Excellent PHP code should be structured. Large sections of code should be divided into functions and methods, and those small and inconspicuous sections of code should be commented so that their purpose can be made clear in the future. And the front-end code such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. should be separated from the program as much as possible. PHP's object-oriented programming features can help programmers organize their code in an orderly manner.
Excellent PHP code should be standardized. Whether it's setting naming rules for variable and function names, standardizing reusable processes such as database operations and error handling, or as simple as specifying how code should be indented, these standardizations can make the code more readable. Readability is greatly improved.
Excellent PHP code should be adaptive. PHP has many features such as magic quotes and short tags. Turning these features on and off will affect the running of the program. Therefore, a good programmer should add appropriate statements to his code so that the program can adjust according to the environment.
Good PHP code should be safe. Although PHP is an efficient and flexible language with no fixed framework, it leaves security issues to programmers. A deep understanding of potential security vulnerabilities, such as cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), code injection vulnerabilities, character encoding loop vulnerabilities, etc., is crucial for today's professional programmers.
When a candidate answers these questions, I will know clearly whether I should hire him or her. Of course, sometimes programmers can't articulate the problem well, and we ask them to do some PHP testing. Many of the questions in the test may seem very simple on the surface, but they also give candidates a chance to express themselves, because if you look carefully, you can spot the problems.
The following small piece of "poor" PHP code is a simplified test question. This kind of question is like asking: How should you optimize this code?
<? echo("<p>Search results for query: " . $_GET['query'] . ".</p>"); ?>
The main problem with this code is that it displays user-submitted data directly on the web page, thus creating an XSS vulnerability. There are actually many ways to fill this hole. So, what code do we want?
<? echo("<p>Search results for query: " . htmlspecialchars($_GET['query']) . ".</p>"); ?>
This is the minimum requirement. The XSS vulnerability was filled with the htmlspecialchars function, thus blocking illegal characters.
<?php if (isset($_GET['query'])) { echo '<p>Search results for query: ', htmlspecialchars($_GET['query'], ENT_QUOTES), '.</p>'; } ?>
People who can write such code should be the ones I want to hire.