urls..?

[Anon]

This may sound like a stupid question, but i am pretty new to PHP.

I have noticed on quite a few pages with PHP, when there are articles, or code as on this page, the link doesnt go to articlesname.php it goes to something like browse.php?by=cat&cat=1.

Now, what I want to know is how to do this? Is it done using a database? Please help.

Thanks, Richard

[Anon]

Special variables are created when a link like that loads:

For example, if the link is

script.php?a=5&b=7

the variables $a and $b are created, and they will have values of 5 and 7 respectively. In the case of PHPBuilder, yes, they are using those variables with databases. But you don't have to. You can use those variables for anything.

For example, in script.php I could do:

print $a + $b;

to tell the user the sum of those numbers (not very useful, but proves my point). I didn't use any database or anything. You just have to know that variables are created and you can use them for whatever purpose, one of them being with databases.

Diego