PHP designed in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf, is a general-purpose programming language at server-side commonly used for scripting that is primarily designed to develop websites. It is currently been used by a large number of people for creating different types of applications and also as a server-side scripting language for websites. Also, the leading social networking sites such as Facebook and reputed organizations such as Harvard University are based on PHP making it much more popular. Though you can easily improve, maintain and update websites with PHP written codes from time to time, it still needs improvement in some factors. Some of the pros and cons of PHP Programming language are discussed below:
Pros of PHP Programming Language
- Easy database connection.
As PHP is among the programming language which is widely used on the internet, it needs connection with the database time and again. Hence, PHP has a built-in module that helps it in connecting with the database easily. PHP also reduces the time needed in developing the web application with an efficient database management system.
- Easy to use.
PHP is simple, fluent, and clean and is widely spread all over the world. It has a well-organized syntax and easily understood as the user can easily figure out from the name of the commands. Moreover, people who are familiar to C can easily learn to use the PHP code.
- Cross Platform.
PHP based applications can run on any types of platforms. Majority of Operating Systems which includes Solaris, UNIX, Windows and Linux, supports PHP.
- High speed
One of the advantages of PHP is its high speed. PHP is one of the fastest programming Language. Many other programming languages takes a lot of time in connecting to the databases but PHP performs the entire task very fast by executing the statement and finally getting the data.
- Open source.
PHP is entirely free and available at any time. In the case other scripting languages for web development, user need to pay for the support files whereas PHP is open to everyone, anytime and anywhere.
Also Read: Pros and Cons of JavaScript Programming Language
Cons of PHP Programming Language
- Security
A secure websites is much needed to protect the owner of the website as well as the users of the site. The open source nature of PHP serves as both an advantage and disadvantage. As everybody is able to view PHP’s source code, it is possible that hacker may identify bugs in the code and subsequently use such bugs to attack unsuspecting users.
- Weak type:
By the implicit conversion in the language by the programmers, there may be bugs you don’t want. Taking an example, the ‘1e3’ and ‘1000’ strings are equally comparable in PHP. They are casted implicitly for point numbers floating.
- Not for huge applications:
PHP is difficult to use in huge application programs. Huge applications created out of the programming language are quite difficult to maintain as PHP is not highly modular. So it is not advisable to use in huge applications.
Conclusion
Hence, these are few of the pros and cons of PHP programming language. Comment down below if you need any further explanation or support.