OpensourceChapter1

What tags are used to surround php code?

<?php

?>

What extension should a php file have?

.php

What does a page's encoding refer to? What impact does the encoding have on the page?

A way to dictate what characters can be represented in a file. If you don't set the encoding in the options of your text editor or ide (alternatively this can be done when you save the file) you may see odd characters when you view your scripts and Web pages in a browser.

What php functions or language constructs can you use to send data to the Web browser?

The most common language constructs which are technically not functions that are for sending data to the Web browser are echo and print.

How does using single versus double quotation marks differ in creating or printing settings?

You cannot print variables with single quotation marks. Values enclosed within double quotation marks will be interpreted.

What does it mean to escape a character in a string?

These are unique sequences used in strings to interpret values to be sent to the Web browser.

What are three comment syntaxes in php? When choosing one can be used over multiple lines?

The pound or number symbol, and two forward slashes each cause php to ignore everything that follows until the end of the line. To comment multiple lines of text surround the comment with forward slash and asterisk at the beginning and asterisk and forward slash at the end. 

What character do all variable names begin with? What characters can come next? What other characters can be used with variable names?

A variable name must start with a dollar sign, and can contains combination of numbers letters and the underscore. the first character after the dollar sign cannot be a number.

Are variable names case sensitive?

In php variable names are case sensitive.

What is the assignments operator?

The assignments operator is an equal sign.

How do you create a string variable?

To create a string simply assign a string value to a variable name.

What is the concatenation operator? What is the concatenation assignments operator?

The concatenation operator is the period. The concatenation assignments operator is the period followed by the equal sign.

How are constants defined and used?

Constants can only be assigned a scalar value like a string or number, and cannot be changed. They are a temporary storage tool in php distinct from variables. To create one we use the define() function.