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Handling Forms Made Easy with PHP Form Example

Reading time 2 min
Published Aug 8, 2017
Updated Oct 2, 2019

PHP truly demonstrates its power when handling HTML forms. When users hit the button and submit the information entered, it can be collected for later use. One of the most efficient ways of learning to manage forms is to analyze and practice with the PHP form example we provide in this article.

As a coding language, PHP is universal and powerful. A skilled programmer can easily use PHP form builder and retrieve information from website visitors. However, if you have little to none knowledge, you might offer poorly made PHP forms to your user, who would find them inconvenient or even unsafe to use.

Using a simple PHP form example, we will explain what to do and what to avoid when handling these forms. A well made PHP form will let you store, update, and easily retrieve data.

PHP Form Example: Main Tips

  • PHP allows you to make a completely functional HTML form that will combine client-side and server-side functionalities.
  • Knowing PHP forms is essential to provide a secure and convenient user experience.
  • In this tutorial, we will show you how to keep the values entered by the user after they hit the PHP form submit button. All of this will be presented in a straightforward PHP form example.
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Usage of Forms: Code

Let's view a PHP form example we have below. The code you see is meant to keep the value upon hitting the PHP form submit button. To achieve this, we assign variables to the fields we have in our HTML form. More precisely, for the <input> elements we add a bit of PHP inside the value attributes.

As for textarea element, which we use for the feedback, the PHP code will go between the <textarea> tags. After that, we output the input that was passed into the variables we assigned to the input fields.

Result: Full Code

Now let's view the result of our hard work. This is how a PHP full form code should look:

Example
<input type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo $name;?>" placeholder="Name">

<input type="text" name="email" value="<?php echo $email;?>" placeholder="E-mail">

<input type="text" name="website" value="<?php echo $website;?>" placeholder="Website">

<textarea name="comment" rows="6" cols="50" placeholder="feedback"><?php echo $feedback;?></textarea>


<input type="radio" name="gender"
<?php if (isset($gender) && $gender=="f") echo "checked";?>
value="f">F
<input type="radio" name="gender"
<?php if (isset($gender) && $gender=="m") echo "checked";?>
value="m">M

PHP Form Example: Summary

  • Using PHP coding, you can create functional HTML forms with both client-side and server-side functions.
  • Knowledge in PHP forms lets you ensure your users have a safe experience and the data they input won't be compromised.