PHP, which stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor", is an open-source HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with some unique features thrown in. The main goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly. You can do many more with PHP. Read on, and see.
This manual tries to give you an overview of PHP's capabilites, the functions provided, and features instructions about how to solve some common problems. The main focus of this manual is to give a reference for functions, so you can easily find syntax information and usage examples. We also provide details about the building blocks of PHP.
We provide this manual is several formats and languages. To read more about the formats, and how we generate them, read the More about this Manual appendix. You can find information about used conventions, and further suggested reading in that part.
You can download actual versions of this manual in several formats at http://www.php.net/docs.php. The downloads are updated as the content changes.