What is PHP's role in web development

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open-source server-side scripting language specifically designed for web development. It is particularly effective for creating dynamic and interactive web pages. PHP can be embedded directly into HTML code, making it easy for developers to generate content dynamically based on user input or database information.

As a server-side language, PHP is executed on the server, and the result is sent to the client's browser as plain HTML. This allows developers to create web applications that can handle various tasks such as form submissions, session management, data storage, and more.

Here's a simple example of a PHP script that greets users based on the time of day:

<?php date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York'); $hour = date('H'); if ($hour < 12) { echo 'Good Morning!'; } elseif ($hour < 18) { echo 'Good Afternoon!'; } else { echo 'Good Evening!'; } ?>

PHP web development server-side scripting dynamic content interactive web pages