Programming PHP

• #8 in Best PHP Books

52 Reviews

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The creator of PHP himself, Rasmus Lerdorf, put together a thorough and enlightening guide to PHP. In this book you will find everything you need to know about PHP from variables to a long list of all the PHP functions and how to use them. I found many features of PHP that I had no idea existed (such as creating PDF files). I use this book as a reference for a PHP course I teach, and its examples have been more than helpful to me in designing lesson plans.

The one caveat of this book is that it is not geared toward brand new web programmers. PHP as a language derives from C, C++ and Perl, and if you are not at least somewhat familiar with these langauges, you can get lost in this book. The authors really want to draw a parallel between PHP and its predecessor languages so that programmers can pick up PHP more easily. I really like the fact they try to do that, and it has helped me enjoy this book more. But on the flip side, it will be more difficult for new programmers to read this book. I really hope O'Reilly comes up with a "Learning PHP" book that will be more for beginning programmers, because PHP is a great language to learn, and it would be nice to have books to appeal to all levels.

In any case, for a book about PHP, you can ask for no better book than one written by the author itself. This book does keep up the tradition of professional, useful O'Reilly programming books, and is worth the time for web programmers to read. Thus I think it earns 5 stars.

When I bought this book, I purchased it for 2 reason's:

1) Its an ORA book and they have in the past published high quality technical references.

2) It was "authored" by Rasmus Lerdorf, the father of PHP. I figured it must be a definitive guide.

When I bought this book, I felt a bit swindled. First of all, it seems that Rasmus only served as an editor type, not really writing the book, just supervising. Most of the content was written by the other author(s). He gets top billing on amazon, no doubt, because O'Reilly is betting that name recognition is what is going to make you purchase this book.

On top of that the book is really only mediocre. While some of the writing is lucid, at points the author does seem to depart into fairy land (not that there is anything wrong with fairy land, I just have better things to do with my time than take a visit).

Furthermore, "Programming PHP" misses a lot of what php is about, and how you can harness PHP. The coverage of PHP's core components (numbers, arrays, strings, objects, oh my!) is pretty good, but once they get into the nitty gritty, they seem to ignore the gritty. Leaving you with a taste for the subject, but no real substance.

Furthermore, they neglect many of the topics that make PHP what it is today, including, ldap interaction, compression, snmp interaction, mail handling, system integration, RPC, COM and Java integration and a sleuth of other features.

In summary, if you want a nice pretty ORA reference, this is the book for you, if you want substance, I reccomend either "The PHP Developer's Cookbook" or one of Wrox's series (all are pretty good, choose according to your competency level).

I'm the editor of Programming PHP. I can vouch for the fact that Rasmus was a fully-fledged author. Besides fact-checking everything that the other authors wrote, he contributed many chapters of his own. I don't know where the idea that Rasmus was "just supervising" or "has not done any major writing" came from (it's not a conclusion you could come to from actually *reading* the book) but it's absolutely wrong.

By all means be vague ("fairy land") and strange (LDAP and SNMP as "what makes PHP what it is today"?!) in reviews, but please don't be dishonest.

For my rating of this book, by the way, I came as close to the current average ranking as I could. I'm obviously not impartial (I think the book's a 5!) but I don't want my partiality to bias the reader ratings.

Most of the books I've looked at on PHP have tied it in a three-legged race with mySQL. I was looking for something that taught the core language itself and its place in applications besides those in which it is teamed with mySQL. This appears to be that book. The core PHP language is very good at handling strings and arrays and objects. Along with standard and optional extension modules, a PHP application can work with databases like Oracle and MySQL, draw graphs, create PDF files, and parse XML files. You can write your own PHP extension modules in C to provide a PHP interface to the functions in an existing code library. You can also run PHP on Windows and use it to control other Windows applications such as Word and Excel with COM or interact with databases using ODBC. This book is a guide to all of these capabiliies of the PHP language, as well as a tutorial on the core language itself. This book assumes you have a working knowledge of HTML and that you know how to program - preferably in either C, C++, or Perl.

