PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor 4.0 (PHP 4)

Definition - What does PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor 4.0 (PHP 4) mean?

Hypertext preprocessor 4.0 (PHP 4) is a server-side scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. PHP is a popular scripting language used extensively for quickly and effectively creating dynamic Web applications. Easily embedded into HTML code, PHP can also be easily connected to databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Techopedia explains PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor 4.0 (PHP 4)

PHP 4 is powered by Zend Engine, which helps increase performance and allows working with encoded files through Zend Optimizer. The script engine used in PHP 4 has been rewritten to optimize performance.

The main features newly added to PHP 4 are:

  1. Boolean data type and object-oriented programming
  2. Native support for user sessions, using cookies and the query string
  3. A new operator called the comparison operator (= =)
  4. New associative arrays consisting of server and environmental variables as well as a variable holding information about uploaded files
  5. Built-in support for both Java and XML
  6. Multidimensional array support

PHP 4 is a cross platform scripting language supporting a wide range of data bases, including Adabas D, InterBase, Solid, dBASE, MySQL, Sybase, Empress, MySQL, Velocis, FilePro, Oracle, UNIX dbm, Informix and PostgreSQL.

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