PHP

Question

What's the difference between include() and require()?

Question

What will the following snippet print, and why?

$count = 0;
print $count++;

Question

What will the following code print, and why?

echo TRUE;

Question

What is printed after the following code has been run?

function calc() {
    $a = 1000;
    return $a;
}

$a = 1;
calc();
print $a;

As part of a new series of posts I will be creating a set of PHP questions suitable for use in interviews or just for fun. They will range from the very easy to very difficult but are all designed to test one or two specific parts of the PHP language. The idea is not to test for knowledge of the order of PHP function parameters (which I often have to look up), but more to test if the candidate knows how the language works. It is also quite a good mechanism to post about some of the fundamentals of the PHP language.

Quite a while ago I looked at using the filter_var() function to validate URL's using the FILTER_VALIDATE_URL flag and someone pointed out recently that this function has not only changed since the initial release, but that a number of flags can be added to change the way that this function works. Here are the flags available.

Sunday

Due to the crappy train service from my home town I had to drive into Manchester on Sunday, but made it in good time to have a coffee before we went to vote on the talks. Some people had a heavy night drinking the night before and therefore didn't make it in the morning (or at all). Some has also opted to only attend the Saturday and so there were a few faces missing, but there were still plenty of people there.

This weekend saw the PHP Unconference Europe 2011 event in Manchester. The organisers were hoping that the rain would hold off for the weekend, and being true to form Manchester was wet and cold. Being an unconference the talks and discussions are mainly casual and dependent on what everyone decided to see on the day. The event ran across Saturday and Sunday with different talks on each day.

This function might be of limited use, but it can create some neat effects in your titles. It works by splitting a string into little bits using the spaces and then puts it back together again into two sections. The first section will be normal, but the second section will be wrapped in a span element. By using this function you can create an interesting effects in your titles by styling the first half differently from the second.

Use the following array if you want to get a list of countries, along with their codes. These codes are the 2 letter ISO code, the 3 letter UN code and the 3 number UN code. I had to build this the other day in order to present a list of countries in a form so I post it here in case I need something like it again.