How to create a $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] Link

(I am not a coder, I am trying to learn though. Very much a beginner.)

 <?php
$server=$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
echo "<a href=$server>$server</a>"
?

Code (markup):

This code generates a link of basedomain.com/basedomain.com

Can anybody tell me why its not working?

 

Because you don't include the scheme name (e.g. http://, etc) it assumes the value is a filename and attempts to reference it in the current location where the script is running. For example, if you put this script in a folder named "/test", then it would generate a link of: basedomain.com/test/basedomain.com

The solution is to specify the scheme:

<?php
$server = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
echo "<a href='http://$server'>$server</a>"
?>

Code (markup):

If you don't need this value anywhere else then you don't need to store the value first:

<?php
echo "<a href=\"http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."\">".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."</a>\n";
?>

Code (markup):

 

Thanks Dayseven! In hindsight it makes sense to me know why it wasn't working.