Templates - what language are they? PHP?

[Abomination]

I'm new to all this stuff, but have programming experience in other languages (C, asm, basic). There is a link from vB.com to www.w3schools.com and they list html, xhtml, PHP commands, tutorials & reference documentation.

I believe templates are supposed to be PHP? Here is a list of PHP commands I've found at that reference link:
PHP Basic
PHP HOME
PHP Intro
PHP Install
PHP Syntax
PHP Variables
PHP String
PHP Operators
PHP If...Else
PHP Switch
PHP Arrays
PHP Looping
PHP Functions
PHP Forms
PHP $_GET
PHP $_POST

But at this link http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/m...e_conditionals it says:

Template Conditionals
Template Conditionals are a powerful tool for controlling the XHTML output from your templates. They allow you to create simple if/else branches within your templates, in order to display different content depending on the condition you specify.

And near that link:

As a security precaution, to prevent malicious damage to either your database or your server itself, most PHP functions are disallowed in template conditionals.

At the time of writing, the list of allowed 'safe' functions is as follows:

* in_array
* is_array
* is_numeric
* isset
* empty
* defined
* array
* can_moderate*
* can_moderate_calendar*
* exec_switch_bg*
* is_browser*
* is_member_of*

Is it possible to use some of the other PHP commands? Switch statement? Arrays of variables or structures?


Can a variable be created to point to a string in an attempt to keep the long 'if' statements a little cleaner?

I've been at this for many hours and am lost.