COS30020 – Advanced Web Development
Lab 2 – Working with Data Types and Operators
Reference: Chapter 1 of the “PHP Programming with MySQL” textbook.
Aims:
• To develop an understanding of the basic use of variables, arrays and expressions.
Getting Started:
Create a new folder ‘lab02’ under the unit folder on the mercury server ~/cos30020/www/htdocs folder on
mercury.
Save today’s work in this lab02 folder.
You could create and link an external stylesheet, to the pages, and this should be valid CSS3.
Task 1: Using variables, arrays and operators (9 marks)
Step 1:
Create a file module02.php with a PHP script that declares and initialises an array named $marks[] and
with the three integer elements 85, 85 and 95. Modify the value of the second element to contain 90, and
compute for the average score of the values from the three elements and store the result in $ave. Finally, using
the ?: operator assign a value of “PASSED” to variable $status is the average is at least 50, otherwise
assign a value of “FAILED”.
Use output statements to display “The average score is ” along with the averaged value and “ You “ followed by
the status.
Step 2:
Use any text editor on your local computer (e.g. Notepad++) and code the following:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" >
<meta name="description" content="Web Programming :: Lab 2" >
<meta name="keywords" content="Web,programming" >
<title>Using variables, arrays and operators</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Web Programming - Lab 2</h1>
<?php
$marks = array (85, 85, 95); // declare and initialise array
$marks[1] = 90; // modify second element
$ave = ($marks[0] + $marks[1] + $marks[2]) / 3; // compute average
($ave >= 50) // checks status
? $status = "PASSED"
: $status = "FAILED" ;
echo "<p>The average score is $ave. You $status</p>";
?>
</body>
</html>
Step 3:
Test in the browser, and check that the page validates.
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COS30020 – Advanced Web Development
Task 2: Experimenting on arrays (3 marks)
Step 1:
Create a file daysarray.php with a PHP script that declares and initialises an array named $days[] and
with the days of the week Sunday, Monday, etc.
Use output statements to display “The Days of the week in English are:” along with the values in the $days[]
array.
Step 2:
Test in the browser, and check that the page is valid.
Step 3:
Reassign the values in the $days[] array with the days of the week in French, Sunday is Dimanche, Monday
is Lundi, Tuesday is Mardi, Wednesday is Mercredi, Thursday is Jeudi, Friday is Vendredi, and Saturday is
Samedi.
Then use output statements to display “The days of the week in French are:” along with the French values in the
$days[] array
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COS30020 – Advanced Web Development
Task 3: Using expression and looking up built-in functions (3
marks)
Step 1:
Create another file iseven.php with a script that declares a variable with a value.
Use a conditional operator to determine whether the variable contains a number
and whether the number is even.
Set a message, and use an output statement to display the message.
Hint: Use the is_numeric() function to check whether the variable is a number.
For floating-point numbers, you need to use the round() function to convert the value to the nearest whole
number.
Step 2:
Test the script by modifying the variable value, re-saving the script to the server each time, and refreshing the
page in your browser.
Function Description and Examples
is_numeric(): http://php.net/manual/en/function.is-numeric.php
round(): http://php.net/manual/en/function.round.php
Extra Challenge:
Create a form in another page that passes the variable using action="iseven.php" and
method="get"
Add code in iseven.php to receive the variable.
Hint: Use $_GET[...]
See Predefined Variables, Superglobals and examples: http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.php
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