PHP Socket Communication: Detailed Tutorial and Code Examples

M66 2025-07-27

What is Socket Communication

Socket communication is a technique for data transmission in computer networks. It allows computers to establish connections and exchange data. In PHP, we can implement Socket communication using the Socket extension, which supports various network communication protocols like TCP/IP.

Basic Steps to Implement PHP Socket Communication

The basic steps to implement PHP Socket communication are as follows:

Create a Socket
Bind the Socket to a specific IP and port
Listen for connections
Accept a connection
Send and receive data
Close the connection

Let's demonstrate these steps with code examples.

Creating a Simple Socket Server

Below is a simple PHP Socket server example that receives a message from the client and returns the same message:

<?php<br>// Create Socket<br>$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);<br>// Bind the Socket to a specific IP and port<br>socket_bind($socket, '127.0.0.1', 8888);<br>// Listen for connections<br>socket_listen($socket);<br>echo 'Server is running...';<br>// Accept a connection<br>$client = socket_accept($socket);<br>// Receive data<br>$input = socket_read($client, 1024);<br>echo 'Client says: ' . $input;<br>// Send data<br>$output = 'Server received: ' . $input;<br>socket_write($client, $output, strlen($output));<br>// Close the connection<br>socket_close($client);<br>socket_close($socket);<br>?>

Creating a Simple Socket Client

Below is a simple PHP Socket client example that connects to the server and sends a message:

<?php<br>// Create Socket<br>$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);<br>// Connect to the server<br>socket_connect($socket, '127.0.0.1', 8888);<br>// Send data<br>$message = 'Hello, Socket Server!';<br>socket_write($socket, $message, strlen($message));<br>// Receive data<br>$response = socket_read($socket, 1024);<br>echo 'Server response: ' . $response;<br>// Close the connection<br>socket_close($socket);<br>?>

Conclusion

From the example code above, we can see how to implement simple Socket communication in PHP. Using Socket communication, developers can achieve more flexible and efficient network communication, suitable for real-time communication, high concurrency, and other specialized applications. In real-world development, these examples can be extended and optimized to meet specific requirements and application scenarios.

We hope this article helps you get started with PHP Socket programming and improve your development efficiency. Good luck with your projects!