a [[hash function]], so names were chosen to improve the distribution of [[hash values]].<ref name="Rasmus Lerdorf-2013">{{cite newsgroup |title=Re: Flexible function naming |author=[[Rasmus Lerdorf]] |date=Dec 16, 2013 |newsgroup=php.internals |url=http://news.php.net/php.internals/70691 |access-date=December 26, 2013}}</ref>

=== PHP 3 and 4 (1998 to 2004) ===
[[File:Custom-software-developement-php-net.JPG|thumb|This is an example of PHP code for the [[WordPress]] [[content management system]].]]
[[Zeev Suraski]] and [[Andi Gutmans]] rewrote the [[parser]] in 1997 and formed the base of PHP&nbsp;3, changing the language's name to the [[recursive acronym]] ''PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor''.<ref name="The PHP Group" /><ref>{{cite web|title=PHP{{snd}} Acronym Meaning Vote |url=http://il.php.net/vote_listing.php3 |website=PHP.net |archive-date=August 15, 2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000815063125/http://il.php.net/vote_listing.php3}}</ref> Afterwards, public testing of PHP&nbsp;3 began, and the official launch came in June 1998. Suraski and Gutmans then started a new [[rewrite (programming)|rewrite]] of PHP's core, producing the [[Zend Engine]] in 1999.<ref>{{cite web | title = Zend Engine version 2.0: Feature Overview and Design | publisher = [[Zend]] Technologies Ltd. | url = http://www.zend.com/zend/zend-engine-summary.php | access-date = 2006-09-17 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060719204721/http://www.zend.com/zend/zend-engine-summary.php | archive-date = 2006-07-19 | url-status = dead}}</ref> They also founded [[Zend Technologies]] in [[Ramat Gan]], [[Israel]].<ref name="The PHP Group" />

On 22 May 2000, PHP 4.0, powered by the Zend Engine 1.0, was released.<ref name="The PHP Group" /> By August 2008, this branch had reached version 4.4.9. PHP&nbsp;4 is now no longer under development and nor are any security updates planned to be released.<ref name="The PHP Group-2007a">{{cite web|title=php.net 2007 news archive|url=https://www.php.net/archive/2007.php|publisher=The PHP Group|access-date=2008-02-22|date=2007-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |access-date=2018-12-16 |url=https://www.internetnews.com/developer/php-4-is-dead%ef%bf%bdlong-live-php-5/|title=PHP&nbsp;4 is Dead—Long Live PHP&nbsp;5 |publisher=InternetNews |date=2008-02-01 |last=Kerner |first=Sean Michael |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806115411/http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3725291 |archive-date=2018-08-06}}</ref>

=== Early PHP 5 (2004 to 2006) ===
On 1 July 2004, PHP 5.0 was released, powered by the new Zend Engine 2.0.<ref name="The PHP Group" /> PHP&nbsp;5.0 included significant changes to the language, most notably an overhauled approach to [[object-oriented programming]], as well as [[iterator]]s and [[exception (programming)|exceptions]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Why PHP&nbsp;5 Rocks!|url=http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2004/07/15/UpgradePHP5.html|publisher=O'Reilly|access-date=2008-02-22|date=2004-07-15|author=Trachtenberg, Adam|archive-date=2016-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331232050/http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2004/07/15/UpgradePHP5.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

PHP 5.1 and PHP 5.2 were released the following years, adding smaller improvements and new features, such as the PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension (which defines a lightweight and consistent interface for accessing databases) In 2008, PHP&nbsp;5.x became the only stable version under development.

Many high-profile open-source projects ceased to support PHP&nbsp;4 in new code from February 5, 2008, because of the GoPHP5 initiative,<ref name="GoPHP5">{{cite web | url=http://www.gophp5.org/projects|title=GoPHP5 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717133313/http://gophp5.org/projects | archive-date=2011-07-17}}</ref> provided by a consortium of PHP developers promoting the transition from PHP&nbsp;4 to PHP&nbsp;5.<ref name="GoPHP5 Press Release">{{cite web |url=http://gophp5.org/sites/gophp5.org/files/press_release.pdf |title=PHP projects join forces to Go PHP&nbsp;5 |access-date=2008-02-23 |work=GoPHP5 Press Release | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804012720/http://gophp5.org/sites/gophp5.org/files/press_release.pdf | archive-date=2019-08-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://gophp5.org/|title=GoPHP5|publisher=GoPHP5|access-date=2008-02-22 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427101913/http://www.gophp5.org/ | archive-date=2011-04-27}}</ref>

=== <span id="PHP6-UNICODE">PHP 6 and Unicode</span> ===
PHP's native string functions worked only on raw bytes, making use with [[multibyte character encoding]]s difficult.<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php
| title = Types: Strings (PHP Manual)
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = PHP.net
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.details
| title = Details of the String Type (PHP Manual)
| access-date = 2021-09-22
| website = PHP.net
}}</ref> In 2005, a project headed by Andrei Zmievski was initiated to bring native [[Unicode]] support throughout PHP, by embedding the [[International Components for Unicode]] (ICU) library, and representing text strings as [[UTF-16]] internally.<ref>{{cite mailing list|url=http://marc.info/?l=php-internals&m=112365908921757&w=1|title=PHP Unicode support design document|date=2005-08-10|access-date=2014-02-09|author=Andrei Zmievski}}</ref> Since this would cause major changes both to the internals of the language and to user code, it was planned to release this as version 6.0 of the language, along with other major features then in development.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.php.net/php.internals/17668|title=PHP&nbsp;5.5 or 6.0|access-date=2014-02-09}}</ref>

However, a shortage of developers who understood the necessary changes, and performance problems arising from conversion to and from UTF-16, which is rarely used in a web context, led to delays in the project.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: What Happened to Unicode and PHP&nbsp;6|url=http://www.slideshare.net/andreizm/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-what-happened-to-unicode-and-php-6|access-date=2014-02-09|author=Andrei Zmievski|date=2011-04-22}}</ref> As a result, a PHP&nbsp;5.3 release was created in 2009, and in March 2010, the project in its current form was officially abandoned, and a PHP&nbsp;5.4 release was prepared to contain most remaining non-Unicode features from PHP&nbsp;6.<ref>{{cite mailing list|url=http://news.php.net/php.internals/47120|title=PHP&nbsp;6|access-date=2014-02-07|date=2010-03-11|author=Rasmus Lerdorf}}</ref> Initial hopes were that a new plan would be formed for Unicode integration, but by 2014 none had been adopted.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Later PHP 5 (2009 to 2014) ===
Because it contained features originally intended to be part of 6.0, PHP 5.3 was a significant release, adding support for [[namespaces]], [[Closure (computer programming)|closures]], [[late static binding]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalsandwich.com/archives/53-Late-Static-Binding-in-PHP.html|access-date=2008-03-25|title=Late Static Binding in PHP|date=2006-02-23|publisher=Digital Sandwich}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-25|url=https://www.php.net/language.oop5.static|title=Static Keyword|publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref> and many fixes and improvements to standard functions.

With the Unicode branch officially abandoned, a new release process was adopted in 2011, planning a yearly release cycle, and a clear distinction between "feature releases" (x.y.z to x.y+1.z) and "major releases" (x.y.z to x+1.0.0).<ref name="PHP-2011" /> Remaining features which had been planned for the 6.0 release were included in PHP 5.4, released in March 2012, such as [[trait (computer programming)|trait]] support and a new "short array syntax". This was followed by more incremental changes in PHP 5.5 (June 2013) and 5.6 (August 2014).

For PHP versions 5.3 and 5.4, the only available [[Microsoft Windows]] binary distributions were 32-bit [[IA-32]] builds,<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://windows.php.net/download/#php-5.3
| title = PHP for Windows: Binaries and sources releases (5.3)
| access-date = 2013-10-29
| website = php.net
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = https://windows.php.net/download/#php-5.4
| title = PHP for Windows: Binaries and sources releases (5.4)
| access-date = 2013-10-29
| website = php.net
}}</ref> requiring Windows 32-bit compatibility mode while using [[Internet Information Services]] (IIS) on a 64-bit Windows platform. PHP version 5.5 made the 64-bit [[x86-64]] builds available for Microsoft Windows.<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://windows.php.net/download/#php-5.5
| title = PHP for Windows: Binaries and sources releases (5.5)
| access-date = 2013-10-29
| website = php.net
}}</ref>

Official security support for PHP 5.6 ended on 31 December 2018.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://php.net/supported-versions.php |title = PHP: Supported Versions}}</ref>

=== PHP 7.x (2015 to 2019) ===
During 2014 and 2015, a new major PHP version was developed, PHP&nbsp;7.0. The numbering of this version involved some debate among internal developers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://philsturgeon.uk/php/2014/07/23/neverending-muppet-debate-of-php-6-v-php-7/|title=The Neverending Muppet Debate of PHP&nbsp;6 v PHP&nbsp;7|access-date=2015-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119132438/https://philsturgeon.uk/php/2014/07/23/neverending-muppet-debate-of-php-6-v-php-7/|archive-date=2015-11-19|url-status=dead}}</ref> While the PHP&nbsp;6 Unicode experiments had never been released, several articles and book titles referenced the PHP&nbsp;6 names, which might have caused confusion if a new release were to reuse the name.<ref>{{cite web |title=RFC: Name of Next Release of PHP |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/php6 |date=2014-07-07 |access-date=2014-07-15 |website=php.net}}</ref> After a vote, the name PHP&nbsp;7 was chosen.<ref>{{cite web|title=Re: [PHP-DEV] [VOTE] [RFC] Name of Next Release of PHP (again) |url=https://www.mail-archive.com/internals@lists.php.net/msg68598.html |date=2014-07-30 |access-date=2014-07-30}}</ref>

The foundation of PHP&nbsp;7.0 was a PHP [[branching (version control)|branch]] that was originally dubbed ''PHP next generation'' (''phpng''). It was written by Dmitry Stogov, Xinchen Hui and Nikita Popov,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.php.net/php.internals/73888|title=phpng: Refactored PHP Engine with Big Performance Improvement|website=news.php.net}}</ref> and aimed to optimize PHP performance by refactoring the Zend Engine while retaining near-complete language compatibility.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/phpng |title=PHP: rfc:phpng |access-date=16 December 2014 |website=php.net}}</ref> By 14 July 2014, [[WordPress]]-based benchmarks, which served as the main benchmark suite for the phpng project, showed an almost 100% increase in performance. Changes from phpng make it easier to improve performance in future versions, as more compact data structures and other changes are seen as better suited for a successful migration to a [[Just-in-time compilation|just-in-time]] (JIT) compiler.<ref name="php.net-7">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/phpng |title=PHP: phpng |website=php.net |access-date=2014-07-15}}</ref> Because of the significant changes, the reworked Zend Engine was called ''Zend Engine 3'', succeeding Zend Engine 2 used in PHP&nbsp;5.x.<ref name="github.com-2014">{{cite web |url=https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/150dc69d6eee35738f505e925ee664c02060196d |website=github.com |date=2014-12-05 |access-date=2014-12-05 |title=Merge branch 'ZendEngine3'}}</ref>

PHP 7.0 also included changes which were not backwards compatible, as allowed for "major versions" under the [[software versioning|versioning scheme]] agreed in 2011.<ref name="PHP-2011" /> Changes to the core language included a more consistent handling of variable dereferencing,<ref name="php.net-2014b">{{cite web |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/uniform_variable_syntax |title=PHP RFC: Uniform Variable Syntax |date=2014-05-31 |access-date=2014-07-30 |website=php.net}}</ref> a more predictable behavior of the [[foreach loop|<code>foreach</code> statement]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/php7_foreach|title=PHP RFC: Fix "foreach" behavior|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref> and platform consistency of [[Bitwise operation#Bit shifts|bitwise shifts]]<ref name="php.net-5" /> and floating-point to integer conversion.<ref name="php.net-5">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/integer_semantics|title=PHP RFC: Integer Semantics|access-date=2015-05-21|quote=Making NaN and Infinity always become zero when cast to integer means more cross-platform consistency, and is also less surprising than what is currently produces|website=php.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/zpp_fail_on_overflow|title=PHP RFC: ZPP Failure on Overflow|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref> Several unmaintained or deprecated [[server application programming interface]]s (SAPIs) and extensions were removed from the PHP core, most notably the legacy <code>mysql</code> extension.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/removal_of_dead_sapis_and_exts|title=PHP RFC: Removal of dead or not yet PHP7 ported SAPIs and extensions|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref> Other legacy features were also removed, such as ASP-style delimiters <code>&lt;%</code> and <code>%&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;script language="php"&gt; ... &lt;/script&gt;</code>.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/remove_alternative_php_tags|title=PHP RFC: Remove alternative PHP tags|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref>

PHP 7.0 marked the beginning of an expansion in PHP's type system. In PHP 5.x, only function parameters could have type declarations, but this was extended to function return types in 7.0.,<ref name="php.net-2015a">{{cite web |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/return_types |title=RFC: Return Types |date=2015-01-27 |access-date=2015-01-28 |website=php.net}}</ref> and object properties in 7.4<ref name="PHP: rfc:typed_properties_v2">{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/typed_properties_v2|title=PHP: rfc:typed_properties_v2|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-04}}</ref> The types expressible also expanded, with [[Variable (computer science)|scalar]] types (integer, float, string, and boolean) in 7.0;<ref name="php.net-2015b">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/scalar_type_hints_v5|title=RFC: Scalar Type Declarations |date=2015-03-16 |access-date=2015-03-17 |website=php.net}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|iterable}} type,<ref name="PHP: rfc:iterable">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/iterable|title=PHP: rfc:iterable|website=php.net|date=2016-06-10|access-date=2023-06-30}}</ref> nullable types,<ref name="PHP: rfc:nullable_types">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/nullable_types|title=PHP: rfc:nullable_types|website=php.net|date=2014-04-10|access-date=2023-06-30}}</ref> and [[Void type|{{code|lang=php|void}} return type]].<ref name="PHP: rfc:void_return_type">{{cite web|url=http://wiki.php.net/rfc/void_return_type|title=PHP: rfc:void_return_type|website=php.net|date=2015-11-09|access-date=2015-11-14}}</ref> all in 7.1; and the {{code|lang=php|object}} type in 7.2<ref name="PHP: rfc:object-typehint">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/object-typehint|title=PHP: rfc:object-typehint|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>