The first six chapters teach the core language itself. The six chapters include a dedicated introduction and a chapter on language basics which acts as a concise guide to PHP program elements such as identifiers, data types, operators, and flow-control statements. The next four chapters after that concern functions, strings, arrays, and objects respectively. The following is an outline of the remaining chapters of the book:

Chapter 7, "Web Techniques" - PHP was designed as a web-scripting language and, although it is possible to use it in purely command-line and GUI scripts, the Web accounts for the vast majority of PHP uses. A dynamic web site may have forms, sessions, and sometimes redirection, and this chapter explains how to implement those things in PHP. You'll learn how PHP provides access to form parameters and uploaded files, how to send cookies and redirect the browser, and how to use PHP sessions.

Chapter 8, "Databases" - PHP has support for over 20 databases, including the most popular commercial and open source varieties. This chapter covers how to access databases from PHP. The focus is on the PEAR DB system, which lets you use the same functions to access any database, rather than on the myriad database-specific extensions. In this chapter, you'll learn how to fetch data from the database, how to store data in the database, and how to handle errors. The chapter finishes with a sample application that shows how to put various database techniques into action.

Chapter 9, Graphics - Many web images are dynamically created, such as graphs of stock performance. PHP supports the creation of such graphics with the GD and Imlib2 extensions. This chapter demonstrates how to generate images dynamically with PHP, using the GD extension.

Chapter 10, PDF - PHP has several libraries for generating PDF documents. This chapter shows how to use the popular fpdf library. The FPDF library is a set of PHP code you include in your scripts with the required function, so it doesn't require any server-side configuration or support, meaning you can use it even without support from your host.

Chapter 11, XML - This chapter shows how to use the XML parser bundled with PHP, as well as how to use the optional XSLT extension to transform XML. Generating XML is also briefly covered here.

Chapter 12, Security - PHP's convenience is a double-edged sword. The very features that let you quickly write programs in PHP can open doors for those who would break into your systems. It's important to understand that PHP itself is neither secure nor insecure. The security of your web applications is entirely determined by the code you write. This chapter gives tips on making that code secure.

Chapter 13, Application Techniques - This chapter demonstrates some techniques you may find useful in your PHP applications, such as code libraries, templating systems, efficient output handling, error handling, and performance tuning.

Chapter 14, Extending PHP - This chapter demonstrates writing C language extensions to PHP. Although most functionality can be written in the PHP language, sometimes you need the extra speed and control you get from the C API. C is the mechanism for creating the thin middle layer between PHP and any third-party C library. For example, to be able to talk to the MySQL database server, PHP needs to implement the MySQL socket protocol. It would be a lot of work to figure out this protocol and talk to MySQL directly using "fsockopen" and "fputs" from a PHP script. Instead, the same goal can be accomplished with a thin layer of functions written in C that translate MySQL's C API, implemented in the libmysqlclient library included in MySQL, into PHP language-level function calls. This thin layer of functions is known as a PHP extension.

Chapter 15, PHP on Windows - The most common reason to use PHP on Windows is to develop web applications on your Windows desktop. What can be confusing at first is the number of various configurations and choices available. There are many variants of the Windows operating system, and many web servers are available for those operating systems. PHP itself can run as either a DLL or a script. This chapter explains how to install, configure, and make the best use of PHP on Windows systems. One approach is taken and followed to its conclusion, although there are a number of different ways to arrive at the same destination. Also explained is how to take advantage of the features unique to the Windows platform, such as connecting to databases with ODBC and controlling Microsoft Office applications through COM.

As you can see this book really provides two functions. It is a very thorough tutorial and reference on the PHP programming language, and it is also a tutorial and showcase of all of the different uses PHP can have. Well commented code and instructions are provided throughout. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to learn the PHP programming language as well as those that know the basics and want to put the language to work. Just make sure you know HTML and programming - preferably both C and PERL - first.

