Can someone explain to me what PHP is and what its function is? And if you are so kind, an example. Thank you guys.
It's a server side programming language. It's greatly used connected to a MYSQL database for dynamicly loading sites from it.
Correct. If you aren't hosting a website and its just been loaded locally, just still to HTML and such.
If you want to make things like message boards you should use php. digitalpoint uses PHP for the message board.
I think you may be getting the wrong end of the stick..or i am haha. It's a server side programming language but that doesn't mean only server administrators need to worry about it. PHP is very useful in websites for scripts. By scripts i mean, the coding behind the contact forms, or this forum.
The simplest way I can sum it up is that HTML is mostly like a "display only" language, while PHP adds functionality.
The "Serving XHTML Documents" link in my signature block is a .php file -- the desired "as served" document parameters are coded in PHP with optional serving requirements (selecting the MIME type, header information, etc.). If you reveal the source code the data preceding the <head> results from the PHP instructions. If you switch from a XML compliant Browser such as Firefox or Opera to an Internet Explorer Browser (or vice versa) and check the source code you will observe a different header -- you will have observed PHP in action. James