Other changes in this period aimed to add expressiveness to the language, such as the {{code|lang=php|code=??}} ([[null coalescing operator|null coalesce]])<ref name="PHP: rfc:isset_ternary">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/isset_ternary|title=PHP: rfc:isset_ternary|website=php.net|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref>
and {{code|lang=php|code=<=>}} "spaceship" [[three-way comparison]]<ref name="Combined Comparison Spaceship Ope">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/combined-comparison-operator|title=Combined Comparison (Spaceship) Operator|website=php.net|access-date=2015-05-21}}</ref> operators in 7.0; new syntax for array derefencing<ref name="PHP: rfc:short_list_syntax">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/short_list_syntax|title=PHP: rfc:short_list_syntax|website=php.net|date=2016-04-07|access-date=2023-06-30}}</ref> and catching multiple exception types<ref name="PHP: rfc:multiple-catch">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/multiple-catch|title=PHP: rfc:multiple-catch|website=php.net|date=2016-03-06|access-date=2023-06-30}}</ref> in PHP 7.1; more flexible [[Here document#PHP|Heredoc]] and Nowdoc syntax<ref name="PHP: rfc:flexible_heredoc_nowdoc_sy">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/flexible_heredoc_nowdoc_syntaxes|title=PHP: rfc:flexible_heredoc_nowdoc_syntaxes|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> in 7.3; and the null-coalescing assignment operator<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/null_coalesce_equal_operator|title=PHP: rfc:null_coalesce_equal_operator|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-04}}</ref> in 7.4.

=== PHP 8.x (2020 onwards) ===
PHP&nbsp;8.0 was released on 26 November 2020, as a major version with [[breaking changes]] from previous versions.<ref name="Brent">{{cite web |author=Brent |title=What's new in PHP 8 |url=https://stitcher.io/blog/new-in-php-8 |access-date=22 September 2020 |website=Stitcher}}</ref><ref name="PHP">{{cite web |title=PHP 8 Released |url=https://www.php.net/releases/8.0/en.php |access-date=27 November 2020 |website=PHP}}</ref>

One of the most high-profile changes was the addition of a [[just-in-time compilation|JIT compiler]], which can provide substantial performance improvements for some use cases.<ref name="Brent-2">{{cite web |author=Brent |title=PHP 8: JIT performance in real-life web applications |url=https://stitcher.io/blog/jit-in-real-life-web-applications |access-date=4 October 2020 |website=Stitcher.io}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Rethams |first1=Derick |title=PHP 8: A Quick Look at JIT |url=https://derickrethans.nl/a-quick-look-at-jit.html}}</ref> Substantial improvements were expected more for mathematical-type operations than for common web-development use cases.<ref name="Popov-2020">{{cite web |last1=Popov |first1=Nikita |date=13 July 2020 |title="What's new in PHP 8.0?" Nikita Popov |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbBRXwu1Md8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/NbBRXwu1Md8 |archive-date=2021-12-11 |access-date=4 October 2020 |publisher=PHP fwdays}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Additionally, the performance advantage of the JIT compiler provides the potential to move some code from C to PHP.<ref name="Daniele-2020">{{cite web |last1=Daniele |first1=Carlo |date=25 May 2020 |title=What's New in PHP 8 (Features, Improvements, and the JIT Compiler) |url=https://kinsta.com/blog/php-8/ |access-date=24 December 2020 |website=Kinsta}}</ref>

A significant addition to the language in 8.0 is [[Attribute (programming)|attributes]], which allow metadata to be added to program elements such as classes, methods, and parameters.<ref name="Brent" /> Later versions added built-in attributes which change the behaviour of the language, such as the {{Code|#[\SensitiveParameter]|php}} attribute in PHP 8.2,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Karunaratne |first=Ayesh |title=PHP 8.2: Sensitive Parameter value redaction support |url=https://php.watch/versions/8.2/backtrace-parameter-redaction |access-date=2025-10-12 |website=PHP.Watch |language=en}}</ref>  {{code|lang=php|code=#[\Override]}} in PHP 8.3,<ref name=":0" /> {{Code|#[\Deprecated]|php}} in PHP 8.4,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:deprecated_attribute |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecated_attribute |access-date=2025-10-12 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> and the {{Code|#[\NoDiscard]|php}} and {{Code|#[\DelayedTargetValidation]|php}} attributes in PHP 8.5.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:marking_return_value_as_important |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/marking_return_value_as_important |access-date=2025-10-12 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:delayedtargetvalidation_attribute |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/delayedtargetvalidation_attribute |access-date=2025-11-14 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Scherzer |first=Daniel |date=2025-08-20 |title=Blog: #[\DelayedTargetValidation] Attribute Explained |url=https://scherzer.dev/Blog/20250820-delayed-target-validation |access-date=2025-11-14 |website=scherzer.dev |language=en}}</ref>

A significant extension to the language's type system is the addition of composite types: union types in PHP 8.0 (e.g. {{Code|int{{!}}string|php}} meaning "either integer or string),<ref name=":1" /> intersection types in PHP 8.1 (e.g. {{Code|Traversable&Countable|php}} meaning the value must implement both the <code>Traversable</code> and <code>Countable</code> interfaces),<ref name=":2" /> and [[disjunctive normal form]] (DNF) types in PHP 8.2 (unions of intersections, such as {{Code|array{{!}}(Traversable&Countable)|php}}).<ref name=":3" /> Additional special type keywords have been added, such as {{code|mixed}} and  {{code|static}} in PHP 8.0,<ref name="Brent" /> {{code|lang=php|never}} (a [[bottom type]] indicating that a function never returns) in PHP 8.1,<ref name=":4" /> and {{code|lang=php|code=null}}, {{code|lang=php|code=false}}, and {{code|lang=php|code=true}} as stand-alone types in PHP 8.2.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />

The addition of a rich type system is part of a general trend towards a stricter language, and PHP 8.0 included breaking changes to the handling of string to number comparisons,<ref name=":7" /> numeric strings,<ref name=":8" /> and incompatible method signatures.<ref name=":9" /> Later versions have introduced deprecation notices for behaviour which is planned as a breaking change in a future major version, such as passing <code>null</code> to non-nullable internal function parameters<ref>{{Cite web |last=Karunaratne |first=Ayesh |title=PHP 8.1: Passing 'null' to non-nullable internal function parameters is deprecated |url=https://php.watch/versions/8.1/internal-func-non-nullable-null-deprecation |access-date=2025-10-12 |website=PHP.Watch |language=en}}</ref> and referring to properties which have not been declared on the class.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Karunaratne |first=Ayesh |title=PHP 8.2: Dynamic Properties are deprecated |url=https://php.watch/versions/8.2/dynamic-properties-deprecated |access-date=2025-10-12 |website=PHP.Watch |language=en}}</ref>

