PHP Basics›Core· 35 min read

PHP Syntax, echo & Comments

The basic rules: PHP tags, printing output, statements and comments.

What you will learn

Write PHP inside <?php ?> tags
Output with echo
Add comments and end statements

The PHP tags

All PHP code lives between <?php and ?>. Anything outside those tags is sent to the page untouched; anything inside is run by PHP. Every statement (instruction) ends with a semicolon ; — think of it as the full stop at the end of a sentence.

echo prints output

<?php
  echo "Hello, World!";
  echo "<br>";
  echo "Learning PHP at CodingClave";
?>

Reading it line by line: the first echo prints the text Hello, World!. The second prints <br>, which is the HTML tag for a line break, so the next text starts on a new line. The third prints Learning PHP at CodingClave. Each line ends with a semicolon.

Note: Output (in the browser): Hello, World! Learning PHP at CodingClave The <br> does not appear as text — the browser reads it as "go to a new line", which is why the two messages sit on separate lines.

echo and print

echo outputs text (or HTML) to the page. You can output plain text, variables, or HTML tags — it is the command you will use more than any other in PHP. (print does almost the same thing; echo is the common choice.)

Comments

A comment is a note for humans that PHP ignores when it runs. Use comments to explain *why* code does something. PHP gives you three styles:

Three comment styles

<?php
  // This is a single-line comment
  # This is also a single-line comment
  /* This is a
     multi-line comment */
  echo "Comments are ignored by PHP";
?>

Note: Output (in the browser): Comments are ignored by PHP None of the comment lines appear — PHP skips them entirely. // and # each comment out a single line; /* ... */ comments out everything between the marks, even across several lines. Only the echo actually runs.

Watch out: Forgetting the semicolon ; at the end of a statement is the #1 beginner error — PHP will show a “syntax error”. Check your semicolons first.

Q. What does echo do in PHP?

Answer: echo outputs text or HTML to the page. Statements end with a semicolon.

✍️ Practice

Echo three lines of text, separated by <br>.
Add all three comment styles to a file and confirm they do not show.

🏠 Homework

Build a PHP page that outputs a complete HTML card (heading + paragraph) using echo.