5.

Save the document as SingleFamilyHome.php in the

Projects folder for Chapter 1, upload the document to the

server, and then validate it with the W3C XHTML Validator.

After the document is valid, close it in your text editor, and

then open it in your Web browser to see how it renders. You

should see the text “The current median price of a single fam-

ily home in Pleasanton, CA is $399,500.00.” displayed on the

screen.

Close your Web browser window.

71

6.

Exercise 1-4

Write a script that assigns the days of the week to an array named

$Days[]. Use output statements to display “The days of the week in

English are: ” along with the values in the $Days[] array. Following

the output statements, reassign the values in the $Days[] array

with the days of the week in French. Sunday is Dimanche, Monday

is Lundi, Tuesday is Mardi, Wednesday is Mercredi, Thursday is

Jeudi, Friday is Vendredi, and Saturday is Samedi. Then use output

statements to display “The days of the week in French are: ” along

with the French values in the $Days[] array. Save the document as

DaysArray.php.

Exercise 1-5

You can use the round(), ceil(), and floor() functions to

round a fraction up or down to the nearest whole number. The

round() function rounds a fraction to the nearest whole number,

the ceil() function rounds a fraction up to the nearest whole num-

ber, and the floor() function rounds a fraction down to the nearest

whole number. Write a script that demonstrates the use of these

functions. Save the document as RoundedValues.php.

Exercise 1-6

Write a script that uses a conditional operator to determine whether

a variable contains a number and whether the number is even. You

need to use the is_numeric() function and the conditional operator.

For floating-point numbers, you need to use the round() function to

convert the value to the nearest whole number. Save the document as

IsEven.Php.

Getting Started with PHP

Discovery Projects

At the end of each chapter, you will apply the concepts you have

learned to a single, ongoing project. When completed, this project

will be a comprehensive Web site that demonstrates application of

many of the PHP concepts covered in the textbook. The Chinese

zodiac theme was selected because it lends itself well to many of

the PHP constructs you will learn in future chapters. All files for the

Chinese Zodiac site will be saved in a folder named ChineseZodiac in

the root Web folder on the server.

The following Discovery Projects will prepare you for the design and

development of your site:

72

Discovery Project 1-1

If your site

You will need to select a color scheme and design or find free

Chinese zodiac graphic elements. You can search on the Web for free

theme sets or image sets that contain banners, borders, background

images, buttons, icons, lines, and bullets designed around a specific

theme.

Create a Web banner image with a title of “The Chinese Zodiac” and

a subtitle of “A Code Demonstration for PHP”.

Save the banner image as ChineseZodiacBanner with an appropriate

graphic extension (.jpg, .gif, or .png) in an Images folder within the

ChineseZodiac folder and upload the document to the server.

Open the ChineseZodiacBanner image in both Internet Explorer and

Mozilla Firefox to determine if it displays well on the Web.

Discovery Project 1-2

Create nine buttons (approximately 150×30 pixels) with the follow-

ing face texts and filenames: “Home Page” = HomePage.img, “Site

Layout” = SiteLayout.img, “Control Structures” = ControlStructures.

img, “String Functions” = StringFunctions.img, “Web Forms” =

WebForms.img, “Midterm Assessment” = MidtermAssessment.

img, “State Information” = StateInformation.img, “User Templates” =

UserTemplates.img, and “Final Project” = FinalProject.img. Replace

.img with the appropriate extension for the image file type, such as

.jpg, .gif, or .png. Save the buttons in the Images folder within the

ChineseZodiac folder and upload the buttons to the server.

Discovery Project 1-3

Research the Chinese zodiac and write a few paragraphs about it in

your text editor to acquaint your audience with the concept of the

Chinese horoscope and its origin. Cite your sources. Save the docu-

ment as ChineseZodiac.txt in the ChineseZodiac folder and upload

the document to the server.

73

Discovery Project 1-4

Search for free images (in any size) for each of the 12 signs of the

Chinese zodiac. You will use these images in later projects. Try to

find images that are similar in size, style, and form. Try to keep the

height of the image between 50 and 100 pixels, and the width of the

image between 50 and 150 pixels. Use the name of the sign as the

name of the image file (as in Rooster.jpg or Pig.gif ). Save each of the

images with an appropriate extension in the Images folder within the

ChineseZodiac folder, and upload the images to the server.

Functions and

Control Structures

In this chapter, you will:

2

Study how to use functions to organize your PHP code

Learn about variable scope

Make decisions using if, if . . . else, and switch

statements

Repeatedly execute code using while, do . . . while,

for, and foreach statements

Learn about include and require statements

So far, the code you have written has consisted of simple statements

placed within script sections. However, almost all programming

languages, including PHP, allow you to group programming state-

ments into logical units. In PHP, groups of statements that you can

execute as a single unit are called functions. You will learn how to

create your own custom functions in this chapter. The code you have

written so far has also been linear in nature. In other words, your

programs start at the beginning and end when the last statement in

the program executes. Decision-making and looping statements allow

you to determine the order in which other statements execute in a

program. Controlling the flow of code and making decisions during

program execution are two of the most fundamental skills required in

programming. In this chapter, you will learn about decision-making

statements and flow-control statements.

75

Working with Functions

In Chapter 1, you learned that PHP includes numerous built-in func-

tions that you can use in your scripts. Functions are useful because

they make it possible to treat a related group of PHP statements as a

single unit. In this section, you will learn how to write custom func-

tions. Then, you will learn how to use these functions in your scripts.

Defining Functions

Before you can use a function in a PHP program, you must first cre-

ate, or define, it. The lines of code that make up a function are called

the function definition. The syntax for defining a function is as

follows:

<?php

function name_of_function(parameters) {

statement(s);

As shown in