Beginner's PHP Book?

[23.12.2012]

This week, I'd like to buy a book on PHP. I'm new to PHP or any C-based language, except for JavaScript (medium JS, 7.5 out of 10, if it helps ), so I'd like a book which will make me understand the language and its syntax.I was ready to purchase Learning PHP5 from O'Reilly, but I read some threads here, and Programming PHP was your recommendation, so I'd like to know which one should I buy. I had a look at both of them, and Programming PHP seems to go deeper on Strings, Arrays, Functions, Databases, Objects, it seems to have a better introduction, is newer, Rasmus Lerdorf is one of the authors, it has a bigger number of pages (a deeper explanation of what he's doing), but I'd like your opinions as well.

[jlhaslip]

You might want to grab a copy of any of the books from Larry Ullman. Although it won't be a "reference Manual", Larry has an excellent manner of writing with complete understanding of the material at hand. He uses real world coding techniques which will assist you in developing good practices as well.I suggest you might begin by visiting his site at http://www.dmcinsights.com/ to review the three PHP books, each of which has two or more Editions. The success of the books is determined by his continuing to put out newer editions on a somewhat regular basis. And each book is an improvement, IMHO. there are beginners' books, Intermediate books and Advanced ones, too. Take your pick. Personally, I have the Dynamic Websites and the Advanced.

[jeffman]

If you're really a 7.5/10 on javascript, then you know the essential syntax of all C-based languages. I'll bet the other 2.5 you think you're missing is less javascript itself and more the DOM interface, which is a whole other thing.I recently recommended the Lerdorf, so it might be me you're referring to. I'll stand by it. I can't speak for the other books, but Lerdorf gives a very very quick review of syntax and data types. If you're basically there already, any more would be a waste of paper. That would be my worry.Also, some books have a lot of pages, but they're filled with toys and empty space to make it user friendly. If that's where you're at, okay. Me, I want plenty of meat on my pages, and the Lerdorf does that.When I studied Perl, I bought a book from the Sybex Complete series. It's amazing I learned anything. What an incoherent jumble!

[23.12.2012]

Yesterday I was a little bit tired when I've posted this, so today I found something which will help me a lot:I've been reading their Table of Contents, and I realize Learning PHP5 has exercises at the end of the chapters. I, for one, find them the most useful feature at a book on programming, don't you? What I need is a very good understanding of the language. Afterwards, I think I'm going to buy the PHP Cookbook (David Sklar was its coauthor), and go deeper into the language.Still, is there anyone owning both of them? Or should I buy both of them? At first, that's what I thought I'd do, but if I learn most of the basics from one book, the other would have about 10% of new stuff. Am I right?Later Edit...May anyone try adding a book in their UK Cart and tell me if they get any errors? I get an error (P1100: CMRCV failed.) when I add a book in my UK Cart, but the U.S. Cart works OK. Or has anyone had this problem before? It's OK, I can buy them from U.S.A. as well, but living in Europe, I guess it's faster buying it from U.K.

[23.12.2012]

I'm about to make the purchase, so I was wondering: should I buy both the Programming PHP and Learning PHP 5 books? It's just the thing that exercises would help me A LOT, while Programming PHP looks better from every angle, except for exercises. I would appreciate some help :)Thanks in advance!

[Natechs]

Well, if you have enough, go for it!

[count_10ants]

You might want to grab a copy of any of the books from Larry Ullman. Although it won't be a "reference Manual", Larry has an excellent manner of writing with complete understanding of the material at hand. He uses real world coding techniques which will assist you in developing good practices as well.I suggest you might begin by visiting his site at http://www.dmcinsights.com/ to review the three PHP books, each of which has two or more Editions. The success of the books is determined by his continuing to put out newer editions on a somewhat regular basis. And each book is an improvement, IMHO. there are beginners' books, Intermediate books and Advanced ones, too. Take your pick. Personally, I have the Dynamic Websites and the Advanced.

Larry Ullman's text PHP and MySql for Dynamic Websites by Peachpit Press (approx $US38) was an absolute gem. He also gives you actual files off his website which you can tweak. You are a working PHP programmer in no time (except for the issue raised in my recent post).

[supertrucker]

I have no idea where your expertise is, as you're looking for a book. I myself would like a good book for reference as well, but have you tried the w3 tutorials? I got all the basics, I feel, there. Combined with the regular contributors in this forum as well as the tutorials, and php.net has proven very effective, although I'd still like a good book, like you, to learn a few good ins 'n outs the basics don't teach you :)Mind you, I'm using a hosting platform, and did not actually have to install PEAR or PHP or any other hosting platforms or tools, so for me, I guess it's easy...I'll look up the C book I'm flipping through now, because it's actually in the car and I don't feel like going to get it, but I'll post the title, author and ISBN of it; it's, believe it or not, helped me in learning PHP as they share a very similar syntax. Albeit, I also downloaded an ancient program "Turbo C", freely available now for studying, and am studying PHP/C/HTML/Pascal, I'm finally feeling like I'm joining the C syntax/programmers from the "BASIC/PASCAL" programmers; which as a hobby-programmer, feels pretty good that I've put two and two together with a self educated push and desire.Anyhow, if you're interested, I'll recommend the book, even though it's not really PHP, but the syntax is pretty much the same, i.e., I learned X = (Y >= 9) ? VariableA : VariableB; through that... Later, I learned that the same syntax was recognized in PHP. Since I already knew a little bit of PHP and Pascal, this is my new favorite trick, and most of my simple IF THEN statements are now of the latter syntax.A question for those of you that went to school for this stuff. Did you go to school to learn programming, or chose another path and ended up here via required/voluntary prerequisites? I'm just curious, because I like this as a hobby, but don't know if I would want to do it for a living, i.e., Here's your project, here's your deadline, do it or your fired! Doing it for leisure is one thing, but under pressure, wow, I have to give you guys the credit you deserve! (I'm obviously inexperienced enough to solve everybody's problems/solutions) Just want to know if something that I like to do for fun is something I should maybe go to school for and possibly enjoy doing as a job, or be miserable in the context that I described! (Don't like being pushed!, but I do like what I'm doing; does that make sense??????)...! Is there a happy medium for those experienced? I'm only 30, so there's still hope/goals/possibilities left!ST