An excellent intermediate level book, the authors in depth knowledge of the inner working of PHP make the difference, especially when they suggest better practices. After a brief introduction to the language (too brief for most beginners), it covers many topics, from strings and array, to the more advanced chapters on XML, PDF and image generation.
Buyers must be aware that the database section is pretty limited and focus on using PEAR and around 100 pages are dedicated to a function reference that may be somewhat redundant for many developers

I almost always turn to O'Reilly first when purchasing a new reference book, however this time I was disappointed. This book is fairly shallow in content and much of the information that you need is actually buried in the text instead of being presented as a topic unto itself.

The thing that is the most bothersome, however, is the plethora of flat out errors. Many of the examples have typos, missing code, etc. Even as a PHP novice I was constantly spotting errors which is frustrating when you're trying to learn the language.

On top of that, many of the examples exhibit just plain bad programming form (inefficient code, variables that are only used once, etc). It's the kind of thing that makes a seasoned programmer wince (and if I was reviewing the code I would send it back to the author with lots of red ink).

This book is well written and an extremely easy read. The coverage is very very comprehensive yet concise! If you were worried about dragging through another 1400 page wrox book just to grasp another language, you will want to run and get this book. You will pick up PHP fast with no delay. It is around 380 pages along with a nice reference area of php functions. If you are a web developer who wants to pick up PHP quickly simply purchase this book. Folks with only html experience can also expect to have an excellent understanding of PHP by the end of the book, although I suggest that the book be read by someone with some form of previous web programming experience. This is only because certain coverage is very efficient and may be hard to keep up with if you are a complete novice in web programming basics.

Did I forgot to mention that the co-author is the creator of PHP!! :)

This book has code examples which are full of typos. For example, the code for "self-processing pages" on page 166 won't parse. The publisher's list of unconfirmed errata goes on for 12 printed pages. This is in addition to the confirmed errata, another 2 pages. It does not look like the book's authors want to acknowledge their mistakes or participate in correcting them.

If you are a beginner, steer clear of this book. If you do get it, be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time researching each and every parse error.

This book is a half baked attempt at teaching PHP programming.It has a poor organization,missing php functions, and lack of in-depth examples with good explanations.

If your are a newbie to the world of PHP programming and desperately need a reference to get you started, this may be the book for you. If you have the will to fight it out and can't find any other resources, then this is a must-have.

Its frustrating enough when you know what your looking for and can't find it. I find myself using the online documentation far more than I use this book.

Also it seems like Rasmus has not done any major writing on this book and has been misleading to me as a customer.

It's not the best computer language book I have ever read, by a long shot, but it did give me most of what I needed. I found a number of errors, including places where the example code differs from the text description. This is mostly the editor's fault. Also, there were a number of important details that were left out. This brings me to my main concern: it is not clear who this book was written for. A novice would be overwhelmed, I think, while a more experienced programmer like me may be frustrated with some critical omissions. On the whole, though, it did get the job done.

Programming PHP is a great introduction to PHP. The chapters are well written with good examples that explain what is being discussed. The chapters are not written in a "read one after the other" fashion, so you can easily go to the chapter you need information on and find what you are looking for. This book did have some errors in the sample code, but if you read the text and actually try out the examples you can easily figure out what needs to be fixed to get them running. Since the O'Reilly "Programming" series is more about advanced programming issues, I think this book should have had the title "Learning PHP". It just seems to be an introduction, because it did not delve into any advanced topics. It is worthy to have on any PHP developers bookshelf. Recommended for beginners.

I liked this book. As an experienced programmer I like that it dove right in and gave me the basics of the language that I needed to get going. Since I am new to PHP I can't speak to what might be missing, as some of the other reviewers allude to, but it certainly seems to have all of the nuts and bolts necessary to get a quick grasp of the language and the "system".

