What should I use? index.php, front-page.php and home.php

Question

I'm building a WordPress theme but I'm bit confused. I don't know what to use. There is home.php, front-page.php or index.php. When I started building the WordPress theme I started with index.php and gave it this code:

<?php get_header(); ?>

after that I found that there is that 3 pages index.php, front-page.php and home.php. So I realised that I need front-page.php, from what I heard it loads first so I will use it for front page which will have news slideshow and etc. Well now here is the question, what for is index.php or home.php? Do I really need these two files? And can I use index.php as front-page? Do I really need front-page.php? Can't I just use index.php?

Thank you.

Answer 1

The codex on the Template Hierarchy:

1. WordPress first determines whether it has a static front page. If a static front page has been set, then WordPress loads that page according to the page template hierarchy.

2. If a static front page has not been set, then WordPress looks for a template file called home.php and uses it to generate the requested page.

3. If home.php is missing, WordPress looks for a file called index.php in the active theme's directory, and uses that template to generate the page.