PHP Interview Questions and Answers

Written by Bhavya Sri | Jun 9, 2017 10:32:33 AM

Q1. What is PHP?

Ans: PHP is a server side scripting language commonly used for web applications. PHP has many frameworks and cms for creating websites.Even a non technical person can cretae sites using its CMS.WordPress,osCommerce are the famus CMS of php.It is also an object oriented programming language like java,C-sharp etc.It is very easy for learning.

Q2. What are the common usage of PHP?

Ans: Common uses of PHP −

PHP performs system functions, i.e. from files on a system it can create, open, read, write, and close them.
PHP can handle forms, i.e. gather data from files, save data to a file, thru email you can send data, return data to the user.
You add, delete, modify elements within your database thru PHP.
Access cookies variables and set cookies.
Using PHP, you can restrict users to access some pages of your website.
It can encrypt data.

Q3. In how many ways you can embed PHP code in an HTML page?

Ans: All PHP code must be included inside one of the three special markup tags ate are recognised by the PHP Parser.

<?php PHP code goes here ?> <? PHP code goes here ?> <script language="php"> PHP code goes here </script> Most common tag is the <?php...

Q4. What is the use of "echo" in php?

Ans: It is used to print a data in the webpage, Example: <?php echo 'Car insurance'; ?> , The following code print the text in the webpage

Q5. How to include a file to a php page?

Ans: We can include a file using "include() " or "require()" function with file path as its parameter.

Q6. require_once(), require(), include().What is difference between them?

Ans: require() includes and evaluates a specific file, while require_once() does that only if it has not been included before (on the same page). So, require_once() is recommended to use when you want to include a file where you have a lot of functions for example. This way you make sure you don't include the file more times and you will not get the "function re-declared" error.

Q7. Differences between GET and POST methods ?

Ans: We can send 1024 bytes using GET method but POST method can transfer large amount of data and POST is the secure method than GET method .

Q8. What is the difference between Session and Cookie?

Ans: The main difference between sessions and cookies is that sessions are stored on the server, and cookies are stored on the user's computers in the text file format. Cookies can't hold multiple variable while session can hold multiple variables..We can set expiry for a cookie,The session only remains active as long as the browser is open.Users do not have access to the data you stored in Session,Since it is stored in the server.Session is mainly used for login/logout purpose while cookies using for user activity tracking

Q9. What is the use of explode() function ?

Ans: Syntax : array explode ( string $delimiter , string $string [, int $limit ] );
This function breaks a string into an array. Each of the array elements is a substring of string formed by splitting it on boundaries formed by the string delimiter.

Q10. What is the importance of "method" attribute in a html form?

Ans: "method" attribute determines how to send the form-data into the server.There are two methods, get and post. The default method is get.This sends the form information by appending it on the URL.Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the amount of information to send.

Q11. Define Object-Oriented Methodology

Ans: Object orientation is a software/Web development methodology that is based on the modeling a real world system.An object is the core concept involved in the object orientation. An object is the copy of the real world enity.An object oriented model is a collection of objects and its inter-relationships

Q12. Difference between mysql_connect and mysql_pconnect?

Ans: There is a good page in the php manual on the subject, in short mysql_pconnect() makes a persistent connection to the database which means a SQL link that do not close when the execution of your script ends. mysql_connect()provides only for the databasenewconnection while using mysql_pconnect , the function would first try to find a (persistent) link that's already open with the same host, username and password. If one is found, an identifier for it will be returned instead of opening a new connection... the connection to the SQL server will not be closed when the execution of the script ends. Instead, the link will remain open for future use.

Q13. What are the different types of errors in PHP ?

Ans: Here are three basic types of runtime errors in PHP:

Notices: These are trivial, non-critical errors that PHP encounters while executing a script - for example, accessing a variable that has not yet been defined. By default, such errors are not displayed to the user at all - although you can change this default behavior.
Warnings: These are more serious errors - for example, attempting to include() a file which does not exist. By default, these errors are displayed to the user, but they do not result in script termination.
Fatal errors: These are critical errors - for example, instantiating an object of a non-existent class, or calling a non-existent function. These errors cause the immediate termination of the script, and PHP's default behavior is to display them to the user when they take place.

Q14. What is PEAR?

Ans: PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components.The project seeks to provide a structured library of code, maintain a system for distributing code and for managing code packages, and promote a standard coding style.PEAR is broken into three classes: PEAR Core Components, PEAR Packages, and PECL Packages. The Core Components include the base classes of PEAR and PEAR_Error, along with database, HTTP, logging, and e-mailing functions. The PEAR Packages include functionality providing for authentication, networking, and file system features, as well as tools for working with XML and HTML templates.

Q15. Distinguish between urlencode and urldecode?

Ans: This method is best when encode a string to used in a query part of a url. it returns a string in which all non-alphanumeric characters except -_. have replece with a percentege(%) sign . the urldecode->Decodes url to encode string as any %and other symbole are decode by the use of the urldecode() function.

Q16. How can we increase the execution time of a PHP script?

Ans:

Default time allowed for the PHP scripts to execute is 30 secs mentioned in the php.ini file. The function used is set_time_limit(int sec). If the value passed is ‘0’, it takes unlimited time. It should be noted that if the default timer is set to 30 sec, and 20 sec is specified in set_time_limit(), the script will run for 45 seconds.
This time can be increased by modifying the max_execution_time in secs. The time must be changed keeping the environment of the server. This is because modifying the execution time will affect all the sites hosted by the server.