So, why did I give it only 4 stars? Well, there are so many errors in the sample code and between the descriptions and the sample code that it significantly slowed me down, by confusing me. These errors aren't always horrible, but just to give an example the book says, on page 84, that you call the get_meta_tags() function by passing it "the HTML for a web page in a string". Well, the sample shows passing it a URL and if you do pass it a string, it turns out, PHP crashes (at least my installation of PHP does). There are many other examples.

My advice is to not buy this if you expect it to teach you how to program, but if you already have a couple of other languages under your belt, and how to build web pages, this book will get you into PHP quick.

I'm assuming via the dates of the other reviews, that most of them are referring to Version 1.

I have Version 2 with me and after reading a few chapters, have come to the conclusion that this is a worthwhile investment.

The author(s) appear to have read my mind as I thought about counter examples ("what about in this case?"), for in the following paragraph such concerns are addressed.

This is an easy read and easily absorbed; yet not too verbose (yawn).

I'm giving it 4/5 stars, simply because there's no downloadable example code. But that is a minor issue; for me.

This is a good book and I shall keep it.

Hi all. This is the first text that I've ever bothered to review on Amazon, but I do so now because I think that this book is *very* under-rated. This book is a SOLID 5 STAR INTRODUCTION TO PHP for the experienced programmer. If you already know perl or java, this book is a ultra-high-speed yet thoroughly comprehensible survey of PHP syntax and usage. Very complete treatment of the language. My only caveat: If you have no programming background, i would imagine that it may be a little terse.

* I am an experienced programmer. I finished the first seven chapters in one day. Because the book is good or because I got used to programming ?? I am not sure.

* The second day (today) I read chapter 8 Database. I can not understand anything X-( They say something like For more on SQL, see SQL in a Nutshell X-( And I don't know any about Databases so I can not read it.

* The rest of the books cover some topics that I'm currently not interested in, I haven't read them, so I can not give any comments about these chapters. (in fact I have read some parts I think they are fine because I can understand :D)

* The way the authors present information is not clear either. I think they put a little effort on it. Everything is so brief.

This is definitely not a 5* book.
4* ?? No. I am not pleased.
3* ? Well, I got some basis of PHP. Thank the authors :-)

Spent an hour examining this 2nd edition. I've also spent some time reading the reviews of the 1st edition and you are right on the money, Nathan Torkington. Many of the reviews show that the reviwer did not take much time or care going thru the book. When you've got the kind of talent and writing experience shared by the two authors, you have got to be one doozy of a PHP person to find the kind of faults some reviewers report. O'Reiily does a great job of maintaining an ERRATA page for each of their books. You never made a typo, guys ? In general this is a nice cleanup of the book. Very good for starters & intermediates.
And thank you to David Wall, who says it all: "The authors use a Talmudic (JBC adds:For readers not familiar with the TALMUD, check out Wikipedia)style to explore PHP's capabilities and explain them to their readers, meaning that they like to present code and commentary in close formation, with each enhancing the other. Typically, they'll present a capability generically and show the relevant code. Then they'll dig into variations on the theme, calling attention to required code alterations as they go. This is a book about PHP itself, so practically no attention is paid to PHP Builder or other development tools. Regardless, this book will help you solve programming challenges with PHP, and enable you to write efficient, attractive code."

This book lacks examples. It describes a function in English words but rarely gives an example of how to invoke it. If you're trying to do File I/O this book is NOT for you.

Written in part by PHP's creator Rasmus Lerdorf, O'Reilly's Programming PHP is an excellent beginner's reference for PHP programming.

The book covers language fundamentals--many of which are similar enough to Java, C, JavaScript, etc. that a programmer with even a modicum of experience with those languages will quickly pick up the syntax--and then goes into detail on various aspects of PHP programming, from web programming to database integration.

The book does only touch on some areas; the database chapters, for instance, concetrate mainly on the MySQL interface, though PHP can easily be used with PostGRESQL and even products like Oracle and Microsoft SQLServer. However, there are more in-depth books for readers wishing to explore those topics in detail.

