What is the best way to learn PHP from scratch?

SwottingUp · 2008-12-14T00:03:01+00:00

Hello all, My first ever post - eek!!! I'm just starting out learning PHP and am finding learning PHP quite difficult to grasp. A lot of books and video tr...

What is the best way to learn PHP from scratch?

SwottingUp

devsie;10895831 wrote:
I've been learning a week so i'm probably not knowledgable enough to respond, but i've been on http://www.w3schools.com and found them v. helpful. Good as reference too.

Thanks devsie; I'll look them up. If I find anything cool I'll give you a shout. Sounds like you're just working things out too 🙂

SwottingUp

Cheers Kerant.

I've sort of been doing that a bit, but I find that most places I look for info give you so many different bits of varying detail it's hard to pull it all together, it's been confusing???? It also worries me that people say not to trust certain codes because of security issues as some of the developers may not know 100% what they are doing, or that the codes are too old.

Have you run into this sort of thing? Have you found things to be clear enough just jumping straight in like that?

djjjozsi

when you learn, this forum is a good place to post what you've done,
then you will get advice how to do that better.

use google to find video tutorials, or in youtube you can
find lots of useful videos.

good luck.

YAOMK

Youtube's resolution is horrible. I much rather Vimeo. Anyhow a good book is probably your best bet. I find "Spring into PHP 5" to be quite good and pretty straight forward to get you started. Good luck.

mikes02

I just started learning as well, I like to read so books have always been helpful for me, I started with PHP For the World Wide Web Visual QuickStart Guide by Larry Ullman and it was extremely helpful in getting me started, it works you through a lot of tutorials while explaining features along the way, and the way it is written makes it easy to follow along with and understand.

I have since moved on to another of his books which is the more advanced version so that I can learn more.

Another good thing like what was mentioned before, as soon as you have the basics, set yourself a task. For example, I wanted to do a newsletter signup that store username and e-mail in a database, which isn't a super complicated thing to do, but it was something I had never done. So that's where I started and it was a good learning experience.

Kerant

SwottingUp;10895834 wrote:
Cheers Kerant.

I've sort of been doing that a bit, but I find that most places I look for info give you so many different bits of varying detail it's hard to pull it all together, it's been confusing???? It also worries me that people say not to trust certain codes because of security issues as some of the developers may not know 100% what they are doing, or that the codes are too old.

Have you run into this sort of thing? Have you found things to be clear enough just jumping straight in like that?

Yeah well there is always going to be problems if you are following somebody elses' code. It's been a difficult learning curve for me; I started learning basic PHP originally but now I've realised that object-oriented PHP is more sought after, which is understandably frustrating as I have spent time learning things the "wrong way".

Security issues are dependent on what exactly you are trying to do I suppose. If you are just trying to learn basic PHP then I wouldn't worry too much about the security side of things for now, unless you are working on something commercially. Obvious security is a massive issue and it is best practice to learn it from the beginning - but I think it can be even more mind blowing trying to learn security as well as trying to teach yourself PHP.

laserlight

Kerant wrote:
Obvious security is a massive issue and it is best practice to learn it from the beginning - but I think it can be even more mind blowing trying to learn security as well as trying to teach yourself PHP.

Ideally, basic security should be taught alongside PHP. Simple things like checking for valid input should be part and parcel of even a novice's knowledge, and the selection of any database interface should come with an introduction to how to properly escape input.

NogDog

A couple web tutorials I'd recommend:

K3ith

I've just started myself. Here is what I am using and have found helpful.

PHP 6 and MySQL Visual QuickPro Guide

SAMS Web Development and MySQL 4th Edition

http://www.killerphp.com/index.php

Killer PHP has some good videos to get you going on the basics which I found really helpful.

So far the two books I listed are very similar. Teaching at the same pace and have some of the same examples later in the book.

jmartinez

laserlight;10895935 wrote:
Ideally, basic security should be taught alongside PHP. Simple things like checking for valid input should be part and parcel of even a novice's knowledge, and the selection of any database interface should come with an introduction to how to properly escape input.

I will agree with laserlight. I started to learn PHP / MySQL about 2 years ago and the number one resource for me was.... THIS forum and the search feature. Add Google to the mix and endless hours of researching the topic and tada!! your coding. Personally I found the easiest way to learn was to just get my hands dirty and start to program. Think of something simple maybe an address book and work to replicate it. The plus side is you already know what data you want to capture and how it should function.

As laserlight suggested there are other things that need to be learned alongside PHP. Understanding database design and proper useage of field types is a huge one also. I used a free program that helped me write MySQL queries to start with so I could see the proper way of doing things and learn from it (http://www.activedbsoft.com/overview-querytool.html).

My number one rule while writing code, don't over complicate what you are attempting to do, keep it simple, there will be plenty of complicated functions to write later on.

Also running PHP / MySQL on your local machine rather than constantly using ftp to update files on your web host will save you time and your server won't hate you. Xampp is what I use to achieve this.

harmor

I found a site where a guy does PHP video tutorials in high quality at http://www.phpvideotutorials.com/free

I think PHPBuilder should also have video tutorials.

sneakyimp

I studied computer science in college, but I sort of did other stuff for years and forgot most of it. When I started learning PHP, it usually involved looking at someone else's code. Having to understand something that has been written by someone better than you is usually really educational. I've had to read code for things like PHP Gallery, phpBB, osCommerce, etc.

I have also found this site to be TREMENDOUSLY helpful. In fact, I am certain I would never have gotten this far without the help of folks here at phpBuilder.com.

Generally speaking, if there is something you'd like to accomplish writing PHP, it is really good to set a distant goal and start learning the little bits that will lead you there. Formulate small, specific questions that lead you a step closer to your goal and ask them here on this forum. It's like the fortune cookie says, "Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".