=== Release history ===
<!-- Template:Version – for version & release history. Documentation and examples: [[Template:Version]] -->
{{sticky header}}
{{mw-datatable}}
{| class="wikitable mw-datatable mw-collapsible sticky-header"
|-
! Version
! style="min-width: 11em;" | Release date
! style="min-width: 11em;" | Supported until<ref name="php.net-2">{{cite web|url=https://php.net/eol.php |title=Unsupported Branches |website=php.net |access-date=2019-07-31}}</ref>
! Notes
|-
| {{Version |o | 1.0}}
| 8 June 1995
|
| Officially called "Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools)". This is the first use of the name "PHP".<ref name="The PHP Group" />
|-
| {{Version |o | 2.0}}
| 1 November 1997
|
| Officially called "PHP/FI 2.0". The first release that could be characterised as PHP, being a standalone language with many features that have endured to the present day.
|-
| {{Version |o | 3.0}}
| 6 June 1998
| 20 October 2000<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Development moves from one person to multiple developers. Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans rewrote the base for this version.<ref name="The PHP Group" />
|-
| {{Version |o | 4.0}}
| 22 May 2000<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 4.0.0 Released |url=https://news-web.php.net/php.announce/22 |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 23 June 2001<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Added a more advanced two-stage parse/execute tag-parsing system called the [[Zend Engine]].<ref name="The PHP Group-2008">{{cite web|title=PHP: PHP&nbsp;4 ChangeLog|url=https://www.php.net/ChangeLog-4.php|publisher=The PHP Group|access-date=2008-02-22|date=2008-01-03}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 4.1}}
| 10 December 2001<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 4.1.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/4_1_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 12 March 2002<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Introduced "superglobals" ({{code|lang=php|$_GET}}, {{code|lang=php|code=$_POST}}, {{code|lang=php|code=$_SESSION}}, etc.)<ref name="The PHP Group-2008" />
|-
| {{Version |o | 4.2}}
| 22 April 2002<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 4.2.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/4_2_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 6 September 2002<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Disabled <code>register_globals</code> by default. Data received over the network is not inserted directly into the [[global variable|global]] namespace anymore, closing possible security holes in applications.<ref name="The PHP Group-2008" />
|-
| {{Version |o | 4.3}}
| 27 December 2002<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 4.3.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/4_3_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 31 March 2005<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Introduced the [[command-line interface]] (CLI), to supplement the CGI.<ref name="The PHP Group-2008" /><ref name="PHP Manual-2">{{cite web|title= Using PHP from the command line | work = PHP Manual|url=https://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.php|publisher=The PHP Group|access-date=2009-09-11}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 4.4}}
| 11 July 2005<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 4.4.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/4_4_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 7 August 2008<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Fixed a memory corruption bug, which required breaking binary compatibility with extensions compiled against PHP version 4.3.x.<ref>{{cite web|title=PHP&nbsp;4.4.0 Release Announcement|work=PHP Manual|url=https://php.net/releases/4_4_0.php|publisher=The PHP Group|access-date=2013-11-24}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 5.0}}
| 13 July 2004<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 5.0.0 Released! |url=https://news-web.php.net/php.announce/50 |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 5 September 2005<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Zend Engine II with a new object model.<ref name="The PHP Group-2007">{{cite web|title=PHP: PHP&nbsp;5 ChangeLog|url=https://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php|publisher=The PHP Group|access-date=2008-02-22|date=2007-11-08}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 5.1}}
| 24 November 2005<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 5.1.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/5_1_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 24 August 2006<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Performance improvements with the introduction of compiler variables in a re-engineered PHP Engine.<ref name="The PHP Group-2007" /> Added PHP Data Objects (PDO) as a consistent interface for accessing databases.<ref name="The PHP Group-2011">{{cite web|title=PHP manual: PDO|url=https://php.net/manual/en/intro.pdo.php|publisher=The PHP Group|access-date=2011-11-15|date=2011-11-15}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 5.2}}
| 2 November 2006<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 5.2.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/5_2_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 6 January 2011<ref name="php.net-2" />
| Enabled the filter extension by default. Native [[JSON]] support.<ref name="The PHP Group-2007" />
|-
| {{Version |o | 5.3}}
| 30 June 2009<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 5.3.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/5_3_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 14 August 2014<ref name="php.net-2" />
| [[Namespace]] support; [[name binding|late static bindings]], jump label (limited [[goto]]), [[anonymous function]]s, [[closure (computer programming)|closures]], PHP archives (phar), [[garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collection]] for circular references, improved [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] support, sqlite3, mysqlnd as a replacement for libmysql as the underlying library for the extensions that work with [[MySQL]], fileinfo as a replacement for mime_magic for better [[MIME]] support, the Internationalization extension, and deprecation of the ereg extension.
|-
| {{Version |o | 5.4}}
| 1 March 2012<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 5.4.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/5_4_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 3 September 2015<ref name="php.net-2" />
| [[trait (computer programming)|Trait]] support, short array syntax support. Removed items: <code>register_globals</code>, <code>safe_mode</code>, <code>allow_call_time_pass_reference</code>, {{code|lang=php|code=session_register()}}, {{code|lang=php|code=session_unregister()}} and {{code|lang=php|code=session_is_registered()}}. Built-in web server.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.webserver.php |title=Built-in web server |access-date=March 26, 2012}}</ref> Improvements to features and performance, reduced memory requirements.
|-
| {{Version |o | 5.5}}
| 20 June 2013<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 5.5.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/5_5_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 10 July 2016<ref name="php.net-8">{{cite web|url=https://php.net/supported-versions.php |title=Supported Versions |website=php.net |access-date=2017-12-13}}</ref>
| Support for [[generator (computer programming)|generators]], <code>finally</code> blocks for exceptions handling, OpCache (based on Zend Optimizer+) bundled in official distribution.<ref name="php.net-9">{{cite web|title=PHP&nbsp;5.5.0 changes|url=https://php.net/manual/en/migration55.new-features.php|access-date=2015-03-03|website=php.net|archive-date=2015-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150301130740/http://php.net/manual/en/migration55.new-features.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 5.6}}
| 28 August 2014<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP 5.6.0 Release Announcement |url=https://www.php.net/releases/5_6_0.php |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
| 31 December 2018<ref name="php.net-8" />
| Constant scalar expressions, [[variadic function]]s, argument unpacking, new exponentiation operator, extensions of the <code>use</code> statement for functions and constants, new <code>phpdbg</code> debugger as a SAPI module, and other smaller improvements.<ref name="php.net-10">{{cite web |title=Migrating from PHP&nbsp;5.5.x to PHP&nbsp;5.6.x |url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration56.new-features.php |access-date=2014-03-24 |website=php.net}}</ref>
|-
| style="background:silver;"| 6.x
| {{n/a|Not released}}
| {{n/a}}
| Abandoned version of PHP that planned to include native Unicode support.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Corbet |first1=Jonathan |url=https://lwn.net/Articles/379909/|title=Resetting PHP&nbsp;6|date=24 March 2010 |quote=There have been books on the shelves purporting to cover PHP&nbsp;6 since at least 2008. But, in March 2010, the PHP&nbsp;6 release is not out{{snd}} in fact, it is not even close to out. Recent events suggest that PHP&nbsp;6 will not be released before 2011{{snd}} if, indeed, it is released at all.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/2841561/php/php-7-moves-full-speed-ahead.html|title=PHP&nbsp;7 moves full speed ahead|newspaper=InfoWorld |quote=Recent versions of PHP have been part of the 5.x release series, but there will be no PHP&nbsp;6. "We're going to skip [version]&nbsp;6, because years ago, we had plans for a&nbsp;6, but those plans were very different from what we're doing now," Gutmans said. Going right to version&nbsp;7 avoids confusion.|date=2014-10-31 |last1=Krill |first1=Paul }}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 7.0}}
| 3 December 2015<ref name="php.net-2018">{{cite web |url=https://php.net/archive/2018.php#id2018-07-19-2|title=News Archive&nbsp;– 2018: PHP&nbsp;7.2.9 Released |date=2018-08-16 |access-date=2018-08-16 |website=php.net}}</ref>
| 10 January 2019<ref name="PHP-2011" />
| Zend Engine 3 (performance improvements<ref name="php.net-7" /> and 64-bit integer support on Windows<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/size_t_and_int64_next|title=PHP: rfc:size_t_and_int64_next|website=php.net|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref>), uniform variable syntax,<ref name="php.net-2014b" /> [[Abstract Syntax Tree|AST]]-based compilation process,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/abstract_syntax_tree|title=PHP: rfc:abstract_syntax_tree|website=php.net|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> added {{code|lang=php|code=Closure::call()}},<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/closure_apply|title=PHP: rfc:closure_apply|website=php.net|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> bitwise shift consistency across platforms,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/integer_semantics|title=PHP: rfc:integer_semantics|website=php.net|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|code=??}} ([[Null coalescing operator|null coalesce]]) operator,<ref name="PHP: rfc:isset_ternary"/> [[Unicode]] code point [[String literal#Escape sequences|escape syntax]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/unicode_escape|title=RFC: Unicode Codepoint Escape Syntax|date=2014-11-24|access-date=2014-12-19}}</ref> return type declarations,<ref name="php.net-2015a" /> scalar type (integer, float, string and boolean) declarations,<ref name="php.net-2015b" /> <code>&lt;=&gt;</code> "spaceship" [[three-way comparison]] operator,<ref name="Combined Comparison Spaceship Ope"/> [[Generator (computer programming)|generator]] delegation,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/generator-delegation|title=PHP RFC: Generator Delegation|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref> [[anonymous class]]es,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/anonymous_classes|title=PHP RFC: Anonymous Classes|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref> simpler and more consistently available [[CSPRNG]] API,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/easy_userland_csprng|title=PHP RFC: Easy User-land CSPRNG|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref> replacement of many remaining internal PHP "errors" with the more modern [[Exception (computer science)|exceptions]],<ref name="php.net">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/engine_exceptions_for_php7|title=PHP RFC: Exceptions in the engine (for PHP&nbsp;7)|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref> and shorthand syntax for importing multiple items from a namespace.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/group_use_declarations|title=PHP RFC: Group Use Declarations|access-date=2015-05-21|website=php.net}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 7.1}}
| 1 December 2016
| 1 December 2019<ref name="php.net-8" />
| {{code|lang=php|iterable}} type,<ref name="PHP: rfc:iterable"/> nullable types,<ref name="PHP: rfc:nullable_types"/> [[Void type|{{code|lang=php|void}} return type]],<ref name="PHP: rfc:void_return_type"/> class constant [[information hiding|visibility modifiers]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/class_const_visibility|title=PHP: rfc:class_constant_visibility|website=php.net|date=2015-10-27|access-date=2015-12-08}}</ref> short list syntax,<ref name="PHP: rfc:short_list_syntax"/> multi-catch<ref name="PHP: rfc:multiple-catch"/>
|-
| {{Version |o | 7.2}}
| 30 November 2017
| 30 November 2020<ref name="php.net-8" />
| {{code|lang=php|object}} parameter and return type declaration,<ref name="PHP: rfc:object-typehint"/> libsodium extension,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/libsodium|title=PHP: rfc:libsodium|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> abstract method overriding,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/allow-abstract-function-override|title=PHP: rfc:allow-abstract-function-override|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> parameter type widening<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/parameter-no-type-variance|title=PHP: rfc:parameter-no-type-variance|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 7.3}}
| 6 December 2018<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/todo/php73|title=PHP: todo:php73|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>
| 6 December 2021
| Flexible [[Here document#PHP|Heredoc]] and Nowdoc syntax,<ref name="PHP: rfc:flexible_heredoc_nowdoc_sy"/> support for reference assignment and array deconstruction with {{code|lang=php|code=list()}},<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/list_reference_assignment|title=PHP: rfc:list_reference_assignment|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> PCRE2 support,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/pcre2-migration|title=PHP: rfc:pcre2-migration|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|code=hrtime}} function<ref>{{cite web|url=https://php.net/manual/en/function.hrtime.php|title=PHP: hrtime{{snd}} Manual|website=php.net}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 7.4}}
| 28 November 2019<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.php.net/archive/2019.php#2019-11-28-1|title=PHP 7.4.0 Released!|website=php.net|access-date=2019-11-28}}</ref>
| 28 November 2022
| Typed properties,<ref name="PHP: rfc:typed_properties_v2"/> preloading,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/preload|title=PHP: rfc:preload|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-04}}</ref> null-coalescing assignment operator,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> improve {{code|lang=php|code=openssl_random_pseudo_bytes}},<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/improve-openssl-random-pseudo-bytes|title=PHP: rfc:improve-openssl-random-pseudo-bytes|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-04}}</ref> weak references,<ref name="wiki.php.net-3">{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/weakrefs|title=PHP: rfc:weakrefs|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> [[foreign function interface]] (FFI),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/ffi|title=PHP: rfc:ffi|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> always available hash extension,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/permanent_hash_ext|title=PHP: rfc:permanent_hash_ext|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> password hash registry,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/password_registry|title=PHP: rfc:password_registry|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> multibyte string splitting,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/mb_str_split|title=PHP: rfc:mb_str_split|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> reflection for references,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/reference_reflection|title=PHP: rfc:reference_reflection|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> unbundle ext/wddx,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecate-and-remove-ext-wddx|title=PHP: rfc:deprecate-and-remove-ext-wddx|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> new custom object serialization mechanism<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/custom_object_serialization|title=PHP: rfc:custom_object_serialization|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |o | 8.0}}
| 26 November 2020<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php|title=PHP: Supported Versions|website=php.net|access-date=2023-11-26}}</ref>
| 26 November 2023
| [[just-in-time compilation|Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation]],<ref name="wiki.php.net-2">{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/jit|title=PHP: rfc:jit|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> arrays starting with a negative index,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/negative_array_index|title=PHP: rfc:negative_array_index|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> stricter/saner language semantics (validation for abstract trait methods),<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Validation for abstract trait methods |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/abstract_trait_method_validation |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> saner string to number comparisons,<ref name=":7">{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Saner string to number comparisons |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/string_to_number_comparison |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> saner numeric strings,<ref name=":8">{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Saner numeric strings |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/saner-numeric-strings |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|TypeError}} on invalid arithmetic/bitwise operators,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Stricter type checks for arithmetic/bitwise operators |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/arithmetic_operator_type_checks |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> reclassification of various engine errors,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Reclassifying engine warnings |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/engine_warnings |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> consistent type errors for internal functions,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/consistent_type_errors|title=PHP: rfc:consistent_type_errors|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> fatal error for incompatible method signatures,<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/lsp_errors|title=PHP: rfc:lsp_errors|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2019-05-26}}</ref> locale-independent float to string conversion,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Locale-independent float to string cast |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/locale_independent_float_to_string |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> variable syntax tweaks,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Variable Syntax Tweaks |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/variable_syntax_tweaks|website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> attributes,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Attributes V2 |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/attributes_v2 |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=PHP RFC: Attribute Amendments|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/attribute_amendments |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=PHP RFC: Shorter Attribute Syntax|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/shorter_attribute_syntax|access-date=2020-06-20|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Shorter Attribute Syntax Change |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/shorter_attribute_syntax_change |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> named arguments,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Named Arguments |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/named_params |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> match expression,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Match expression v2 |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/match_expression_v2 |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> constructor property promotion,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Constructor Property Promotion |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/constructor_promotion |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> union types,<ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Union Types 2.0 |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/union_types_v2 |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|mixed}} type,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Mixed Type v2 |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/mixed_type_v2 |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> static return type,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Static return type |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/static_return_type |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> nullsafe operator,<ref name="wiki.php.net">{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: Nullsafe operator |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/nullsafe_operator |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> non-capturing catches,<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: non-capturing catches |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/non-capturing_catches |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|throw}} expression,<ref name="wiki.php.net-4">{{cite web |title=PHP RFC: throw expression |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/throw_expression |website=wiki.php.net |access-date=14 August 2020}}</ref> JSON extension is always available.<ref name="Andre">{{cite web |last1=Andre |first1=Tyson |title=PHP RFC: Always available JSON extension |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/always_enable_json |website=PHP |access-date=25 October 2020}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |co | 8.1}}
| 25 November 2021<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: todo:php81 |url=https://wiki.php.net/todo/php81 |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>
| 31 December 2025
| Explicit octal integer literal notation,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/explicit_octal_notation|title=PHP RFC: Explicit octal integer literal notation|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2020-11-25}}</ref> enumerations,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/enumerations|title=PHP RFC: Enumerations|website=wiki.php.net|access-date=2021-03-25}}</ref> read-only properties,<ref>{{Cite web|title=PHP: rfc:readonly_properties_v2|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/readonly_properties_v2|access-date=2021-11-26|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> first-class callable syntax,<ref>{{Cite web|title=PHP: rfc:first_class_callable_syntax|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/first_class_callable_syntax|access-date=2021-11-26|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|new}} in initializers,<ref>{{Cite web|title=PHP: rfc:new_in_initializers|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/new_in_initializers|access-date=2021-11-26|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> pure intersection types,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=PHP: rfc:pure-intersection-types|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/pure-intersection-types|access-date=2021-11-26|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|never}} return type,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=PHP: rfc:noreturn_type|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/noreturn_type|access-date=2021-11-26|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|final}} class constraints,<ref>{{Cite web|title=PHP: rfc:final_class_const|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/final_class_const|access-date=2021-11-26|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> fibers<ref>{{Cite web|title=PHP: rfc:fibers|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/fibers|access-date=2021-11-26|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |co |8.2}}
| 8 December 2022<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: todo:php82 |url=https://wiki.php.net/todo/php82 |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>
| 31 December 2026
| Readonly classes,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:readonly_classes |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/readonly_classes |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|code=null}}, {{code|lang=php|code=false}}, and {{code|lang=php|code=true}} as stand-alone types,<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:null-false-standalone-types |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/null-false-standalone-types |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:true-type |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/true-type |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> locale-independent case conversion,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:strtolower-ascii |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/strtolower-ascii |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> disjunctive normal form types,<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:dnf_types |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/dnf_types |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> constants in traits<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:constants_in_traits |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/constants_in_traits |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>
|-
| {{Version |co | 8.3}}
| 23 November 2023<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 November 2023 |title=PHP 8.3.0 Released! |url=https://www.php.net/archive/2023.php#2023-11-23-2 |access-date=24 November 2023 |website=php.net}}</ref>
| 31 December 2027
| Typed class constants,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:typed_class_constants |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/typed_class_constants |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> dynamic class constant fetch,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:dynamic_class_constant_fetch |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/dynamic_class_constant_fetch |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> {{code|lang=php|code=#[\Override]}} attribute,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:marking_overriden_methods |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/marking_overriden_methods |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> deep-cloning of read-only properties,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:readonly_amendments |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/readonly_amendments |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> new {{code|lang=php|code=json_validate}} function,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:json_validate |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/json_validate |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> randomizer additions,<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:randomizer_additions |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/randomizer_additions |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref> the command-line linter supports multiple files
|-
| {{Version |co | 8.4}}
| 21 November 2024<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 March 2024 |title=PHP: todo: php84|url=https://wiki.php.net/todo/php84 |access-date=26 March 2024 |website=php.net}}</ref>
| 31 December 2028
| Property hooks, asymmetric visibility, an updated [[Document Object Model|DOM]] API, performance improvements, bug fixes, and general cleanup.
|-
| {{Version |c | 8.5}}
| 20 November 2025<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 April 2024 |title=PHP: todo: php85|url=https://wiki.php.net/todo/php85 |access-date=16 April 2025 |website=php.net}}</ref>
| 31 December 2029
| Pipe operator {{code|lang=php|{{!}}>}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: rfc:pipe-operator-v3 |url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/pipe-operator-v3 |access-date=2025-08-06 |website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>
|-
|- class="sortbottom"
| colspan="4" | {{Version |l |show=111111}}
|}

Beginning on 28 June 2011, the PHP Development Team implemented a timeline for the release of new versions of PHP.<ref name="PHP-2011">{{cite web|title=PHP: Release Process|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/releaseprocess|access-date=2013-10-06|date=2011-06-20}}</ref> Under this system, at least one release should occur every month. Once per year, a minor release should occur which may include new features. Every minor release should at least be supported for two years with security and bug fixes, followed by at least one year of only security fixes, for a total of a three-year release process for every minor release. No new features, unless small and self-contained, are to be introduced into a minor release during the three-year release process. A 2024 RFC extended the length of the security fix only period to two years, fixed all end of life dates to 31 December, and removed the exception that allowed for "small and self-contained" features to be introduced in patch versions.<ref name="rfc-release-cycle-update" />

==== Prevalence of outdated versions ====
W3Techs reports that {{as of|2025|11|lc=y}} (about three years since <!-- 28 November 2022 --> PHP&nbsp;7 was discontinued and 23 months after the PHP&nbsp;8.3 release), unsupported versions such as PHP&nbsp;7 are still used by well over half of PHP websites<!-- about 60% including the 12.9% of unsupported 8.0 -->, which are outdated and known to be insecure.<ref name="www.php.net">{{Cite web|url=https://www.php.net/eol.php|title=PHP: Unsupported Branches|website=}}</ref><ref name="W3Techs – World Wide Web Technology Surveys" /> Those included the 9.7% of PHP websites using the even more outdated (discontinued for 7 years) and insecure PHP&nbsp;5, released over two decades ago.