The programmer's function reference and other appendices are useful as well, although at times finding a function in the index will only direct you to a short entry in the function reference, not an in-depth explanation as to its application.

If you want to set up a scripted, interactive web site without having to learn the more difficult (and at times less suitable) Perl, then PHP is for you. As the language exists on both Unix and Windows platforms, PHP can serve as an alternative to other scripting languages as well such as ASP / VBScript. This book is the key to getting started.

It sure tries to teach you something but cannot achieve...
As everyone mentioned before, it has countless errors and typos. But there is more than that. Book is out of focus. Examples makes no sense and not related to each other, which is very confusing.
A piece of code here and other piece is there. Every example is coming out of nowhere. It doesn't have a project. So everytime different variables, situations. Like, in one example it uses Flintstones character names ($name=Fred, $name2 = fred etc.). Next example is subjects of a class (math, science, history, english etc.), on other one it uses very random strings like ("I like paris in november", "the key is in my pants")
If you want to learn PHP, stick with "PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition" By Luke Welling, Laura Thompson.

'Programming PHP' by Kevin Tatroe is a solid look at this popular open source solution for generating dynamic web pages. Competing against the money solutions ASP and JSP, PHP will give you the same kind of functionality, but at a much lower price! Packed with over 500 pages of PHP goodness, this book will make you a better PHP programmer and teach you how to go all the way from defining the most basic of variables to performing database tasks and all sorts of other important tasks and tricks of the trade. I highly recommend this well-written and well ordered book, perfect for anyone that wants to learn and excel at PHP programming!!

Chapter Overview

01. Introduction
02. PHP Basics
03. Functions
04. Strings
05. Arrays
06. Objects
07. Web Techniques
08. Databases
09. Graphics
10. PDF
11. XML
12. Security
13. Application Techniques
14. Extending PHP
15. PHP on Windows

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

PHP is a programming language that can be embedded in web pages. It makes it significantly easier to develop and maintain web pages.

This is a clear, well-organized reference manual for PHP. I've found it very useful.

It is not a tutorial for PHP. It does not cover PHP 5.

If you wish, checkout my somewhat longer review on the Oakland Perl Mongers site.

George Woolley of Camelot.pm and Oakland.pm

I work in a student design center and use this book to create applications of various complexity, from simple webpages, to a small online marketplace, to a complex, dynamic database. Everyone that found this book "out of focus" and the examples irrelevant is simply a coder below the level of the book. If you know your way around programming, this book is very helpful. If you don't, it'll confuse you. I have little "formal" training in programming, but I've been messing around with various languages like Pascal and C++ since I was 10, so I can read books like this easily. Someone who just wants to make a "rad" webpage and has no coding background (CSS expertise doesn't count, sorry boys and girls) will run into a brick wall because of the level of understanding this book requires.

The so called "typos and errors" are false accusations. They are most likly attemping to script php5 code examples in a PHP4 setting and not realizing it. Yes, some of the examples do not realte which also happens in a few other books, but the point of this book is to pass a message on HOW to script. The examples should not need to relate in any specific manner. If you need a book that uses the same examples over and over again to get the point through, i reccomend "PHP: A visual quickstart guide" or just not attemping PHP at all and sticking to HTML. And if you do not know HTML, dont even attempt this scripting language becuase you will never be able to figure out PHP.

This text is another well-produced O'Reilly reference. It provides a methodical description of the PHP server scripting language. If you don't know what PHP is, this is a good starting point. If you have never programmed before, why are you using PHP? (you should learn programming somewhere else than exposing your work on the WWW - in my opinion!). Very detailed descriptions of the language elements are provided; language structure, data types, variables, operators, anything you would expect from a programming language text. Good detailed sections on string handling (isn't that chiefly why you use server scripts?) and arrays are included. Examples showing how to strip 'bad characters' or HTML from strings are helpful, detailed regular expression usage and variable argument functions are very practical. For advanced programmers, the text provides details on objects (called classes) that allow you to incorporate OOP into your server scripts. Sections are provided that gives details of graphics programming using the GD extension and PDF text document creation that I found to be useless. The appendix includes a good section on all PHP functions which is a handy reference.

