Php terms
The engine behind the web's most-used server-side language
PHP powers an enormous portion of the web — from WordPress and Laravel to custom e-commerce platforms. This category covers the language internals, core functions, OOP features, type system, performance patterns, and PHP-specific quirks that every serious PHP developer should understand deeply. Whether you are writing procedural scripts or building full-stack applications with modern PHP 8.x features, these terms form the foundation.
HTTP Cookies in PHP PHP 7.3+
Cookies are small key-value pairs sent by the server via Set-Cookie and echoed back by the browser on every request — PHP sets them with setcookie() before any output, with Secure, HttpOnly, and SameSite flags controlling safety.
4w ago
php beginner
MySQL charset=utf8mb4 PHP 5.1+
The correct MySQL character set for full Unicode support — including emoji and supplementary characters that the older utf8 charset cannot store.
1mo ago
php beginner
MySQL DSN (Data Source Name) PHP 5.1+
The connection string passed to PDO specifying the database driver, host, port, database name, and charset.
1mo ago
php beginner
PDO Error Handling PHP 5.1+
PDO has three error modes — silent, warning, and exception — controlling how database errors surface.
1mo ago
php beginner
PDO Fetch Modes PHP 5.1+
Constants controlling how PDO returns rows — as arrays, objects, or custom classes.
1mo ago
php beginner
PDO lastInsertId() PHP 5.1+
Returns the auto-increment ID generated by the most recent INSERT statement.
1mo ago
php beginner
PDO Named Placeholders PHP 5.1+
Named parameters (:name) in prepared statements — more readable than positional ? placeholders for queries with multiple parameters.
1mo ago
php beginner
PDO query() vs prepare() PHP 5.1+
PDO query() executes raw SQL immediately — prepare() parameterises it. query() must never include user-controlled values.
CWE-89 OWASP A3:2021
1mo ago
php beginner
9.8
PDOStatement::rowCount() PHP 5.1+
Returns the number of rows affected by the last DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE — unreliable for SELECT.
1mo ago
php beginner
array_column() — Plucking Values from Arrays PHP 5.5+
array_column() extracts a single column from a multi-dimensional array or array of objects — the idiomatic PHP replacement for foreach loops that build lookup arrays, and for creating ID-indexed maps.
2mo ago
php beginner
array_find() / array_find_key() (PHP 8.4) PHP 8.4+
PHP 8.4 adds array_find() and array_find_key() — built-in functions that return the first element (or key) matching a callback predicate, replacing verbose foreach loops or array_filter() + reset() patterns.
2mo ago
php beginner
Arrow Functions fn() => (PHP 7.4) PHP 7.4+
PHP 7.4 arrow functions (fn($x) => $x * $factor) are short closures that automatically capture outer scope — no more use($var) boilerplate.
2mo ago
php beginner
DateTimeImmutable vs DateTime PHP 5.5+
DateTimeImmutable returns a new object for every modification — the original is never changed. DateTime modifies in place. Prefer DateTimeImmutable in all new code to avoid subtle bugs where shared date objects are accidentally mutated.
2mo ago
php beginner
Debugging PHP PHP 5.0+
Systematic techniques for finding and fixing PHP bugs — from var_dump and error logs to Xdebug step-debugging, with the guiding principle of narrowing down where incorrect behaviour first appears.
2mo ago
php beginner
each() & list() — Deprecated Iteration PHP 3.0+
each() was deprecated in PHP 7.2 and removed in PHP 8 — replace while(list($k,$v)=each($arr)) with foreach. list() itself is still valid as [] destructuring.
2mo ago
php beginner
ereg() / eregi() — POSIX Regex Removed in PHP 7 PHP 3.0+
ereg() and eregi() were POSIX regex functions removed in PHP 7.0 — replace with preg_match() (PCRE) which is faster, more powerful, and the standard since PHP 4.
2mo ago
php beginner
Error Logging PHP 4.0+
Recording application errors, exceptions, and diagnostic information to persistent storage — essential for diagnosing production issues where display_errors must be off and errors are invisible to users.
2mo ago
php beginner
Error Reporting & Display PHP 4.0+
PHP's error_reporting level and display_errors directive control which errors are shown and where — development needs E_ALL with display on; production needs E_ALL with display off and logging on.
2mo ago
php beginner
Exception Handling Introduced (PHP 5) PHP 5.0+
PHP 5 introduced try/catch/finally and the Exception class — replacing PHP 4's procedural error handling with structured exception-based patterns.
2mo ago
php beginner
File Permissions PHP 4.0+
Unix permission bits (owner/group/world read-write-execute) that control which processes can read, write, or execute files — misconfigured permissions are a common PHP deployment and security issue.
2mo ago
php beginner