== <span id="ELEPHPANT">Mascot</span> ==
[[File:Webysther 20160423 - Elephpant.svg|thumb|200px|The elePHPant, PHP's mascot]]

The mascot of the PHP project is the ''elePHPant'', a blue [[elephant]] with the PHP logo on its side, designed by Vincent Pontier<ref>{{cite web|title=PHP: ElePHPant|url=https://php.net/elephpant.php|date=4 Oct 2014|access-date=4 Oct 2014}}</ref> in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wwphp-fb.github.io/faq/community/elephpant/|title=Redirecting…|website=wwphp-fb.github.io}}</ref> "The (PHP) letters were forming the shape of an elephant if viewed in a sideways angle."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://7php.com/elephpant/|title=The PHP Mascot's Birth – Creator Of The elePHPant Vincent Pontier Reveals The True Story!|website=7php.com|date=2014-01-06}}</ref>

The elePHPant is sometimes differently coloured when in [[plush toy]] form.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ElePHPant |url=https://docs.php.earth/php/community/elephpant/ |access-date=2024-02-13 |website=PHP.earth |language=en}}</ref> Many variations of this physical mascot have been made over the years. Only the elePHPants based on the original design by Vincent Pontier are considered official by the community.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.php.net/elephpant.php|title=PHP: ElePHPant|website=www.php.net}}</ref> These are collectable and some of them are extremely rare.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://afieldguidetoelephpants.net/|title=A Field Guide to Elephpants|website=afieldguidetoelephpants.net}}</ref>

== Syntax ==
{{Main|PHP syntax and semantics}}

[[File:"Hello World" Application in PHP.png|thumb|A "Hello, World" application in PHP 7.4 running on its built-in development server]]

The following [["Hello, World!" program]] is written in PHP code embedded in an [[HTML]] document:

<syntaxhighlight lang="html+php" highlight="7-9">
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>PHP "Hello, World!" program</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <p><?= 'Hello, World!' ?></p>
    </body>
</html>
</syntaxhighlight>

However, as no requirement exists for PHP code to be embedded in HTML, the simplest version of ''Hello, World!'' may be written like this, with the closing tag <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline="">?></syntaxhighlight> omitted as preferred in files containing pure PHP code.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.phptags.php |title=tags{{snd}} Manual |website=php.net |access-date=2014-02-17}}</ref>

<syntaxhighlight lang="php5">
<?php echo 'Hello, World!';
</syntaxhighlight>

The PHP interpreter only executes PHP code within its [[delimiter]]s. Anything outside of its delimiters is not processed by PHP, although the non-PHP text is still subject to [[control structure]]s described in PHP code. The most common delimiters are <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline=""><?php</syntaxhighlight> to open and <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline="">?></syntaxhighlight> to close PHP sections. The shortened form <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline=""><?</syntaxhighlight> also exists. This short delimiter makes script files less portable since support for them can be disabled in the local PHP configuration and it is therefore discouraged.<ref name="php.net-2008" /><ref name="The PHP Group-3">{{cite web|title=PHP: Basic syntax|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.php|publisher=The PHP Group|access-date=2008-02-22}}</ref> Conversely, there is no recommendation against the echo short tag <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline=""><?=</syntaxhighlight>.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2016-01-03|url=https://github.com/php-fig/fig-standards/blob/master/accepted/PSR-1-basic-coding-standard.md|title=Basic Coding Standard|publisher=PHP Framework Interoperability Group}}</ref> Prior to PHP&nbsp;5.4.0, this short syntax for <syntaxhighlight lang="php" inline="">echo</syntaxhighlight> only works with the <code>short_open_tag</code> configuration setting enabled, while for PHP&nbsp;5.4.0 and later it is always available.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.php.net/echo |title=echo{{snd}} Manual |website=php.net |access-date=2014-02-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.short-open-tag |title=Description of core php.ini directives{{snd}} Manual |website=php.net |date=2002-03-17 |access-date=2014-02-17}}</ref><ref name="php.net-2008">{{cite web |url=http://wiki.php.net/rfc/shortags |title=PHP: rfc:shortags |website=php.net |date=2008-04-03 |access-date=2014-05-08 }}</ref> The purpose of all these delimiters is to separate PHP code from non-PHP content, such as [[JavaScript]] code or HTML markup.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-02-25|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/tutorial.firstpage.php|title=Your first PHP-enabled page |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref> So the shortest [["Hello, World!" program]] written in PHP is:
<syntaxhighlight lang="html+php">
<?='Hello, World!';
</syntaxhighlight>
The first form of delimiters, <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline><?php</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline>?></syntaxhighlight>, in [[XHTML]] and other [[XML]] documents, creates correctly formed XML processing instructions.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xml-20081126/#sec-pi | title = Processing Instructions | work = Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition) | publisher = W3C | date = 26 November 2008 | last = Bray | first = Tim | access-date = 2009-06-18|display-authors=etal}}</ref> This means that the resulting mixture of PHP code and other markups in the server-side file is itself well-formed XML.

{{Anchor|TYPE-HINTING}}
Variables are [[sigil (computer programming)|prefixed]] with a [[dollar sign|dollar symbol]], and a [[primitive type|type]] does not need to be specified in advance. PHP&nbsp;5 introduced ''type declarations'' that allow functions to force their parameters to be objects of a specific class, arrays, interfaces or [[callback function]]s. However, before PHP&nbsp;7, type declarations could not be used with scalar types such as integers or strings.<ref name="php.net-2015b" />

Below is an example of how PHP variables are declared and initialized.

<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
<?php
    $name = 'John';  // variable of string type being declared and initialized
    $age = 18;       // variable of integer type being declared and initialized
    $height = 5.3;   // variable of double type being declared and initialized
    echo $name . ' is ' . $height . "m tall\n"; // concatenating variables and strings
    echo "$name is $age years old."; // interpolating variables to string
?>
</syntaxhighlight>

Unlike function and class names, variable names are case-sensitive. Both double-quoted ("") and [[heredoc]] strings provide the ability to interpolate a variable's value into the string.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-16|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.php|title=Variables |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref> PHP treats [[newline]]s as [[whitespace character|whitespace]] in the manner of a [[free-form language]], and statements are terminated by a semicolon.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-16|url=https://www.php.net/basic-syntax.instruction-separation|title=Instruction separation |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref> PHP has three types of [[comparison of programming languages (syntax)#Comments|comment syntax]]: <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline>/* */</syntaxhighlight> marks block and inline comments; <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline>//</syntaxhighlight> or <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline>#</syntaxhighlight> are used for one-line comments.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-16|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.comments.php|title=Comments |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref> The <code>echo</code> statement is one of several facilities PHP provides to output text.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

In terms of keywords and language syntax, PHP is similar to C-style syntax. <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline>if</syntaxhighlight> conditions, <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline>for</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="PHP" inline>while</syntaxhighlight> loops and function returns are similar in syntax to languages such as C, C++, C#, Java and Perl.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Data types ===
PHP is [[strong and weak typing|loosely typed]]. It stores integers in a platform-dependent range, either as a 32, 64 or 128-bit [[signed number representations|signed]] [[integer (computer science)|integer]] equivalent to the [[C variable types and declarations|C-language long type]]. Unsigned integers are converted to signed values in certain situations, which is different behaviour to many other programming languages.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2007/03/27/integers-in-php-running-with-scissors-and-portability/ | title = Integers in PHP, running with scissors, and portability | date = March 27, 2007 | publisher = MySQL Performance Blog | access-date = 2007-03-28}}</ref> Integer variables can be assigned using decimal (positive and negative), [[octal]], [[hexadecimal]], and [[binary number|binary]] notations.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2025-05-26|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.integer.php|title=Integers|website=PHP Manual |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref>

[[Floating-point arithmetic|Floating-point numbers]] are also stored in a platform-specific range. They can be specified using floating-point notation, or two forms of [[scientific notation]].<ref name="The PHP Group-2">{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-16|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.php|title=Types |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref> PHP has a native [[Boolean data type|Boolean]] type that is similar to the native Boolean types in [[Java (programming language)|Java]] and [[C++]]. Using the Boolean type conversion rules, non-zero values are interpreted as true and zero as false, as in [[Perl]] and C++.<ref name="The PHP Group-2" />

The null data type represents a variable that has no value; <code>NULL</code> is the only allowed value for this data type.<ref name="The PHP Group-2" />

Variables of the "resource" type represent references to resources from external sources. These are typically created by functions from a particular extension, and can only be processed by functions from the same extension; examples include file, image, and database resources.<ref name="The PHP Group-2" />

Arrays can contain elements of any type that PHP can handle, including resources, objects, and even other arrays. Order is preserved in lists of values and in [[hash table|hashes]] with both keys and values, and the two can be intermingled.<ref name="The PHP Group-2" /> PHP also supports [[string (computing)|strings]], which can be used with single quotes, double quotes, nowdoc or [[heredoc]] syntax.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-21|url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php|title=Strings |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref>

The '''Standard PHP Library''' (SPL) attempts to solve standard problems and implements efficient data access interfaces and classes.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.php.net/spl | title = SPL&nbsp;– StandardPHPLibrary | date = March 16, 2009 | website = PHP.net | access-date = 2009-03-16}}</ref>

=== Functions ===
PHP defines a large array of functions in the core language and many are also available in various extensions; these functions are well documented online [https://www.php.net/docs.php PHP documentation].<ref name="php.net-2014a" /> However, the built-in library has a wide variety of naming conventions and associated inconsistencies, as described under [[#History|history]] above.

Custom functions may be defined by the developer:

<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
function myAge(int $birthYear): string
{
    // calculate the age by subtracting the birth year from the current year.
    $yearsOld = date('Y') - $birthYear;

    // return the age in a descriptive string.
    return $yearsOld . ($yearsOld == 1 ? ' year' : ' years');
}

echo 'I am currently ' . myAge(1995) . ' old.';
</syntaxhighlight>

As of {{CURRENTYEAR}}, the output of the above sample program is "I am currently {{#expr: {{CURRENTYEAR}} - 1995}} years old."

In lieu of [[function pointer]]s, functions in PHP can be referenced by a string containing their name. In this manner, normal PHP functions can be used, for example, as [[Callback function|callbacks]] or within [[function table]]s.<ref name="php.net-2014c" /> User-defined functions may be created at any time without being [[Function prototype|prototyped]].<ref name="php.net-2014a">{{cite web
| url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.user-defined.php
| title = User-defined functions (PHP manual)
| date = 2014-07-04 | access-date = 2014-07-07
| website = php.net
}}</ref><ref name="php.net-2014c">{{cite web
| url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.variable-functions.php
| title = Variable functions (PHP manual)
| date = 2014-07-04 | access-date = 2014-07-07
| website = php.net
}}</ref> Functions may be defined inside code blocks, permitting a [[dynamic dispatch|run-time decision]] as to whether or not a function should be defined. There is a <code>function_exists</code> function that determines whether a function with a given name has already been defined. Function calls must use parentheses, with the exception of zero-argument class [[constructor (computer science)|constructor]] functions called with the PHP operator <code>new</code>, in which case parentheses are optional.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Since PHP&nbsp;4.0.1 <code>create_function()</code>, a thin wrapper around <code>eval()</code>, allowed normal PHP functions to be created during program execution; it was deprecated in PHP&nbsp;7.2 and removed in PHP&nbsp;8.0<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.create-function.php
| title = create_function() (PHP manual)
| date = 2022-04-06 | access-date = 2022-05-04
| website = php.net
}}</ref> in favor of syntax for [[anonymous function]]s or "[[Closure (computer programming)|closures]]"<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.anonymous.php
| title = Anonymous functions (PHP manual)
| date = 2014-07-04 | access-date = 2014-07-07
| website = php.net
}}</ref> that can capture variables from the surrounding scope, which was added in PHP&nbsp;5.3. Shorthand arrow syntax was added in PHP&nbsp;7.4:<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.arrow.php
| title = Arrow Functions (PHP manual)
| access-date = 2021-01-25
| website = php.net
}}</ref>

<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
function getAdder($x) {
    return fn($y) => $x + $y;
}