... The description of database support is really limited. They hardly mention MySQL or mSQL and focus more on PEAR DB, which is an object-oriented database system. I found this as a major weakness. Otherwise, this is another admirable O'Reilly offering.

With one of the authors, Rasmus Lerdorf, being the creator of PHP you know you are in for a good book and "Programming PHP" certainly doesn't disappoint. This book will take you from the ground floor to developing your own web applications. As with most books, it begins simple and progresses to more advanced topics.

When reading the book cover to cover, you are taught in a logical manner. The concepts of functions and arrays are taught before databases for example. Many books out there today jump ahead too quickly before the foundations are in place. This book does not. While teaching the foundations, Rasmus and Kevin show great programming style. As the preface mentions, their goal is not that you just become a PHP programmer, but a good PHP programmer.

Beyond the basic foundations presented in this book, it also covers topics such as creating images with GD, using the PDF features of PHP, and XML. For those that really want to get knee deep into PHP, they also have a chapter devoted to extending PHP by creating your own extensions. They walk you through creating a simple rot13 extension, then show you what you need to know in order to create more complicated extensions. There is also a chapter devoted to programming in PHP securely. This addresses issues that every PHP programmer, new and seasoned alike, need to pay attention to.

If you are looking for a book to break into the world of PHP, this one should be among the top of the list.

O'Reily books have the same pattern. They take content that should have been one book for maybe $100, and divide it out into 3 or more books adding up to a heftier profit. This book a nice quick reference, but doesn't cover the language in it's entirety (or close enough to from my experience with other books) or provide any actual examples, rather brief one line syntax examples. I've programed C++, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, and SQL while attending a state university for a degree in computer science. While examples can be redundant because concepts of programming are understood, a decent example is truly the best way to observe case implications of syntax. For example, when the book talks about constants and the define("name",value) function, it fails to mention when used in a string and output, the constant is not interpolated (the user sees COUNT, instead of say 3). In my experience I've run into a dozen of these situations I wish the book would have at least mentioned. This is important to know, and more important to know how to work around and do what you want. It's these details that make a solid programming manual, which this book claims to be. It is truly and introduction and quick reference. If you are not already an experienced PHP programmer, and you are going to deal with PHP at least somewhat in depth, you are better off looking elsewhere.

O Reilly publishes the best programming books--they're accurate, elegant and get to the point quickly. Unfortunately, this book is an exception. I agree with the complaints of the other reviewers, e.g., the text has buried information and incorrect examples. However, my main ojection is the index. It appears that the authors simply searched for every keyword in the book then tabulated them in the index. Thus, the index is hardly useful. It's no good to look through several pages just to find that the keyword was used once in a passing sentence that has little to do with that topic.

I was disappointed in this book. The title implies that the book would cover PHP in the same manner that Programming Perl (from the same publisher) covers Perl, but this is not true. Programming Perl is a very good in-depth reference for Perl, and I still use it frequently. Programming PHP is much too shallow, and I usually have to refer to the online PHP manual available at php.net instead.

this is a thin, mediocre book. at 373 pages, not counting the appendix, this is not a thorough treatment of the language. Maybe Oreilly should rename this "Learning PHP, and put out a thicker, more in depth book that will teach you everything you could possible want to know about php. Think Programming Perl 3rd Edition.

This book is really hard to understand for beginners. Topics jump all over places. It's so unorganized to follow. Trust Me this book is not for beginners.

Let me start by saying in general O'Reilly books have been the best books I've picked up to learn from. The usually cover the basics in depth and then provide excellent examples and more advanced topics to ponder. This book covers the basics, mostly, and then procedes to fail to provide good examples, and really doesn't enter into the depths of PHP.
Other more knowledgable people have said this already, I'm just helping drag the rating down to where it deserves to be, which is not more than 2 stars.

