What's the best book for learning PHP?

Davidc316

I was wondering if anyone knew of any good books they could recommend for learning PHP/MySQL.

stolzyboy

MySQL/PHP Database Applications

Jay Greenspan and Brad Bulger

Davidc316

Thanks for that.

I wish I had added in my original post...

-Could you please mention if you've read any other PHP books and what they are? I'm just back from the book shop and I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of books they had on the subject of PHP, so I'm just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Thanks!

stolzyboy

i've read many php books, and was co-authoring a wrox book before it was acquired by wiley, i am now in talks with them to write another one, anyway, the one i suggested has probably been the best one i have read, i would stay away from any sams books, and i don't really care for the older wrox php books, or o'reilly books at all, seems like it goes thru too many editing stages that cause the final product to be too bare

cgraz

I read PHP and MySQL Web Development by Welling and Thomson I believe. Pretty good book. I started with Fast and Easy Web Development by Julie Meloni. A good begginners book, but if you already know a little PHP it's probably not worth getting.

Books are good, but I personally think the best way to learn is to just practice. Play around with it. Think of something you want to build, then go out and learn how to build it. PHP is open source and has an awesome online community with plenty of free resources. Read the forum, post questions, look through your books, search online, then build it. I learned so much quicker when I put the books down and just dove in.

If someone posts a question on this board, search and/or guess & check on your server and try to figure out the solution. Then, either post what you've discovered or wait and see what other people post. This was actually how I learned PHP. When I started posting here I knew virtually nothing, but I always tried to find the answers to people's questions.

Hope this helps.

Cgraz

Davidc316

Thanks guys.

I'm so glad you mentioned to stay clear of SAMS.

Let me tell ya...

I've been working my way through SAMS "learn PHP/MySQL in 24 hours" (laugh) for the past month and it's been a total nightmare!!!!

Earlier today I was this (||) close to just giving up and declaring myself a looney for not understanding the stuff!

Davidc316

cg- thanks for that advice.

Lately I've been a bit paranoid about posting questions on these forums incase people realise how clueless I am. But I'll bare in mind what you've said.

cgraz

Don't be worried about that. If everyone knew PHP 100%, then what would be the point of having forums to get help? Asking questions is how you learn. Go look at some of my first posts. I'm sure nobody even remembers me as being 'clueless' (although I still am at times 😃 )

Cgraz

Bijan

Originally posted by cgraz
Don't be worried about that. If everyone knew PHP 100%, then what would be the point of having forums to get help? Asking questions is how you learn. Go look at some of my first posts. I'm sure nobody even remembers me as being 'clueless' (although I still am at times 😃 )

Cgraz

You're a great source of energy man, thank you! Yeah, you are right, we all have to work, but then you need to be free of many chores (!!) like going to university and making yourself ready for the damn exams and stuff! You know, it really wastes time, playing with the tower of hanoys or finding the shortest way in a graph or .... I'm really off-topicing here, but I wanted to thank you for encouraging us. Also I had "PHP + Mysql in 24 Hours" by SAMS and it's not that bad, even though a little bit old, but I can still tolerate it!

Davidc316

Well, in fairness to the SAMS book- the CD ROM is very cool indeed.

I wish all the authors of programming books would take note of that inexpensive little extra because I think it makes all the difference.

stolzyboy

if it were up to the "authors" they would all have them, but the "publisher" wants to keep the cost down

Davidc316

...and I'll second what you said there bj. It's great to get some positive encouragement every now and then.

Norman_Graham

Davie - you're back!! Good to see you again. I thought you'd maybe given up on PHP.

I made my first steps in PHP with Wrox Beginning PHP4. I know it has many faults ... but I do like the Wrox approach to the first steps, dedicated to total comprehension and clarity. However, they really make a bollocks of it when things start getting more complicated. They introduce totally new concepts and neither mention the fact that they're there nor explain them, and they indulge in alternative coding practices without mentioning the fact that they're departing from what they taught in the initial chapters.

However, I'm sure as hell glad about the existence of this forum, because I've learned a lot from it (thanks guys and gals).

Norm

Davidc316

Hello again Norman, it's been a while and it's good to catch up with you! How's the site going?

My opinion of these forums are that they are generally ok.

But with this thread as literally the only exception I can think of- every time I post in here I seem to get hit with agro somewhere along the line because I've wasted everybodies time by asking such a stupid question.

I mean, if you look through the archives... almost every time I've ever heard from you, your posts have consisted of you saying to me:

"Well, actually David I think everyone in the forum is a bit angry with you for asking that and really you should just go back to nursery school and dedicate the next billion years to learning PHP before you ever dare to have the audacity to come in here again. PS- everyone thinks you should go kill yourself, but I think you're ok."

Ok, ok, maybe that's not an exact quote but I'm sure you get the idea. Let me stress... you're one of the good guys and I'm grateful for you defending me in times of apparent trouble.

I have to say, this particular thread has been a refreshing break from the usual programmer's snobbery that I've became acustomed to in here. All credit to the positive and tollerant people of this thread!

philipolson

The best PHP book is the PHP manual:

http://www.php.net/manual/

Learning basic SQL is important too, here are some links:

http://www.sqlcourse.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/ct/19

Regarding books, you can't ever go wrong with an O'reilly book.