$adder = getAdder(8);
echo $adder(2);  // prints "10"
</syntaxhighlight>

In the example above, <code>getAdder()</code> function creates a closure using passed argument {{code|lang=php|code=$x}}, which takes an additional argument {{code|lang=php|code=$y}}, and returns the created closure to the caller. Such a function is a first-class object, meaning that it can be stored in a variable, passed as a [[parameter (computer programming)|parameter]] to other functions, etc.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://wiki.php.net/rfc/closures
| title = Request for Comments: Lambda functions and closures
| date = 2008-07-01 | access-date = 2014-07-07
| author1 = Christian Seiler | author2 = Dmitry Stogov
| website = php.net
}}</ref>

Unusually for a dynamically typed language, PHP supports type declarations on function parameters, which are enforced at runtime. This has been supported for classes and interfaces since PHP&nbsp;5.0, for arrays since PHP&nbsp;5.1, for "callables" since PHP&nbsp;5.4, and scalar (integer, float, string and boolean) types since PHP&nbsp;7.0.<ref name="php.net-2015b" /> PHP&nbsp;7.0 also has type declarations for function return types, expressed by placing the type name after the list of parameters, preceded by a colon.<ref name="php.net-2015a" /> For example, the <code>getAdder</code> function from the earlier example could be annotated with types like so in PHP&nbsp;7:

<syntaxhighlight lang="php">
function getAdder(int $x): Closure
{
    return fn(int $y): int => $x + $y;
}

$adder = getAdder(8);
echo $adder(2); // prints "10"
echo $adder(null); // throws an exception because an incorrect type was passed
$adder = getAdder([]); // would also throw an exception
</syntaxhighlight>

By default, scalar type declarations follow weak typing principles. So, for example, if a parameter's type is <code>int</code>, PHP would allow not only integers, but also convertible numeric strings, floats or Booleans to be passed to that function, and would convert them.<ref name="php.net-2015b" /> However, PHP&nbsp;7 has a "strict typing" mode which, when used, disallows such conversions for function calls and returns within a file.<ref name="php.net-2015b" />

=== PHP objects ===
Basic [[object-oriented programming]] functionality was added in PHP&nbsp;3 and improved in PHP&nbsp;4.<ref name="The PHP Group" /> This allowed for PHP to gain further abstraction, making creative tasks easier for programmers using the language. Object handling was completely rewritten for PHP&nbsp;5, expanding the feature set and enhancing performance.<ref name="mjtsai.com" /> In previous versions of PHP, objects were handled like [[value type]]s.<ref name="mjtsai.com">{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-16|url=http://mjtsai.com/blog/2004/07/15/php-5-object-references/|title=PHP&nbsp;5 Object References |website=mjtsai.com}}</ref> The drawback of this method was that code had to make heavy use of PHP's "reference" variables if it wanted to modify an object it was passed rather than creating a copy of it. In the new approach, objects are referenced by [[handle (computing)|handle]], and not by value.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Backward Incompatible Changes |url=https://php-legacy-docs.zend.com/manual/php5/en/migration5.incompatible |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=php-legacy-docs.zend.com}}</ref>

PHP&nbsp;5 introduced private and protected [[member variable]]s and methods, along with [[abstract type|abstract classes]], [[final type|final classes]], [[abstract method]]s, and [[final method]]s. It also introduced a standard way of declaring [[Constructor (computer science)|constructors]] and [[Destructor (computer science)|destructors]], similar to that of other object-oriented languages such as [[C++]], and a standard [[exception handling]] model. Furthermore, PHP&nbsp;5 added [[Interface (computing)|interfaces]] and allowed for multiple interfaces to be implemented. There are special interfaces that allow objects to interact with the runtime system. [[object (computer science)|Objects]] implementing ArrayAccess can be used with [[array data type|array]] syntax and objects implementing [[Iterator]] or [[IteratorAggregate]] can be used with the <code>foreach</code> [[language construct]]. There is no [[virtual table]] feature in the engine, so [[static variable]]s are bound with a name instead of a reference at compile time.<ref name="The PHP Group-4">{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-16|url=http://www.php.net/zend-engine-2.php|title=Classes and Objects (PHP&nbsp;5) |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref>

If the developer creates a copy of an object using the reserved word <code>clone</code>, the Zend engine will check whether a <code>__clone()</code> method has been defined. If not, it will call a default <code>__clone()</code> which will copy the object's properties. If a <code>__clone()</code> method is defined, then it will be responsible for setting the necessary properties in the created object. For convenience, the engine will supply a function that imports the properties of the source object, so the programmer can start with a by-value [[wikt:replica|replica]] of the source object and only override properties that need to be changed.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-03-16|url=https://www.php.net/language.oop5.cloning|title=Object cloning |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref>

The [[Visibility (computer science)|visibility]] of PHP properties and methods is defined using the [[Keyword (computer programming)|keywords]] <code>public</code>, <code>private</code>, and <code>protected</code>. The default is public, if only [[variable (programming)|var]] is used; <code>var</code> is a synonym for <code>public</code>. Items declared <code>public</code> can be accessed everywhere. <code>protected</code> limits access to [[inherited class]]es (and to the class that defines the item). <code>private</code> limits visibility only to the class that defines the item.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://theserverpages.com/php/manual/en/language.oop5.visibility.php |title=Visibility (PHP Manual) |website=theserverpages.com |date=2005-05-19 |access-date=2010-08-26 |archive-date=2010-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924033414/http://theserverpages.com/php/manual/en/language.oop5.visibility.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> Objects of the same type have access to each other's private and protected members even though they are not the same instance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP: Visibility - Manual |url=https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.visibility.php |access-date=2025-11-19 |website=www.php.net |language=en}}</ref>

==== Example ====
The following is a basic example of [[object-oriented programming]] in PHP&nbsp;8:

<syntaxhighlight lang="php" line>
<?php

abstract class User
{
    protected string $name;

    public function __construct(string $name)
    {
        // make first letter uppercase and the rest lowercase
        $this->name = ucfirst(strtolower($name));
    }

    public function greet(): string
    {
        return "Hello, my name is " . $this->name;
    }

    abstract public function job(): string;
}

class Student extends User
{
    public function __construct(string $name, private string $course)
    {
        parent::__construct($name);
    }

    public function job(): string
    {
        return "I learn " . $this->course;
    }
}

class Teacher extends User
{
    public function __construct(string $name, private array $teachingCourses)
    {
        parent::__construct($name);
    }

    public function job(): string
    {
        return "I teach " . implode(", ", $this->teachingCourses);
    }
}

$students = [
    new Student("Alice", "Computer Science"),
    new Student("Bob", "Computer Science"),
    new Student("Charlie", "Business Studies"),
];

$teachers = [
    new Teacher("Dan", ["Computer Science", "Information Security"]),
    new Teacher("Erin", ["Computer Science", "3D Graphics Programming"]),
    new Teacher("Frankie", ["Online Marketing", "Business Studies", "E-commerce"]),
];

foreach ([$students, $teachers] as $users) {
    echo $users[0]::class . "s:\n";

    array_walk($users, function (User $user) {
        echo "{$user->greet()}, {$user->job()}\n";
    });
}
</syntaxhighlight>

This program outputs the following:

{{samp|Students:<br>
Hello, my name is Alice, I learn Computer Science<br>
Hello, my name is Bob, I learn Computer Science<br>
Hello, my name is Charlie, I learn Business Studies<br>
Teachers:<br>
Hello, my name is Dan, I teach Computer Science, Information Security<br>
Hello, my name is Erin, I teach Computer Science, 3D Graphics Programming<br>
Hello, my name is Frankie, I teach Online Marketing, Business Studies, E-commerce|style=padding-left:0px; overflow-x: hidden; word-wrap: break-word;}}
<!-- Note that there are problems with the script in this section. -->

== Implementations ==
The only complete PHP implementation is the original, known simply as PHP. It is the most widely used and is powered by the [[Zend Engine]]. To disambiguate it from other implementations, it is sometimes unofficially called "Zend PHP". The Zend Engine [[Compiler|compiles]] PHP [[source code]] on-the-fly into an internal format that it can execute, thus it works as an [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2009-11-04|url=http://www.linux-tutorial.info/modules.php?name=Howto&pagename=Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO/languages.html|title=How do computer languages work?|archive-date=2011-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716214917/http://www.linux-tutorial.info/modules.php?name=Howto&pagename=Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO/languages.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional |author=Gilmore, W. Jason |page=[https://archive.org/details/beginningphpmysq0000gilm/page/43 43] |date=2006-01-23 |publisher=Apress |isbn=1-59059-552-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/beginningphpmysq0000gilm/page/43 }}</ref> It is also the "reference implementation" of PHP, as PHP has no formal specification, and so the semantics of Zend PHP define the semantics of PHP. Due to the complex and nuanced semantics of PHP, defined by how Zend works, it is difficult for competing implementations to offer complete compatibility.<ref>{{cite web |title=PHP Internals Book |url=https://www.phpinternalsbook.com/ |author1=Julien Pauli |author2=Nikita Popov |author3=Anthony Ferrara |website=PHP Internals Book |access-date=2025-01-21 |archive-date=2025-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121000000/https://www.phpinternalsbook.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

PHP's single-request-per-script-execution model, and the fact that the Zend Engine is an interpreter, leads to inefficiency; as a result, various products have been developed to help improve PHP performance. In order to speed up execution time and not have to compile the PHP source code every time the web page is accessed, PHP scripts can also be deployed in the PHP engine's internal format by using an [[opcode]] cache, which works by [[Cache (computing)|caching]] the compiled form of a PHP script (opcodes) in [[Shared memory (interprocess communication)|shared memory]] to avoid the overhead of [[parsing]] and [[compiling]] the code every time the script runs. An opcode cache, [[Zend Opcache]], is built into PHP since version 5.5.<ref>{{cite web
| title = [VOTE] Integrating Zend Optimizer+ into the PHP distribution
| url = http://news.php.net/php.internals/66531
| access-date = 2013-03-08
| website = news.php.net
}}</ref> Another example of a widely used opcode cache is the [[Alternative PHP Cache]] (APC), which is available as a [[PHP Extension Community Library|PECL]] extension.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.apc.php
| title = Alternative PHP Cache
| access-date = 2013-09-21
| website = PHP.net
| archive-date = 2013-11-15
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131115071936/http://php.net/manual/en/book.apc.php
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

While Zend PHP is still the most popular implementation, several other implementations have been developed. Some of these are [[compiler]]s or support [[JIT compilation]], and hence offer performance benefits over Zend PHP at the expense of lacking full PHP compatibility.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} Alternative implementations include the following:

* [[HHVM]] (HipHop Virtual Machine)&nbsp;– developed at Facebook and available as open source, it converts PHP code into a high-level bytecode (commonly known as an [[intermediate language]]), which is then translated into x86-64 machine code dynamically at runtime by a [[Just-in-time compiler|just-in-time]] (JIT) compiler, resulting in up to 6× performance improvements.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hhvm.com/blog/2813/we-are-the-98-5-and-the-16 |title=We are the 98.5% (and the 16%) « HipHop Virtual Machine |website=hhvm.com |date=December 2013 |access-date=2014-02-23}}</ref> However, since version 7.2 Zend has outperformed HHVM,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kinsta.com/blog/php-benchmarks/|title=The Definitive PHP 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 & 7.3 Benchmarks (2019)|date=2019-01-14 |access-date=2019-04-19}}</ref> and HHVM&nbsp;3.24 is the last version to officially support PHP.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.infoworld.com/article/3226489/web-development/forget-php-facebooks-hhvm-engine-switches-to-hack-instead.html|title=Forget PHP! Facebook's HHVM engine switches to Hack instead|last=Krill|first=Paul|date=2017-09-20|website=InfoWorld |access-date=2019-02-06}}</ref>
** [[HipHop for PHP|HipHop]]&nbsp;– developed at Facebook and available as open source, it transforms the PHP scripts into [[C++]] code and then compiles the resulting code, reducing the server load up to 50%. In early 2013, Facebook deprecated it in favour of HHVM due to multiple reasons, including deployment difficulties and lack of support for the whole PHP language, including the <code>create_function()</code> and <code>eval()</code> constructs.<ref>{{cite web|title=Announcement on GitHub removing HPHPc support|website=[[GitHub]]|url=https://github.com/facebook/hiphop-php/commit/fc5b95110ff75110ad55bb97f7c93a8c4eb68e3b|access-date=2013-05-24}}</ref>
* [[Parrot virtual machine|Parrot]]&nbsp;– a virtual machine designed to run dynamic languages efficiently; the cross-translator Pipp transforms the PHP source code into the [[Parrot intermediate representation]], which is then translated into the Parrot's bytecode and executed by the virtual machine.
* [[PeachPie]] – a second-generation compiler to .[[.NET Framework|NET]] [[Common Intermediate Language]] (CIL) bytecode, built on the [[Roslyn (compiler)|Roslyn]] platform; successor of Phalanger, sharing several architectural components
* [[Phalanger (compiler)|Phalanger]]&nbsp;– compiles PHP into .Net Common Intermediate Language bytecode; predecessor of PeachPie
* [[Quercus (software)|Quercus]]&nbsp;– compiles PHP into [[Java bytecode]]

== Licensing ==
{{Main|PHP License}}

PHP is [[free software]] released under the [[PHP License]], which stipulates that:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.php.net/license/3_01.txt |title=The PHP License, version 3.01|access-date=2010-05-20}}</ref>

{{blockquote
| Products derived from this software may not be called "PHP", nor may "PHP" appear in their name, without prior written permission from group@php.net. You may indicate that your software works in conjunction with PHP by saying "[[Foo]] for PHP" instead of calling it "PHP Foo" or "phpfoo".
}}

This restriction on the use of "PHP" makes the PHP License incompatible with the [[GNU General Public License]] (GPL), while the Zend License is incompatible due to an advertising clause similar to that of the original [[BSD license]].<ref>{{cite web | title = GPL-Incompatible, Free Software Licenses | url = https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses | work = Various Licenses and Comments about Them | publisher = Free Software Foundation|access-date=2011-01-03}}</ref>

