Programming language · 1995

PHP

Scripting language focused on web development.

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PHP logo
CWritten in
1995First released
Rasmus LerdorfDeveloper
dynamicTyping
PHP License and 3-clause BSD LicenseLicense
Built fromInfluenced PHP CPerlJavaHack
RuntimeInfluence
ReplacedPerl CGI scripts for server-side web pages
Being replaced byNode.js and Python for many new back-ends, though PHP still runs much of the web

What is PHP written in?

Its runtime is implemented in C (well-documented).

What PHP is used for

PHP powers a large share of the web's back-ends, especially content management and e-commerce. It is designed to be embedded in HTML and deployed easily on shared hosting.

Notable software: WordPress (which runs a major fraction of all websites), Wikipedia (MediaWiki), Facebook's original codebase, and Slack's backend.

Quick Facts

Designed by
Rasmus Lerdorf
Developer
Andi Gutmans and PHP Group
First released
1995
Typing
dynamic
License
PHP License and 3-clause BSD License
Filename extension
.php, .phtml, .php4, .php3, .php5, .phps
Website
www.php.net

About PHP

PHP is a scripting language focused on web development. It is a dynamically typed and garbage-collected language that is executed directly by an interpreter. It supports imperative and object-oriented programming.

PHP first appeared in 1995 and was designed by Rasmus Lerdorf. Development is led by Andi Gutmans and PHP Group. Today PHP is one of the most widely used programming languages in the world.

How PHP is implemented

In the Language Lineage dataset, its runtime is implemented in C.

PHP in the language family tree

PHP drew on ideas from Perl, C, and Java and went on to influence Hack.

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata · Official site

Frequently Asked Questions

What language is PHP written in?
PHP is primarily implemented in C. See the implementation section above for details and source references.
What languages influenced PHP?
PHP was influenced by Perl, C, Java among others. See the influence section above for the full list.
Which languages did PHP influence?
PHP influenced Hack among others.
When was PHP first released?
PHP was first released in 1995. It was designed by Rasmus Lerdorf.

Evidence Sources

Discover More

What is PHP written in? What are programming languages written in? PHP in the language family tree Interactive programming language graph Languages PHP influenced: Hack Languages that influenced PHP: Perl Languages that influenced PHP: C

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Paste this iframe into any HTML page to show the PHP relationship graph.

<iframe src="https://www.languagelineage.org/embed?lang=php" width="100%" height="500" loading="lazy" style="border:0" title="PHP relationship graph"></iframe>

Please attribute the visualization to Language Lineage and link to the PHP source record.

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