What programming language does WordPress use? The WordPress program is written in PHP language. There are currently many CMS systems written in PHP, such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.

The full name of PHP is Hypertext Preprocessor, which is a general-purpose open-source scripting language. The grammar absorbs the characteristics of C language, Java, and Perl, which is good for learning and widely used and is mainly applicable to the field of Web development.

The previous article explained some of the advantages of WordPress. In this article, we will introduce the benefits of PHP, a programming language, and how PHP works in WordPress themes.

First of all, PHP has the following characteristics.

1) Open source and free

Since the source code of the PHP interpreter is public, websites with a high safety factor can change the PHP interpreter by themselves. In addition, the use of the PHP runtime environment is also free.

2) Quickness

PHP is a language that is very easy to learn and use. Its grammatical features are similar to C language, but it does not have the complicated address operation of C language, it adds object-oriented concepts, plus it has a concise syntax. Rules make it very simple to operate and edit, and very practical.

3) Extensiveness of database connection

PHP can establish connections with many mainstream databases, such as MySQL, ODBC, Oracle, etc. PHP uses different compiled functions to establish connections with these databases. PHPLIB is a commonly used base library for general affairs.

4) Both process-oriented and object-oriented

In the use of PHP language, process-oriented and object-oriented can be used separately, and PHP process-oriented and object-oriented can be mixed together, which is impossible for many other programming languages.

Second, how is PHP used in WordPress?

If you downloaded the latest WordPress version from the official WordPress website, you can open the ZIP file and see that most of the included WordPress core files are PHP.

Likewise, any theme you install will include a bunch of PHP files (the screenshot below is the default Twenty Seventeen theme):

And any plugins you install will also be primarily PHP.

In addition to using PHP in the core files, WordPress includes a large number of functions, hooks, classes, and methods that you or a developer can use to extend the functionality of WordPress in a number of useful ways.

For example, one of the most famous functions is the_content();. While this little snippet may seem innocent, it’s actually what your theme uses to display the entire content of each of your blog posts.

That little snippet can turn into a 10,000-word blog post after your web hosting server has finished processing the PHP code. These functions, hooks, classes, and methods are an important part of what makes WordPress flexible.

Finally, let us use an example to example how PHP works in WordPress themes.

Let us take things a step further by connecting the server-side nature of PHP to your WordPress site with a quick example.

If you go back to the picture on the Twenty Seventeen theme:

You will see that there are separate PHP files such as “sidebar.php”, “header.php”, “comment.php” and so on.

If you’ve used WordPress, these terms should sound familiar. Each of these files connects to similarly named areas on the front end of your website.

For instance:

sidebar.php determines the look and functionality of your sidebar area.
header.php determines the appearance and functionality of your headers.
comments.php determines the look and functionality of your comments section.

Whenever someone visits your website, your web server takes all these separate PHP files for the different areas in your theme, puts them together as specified by your theme, and sends the finished HTML output to the visitor’s browser.

The wonderful thing about WordPress is that all of the PHP is already written for you in the form of the core WordPress software, WordPress themes, and WordPress plugins.

While advanced WordPress users can use PHP for more complex customizations, regular WordPress users should never need to care about PHP if they don’t want to.

But, having said that there are definitely benefits to learning the basics of PHP. Even just learning the most popular WordPress PHP functions will help you quickly make some simple but important tweaks to your WordPress site.

Learning PHP is essential if you want to develop your own WordPress themes and plugins.