== Development and community ==
{{See also|List of PHP software and tools}}
PHP includes various [[list of PHP libraries|free and open-source libraries]] in its source distribution or uses them in resulting PHP binary builds. PHP is fundamentally an [[Internet]]-aware system with built-in modules for accessing [[File Transfer Protocol]] (FTP) servers and many database servers, including [[PostgreSQL]], [[MySQL]], [[Microsoft SQL Server]] and [[SQLite]] (which is an embedded database), [[Lightweight Directory Access Protocol|LDAP]] servers, and others. Numerous functions are familiar to C programmers, such as those in the [[stdio.h|stdio]] family, are available in standard PHP builds.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2015-01-14|url=https://php.net/manual/en/indexes.functions.php|title=PHP: Function and Method listing{{snd}} Manual |publisher=The PHP Group}}</ref>

PHP allows developers to write [[software extension|extensions]] in [[C (programming language)|C]] to add functionality to the PHP language. PHP extensions can be compiled statically into PHP or loaded dynamically at runtime. Numerous extensions have been written to add support for the [[Windows API]], process management on [[Unix-like]] [[operating system]]s, multibyte strings ([[Unicode]]), [[cURL]], and several popular [[archive format|compression formats]]. Other PHP features made available through extensions include integration with [[Internet Relay Chat]] (IRC), dynamic generation of images and [[Adobe Flash]] content, ''PHP Data Objects'' (PDO) as an abstraction layer used for accessing databases,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.php.net/manual/en/intro.pdo.php |title=Introduction{{snd}} Manual |website=php.net |date=2013-06-07 |access-date=2013-06-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2004/08/05/dataobjects.html|title=Simplify Business Logic with PHP DataObjects&nbsp;— O'Reilly Media|author=Darryl Patterson|date=5 August 2004|website=ibm.com|access-date=16 December 2014|archive-date=16 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216140653/http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2004/08/05/dataobjects.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0612xia/|title=IBM&nbsp;— United States|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-php-dbmistake/index.html |title=Five common PHP database problems |website=ibm.com |date=2006-08-01 |access-date=2013-06-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247218.html|title=IBM Redbooks&nbsp;— Developing PHP Applications for IBM Data Servers|website=redbooks.ibm.com|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phparch.com/issue.php?mid=65|title=php[architect] Magazine – The Journal for PHP Programmers|website=www.phparch.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/10/19/HNphpshow_1.html|title=PHP catching on at enterprises, vying with Java|last=Krill|first=Paul|date=19 October 2005|magazine=InfoWorld|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713004345/http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/php-catching-enterprises-vying-java-708|archive-date=13 July 2014}}</ref> and even [[speech synthesis]]. Some of the language's core functions, such as those dealing with strings and arrays, are also implemented as extensions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lxr.php.net/xref/PHP_5_4/ext/standard/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316010914/http://lxr.php.net/xref/PHP_5_4/ext/standard/|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 March 2012|title=Cross Reference: /PHP_5_4/ext/standard/|website=php.net|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> The [[PHP Extension Community Library]] (PECL) project is a repository for extensions to the PHP language.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2008-02-25|url=http://www.devnewz.com/090902b.html|title=Developing Custom PHP Extensions |website=devnewz.com |date=2002-09-09 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080218045752/http://www.devnewz.com/090902b.html |archive-date = 2008-02-18}}</ref> Most of the community focuses on web development, and PHP running server side (though also serving JavaScript for the client side), and some exceptional uses are for e.g. standalone [[graphical user interface|graphical applications]] (with [[PHP-GTK]] unmaintained now for over a decade),<ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction: What can PHP do? |url=https://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatcando.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216124950/http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatcando.php |archive-date=16 February 2009 |access-date=5 March 2009 |work=PHP Manual}}</ref> and even [[unmanned aerial vehicle|drone]] control.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Helicopter: Port of node-ar-drone which allows user to control a Parrot AR Drone over PHP|date=11 January 2019|url=https://github.com/jolicode/php-ar-drone|publisher=JoliCode|access-date=23 February 2019}}</ref>

Some other projects, such as ''Zephir'', provide the ability for PHP extensions to be created in a high-level language and compiled into native PHP extensions. Such an approach, instead of writing PHP extensions directly in C, simplifies the development of extensions and reduces the time required for programming and testing.<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://docs.zephir-lang.com/en/latest/motivation.html
| title = Why Zephir?
| date = 2015-10-20 | access-date = 2015-12-14
| website = zephir-lang.com
}}</ref>

By December 2018 the PHP Group consisted of ten people: [[Thies C. Arntzen]], [[Stig Bakken]], [[Shane Caraveo]], [[Andi Gutmans]], [[Rasmus Lerdorf]], [[Sam Ruby]], [[Sascha Schumann]], [[Zeev Suraski]], [[Jim Winstead]], and [[Andrei Zmievski]].<ref>{{cite web|title=PHP Credits|url=https://php.net/credits|access-date=2018-12-16}}</ref>

[[Zend Technologies]] provides a [[Zend Certified Engineer|PHP Certification]] based on PHP&nbsp;8<!-- assumed or still only 7? It's hard to confirm at target page and exploring I at least ocnfirmed some things are updated to 8, or 8.1: https://training.zend.com/learn/courses/271/php-architect  Develop asynchronous programming apps using PHP 8.1 fibers --><ref>{{Cite web|title=Learn PHP Via PHP Training and PHP Certification|url=https://www.zend.com/training/php|access-date=2020-11-16|website=www.zend.com}}</ref> exam (and previously based on PHP&nbsp;7 and 5.5) for programmers to become certified PHP developers.

== The PHP Foundation ==
{{Infobox organization
| formation                = {{start date and age|2021|11|22}}
| logo                     = The PHP Foundation Logo.svg
| founder                  = [[Automattic]], [[Laravel]], Acquia, [[Zend (company)|Zend]], Private Packagist, [[Symfony]], Craft CMS, Tideways, [[PrestaShop]], [[JetBrains]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walker |first=James |date=2021-12-13 |title=What the New PHP Foundation Means for PHP's Future |url=https://www.howtogeek.com/devops/what-the-new-php-foundation-means-for-phps-future/ |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=How-To Geek |language=en}}</ref>
| website                  = https://thephp.foundation
}}
On 26 November 2021, the [[JetBrains]] blog announced the creation of The PHP Foundation, which will sponsor the design and development of PHP.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The New Life of PHP – The PHP Foundation {{!}} The PhpStorm Blog |url=https://blog.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/2021/11/the-php-foundation/ |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=The JetBrains Blog |date=22 November 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
![[Commit (version control)|Commits]]
![[Code review|Reviews]]
![[Request for Comments|RFCs]]
|-
!2022<ref>{{Cite web |title=The PHP Foundation: Impact and Transparency Report 2022 |url=https://thephp.foundation/blog/2022/11/22/transparency-and-impact-report-2022/ |access-date=2023-11-27 |website=thephp.foundation |language=en}}</ref>
|683
|283
|8
|-
!2023<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pronskiy |first=Roman |date=2024-02-26 |title=The PHP Foundation: Impact and Transparency Report 2023 |url=https://thephp.foundation/blog/2024/02/26/transparency-and-impact-report-2023/ |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=The PHP Foundation}}</ref>
|784
|702
|17
|-
!2024<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pronskiy |first=Roman |date=2025-03-31 |title=The PHP Foundation: Impact and Transparency Report 2023 |url=https://thephp.foundation/blog/2025/03/31/transparency-and-impact-report-2024// |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=The PHP Foundation}}</ref>
|1976
|1278
|13
|}
The foundation hires "Core Developers" to work on the PHP language's core repository. Roman Pronskiy, a member of the foundation's board, said that they aim to pay "market salaries" to developers.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Tim |title=PHP Foundation formed to fund core developers |url=https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/23/php_foundation_formed_to_fund/ |access-date=2023-12-05 |website=www.theregister.com |language=en}}</ref>

The response to the foundation has been largely positive, with commentators praising its role in ensuring the continued development of PHP and helping to stabilise the language's community and popularity.<ref name="JetBrains2021">{{cite web |date=26 November 2021 |title=The PHP Foundation: A New Era for PHP |url=https://blog.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/2021/11/the-php-foundation/ |access-date=6 October 2025 |website=JetBrains Blog |publisher=JetBrains}}</ref><ref name="Register2021">{{cite news |last=Claburn |first=Thomas |date=26 November 2021 |title=PHP Foundation Formed to Support the Open Source Language |url=https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/26/php_foundation/ |access-date=6 October 2025 |work=The Register}}</ref>

Germany's [[Sovereign Tech Fund]] provided more than 200,000 Euros to support the PHP Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP |url=https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/php |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=Sovereign Tech Fund |language=en}}</ref>

== <span id=PHPFPM>Installation and configuration</span> ==
[[File:PHP 7.1 - Example phpinfo() Screen.png|thumb|Example output of the phpinfo() function in PHP&nbsp;7.1]]

There are two primary ways for adding support for PHP to a web server&nbsp;– as a native web server module, or as a CGI executable. PHP has a direct module interface called [[server application programming interface]] (SAPI), which is supported by many web servers including [[Apache HTTP Server]], [[Internet Information Services|Microsoft IIS]], [[Caddy (web server)|Caddy]] (through FrankenPHP) and [[Oracle iPlanet Web Server|iPlanet Web Server]]. Some other web servers, such as OmniHTTPd, support the [[Internet Server Application Programming Interface]] (ISAPI), which is [[Microsoft]]'s web server module interface. If PHP has no module support for a web server, it can always be used as a [[Common Gateway Interface]] (CGI) or [[FastCGI]] processor; in that case, the web server is configured to use PHP's CGI executable to process all requests to PHP files.<ref name="php.net-4">{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.general.php
| title = General Installation Considerations
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = php.net
}}</ref>

PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) is an alternative FastCGI implementation for PHP, bundled with the official PHP distribution since version 5.3.3.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/archive/2010.php#id2010-07-22-2
| title = News Archive: PHP&nbsp;5.3.3 Released!
| date = 2010-07-22
| website = php.net}}</ref> When compared to the older FastCGI implementation, it contains some additional features, mostly useful for heavily loaded web servers.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.fpm.php
| title = FastCGI Process Manager (FPM)
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = php.net
}}</ref>

When using PHP for command-line scripting, a PHP [[command-line interface]] (CLI) executable is needed. PHP supports a CLI [[server application programming interface]] (SAPI) since PHP&nbsp;4.3.0.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.introduction.php
| title = Command line usage: Introduction
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = php.net
| archive-date = 2021-03-21
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210321035330/https://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.introduction.php
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> The main focus of this SAPI is developing [[command line interface|shell]] applications using PHP. There are quite a few differences between the CLI SAPI and other SAPIs, although they do share many of the same behaviours.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.differences.php
| title = Command line usage: Differences to other SAPIs
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = php.net
}}</ref>

PHP has a direct module interface called SAPI for different web servers;<ref name="php.net-6">{{cite web
|url = https://php.net/manual/en/install.general.php|title = General Installation Considerations|access-date = 2013-09-22|website = php.net}}</ref> in case of PHP&nbsp;5 and Apache&nbsp;2.0 on Windows, it is provided in form of a [[Dynamic-link library|DLL]] file called {{Mono|php5apache2.dll}},<ref>{{cite web|url = https://php.net/manual/en/install.windows.apache2.php|title = PHP: Apache 2.x on Microsoft Windows|access-date = 2013-09-22|website = php.net|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130926122011/http://php.net/manual/en/install.windows.apache2.php|archive-date = 2013-09-26}}</ref> which is a module that, among other functions, provides an interface between PHP and the web server, implemented in a form that the server understands. This form is what is known as a SAPI.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

There are different kinds of SAPIs for various web server extensions. For example, in addition to those listed above, other SAPIs for the PHP language include the Common Gateway Interface and command-line interface.<ref name="php.net-6" /><ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.introduction.php|title = Command line usage: Introduction|access-date = 2013-09-22|website = php.net|archive-date = 2021-03-21|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210321035330/https://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.introduction.php|url-status = dead}}</ref>

PHP can also be used for writing desktop [[graphical user interface]] (GUI) applications, by using the {{cite web
| url = https://github.com/cztomczak/phpdesktop
| title = PHP Desktop
| website = [[GitHub]]
}} or discontinued [[PHP-GTK]] extension. PHP-GTK is not included in the official PHP distribution,<ref name="php.net-4" /> and as an extension, it can be used only with PHP versions 5.1.0 and newer. The most common way of installing PHP-GTK is by compiling it from the source code.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://gtk.php.net/manual/en/tutorials.installation.php
| title = Installing PHP-GTK 2
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = php.net
| archive-date = 2013-12-12
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131212093441/http://gtk.php.net/manual/en/tutorials.installation.php
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

When PHP is installed and used in [[Cloud computing|cloud]] environments, [[software development kit]]s (SDKs) are provided for using cloud-specific features. <ref>{{Cite web |last1=Vinit Sharma |first1= |title=What is Cloud Computing? {{!}} How to Integrate PHP with AWS |url=https://www.clariontech.com/blog/how-to-integrate-aws-with-php-applications |url-status=live |access-date=2025-12-06 |publisher=Clarion Technologies |language=en}}</ref> For example:
* [[Amazon Web Services]] provides the AWS SDK for PHP<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aws.amazon.com/sdkforphp/ |title=AWS SDK for PHP |website=aws.amazon.com |access-date=2014-03-06}}</ref>
* [[Microsoft Azure]] can be used with the Windows Azure SDK for PHP.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.interoperabilitybridges.com/projects/php-sdk-for-windows-azure.aspx |title=Windows Azure SDK for PHP&nbsp;— Interoperability Bridges and Labs Center |website=interoperabilitybridges.com |access-date=2014-03-06 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320152702/http://www.interoperabilitybridges.com/projects/php-sdk-for-windows-azure.aspx |archive-date=2014-03-20 }}</ref>

