Looking for a good reference/guide book

thtmal

When I used to program in VB, I used to have a book called "A Visual Guide to Visual Basic", which is like an encyclopedia of all syntax, functions, etc of the core language. and also the encylopedia to the Windows API book, I used both books extensively.

Now, looking for a couple of books for PHP, found one that covers about 900 functions called "PHP Functions Essential Reference", which seems to be a good book.

Need suggestions for a good encyclopedia type reference book for the PHP core language itself, for the syntax, structures, functions, etc, with example codes???
So that I can bring it with me wherever I go. Only two I found which is not very well indexed are "PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition" and "PHP in a Nutshell". Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

thnx

laserlight

The reference book of choice for PHP is the PHP manual.

You could download a copy.

ucffool

See my sig... I was disappointed with the offerings out there (many books were too big to carry everywhere, not enough 'how it works' and too much 'just do it this way', or all tutorial not enough just getting to the point.
So, I wrote the book you see in my sig ( http://www.phpreferencebook.com ).

thtmal

ucffool wrote:
So, I wrote the book you see in my sig ( http://www.phpreferencebook.com ).

Cool, thnx, I just downloaded it and will check it out. I love reading different examples.

You're right, there seem to be a disappointing amount of books available, besides, most code examples are available online. Like the first reply stated, best source for a manual is php.net.

thnx all

laserlight

Looks good, though there are technical inaccuracies (e.g., the recommendation of addslashes() instead of mysql_real_escape_string() and claiming that they provide the same functionality when mysql_real_escape_string() crucially does more; calling MD5 an encryption algorithm when it is a cryptographic hash algorithm; calling include, include_once, require and require_once functions when they are language constructs; claiming that global variables instead of named constants are created by define(), and maybe more). Except for the first the ones I saw are minor, but since you should be using MySQLi or PDO for working with MySQL databases anyway, it does not really matter in the long run.

ucffool

I will agree on your points, which are minor syntax issues that apparently escaped all the reviewers attention. Luckily, they are not critical flaws that will hinder the audience of the book in any way, and with luck it will help them better understand it better. Painful but true, php.net is exhaustive in its technical information (though I found at times inaccurate), which leads to confusion for readers that haven't been exposed to PHP for years. That's the barrier I tried to breakdown.
I'll have a blog up on phpreferencebook.com soon enough to address any clarifications/errors as you have pointed out. Thanks.