What's the "?" do in the URL?

[VestanPance]

Greetings,

I have been enjoying PHP for some time now but am still confused as to what the "?" means in URLs such as: "http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php   -->?<--   do=newthread&f=3". Is there a good tutorial or explanation someone could point me to? I feel that I am missing something huge by not knowing this.

Thanks for your time!

[LordShryku]

In basic terms it's the identifier that seperates the URL from the variables.

For instance:
http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=3

This page now recognizes
The URL is http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php
The variables are do = 'newthread' and f = 3.

[VestanPance]

Thanks LordShryku. Is this an alternative to POST? And how is it passed through the URL with PHP?

[thorpe]

Is this an alternative to POST?

Yes. It is GET.

And how is it passed through the URL with PHP?

The same as any other link although the variable's value might normally come from a database or somewhere. eg;

echo "<a href=\"page.php?var={$row['value']}\">page</a>";

[VestanPance]

Perfect. Thanks!

[LordShryku]

As it pertains to POST, you would use GET in the form method instead if it were coming from form variables.

IE.

<form action="/page.php" method="get">
  <input type="hidden" name="something" value="blah" />
</form>

This would go to /page.php?something=blah

[trehy2006]

ok... how does it know what to recieve??

drytpl.php?term=jan

should show a table of diary events etc... so far i have nailed this code....

so far i have:

 <?php //display date selecter
    echo " <form action=\"drytpl.php\" method=\"get\">";
	echo "   <select name=\"term\">";
    echo "    <option value=\"sept\">September 2005 - December 2005</option>";
    echo "    <option value=\"jan\">January 2006 - April 2006 (Current)</option>";
    echo "    <option value=\"may\">May 2006 - August 2006</option>";
	echo "   </select>";
    echo " <input type=\"submit\" \>";
	echo " </form>";
//or if date selected show term
if ($_GET['sept']) {
echo "diary for sept - dec";}
if ($_GET['jan']) {
echo ("diary for jan - arpil");}
if (isset($_GET['may'])) {
echo ("diary for may - aug");}?>

it runs the get command, but as i don't know how to set this properly cos obviously im missing the 'term' bit. but i am unsure how to go about doing this??

edit: changes to code, get function to work

[trehy2006]

ok thanks but i got it running!