Numerous configuration options are supported, affecting both core PHP features and extensions.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.php
| title = Runtime configuration: Table of contents
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = php.net
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.list.php
| title = php.ini directives: List of php.ini directives
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = php.net
}}</ref> Configuration file <code>php.ini</code> is searched for in different locations, depending on the way PHP is used.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.file.php
| title = Runtime configuration: The configuration file
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = PHP.net
}}</ref> The configuration file is split into various sections,<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.sections.php
| title = php.ini directives: List of php.ini sections
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = PHP.net
}}</ref> while some of the configuration options can be also set within the web server configuration.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.changes.modes.php
| title = Runtime configuration: Where a configuration setting may be set
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = PHP.net
}}</ref>

== Use ==
[[File:LAMP software bundle.svg|thumb|upright=2|A broad overview of the LAMP software bundle, displayed here together with [[Squid (software)|Squid]] ]]

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to [[server-side scripting|server-side]] [[web development]], in which case PHP generally runs on a [[web server]]. Any PHP code in a requested file is [[execution (computing)|executed]] by the PHP runtime, usually to create [[dynamic web page]] content or dynamic images used on websites or elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://php.net/manual/en/book.image.php |title=PHP Manual Image Processing and GD; |publisher= php.net |access-date=2011-04-09}}</ref> It can also be used for [[command-line]] scripting and [[client-side]] [[graphical user interface]] (GUI) applications. PHP can be deployed on most web servers, many [[operating system]]s and [[computing platform|platforms]], and can be used with many [[relational database management system]]s (RDBMS). Most [[web hosting]] providers support PHP for use by their clients. It is available free of charge, and the PHP Group provides the complete source code for users to build, customize and extend for their own use.<ref name="O'Reilly-2001">{{cite web|access-date=2008-02-25|url=http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2001/05/03/php_foundations.html|title=Embedding PHP in HTML|publisher=O'Reilly|date=2001-05-03|archive-date=2008-02-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219180226/http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2001/05/03/php_foundations.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Scheme dynamic page en.svg|thumb|upright=2|Dynamic web page: example of [[server-side scripting]] (PHP and MySQL)]]
Originally designed to create dynamic [[web page]]s, PHP now focuses mainly on [[server-side scripting]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://webmaster.iu.edu/PHPlanguage/index.shtml|title=PHP Server-Side Scripting Language|publisher=[[Indiana University]]|access-date=2008-02-25|date=2007-04-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121223739/http://webmaster.iu.edu/tools-and-guides/programming-languages/php.phtml|archive-date=2016-01-21}}</ref> and it is similar to other server-side scripting languages that provide dynamic content from a web server to a [[client (computing)|client]], such as [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[Microsoft]]'s [[ASP.NET]], [[Sun Microsystems]]' [[JavaServer Pages]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/jspservlet.html|title=JavaServer Pages Technology&nbsp;— JavaServer Pages Comparing Methods for Server-Side Dynamic Content White Paper|publisher=Sun Microsystems|access-date=2008-02-25}}</ref> and <code>[[mod_perl]]</code><!-- do not remove the underscore from mod_perl: it is part of the name -->. PHP has also attracted the development of many [[software framework]]s that provide building blocks and a design structure to promote [[rapid application development]] (RAD).{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} Some of these include [[PRADO (framework)|PRADO]], [[CakePHP]], [[Symfony]], [[CodeIgniter]], [[Laravel]], [[Yii Framework]], [[Phalcon (framework)|Phalcon]] and [[Laminas]], offering features similar to other [[web framework]]s.

The [[LAMP (software bundle)|LAMP architecture]] has become popular in the web industry as a way of deploying web applications.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-5waystunelamp/index.html|title=Five simple ways to tune your LAMP application| website=[[IBM]] |date=2011-01-25}}</ref> PHP is commonly used as the ''P'' in this bundle alongside [[Linux]], [[Apache HTTP Server|Apache]] and [[MySQL]], although the ''P'' may also refer to [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[Perl]], or some mix of the three. Similar packages, [[WAMP (software bundle)|WAMP]] and [[MAMP]], are also available for [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and [[macOS]], with the first letter standing for the respective operating system. Although both PHP and Apache are provided as part of the macOS base install, users of these packages seek a simpler installation mechanism that can be more easily kept up to date.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

For specific and more advanced usage scenarios, PHP offers a well-defined and documented way for writing custom extensions in [[C (programming language)|C]] or [[C++]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/internals2.structure.php
| title = PHP at the core: Extension structure
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = PHP.net
| archive-date = 2013-09-26
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130926082102/http://www.php.net/manual/en/internals2.structure.php
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/internals2.counter.php
| title = PHP at the core: The "counter" Extension&nbsp;– A Continuing Example
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = PHP.net
| archive-date = 2013-09-26
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130926082106/http://www.php.net/manual/en/internals2.counter.php
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://devzone.zend.com/303/extension-writing-part-i-introduction-to-php-and-zend/
| title = Extension Writing Part I: Introduction to PHP and Zend
| date = 2005-03-01
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = [[Zend Technologies]]
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130924233638/http://devzone.zend.com/303/extension-writing-part-i-introduction-to-php-and-zend/
| archive-date = 2013-09-24
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://devzone.zend.com/317/extension-writing-part-ii-parameters-arrays-and-zvals/
| title = Extension Writing Part II: Parameters, Arrays, and ZVALs
| date = 2005-06-06
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = [[Zend Technologies]]
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130926091658/http://devzone.zend.com/317/extension-writing-part-ii-parameters-arrays-and-zvals/
| archive-date = 2013-09-26
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://devzone.zend.com/318/extension-writing-part-ii-parameters-arrays-and-zvals-continued/
| title = Extension Writing Part II: Parameters, Arrays, and ZVALs (continued)
| date = 2005-06-06
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = [[Zend Technologies]]
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130926091655/http://devzone.zend.com/318/extension-writing-part-ii-parameters-arrays-and-zvals-continued/
| archive-date = 2013-09-26
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://devzone.zend.com/446/extension-writing-part-iii-resources/
| title = Extension Writing Part III: Resources
| date = 2006-05-12
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = [[Zend Technologies]]
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130926091645/http://devzone.zend.com/446/extension-writing-part-iii-resources/
| archive-date = 2013-09-26
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://devzone.zend.com/1435/wrapping-c-classes-in-a-php-extension/
| title = Wrapping C++ Classes in a PHP Extension
| date = 2009-04-22
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = [[Zend Technologies]]
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130920011549/http://devzone.zend.com/1435/wrapping-c-classes-in-a-php-extension/
| archive-date = 2013-09-20
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=November 2023|reason=Since this is a broad generalization, secondary sources are required}} Besides extending the language itself in form of additional [[Library (computing)|libraries]], extensions are providing a way for improving execution speed where it is critical and there is room for improvements by using a true [[compiled language]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://stackoverflow.com/q/1110682
| title = Extending PHP with C++?
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = [[Stack Overflow]]
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = https://stackoverflow.com/q/1502244
| title = How can I use C++ code to interact with PHP?
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = [[Stack Overflow]]
}}</ref> PHP also offers well-defined ways for embedding itself into other software projects. That way PHP can be easily used as an internal [[scripting language]] for another project, also providing tight interfacing with the project's specific internal [[data structure]]s.<ref>{{cite book
| title = Extending and Embedding PHP
| first = Sara | last = Golemon
| year = 2006
| publisher = Sams | isbn = 978-0-672-32704-9
}}</ref>

PHP received mixed reviews due to lacking support for [[Multithreading (software)|multithreading]] at the core language level,<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=46919
| title = Request #46919: Multithreading
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = PHP.net
}}</ref> though using threads is made possible by the "pthreads" [[PHP Extension Community Library|PECL]] extension.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/intro.pthreads.php
| title = pthreads: Introduction (PHP Manual)
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| website = PHP.net
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://pecl.php.net/package/pthreads |title=PECL :: Package :: pthreads |website=pecl.php.net |access-date=2014-02-09}}</ref>

A command line interface, php-cli, and two [[ActiveX]] [[Windows Script Host]] scripting engines for PHP have been produced.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Popularity and usage statistics ===

PHP is used for [[Web content management system]]s including [[MediaWiki]],<ref>{{cite web|date=2010-01-25|title=Manual:Installation requirements#PHP|url=http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Manual:Installation_requirements&oldid=299556#PHP|access-date=2010-02-26|publisher=MediaWiki|quote=PHP is the programming language in which MediaWiki is written [...]}}</ref> [[WordPress]],<ref>{{cite web|title=About WordPress|url=http://wordpress.org/about/|access-date=2010-02-26|quote=WordPress was [...] built on PHP}}</ref> [[Joomla]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Kempkens|first=Alex|title=Joomla!&nbsp;— Content Management System to build websites & apps|url=http://www.joomla.org/about-joomla.html}}</ref> [[Drupal]],<ref>{{cite web|title=PHP and Drupal|date=16 September 2007|url=http://drupal.org/node/176052|access-date=2010-06-13|publisher=Drupal.org|archive-date=2010-02-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100208205523/http://drupal.org/node/176052|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Moodle]],<ref>{{cite web|title=About|url=http://docs.moodle.org/en/About_Moodle|access-date=2009-12-20|publisher=Moodle.org|archive-date=2010-01-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111055644/http://docs.moodle.org/en/About_Moodle|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[eZ Publish]], [[eZ Platform]], and [[SilverStripe]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Server requirements of SilverStripe|url=http://doc.silverstripe.org/framework/en/installation/server-requirements|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128063118/http://doc.silverstripe.org/framework/en/installation/server-requirements|archive-date=28 November 2014|access-date=13 October 2014|quote=SilverStripe requires PHP&nbsp;5.3.2+}}</ref>

{{As of|2013|1}}, PHP was used in more than 240&nbsp;million [[website]]s (39% of those sampled) and was installed on 2.1&nbsp;million [[web server]]s.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2013/01/31/php-just-grows-grows.html | title=PHP just grows & grows | date=2013-01-31 | access-date=2013-04-01 | author=Ide, Andy}}</ref>

{{As of|2025|12|20}} (one month after PHP&nbsp;8.5's release), PHP is used as the server-side programming language on 72.5% of websites where the language could be determined; PHP&nbsp;8 is the most used version of the language with 54.7% of websites using PHP being on that version, while 35.9% use PHP&nbsp;7, 9.3% use PHP 5 and 0.1% use PHP 4.<ref name="W3Techs – World Wide Web Technology Surveys">{{cite web |title=Usage statistics of PHP for websites |url=https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php |website=W3Techs – World Wide Web Technology Surveys |publisher=W3Techs |access-date=20 December 2025}}</ref>

{{Stacked bar
|A1=45.3|T1=PHP&nbsp;8<br />54.7%|C1=linear-gradient(to right, #66FF66 0.1%, #D4F4B4 6.7%, #FEF8C6 20.9%, #FFCC66, #FF7800, #FF3300); <!-- Please keep this color scheme for PHP 8: it reflects the actual and security of each branch -->
|A2=43.7|T2=PHP&nbsp;7<br />35.9%|C2=linear-gradient(to right, #dc2626 73.8%, #ef4444, #f87171, #fca5a5, #fecaca);
|A3=10.9|T3=PHP&nbsp;5<br />9.3%|C3=linear-gradient(to right, #075985 54.9%, #0369a1, #0284c7, #0ea5e9, #38bdf8, #7dd3fc, #bae6fd);
|A4=0.1|T4=PHP&nbsp;4<br />0.1%|C4=#d4d4d4;
}}

{{Pie chart
 |radius = 160
<!-- PHP version 8 (54.7%) -->
 |value1 = 0.05  <!-- Formula: Version 8.5 is used by 0.1% of all the websites who use PHP version 8, so 54.7 / 100 * 0.1 = 0.05 -->
 |label1 = PHP 8.5: 0.1% of PHP 8
 |color1 = #66FF66 <!-- Please keep this color scheme for PHP 8: it reflects the actual and security of each branch -->

 |value2 = 3.66  <!-- Formula: Version 8.4 is used by 6.7% of all the websites who use PHP version 8, so 54.7 / 100 * 6.7 = 3.66 -->
 |label2 = PHP 8.4: 6.7% of PHP 8
 |color2 = #D4F4B4 <!-- Please keep this color scheme for PHP 8: it reflects the actual and security of each branch -->

 |value3 = 11.43 <!-- Formula: Version 8.3 is used by 20.9% of all the websites who use PHP version 8, so 45.3 / 100 * 20.9 = 11.43 -->
 |label3 = PHP 8.3: 20.9% of PHP 8
 |color3 = #FEF8C6 <!-- Please keep this color scheme for PHP 8: it reflects the actual and security of each branch -->

 |value4 = 21.11
 |label4 = PHP 8.2: 38.6% of PHP 8
 |color4 = #FFCC66 <!-- Please keep this color scheme for PHP 8: it reflects the actual and security of each branch -->

 |value5 = 12.69
 |label5 = PHP 8.1: 23.2% of PHP 8
 |color5 = #FF7800 <!-- Please keep this color scheme for PHP 8: it reflects the actual and security of each branch -->

 |value6 = 5.80
 |label6 = PHP 8.0: 10.6% of PHP 8
 |color6 = #FF3300 <!-- Please keep this color scheme for PHP 8: it reflects the actual and security of each branch -->