Norman_Graham

Originally posted by Davidc316
My opinion of these forums are that they are generally ok.

But with this thread as literally the only exception I can think of- every time I post in here I seem to get hit with agro somewhere along the line because I've wasted everybodies time by asking such a stupid question.

I mean, if you look through the archives... almost every time I've ever heard from you, your posts have consisted of you saying to me: "Well, actually David I think everyone in the forum is a bit angry with you for asking that and really you should just go back to nursery school and dedicate the next billion years to learning PHP before you ever dare to have the audacity to come in here again. PS- everyone thinks you should go kill yourself, but I think you're ok."

Well, David ... you want to think carefully about what you're asking before you ask it. The veterans of this forum get understandably fed up answering exactly the same question 45 times a day just because newcomers to the forum can't be bothered using the excellent search feature to find the answer. The correct drill is, search first and then ask questions. We've had people on here saying that they searched and couldn't find anything on how to, for example, query a database using PHP. This is just a barefaced lie.
The other thing is that this isn't an HTML forum - it's bad form to ask questions about HTML unless there is a clear PHP aspect to the question.
And finally, the people here are mostly experienced veterans of web development and they had to work hard to gain their knowledge, so they expect newcomers like ourselves to do a little bit of work rather than just asking for complete code. Your last post about making a table of database results was 1. An HTML question; and 2. A request for finished code. That's why it went down like a lead balloon.
I spend most of my time on this forum answering questions from other newbies in cases where I'm fairly sure that I know enough to answer the question. The rest of the time I spend looking at answers to more difficult questions from experts (Weedpacket, Laserlight, Buzzly, Planetsim, Craz and many more) to see if I can learn something useful. I think I've posted exactly three questions since I registered because I always search first before asking a question. It's a policy I can recommend - the people on this forum seem to have accepted me and I've never had any agro from anyone ... and best of all, I get instant help when I really need it.

HTH

Norm 🆒

zeb

Another book you might consider is "PHP Bible" by Tim Converse and Joyce Park (Pub: Wiley). I similarly went into the book store about 5 weeks ago and struggled with the enormous PHP book selection. I picked up this one, read the first chapter, and got a good feeling about the authors' style. Fortunately after spending the $50, I have really enjoyed it. There was very little in it that I couldn't understand due to lack of clarity or explaination. In addition to the book, I set up Apache on my local machine, installed PHP and started going at it, which is essential to grasping the concepts and getting confortable with the code. (The PHP web site has also been very helpful.)

insane

I've read a big 1000-page PHP book for starters. Wasn't actually what i thought it would be. Then I read a couple O'Reilly books (not only PHP) and found them to be very helpful. I dont't know if these are the perfect books for complete beginners, but they're worth it when you're in it at least a bit!
I don't really care about any "in 24 hours" or "in 4-weeks" -books. I've not read any, but I can't imagine they really help (though I don't want to prejudice 😉).

Davidc316

Norman Graham- I find your last post irritating, full of snobbery and slightly offensive.

First of all, my post about tables was ENTIRELY about generating PHP code. So, by your own definition it had a PHP component to it.

Secondly, as I said on the thread at the time, I was not requesting complete code. I had a very specific issue with which I needed some help and ...far from asking someone to write the code from start to finish, I actually posted several lines of code that I had already written.

Thirdly, I do intensive searches on the forums and indeed the rest of the Net (usually using Google.com) before asking any questions on this forum. If you want to investigate that claim- go for it!

On a final note, may I add that I do NOT appreciate how you've came onto this thread and you've attempted to highlight something discussed in another forum in order to make me (and perhaps everyone else!) realise how clueless I am.

The bottom line is.... most of the people on this forum are friendly, helpful types like cgras and the user, Delta. These people almost certainly know more about PHP than you and I combined and multiplied by fifty and YET- they conduct themselves in a manner which is totally encouraging and positive at all times.

There is no denying however, that there are indeed a few negative minded people who have nothing to offer this forum but scorn and criticism (especially towards newcomers). If you want to take the side of that little cleek, as seems to be the case, then I'd rather you stopped following me around and telling me how much of a scumbag I am for coming onto the forum with my all so stupid questions!

A few years ago I did computing as part of an engineering course at Glasgow University. I wasn't much good at computing back then either, but I do remember one thing... the class was divided into two camps- those who start quietly at the computer pretending all was well and those who constantly asked "stupid" questions. Guess what??? When exam time came around the small minority who had plagued the teacher with the stupid questions all passed with flying colours.

Even Cgras on this very thread admits to asking lots of silly questions when he first joined this forum!!!

The bottom line is... I do NOT need you to come on here constantly holding my hand and telling me why everyone thinks I'm a shmuck at every opportunity.

Now, as far as I can make out, there are two types of people on this forum: those who focus on the positive and encourage newbies and those who focus on the negative and to talk down to newbies.

Pick which side you're on.

-David

acey

of course im a php amature ,

but i have been creating a chat room , and its doing great , the manual and online tutorials is all you need i reckon and of course this forum when you just cant get your head around things !