Introduction to PHP and MySQL. Free online PHP and MySQL Web Database Programming Tutorial...

What is PHP?
PHP stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". It is a server-side scripting language. PHP scripts are executed on the server and it is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. The main goal of the language is to allow web developers write dynamically generated web pages quickly. Its syntax is very similar to C / C++ and it has support for almost all major OS, web-servers, and databases. PHP is an open source software (OSS) and is free to download and use. PHP supported databases include MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL and Generic ODBC etc.

PHP is a very widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitor web technologies such as Microsoft's ASP and ASP.NET. PHP is often used together with Apache (web server) on various operating systems. It also supports ISAPI and can be used with Microsoft's IIS on Windows.

What is MySQL?
MySQL is a powerful database server. Like PHP it is also an open source software. MySQL is ideal for both small and enterprise level applications, desktop or web based. MySQL supports standard SQL language. It is available on a number of platforms.

Why PHP + MySQL?
Primarily because:
• Both PHP and MySQL are cross-platform. Both can run on different platforms like Windows, Linux and Unix etc.
• Both are open source and freely available.
• Both PHP and MySQL are simple, but powerful, and are very easy to learn.

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