PHP form calculator scripts - help

[redspiral]

I would really like to develop the skills to be able to do bespoke PHP formulas and calculations within the page - similar to some of the savings calculators examples below:
http://www.reecl.org/calc_sav.php
http://www.esc.net.au/calculator.php
http://www.minorplanet.com/cars_calculator.php
http://www.netistix.com/calculator/index.php
etc
I am proficient at HTML and CSS and have set up PHP applications (though never really got involved with the code), but would really learn more PHP skills and I have usually found that the best way to learn things is to set a challenge - and PHP in page form calcuations would be really useful.
I have found a couple of tutorials about developing actual PHP calculators (i.e. not what i want) but am not sure I am any closer to figuring this out. Would really appreciate it if somebody could point me in the right direction to get started ...

[rgermain]

The best advice I can give is get to know the PHP Manual at http://www.php.net.
You will find that the more you get used to using the more you will like to use it and find its very very useful for almost any application are about to try and develop.

Hope that helps!

[bpat1434]

I'd suggest you learn in this order:

• General PHP Syntax and Structure (See PHP Manual)
• Form posting and value retrieval
• Mathematical operators

Those are the basics to do a general PHP calculator. From your examples, that's all these are. You input a form, it calculates based upon preset numbers, or other numbers in your form, then displays the answers along with the form again. Read through some basic tutorials, and if you need help stepping along the way, feel free to stop back and ask for guidance.

[redspiral]

cheers for your guidance rgermain & bpat1434 - exactly what I needed to get going.