Difference Between PHP and JavaScript

The PHP and JavaScript are programming languages intended for the different purposes where the PHP is mostly used for the backend purpose. On the contrary, JavaScript is used for frontend. In other words, PHP is a server-side scripting language whereas JavaScript is considered as a client-side scripting language.

The features provided by PHP are more but the JavaScript is said to be more efficient and fast. PHP provides a wide of variety of functions as compared to JavaScript.

Content: PHP Vs JavaScript

1. 1. Comparison Chart
   2. Definition
   3. Key Differences
   4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

Basis for comparison	PHP	JavaScript
Works for	Mainly backend purpose	Both frontend and backend
Nature	Synchronous	Asynchronous
Runs	Over a server	In a browser
Merged with	HTML	HTML, AJAX and XML
Characteristics	Multithreaded language	Single threaded language and event-driven
Availability of the code	Only available after the server interprets it.	Code can be viewed even after the output is interpreted.
Integrated database	MySQL	Does not provide database connectivity.

Definition of PHP

PHP stands for the Hypertext Preprocessor, an interpreted programming language used in the construction of the dynamic, interactive Web sites. Here, the terms dynamic and interactive referred to represent a website whose content alters each time automatically whenever a page is viewed and also generate a response to the input given by its visitors respectively. To run PHP program one require a web server and this is how the web pages are served to the visitors upon a request. The PHP code can be embedded within HTML web pages which facilitate in the creation of the dynamic content swiftly.

PHP is a programming language used at the server-side and provides a particular run-time environment to execute the tasks in an automated way. The PHP scripts and programs execute on a web server and processed by a PHP engine. The process of executing a PHP script on a web server would appear like as following:

• At first, the visitor clicks a link to request a web page, or by typing a web address in the address bar of a browser. Simultaneously, the visitor can send data to the web server.
• The next operation is performed by a web server in which it recognizes the requested URL and directs the PHP engine to process and execute the script.
• In the end, the script is executed and generates an HTML page to the web browser visible on the screen as a response to the requested page by the visitor.

Features:

• PHP is cross-platform; it can run on any of the operating systems like Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS, etcetera.
• It can be integrated with other more powerful web servers.
• PHP is an open source language which means one not needs to pay for using it.
• Error reporting is easier due to the use of predefined error reporting constants.
• It provides real-time access monitoring.
• It is also a loosely typed language.

Definition of JavaScript

JavaScript is also an interpreted programming language generally implemented through web browsers. It performs the task like making the scripts to interact with the user, handle and control the web browser, and change the document content appearing within the browser window. As mentioned above that this language is a client-side language where the scripts run on the client computer instead of the web server.

Client-side JavaScript merges the scripting feature of the interpreter with the Document Object Model (DOM) specified by the web browser.

It is a programming language implemented majorly on the web with HTML and CSS. HTML used to define the content of web pages, CSS specifies the presentation of web pages, and lastly, JavaScript defines the behaviour of the web pages. JavaScript is a high-level, untyped, dynamic programming language appropriate for object-oriented and functional programming styles. The syntax of JavaScript is derived from the Java (first-class function from the scheme and prototype-based functions from Self).

Features:

• The positive characteristics of the JavaScript are functions, loose typing, expressive object literal notation and dynamic objects. The negative points in JavaScript are the global variable concept.
• JavaScript functions are the class objects that mostly exist with lexical scoping.
• As JavaScript is a loosely typed language, it is hard for compilers to detect the type errors.
• It has a powerful object literal notation, where the objects are created by just listing their components.
• JavaScript support a feature known as prototypal inheritance, where we can create a class-free object from one object.
• It relies on the global variable for linkage hence uses a common namespace for top-level variables and compilation units.

Conclusion

The programming languages PHP and JavaScript are used for different purposes and extensively used in the field of web designing and development. PHP provides more features than JavaScript however the performance of Javascript is better than that of PHP.