PHP has gained a following among non-technical web designers who need to add interactive aspects to their sites. Offering a gentle learning curve, PHP is an accessible yet powerful language for creating dynamic web pages. As its popularity has grown, PHP's basic feature set has become increasingly more sophisticated. Now PHP 5 boasts advanced features--such as new object-oriented capabilities and support for XML and Web Services--that will please even the most experienced web professionals while still remaining user-friendly enough for those with a lower tolerance for technical jargon. If you've wanted to try your hand at PHP but haven't known where to start, then Learning PHP 5 is the book you need. If you've wanted to try your hand at PHP but haven't known where to start, then Learning PHP 5 is the book you need. With attention to both PHP 4 and the new PHP version 5, it provides everything from a explanation of how PHP works with your web server and web browser to the ins and outs of working with databases and HTML forms. Written by the co-author of the popular PHP Cookbook, this book is for intelligent (but not necessarily highly-technical) readers. Learning PHP 5 guides you through every aspect of the language you'll need to master for professional web programming results. This book provides a hands-on learning experience complete with exercises to make sure the lessons stick. Learning PHP 5 covers the following topics, and more:

• How PHP works with your web browser and web server

• PHP language basics, including data, variables, logic and looping

• Working with arrays and functions

• Making web forms

• Working with databases like MySQL

• Remembering users with sessions

• Parsing and generating XML

• Debugging

Written by David Sklar, coauthor of the PHP Cookbook and an instructor in PHP, this book offers the ideal classroom learning experience whether you're in a classroom or on your own. From learning how to install PHP to designing database-backed web applications, Learning PHP 5 will guide you through every aspect of the language you'll need to master to achieve professional web programming results.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 25 Ratings

A note for Perl jocks - 2007-02-03
Reviewer Rating:
If you can't install all the Perl modules you want (say on a $12.99/month commercial host), give PHP a try. It has weaknesses and strengths vis-GǪ-vis Perl, but you can use both! They work well together, and with XHTML, CSS, and MySQL. Who says you have to choose one over the other?

After scouring the web for tutorials and sample code, I think this book is the quickest way to get up to speed. It is concise with excellent code samples, warnings of pitfalls, and techniques for thwarting adversaries (hackers). It is straightforward without annoying cuteness or humor.

PHP code lives entirely within a web page. Some advantages:
1. You don't have to make print statements for all the HTML on the page; the PHP code can be inserts in the HTML.
2. Flow control. A page can include its own associated programming logic for easier maintenance and an uncluttered webroot directory. A form page can recursively call itself, instead of a separate script, for processing, and can call other pages.
3. It's embarrassingly *EASY* to learn with this book!

Some instructions just changed names (split is "explode," next is "continue") but other instructions are new and super-handy for the web! Sessions and cookie-handling are built in to the language (chapter 8). Scope rules and data structures are different; you can't shift, pop, or test for undef, but you get two-dimensional arrays.

If you go this route I guarantee you will have read this entire book, plus some of the online PHP manual, by the time your site is done. This book is not comprehensive but selects an excellent breadth of features.

One typo is unforgivable, and for that I unapologetically deduct a star: the very first database example in Chapter 1 shows $db->numrows() without the parentheses, which does not work. I spent two days trying to figure out what was wrong. Very confusing since the old way of doing it (before PHP's PEAR extensions) was mysql_num_rows <--without parentheses.

TIP: Do NOT assume that your host is on PHP 5! Though mine advertises 5, they put you on 4 unless you ask for 5. This one-line program will tell you which version you're on:

TIP #2: Blank web page got you down? You can see the syntax error by running it from a command line, like this: php5 mypage.php

Not helpful - 2009-06-04
Reviewer Rating:
I got this book with my PHP class and found it so unhelpful, I had to purchase Head First (PHP & MySQL) instead.

Some of the code is broken
Doesn't explain very well how things work
Boring and hard to retain information
Screen captures are non existent
More helpful if you come from a programming background (I don't)
Written by someone in a hurry to get the book out and cram your head with nothing but the facts.

Avoid if you are a true beginner to programming

Amazing Learning PHP 5 - 2007-10-30
Reviewer Rating:
This books is amazing for the people who want know the new features in PHP 5

Great resource - 2007-05-10
Reviewer Rating:
Easy read. There are also so many examples, that I just want to test each one out. I highly recommend for anyone who doesn't know anything about PHP.

Happy to meet the challenge... - 2007-03-23
Reviewer Rating:
I cheated. I looked in the back of the book for the answers so I could understand the programmer's mind behind the solution. I'm getting so much out of this book! Now, I'll think of a problem I need to solve, and because I took the time to learn some fundementals, I can piece together solutions in my head, which test positive when coded and loaded. A very satisfying experience all around. Reverse engineer is the way to learn!

May the parse be with you!

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