Whats a really good PHP book?

Heywood

I am getting started with PHP, and I think I am past the "beginner" stage, I am done with my first PHP book, and can manipulate text, and do some basic MySQL stuff.

What is a good php bible? I guess I want to take it one step further, and start getting into the more advanced stuff. A good thick "bible" is probably what I am looking for, but I don't want to waste my money.

Or even better, a good combo book on PHP and MySQL (since they seem to go together like PB and Jelly) programming. Any recommendations?

frigidman

I had gotten a PHP4 Bible, and a PHP4 beginning book a long time ago... both were innacruate and not much help. What I found to be my most used 'bible' is "www.php.net". You can search for things instantly, and lookup functions, and find all sorts of useful goodies that I have yet to find in any book that wasn't out of date, or innacurate.

BUT, same could be said for php.net. Some of its documentation is so sparse, its pathetic. And many ofthe user feedbacks per documentation item, are VERY misleading, or cause more troubles than being helpful.

So... its a crapshoot. For me, I've found php.net to be better. But for the next person, a good hefty book would work.

I just hate picking up a book and saying to myself "find me preg_replace()", and getting disappointed the pages don't flip to the right spot... 😃 😉

mrmufin

I found "Professional PHP Programming" (WROX) to be quite helpful.

And I agree with frigidman, www.php.net can be very useful, but it's sometimes a crapshoot. What I do like about php.net is that it's current, and two of my three PHP programming books are not. If I need a function prototype for something brand, spankin' new, it's there where it's not in any of my books.

I have three books on PHP programming, there's things that like and dislike about each one. I have 'Core PHP Programming' by Leon Atkinson, and I use it a lot because the index is excellent. But I've found some code examples in that book that were just plain wrong. I also have "Building Web Applications with PHP3" by David Medinets, some excellent concepts are covered, but I find the author's coding style difficult to read.

IMHO (and O's are like A's, we've all got 'em), MySQL by Paul DuBois (New Riders) is the MySQL reference. A very, very well written reference for MySQL, with some excellent PHP examples.

piersk

If you've never really done much in the way of programming before, or you have done VB so you know the basics, try the Quick start guide to PHP... (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201727870/qid%3D1030096457/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-6070265-8565534)