PHP 5 book

[mikerh9]

What book do you recommend for PHP5?

TH

[robert_w_ark]

In my opinion, I don't recommend a book. Its solely up to you, however, I learned PHP by trial and error. Its usually the best way of learning, or even to start out. PHP.net has some great references, and explaination of pre-built functions. Just try it out and see if you can do it.

If you need any help with it, and would like to 'rent-a-tutor' -- I am here to help for a low rate. Please contact me through my profile if you need to.

Thanks, -Robert

[longbow]

in my experiance SAMs 24 hours books have worked out the best
but to get the full jist of PHP i would go with robert_w_ark just mess around with the code see how it works and see what you can get done, visit some sites that have code on them and see if you can figure out how it works. thats pritty mcuh how i did it, along with having nothing else to do.

[bradgrafelman]

longbow voiced a very sound idea; create and solve a problem.

Start simple. Make a shoutbox. Make a hits counter.

Then start progressing into more challenging scenarios. Make a user login system. Add 'administrators' to that system that can manage users.

By now, you'll have (or should have) started using database software, such as MySQL. In my opinion, PHP and MySQL (or MSSQL, or whatever database software you use) often go hand in hand. That is, they work well together to accomplish a common goal.

Don't forget, if you dream up a problem you and you get stuck (i.e. creating a guestbook), search the internet for a simple script already made that serves the purpose your script is aimed at and look at the inner workings of the pre-made script. What functions did they use? What security risks were confronted and how did they help protect against hackers (SQL Injections, etc.) ?

Start answering these questions and solving these scenarios, and before you know it, you're picking up speed and start learning more and more.

Never give up, never surrendur, and never overlook the manual.