<!-- PHP version 7 (35.9%) -->
 |value7 = 26.49 <!-- Formula: Version 7.4 is used by 74.3% of all the websites who use PHP version 7, so 73.8 / 100 * 35.9 = 26.49 -->
 |label7 = PHP 7.4: 73.8% of PHP 7
 |color7 = #dc2626

 |value8 = 3.84
 |label8 = PHP 7.3: 10.7% of PHP 7
 |color8 = #ef4444

 |value9 = 2.98
 |label9 = PHP 7.2: 8.30% of PHP 7
 |color9 = #f87171

 |value10 = 1.22
 |label10 = PHP 7.1: 3.40% of PHP 7
 |color10 = #fca5a5

 |value11 = 1.33
 |label11 = PHP 7.0: 3.70% of PHP 7
 |color11 = #fecaca

<!-- PHP version 5 (9.3%) -->
 |value12 = 5.1057
 |label12 = PHP 5.6: 54.9% of PHP 5
 |color12 = #075985

 |value13 = 1.3950
 |label13 = PHP 5.5: 15.0% of PHP 5
 |color13 = #0369a1

 |value14 = 1.3950
 |label14 = PHP 5.4: 15.0% of PHP 5
 |color14 = #0284c7

 |value15 = 0.7440
 |label15 = PHP 5.3: 8.00% of PHP 5
 |color15 = #0ea5e9

 |value16 = 0.6231
 |label16 = PHP 5.2: 6.70% of PHP 5
 |color16 = #38bdf8

 |value17 = 0.0372
 |label17 = PHP 5.1: 0.40% of PHP 5
 |color17 = #7dd3fc

 |value18 = 0
 |label18 = PHP 5.0: less than 0.1% of PHP 5
 |color18 = #bae6fd

<!-- PHP version 4 (0.1%) -->
 |value19 = 0.0739
 |label19 = PHP 4.4: 73.9% of PHP 4
 |color19 = #525252

 |value20 = 0.0220
 |label20 = PHP 4.3: 22.0% of PHP 4
 |color20 = #737373

 |value21 = 0.0027
 |label21 = PHP 4.2: 2.70% of PHP 4
 |color21 = #a3a3a3

 |value22 = 0.0007
 |label22 = PHP 4.1: 0.70% of PHP 4
 |color22 = #d4d4d4

 |value23 = 0.0001
 |label23 = PHP 4.0: 0.10% of PHP 4
 |color23 = #e5e5e5
 |caption = Usage share of PHP versions on 20 December 2025:<br /> one month after PHP 8.5's release<ref name="W3Techs – World Wide Web Technology Surveys" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/4|title=Usage Statistics and Market Share of PHP Version 4 for Websites, December 2025|website=w3techs.com}}</ref><ref name="w3techs.com">{{Cite web|url=https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/5|title=Usage Statistics and Market Share of PHP Version 5 for Websites, December 2025|website=w3techs.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/7|title=Usage Statistics and Market Share of PHP Version 7 for Websites, December 2025|website=w3techs.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/8|title=Usage Statistics and Market Share of PHP Version 8 for Websites, December 2025|website=w3techs.com}}</ref>
}}

== <span id="REGISTER-GLOBALS">Security</span> ==
In 2019, 11% of all vulnerabilities listed by the [[National Vulnerability Database]] were linked to PHP;<ref name="National Vulnerability Database">{{cite web | url=https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/search/statistics?form_type=Basic&results_type=statistics&query=PHP&queryType=phrase&search_type=all | title=National Vulnerability Database (NVD) Search Vulnerabilities Statistics | access-date=2019-11-22}}</ref> historically, about 30% of all vulnerabilities listed since 1996 in this database are linked to PHP. Technical security flaws of the language itself or of its core libraries are not frequent (22 in 2009, about 1% of the total although PHP applies to about 20% of programs listed).<ref name="PHP-2012">{{cite web
| url=http://www.coelho.net/php_cve.html
| title=PHP-related vulnerabilities on the National Vulnerability Database
| date=2012-07-05
| access-date=2013-04-01
| archive-date=2009-06-28
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628173101/http://www.coelho.net/php_cve.html
| url-status=dead
}}</ref> Recognizing that programmers make mistakes, some languages include [[taint checking]] to automatically detect the lack of [[data validation|input validation]] which induces many issues. Such a feature has been proposed for PHP in the past, but either been rejected or the proposal abandoned.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://derickrethans.nl/files/meeting-notes.html#sand-boxing-or-taint-mode <!-- formerly at https://php.net/~derick/meeting-notes.html#sand-boxing-or-taint-mode -->
| title=Developer Meeting Notes, Nov. 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url = http://devzone.zend.com/article/2798-Zend-Weekly-Summaries-Issue-368#Heading1
|title = Taint mode decision, November 2007
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090226124957/http://devzone.zend.com/article/2798-Zend-Weekly-Summaries-Issue-368#Heading1
|archive-date = 2009-02-26
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/taint|title=PHP: rfc:taint|website=wiki.php.net}}</ref>

Third-party projects such as [[Suhosin]]<ref>{{cite web
| title=Hardened-PHP Project
| url=http://www.hardened-php.net
| date=2008-08-15
| access-date=2019-08-22
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224012812/http://www.hardened-php.net/
| archive-date=2019-02-24
| url-status=dead
}}</ref> and Snuffleupagus<ref>{{cite web|title=Snuffleupagus Documentation|url=https://snuffleupagus.readthedocs.io/}}</ref> aim to remove or change dangerous parts of the language.

Historically, old versions of PHP had some configuration parameters and default values for such runtime settings that made some PHP applications prone to security issues. Among these, <code>[[magic quotes|magic_quotes_gpc]]</code> and <code>register_globals</code><ref name="PHP Manual-3">{{cite web
| url = https://php.net/manual/en/security.globals.php
| title = Security: Using Register Globals
| work = PHP Manual
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = PHP.net
| archive-date = 2013-09-27
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130927161000/http://php.net/manual/en/security.globals.php
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> configuration directives were the best known; the latter made any URL parameters become PHP variables, opening a path for serious security vulnerabilities by allowing an attacker to set the value of any uninitialized global variable and interfere with the execution of a PHP script. Support for "[[magic quotes]]" and "register globals" settings has been deprecated since PHP&nbsp;5.3.0, and removed from PHP&nbsp;5.4.0.<ref name="PHP Manual">{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/security.magicquotes.php
| title = Magic Quotes
| work = PHP Manual
| access-date = 2014-01-17
| publisher = PHP.net
| archive-date = 2014-02-08
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140208000607/http://www.php.net/manual/en/security.magicquotes.php
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

Another example for the potential runtime-settings vulnerability comes from failing to disable PHP execution (for example by using the <code>engine</code> configuration directive)<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/apache.configuration.php#ini.engine
| title = 'engine' configuration directive
| work = PHP: Runtime Configuration
| access-date = 2014-02-13
| publisher = PHP.net
}}</ref> for the directory where uploaded files are stored; enabling it can result in the execution of malicious code embedded within the uploaded files.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://devzone.zend.com/1008/php-security-exploit-with-gif-images/
| title = PHP Security Exploit With GIF Images
| date = 2007-06-22
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130927162421/http://devzone.zend.com/1008/php-security-exploit-with-gif-images/
| archive-date = 2013-09-27
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/67-PHP-security-exploit-with-GIF-images.html
| title = PHP security exploit with GIF images
| date = 2007-06-20 | access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = PHP Classes blog
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url = http://ha.ckers.org/blog/20070604/passing-malicious-php-through-getimagesize/
|title = Passing Malicious PHP Through getimagesize()
|date = 2007-06-04
|access-date = 2013-09-22
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130921222424/http://ha.ckers.org/blog/20070604/passing-malicious-php-through-getimagesize
|archive-date = 2013-09-21
}}</ref> The best practice is to either locate the image directory outside of the document root available to the web server and serve it via an intermediary script or disable PHP execution for the directory which stores the uploaded files.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Also, enabling the dynamic loading of PHP extensions (via <code>enable_dl</code> configuration directive)<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php#ini.enable-dl
| title = 'enable_dl' configuration directive
| work = PHP: Runtime Configuration
| access-date = 2014-02-13
| publisher = PHP.net
}}</ref> in a [[shared web hosting]] environment can lead to security issues.<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://php.net/manual/en/function.dl.php
| title = PHP function reference: dl()
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = PHP.net
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=514779
| title = My host won't fix their Trojan
| access-date = 2013-09-22
| publisher = WebHosting Talk
}}</ref>

Implied [[type conversion]]s that result in different values being treated as equal, sometimes against the programmer's intent, can lead to security issues. For example, the result of the comparison {{nowrap|1=<code>'0e1234' == '0'</code>}} is <code>true</code>, because strings that are parsable as numbers are converted to numbers; in this case, the first compared value is treated as [[scientific notation]] having the value ({{val|0|e=1234}}), which is zero. Errors like this resulted in authentication vulnerabilities in [[Simple Machines Forum]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://raz0r.name/vulnerabilities/simple-machines-forum/|title= Simple Machines Forum <= 2.0.3 Admin Password Reset|author=Raz0r| newspaper=Raz0R.name — Web Application Security |date = 25 January 2013}}</ref> [[Typo3]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.nibblesec.org/2010/12/typo3-sa-2010-020-typo3-sa-2010-022.html|title=TYPO3-SA-2010-020, TYPO3-SA-2010-022 EXPLAINED|author=Nibble Security}}</ref> and [[phpBB]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ahack.ru/articles/cryptographic-security-and-php-applications.htm |title=Криптостойкость и небезопасное сравнение |website=ahack.ru |language=ru |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704214011/https://ahack.ru/articles/cryptographic-security-and-php-applications.htm |archive-date=4 July 2017 }}</ref> when [[MD5]] [[password hashing|password hashes]] were compared. The recommended way is to use <code>[https://secure.php.net/hash_equals hash_equals()]</code> (for [[timing attack]] safety), <code>[[strcmp]]</code> or the identity operator (<code>===</code>), as {{nowrap|1=<code>'0e1234' === '0'</code>}} results in <code>false</code>.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In a 2013 analysis of over 170,000 [[website defacement]]s, published by [[Zone-H]], the most frequently (53%) used technique was the exploitation of [[file inclusion vulnerability]], mostly related to insecure usage of the PHP language constructs <code>include</code>, <code>require</code>, and <code>allow_url_fopen</code>.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://ipsec.pl/web-application-security/most-common-attacks-web-applications.html | title=Most common attacks on web applications | publisher=IPSec.pl | date=2013 | access-date=2015-04-15 | first=Pawel |last=Krawczyk | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415150236/https://ipsec.pl/web-application-security/most-common-attacks-web-applications.html | archive-date=2015-04-15 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://ipsec.pl/application-security/2013/so-what-are-most-critical-application-flaws-new-owasp-top-10.html | title=So what are the "most critical" application flaws? On new OWASP Top 10 | publisher=IPSec.pl | date=2013 | access-date=2015-04-15 |first=Pawel |last=Krawczyk }}</ref>

=== Cryptographic security ===
PHP includes <code>rand()</code><ref>{{cite web |title=PHP: Rand – Manual |url=https://php.net/rand}}</ref> and <code>mt_rand()</code><ref>{{cite web |title=PHP: Mt_rand - Manual |url=https://php.net/mt_rand}}</ref> functions which use a [[pseudorandom number generator]], and are not cryptographically secure. As of version 8.1, the <code>random_int()</code> function is included, which uses a cryptographically secure source of randomness provided by the system.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://php.net/random_int | title=PHP: Random_int – Manual }}</ref>

There are two attacks that can be performed over PHP entropy sources: "seed attack" and "state recovery attack".{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} As of 2012, a $250 [[Graphics processing unit|GPU]] can perform up to 2{{sup|30}} [[MD5]] calculations per second, while a $750 GPU can perform four times as many calculations at the same time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity12/technical-sessions/presentation/argyros|title=I Forgot Your Password: Randomness Attacks Against PHP Applications|website=usenix.org|publisher=[[USENIX]]|first1=George|last1=Argyros|first2=Aggelos|last2=Kiayias|date=10 August 2012|access-date=19 April 2024}}</ref> In combination with a "[[birthday attack]]" this can lead to serious security vulnerabilities.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Long-term support ===
The PHP development team provides official bug fixes for two years following release of each minor version followed by another two years where only security fixes are released.<!-- <ref name="PHP-2011" /> link to outdated RFC --><ref name="rfc-release-cycle-update">{{cite web | url=https://wiki.php.net/rfc/release_cycle_update | title=PHP: RFC:release_cycle_update }}</ref> After this, the release is considered [[Software release life cycle#End-of-life|end of life]] and no longer officially supported.

Extended long-term support beyond this is available from commercial providers, such as [[Zend (company)|Zend]] and others<ref>{{Cite web |title=PHP Support for PHP 7.2 – 8.0 {{!}} PHP LTS {{!}} Zend by Perforce |url=https://www.zend.com/services/php-long-term-support |access-date=2024-05-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Pagely PHP Long Term Support Page |url=https://pagely.com/solutions/php-long-term-support/ |access-date=2024-09-14 |website=Pagely |language=en-US}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Computer programming|Free and open-source software}}

{{Div col|colwidth=25em}}
* [[Comparison of programming languages]]
* [[List of Apache–MySQL–PHP packages]]
* [[List of PHP accelerators]]
* [[List of PHP editors]]
* [[List of PHP software and tools]]
* [[PEAR]] (PHP Extension and Application Repository)
* [[PHP accelerator]]
* [[Template processor]]
* [[XAMPP]] (free and open-source cross-platform web server solution stack package)
* [[Zend Server]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-PHP.ogg|date=2011-11-23}}
* {{cite journal |quote=What's the Absolute Minimum I Must Know About PHP? |url= https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/ |title=What is Code? |first=Paul |last=Ford |date=June 11, 2015 |journal=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]]}}

== External links ==
* {{Official website}}

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