The script execution time can be increased by

>Using sleep() function in PHP script

>Using set_time_limit() function

>The default limit is 30 seconds. The time limit can be set to zero to impose no time limit to pause.

Q17. What is the purpose of php.ini file?

Ans: The PHP configuration file, php.ini, is the final and most immediate way to affect PHP's functionality. The php.ini file is read each time PHP is initialized.in other words, whenever httpd is restarted for the module version or with each script execution for the CGI version. If your change isn.t showing up, remember to stop and restart httpd. If it still isn.t showing up, use phpinfo() to check the path to php.ini.

Q18. What do you mean by having PHP as whitespace insensitive?

Ans: Whitespace is the stuff you type that is typically invisible on the screen, including spaces, tabs, and carriage returns (end-of-line characters). PHP whitespace insensitive means that it almost never matters how many whitespace characters you have in a row.one whitespace character is the same as many such characters.

Q19. What are the characteristics of PHP variables?

Ans: Here are the most important things to know about variables in PHP.

All variables in PHP are denoted with a leading dollar sign ($).
The value of a variable is the value of its most recent assignment.
Variables are assigned with the = operator, with the variable on the left-hand side and the expression to be evaluated on the right.
Variables can, but do not need, to be declared before assignment.
Variables in PHP do not have intrinsic types - a variable does not know in advance whether it will be used to store a number or a string of characters.
Variables used before they are assigned have default values.
PHP does a good job of automatically converting types from one to another when necessary.
PHP variables are Perl-like.

Q20. What are the different types of PHP variables?

Ans: PHP has a total of eight data types which we use to construct our variables −

Integers − are whole numbers, without a decimal point, like 4195.
Doubles − are floating-point numbers, like 3.14159 or 49.1.
Booleans − have only two possible values either true or false.
NULL − is a special type that only has one value: NULL.
Strings − are sequences of characters, like 'PHP supports string operations.'
Arrays − are named and indexed collections of other values.
Objects − are instances of programmer-defined classes, which can package up both other kinds of values and functions that are specific to the class.
Resources − are special variables that hold references to resources external to PHP (such as database connections).

Q21. How will you define a constant in PHP?

Ans: To define a constant you have to use define() function and to retrieve the value of a constant, you have to simply specifying its name. Unlike with variables, you do not need to have a constant with a $.

Q22. What are the differences between PHP constants and variables?

There is no need to write a dollar sign ($) before a constant, where as in Variable one has to write a dollar sign.
Constants cannot be defined by simple assignment, they may only be defined using the define() function.
Constants may be defined and accessed anywhere without regard to variable scoping rules.
Once the Constants have been set, may not be redefined or undefined.

Q23. What is the purpose of _CLASS_ constant?

Ans: _CLASS_ − The class name. (Added in PHP 4.3.0) As of PHP 5 this constant returns the class name as it was declared (case-sensitive). In PHP 4 its value is always lowercased.

Q24. How will you redirect a page using PHP?

Ans: The PHP header() function supplies raw HTTP headers to the browser and can be used to redirect it to another location. The redirection script should be at the very top of the page to prevent any other part of the page from loading. The target is specified by the Location: header as the argument to the header() function. After calling this function the exit() function can be used to halt parsing of rest of the code.

Q25. How can we execute a PHP script using command line?

Ans:

Just run the PHP CLI (Command Line Interface) program and provide the PHP script file name as the command line argument. For example, “php myScript.php”, assuming “php” is the command to invoke the CLI program.
Remember that if your PHP script was written for the Web CGI interface, it may not execute properly in command line environment.

Q26. What is htaccess? Why do we use this and where?

Ans:

htaccess files are configuration files of Apache Server that provide a way to make configuration changes on a per-directory basis. A file, containing one or more configuration directives, is placed in a particular document directory, and the directives apply to that directory, and all subdirectories thereof.
These .htaccess files are used to change the functionality and features of Apache web server.
For instance, htaccess file is used for url rewrite.
–> It is used to make the site password protected.
–> .htaccess file can restrict some ip addresses so that on restricted ip addresses, the site will not open.

Q27. What is the purpse $_REQUEST variable?

Ans: The PHP $_REQUEST variable contains the contents of both $_GET, $_POST, and $_COOKIE. We will discuss $_COOKIE variable when we will explain about cookies. The PHP $_REQUEST variable can be used to get the result from form data sent with both the GET and POST methods.

Q28. How will you start a session in PHP?

Ans: A PHP session is easily started by making a call to the session_start() function.This function first checks if a session is already started and if none is started then it starts one. It is recommended to put the call to session_start() at the beginning of the page.

Q29. What is function overriding?

Ans: Function definitions in child classes override definitions with the same name in parent classes. In a child class, we can modify the definition of a function inherited from parent class.

Q30. What are interfaces in PHP?

Ans: Interfaces are defined to provide a common function names to the implementors. Different implementors can implement those interfaces according to their requirements. You can say, interfaces are skeltons which are implemented by developers.

Q31. What is the actually used PHP version?

Ans: Version 5 is the actually used version of PHP.