Programming Language

The PHP Programming Language

Part III — CS1 concepts in PHP, emphasizing type juggling, associative arrays, and web-oriented I/O.

Part III, Chapters 37–47 (pp. 495–586) of Computer Science I.

Chapters

ChTitlePage
37Basics (PHP tags, libraries, entry point/CLI args, type juggling, string concat)497
38Conditionals515
39Loops (foreach)527
40Functions (pass by reference, optional/default params, function pointers)535
41Error Handling & Exceptions (throwing, catching, custom)543
42Arrays (associative / key-value / non-contiguous indices, multidimensional)547
43Strings (functions, arrays of strings, comparisons, tokenizing)557
44File I/O (reading via URLs)563
45Objects (data visibility, accessors/mutators, constructors, composition)567
46Recursion577
47Searching & Sorting (comparator functions)581

What PHP Exposes

  • Dynamic / weak typing and type juggling — contrast to C’s static typing (basics).
  • Associative arrays: string keys, non-contiguous & key-value indices — generalizes arrays & collections.
  • Web-oriented I/O: reading files via URLs (file I/O).
  • PHP tags and CLI entry points — scripting-first structure.

Typical target: broadening CS1 appeal (humanities / non-CE majors).

Citations

[1] Computer Science I, Part III, pp. 495–586.