This book is an excellent introduction to the PHP scripting language, which is one of the most popular ways to add dynamic content to the web; PHP seems to be displacing Perl on Unix and ASP on Microsoft platforms for this purpose. PHP is suitable for low to medium traffic sites, and is said to be faster than either Perl or ASP. Because it's an interpreted language, it's not as fast as JSP or natively compiled cgis, but few sites need the level of speed or the complexity that comes with those technologies.

"Programming PHP" does an excellent job of teaching the language to those with a little bit of software background, for example in Perl or C. The first few chapters quickly demonstrate what can be done with the language and document the language basics, which, while C-like, have a few differences that are important to be aware of. The book is clear enough that it may be useful to a savvy person with no computer language background.

The rest of the chapters cover specific issues in more detail. There are chapters both on more involved language features, like PHP's treatment of strings, arrays, and objects, and on applications of the language, such as using databases with PHP and how best to handle web site security issues in a PHP based site. These chapters are independent of each other, so the reader can focus on various issues as they come up - though a few, like the security chapter and the application techniques chapter, are worth reading earlier if you have time, as they will help you set up your web site scripts so as to prevent headaches later on.

The text has many examples, which are well designed to succinctly document language features. These examples seem to be largely accurate and bug free. It may help that one of the authors, Rasmus Lerdorf, is the original creator of PHP.

This book is an excellent addition to a web designers bookcase. Clear and easy to read, it is written by the inventor of PHP, so you know it mirrors how PHP was designed to be used. It is also at good technical level for many computer professionals...not too simple, not over your head.

Included examples do not include excessive amounts of code, which in my opinion, makes it easier to understand the concepts. If you are looking for a book with huge elaborate application examples, you may wish to search elsewhere.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in PHP development.

This book is a good introduction to the language. Veterans may not get a lot out of it, but might still find the chapters on dealing with databases, images and PDF useful. Newbies, beginners and intermediate users will probably benefit most from this book. PHP is a fairly easy language to learn, and this is a very good book to learn it from.

Don't get me wrong, the book is okay. But I feel O'Reilly simply slung out a new version of the book for PHP 5, without really updating the content to reflect PHP 5's enhancements. Especially the chapter covering OOP development with PHP 5. The content in that chapter is pure PHP 4. Not cool.

I bought this book after learning some Javascript and ColdFusion, thiking it would have some of the same concepts as most other scripting languages. Well PHP has some other features like the direction arrows, etc. This book didnt explain all the features of PHP very well to which I couldnt really understand what was going on, and I can understand most Javascript applications. I had to buy another bookto explain all of the basics better, and then I went back to this book and it was a great book after that! But if you are just starting PHP or scripting, I reccommend getting another book before buying this book.

I've had this book for a few months now and I have to say it's really a great PHP resource all around. It's very clear, has great examples and best of all is inexpensive. I have other PHP books and this is the one I always consult first, and often last.

There isn't really enough of any one thing here to meet my needs. Generally O'Reilly are good at big lists of stuff (often the kind of stuff you can find in the man pages); with usually fairly terse definitions of what they actually are, alongside. Now, I'm all for aphorisms if they save on paper, but this book manages to have large gaps in its coverage, while still retaining that somewhat abrupt approach to what actually IS covered.

I suppose I was particularly disappointed when I found that the example used to describe the array_filter function in Chapter 5 was almost exactly the same as is to be found on the Zend website! I say "almost", because that's exactly what it is - the book's example has been subjected to a somewhat half-hearted attempt at customisation, in my opinion, to try and make it look different from Zend's version. What is actually achieved in both cases is almost identical!

Now, it has long been known that O'Reilly books often offer much the same information as can be found elsewhere (except at the expense of a few trees) - but what is the point, may I ask, of going to the trouble of making a few cursory modifications to an example, if you're not actually going to make the example DO anything different? Is it just me?

