5 Common Mistakes PHP Developers Need To Avoid During Web Development

Even though PHP is a very user-friendly and simple server-side programming language, most PHP developers often tend to make some common mistakes during website development. Here are the most common mistakes they often make and need to avoid.

PHP is the most favoured server-side scripting language used for building websites and web applications. PHP is open-source in nature, is highly flexible, secure, comes with a wide range of PHP development tools, in-built functions, and classes, has a very simple syntax, and supports many web development frameworks like Symfony, Yii, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Laravel, etc., that make this language a preferred choice over the other programming languages known. Coding with PHP is quite easy and this makes it a good choice for beginners as well. But even then, most PHP developers often tend to make some common mistakes during web development. And it is necessary to identify and avoid these common mistakes at the right time. 

Here are the 5 most error-prone areas in PHP codes that need your attention.

Single quotes and double quotes in PHP:

It is easy to make use of the double quotes when you are concatenating strings as double quotes neatly parse everything without dealing with the escaping characters and without using any dot values. But using single quotes can enhance the performance because of minimal processing. Converting the double-quoted string in your PHP codes may even take longer than converting the single-quoted strings as in the case of the double quotes the entire string has to be read in advance for performing the task of detecting the variables inside it. It is also a fact that the server works faster when you are using single quotes as in this case, there’s no need to read the entire string in advance.

Not using database caching: 

It is strongly suggested to always use some kind of database caching in your PHP application or website database. Memcached is free software and is the best caching system that you can use when you are building your website or web app with PHP. 

Not using E_ALL Reporting:

Error reporting is one of the features of PHP that should be kept turned on when you are coding. Turning on the E_ALL Reporting not only displays the errors at the time of coding only and helps in easy and real-time debugging the codes but also speeds up the overall development time. But most of the developers often forget to turn on the error reporting and needs to avoid this mistake. Remember, the E_All Reporting function brings out even the smallest errors, which makes it crucial to keep it turned on all the time while programming. And this helps to create flawless and bug-free PHP websites. 

Using wrong comparison operators: 

Most of the developers often get confused among so many similar operators like =, !=, and ==, make the mistake of using the wrong comparison operators. Instead, every PHP developer must know the differences between these similar kinds of operators first and then use the right ones to yield fewer errors or bugs to debug. 

Not using the in-built PHP functions and classes:

PHP comes with innumerable in-built classes and functions that help to speed up the programming. Using the right in-built functions and classes wherever you need the same logic, can greatly reduce the web development time and can save developers from writing dozens of lines of codes. This practice also helps to write clean codes. Hence, it is highly recommended to use these pre-installed functions and classes wherever you need to apply the same logic instead of writing those same lines every time and everywhere you need it, making the codes more complicated and lengthy. 

Though these were some of the most common mistakes every PHP developer needs to avoid while programming, there are a few more shared by an expert PHP programmer of a leading PHP development company, PHPProgrammers, like forgetting to take the backup of the codes, not optimising the queries, using the wrong data types, not validating the cookie data, and not processing the session IDs. Keeping these mistakes in mind and avoiding the same is important to enjoy efficient web development and ensure a bug-free, secure, and high-performing PHP website or web application.