A common problem that the early programming languages had was that there was no way of storing or reusing a piece of data throughout a program. With the introduction of variables, that problem was solved. Variables allow you to store and reuse data throughout your program, and, today, you'll find the use of variables in almost all programming languages including PHP!

In PHP, you create variables by using a $ mark before the name of your variable. Unlike other programming languages, you do not have to declare a variable before using it. All you have to do is give a variable name and give that variable a value.

	Note
In the following examples, I only provide the PHP code. You have to provide the HTML and Body tags in the HTML to make your page a real PHP page. I avoided using the HTML opening and closing tags simply to focus only on PHP!

So let's get started. First, copy and paste the following code into a PHP page:

<?php

$name = Kirupa;

print($name);

?>

When you preview the above page, you will see the value you assigned for the variable name displayed. In our case, the word "Kirupa" will appear.

Variables in PHP are not specific to any single data type. You can easily assign your variable a string, a number, or Boolean value without having to make any modification to your variable. Test the following PHP code in a new page:

<?php

$name = 2004;

print($name);

print("<br>");

$name = true;

print($name);

print("<br>");

$name = Kirupa;

print($name);

?>

If you tested out the above code, you will find that the variable $name is versatile enough to display a number, the value 1 for true, and the name in the form of a string.

Inside a function:

<?php

function kirupa() {

$who = kirupa;

print("Inside the function: $who.");

}

kirupa();

print("<br>");

print("Outside the function: $who.");

?>

The variable $who exists within the function, but it does not exist out of the function because the variable $who exists - or is localized - only inside the function. PHP does not recognize the function outside of the confines of the function.

Multiple Locations in the same Page:

<?php

$name = Kirupa;

print("$name says");

?>

<p><font size="4">Hello everybody! My name is

<?php

print("$name.");

?>

</font></p>

As you can tell, the variable $name exists on the entire PHP page, even if the PHP section the variable is first used in is closed and re-opened later. Notice that I break the PHP code by closing the tag to introduce a random bit of HTML.

That's all for now in this introductory tutorial regarding variables in PHP. There are other uses of variables, but they will be covered at another time in another tutorial.