I suppose it was just that I really wanted a different example of how to use that one function. However there are other functions related to array_filter which aren't even described in this text at all, and this is indicative of the content as a whole: big gaps in the information, interspersed with brief moments of Perl-like conciseness. Maybe a book of PHP function definitions is what I neeed, but what I don't need is this perfunctory Jack-of-all-Trades.

Ironically, this publisher ha an excellent record for producing original and informative content ON-LINE (for which I am often grateful), but the same does not seem to hold for much of their printed material. How they make any money, I don't know!

This is probably the first book you should buy if you want to learn PHP.

Edited by the "father of PHP", Rasmus takes you through all the key problems and issues that you are likely to come across as you learn the language.

definitely a good book to recommend to a new PHP programmer!

And I am not saying this lightly. I am writing about 2nd edition. This is a great PHP book, even for a beginner to PHP. I have been programming for years now, and read a bunch of programming books, and this is one of the best books I read so far. It is easy to follow, easy to understand, and it covers everything you need to become a greap PHP programmer.

Said the book was in great condition, and it is! I'm ecstatic to have been able to purchase this book, at this price!

I read through this in a couple evenings. It highlighted some PHP functions which I should be using to streamline my code. It also overviews available PHP extensions such as database interfaces and PDF and graphics libraries. Nice to have a summary all in one place and right at hand.

I really liked this book. I'ts easy to understand, and it covers the basics. Just as a warning, this book is focused in people that already have som basic knowledrge of programing and HML.

I can certainly recommend this one for the upcoming PHP developer. The insight contained within was valuable.

I used this book at work, and wasn't impressed.

Now, maybe it's the language itself that lacks consistency and isn't all that interesting, I don't know.
I wasn't as much exceited reading the book as I was when I read, for example, K&R (C), Paul Graham and Peter Seibel (Lisp), Meyers (C++). The book will help you get things done, no doubt, but there doesn't seem to be anything special about it.

Like many people I know, I have to use multiple programming languages, and php happens to be one of them. Programming PHP is a great book for PHP speakers and the excellent php function reference in appendix A is really adequate value for the book.

Take heart, you can do without the book, if you don't already own a copy, but owning a copy is also a great way to support the community, so go get on.

This book is perfect to begin to learn PHP, being only necessary to have some previous knowledge of programming, because the explanations are clear, concrete and contains many examples. This book is not very deep in the aspects that treat but it is very complete in general.

The book consists of four parts differentiated clearly.

In the first part, from chapter 2 to chapter 6, it approaches all the characteristic of the language with clear explanations and clear examples, from the basic elements of the language to the OOP.

In the second part, from chapter 7 to chapter 13, it applies the characteristics of the language shown previously to solve situations common, with many complete examples and clear and short explanations, with the WEB, databases, graphics, PDF, XML, security and application techniques.

In the third part, appendix A, there is an extensive list of the functions of the PHP, this part is poorest because it consists of a simple reference of functions without examples nor too many explanations, but also necessary being given the great amount of functions that has the PHP and that the book is showing in the chapters as they are necessary.

In the last part distributed in chapters 1, 15 and 15, and appendix B, show how to install, to execute and to expand an installation of PHP in Linux and in Windows.

This was not my first PHP book, and probably it is not the best first book because it doesn't have a fun project to get you psyched. If you've got some of the thick books and feel like you sort of know PHP, this book is like taking a class from a master, with an emphasis on fundamentals. Disorganized and others have said some errors, but you are going to learn something. It is the book I always refer to first and it usually answers my question. I like the fact that it is thin by programming book standards. So to summarize, if you are going to buy 2 or more PHP books I highly recommend this one!

easy to read and very illuminating on the working of PHP, however, I was hoping for more dirty details and advanced examples. Basically a thicker book would have made me happy

Very good book, everything is well explained and very well organized so you can find just what you're looking for without too much effort. Great to have as a reference book, a must have if you're a PHP developer.

Very helpful aside from minor coding errors.

If you are going to own only one PHP book, this book probably isn't your choice.