PHP Phrasebook (Developer's Library)

• #21 in Best PHP Books

9 Reviews

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I work with PHP quite a lot, but I keep on forgetting things: How do I prefill a form without introducing security vulnerabilities, how do I connect to which database (in our company, we use several different systems), how do I provide web services, how do I sort arrays in natural language order, and so on. This book contains so many phrases I need in my daily work so that it really helps me save time. Thumbs up!

This is quite possible the best book I have purchased so far, and I buy a new book every couple of months. I usually to use the Pocket References from O'Rielly but this new Phrasebook series looks like a great replacement. Full of short blocks of code that are easily adaptable to what ever your doing.

This book is one of those that you like to keep at arms length. It has a lot of useful code that comes in handy. I liked it so much I purchased the MySQL Phrasebook as well.

With this book Christian Wenz and SAMS are trying to launch a new concept, sort of a condensed "programming cookbook" that can be used as a portable quick reference as well. The author brilliantly manages to keep a balance, being concise and relevant at the very same time. The code samples are well written and up to date with PHP 5; plenty of notes and tips provide valuable words of wisdom. The topic lends itself very well to this format, since PHP has hundreds of functions and many details that are often hard to remember. I really enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to see more titles published along the same series.

If you are trying to find the right PHP code for a project you're working on, you could thumb through all those books you have stacked on the bookcase behind you. But, I can tell you from personal experience that the answer will always be in the last book you look in. It never fails. Well, this little pocket-sized book is just what I needed and maybe you will too.

The author, Christian Wenz, has collected l00+ code snippets (PHP 4 and 5) and compiled them into this handy book. He not only gives you the most commonly used code but also some you may not have considered using before. He explains the code samples significantly so that you can customize the code to your specific needs. He has tested these snippets on various servers, so there shouldn't be any surprises when you use the code in real world situations.

I think this book is good as a handy Q & A reference, but you might want to read it in your spare moments. Wenz has given you some very good general information as well as discussed some of the common problems and pitfalls when writing web applications in PHP. The book is sectioned into logical categories for quick reference.

Manipulating Strings
Working with Arrays
Date and Time
Working with Web Forms
Cookies and Sessions
File Systems and Databases
Dynamic Data
XML
Remote Servers

Christian Wenz has worked in many areas of PHP programming and has written code for the PEAR repository. He also has written for several IT magazines and books.

It's kind of like having a Reader's Digest version of an O'Reilly Cookbook title, but more oriented to learning the language instead of just listing the solutions to odd problems.

The Phrasebook series gives me everything I need to know to use my existing knowledge in a new language. Sure, they are not comprehensive. But too much information slows down the initial learning process, and makes the book less likely to be read. Read one of these books and you'll know enough to get started, and make smarter Google searches when you get stuck. Best of all, it fits in your back pocket.

If you're already a programmer and simply want to start using a new language, buy a Phrasebook. The PHP Phrasebook was my first one, and I "learned" PHP while I was in the waiting room of the mechanic shop having my car inspected.

I am fairly new to the world of PHP. Most of what I have learned about these scripts has been self-taught through trial and error or gleamed through articles or scripts found on the internet. Even with my limited knowledge, I have always seen great practical usage of PHP scripts and am always trying to learn a little more on the subject. Therefore, I was really excited when I got the opportunity to review this book.

I have to admit that, at first, I was a little bit lost in reading this book. PHP Phrasebook: Essential Code and Commands is definitely not a book for beginners. However, once I started actually writing the script out and using the examples scripts as a sort of tutorial system, I quickly figured out what each set of scripts actually did. Then, I started to get ideas on how to make practical use of this new information. Moreover, as I continued through the sections, I found a good deal of solutions to problems such as manipulating strings to check usenames and passwords; protecting email addresses; pre-filling forms; and creating a secured area that I didn't have the knowledge to solve before reading this book.

My first book on PHP was Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One (3rd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself) which was great to get me started. But once I started designing and writing in PHP it was not very helpful. I have had this phrase bookon only 2 days and already I have used four examples (uploading a CSV file, saving form data, and two string manipulation funcitons). The index and organization are laid out like I think ..."how do I load a CSV file?" ... look up CSV and there's real examples plus cautions on how to look out and deal with problems. When I am writing now, this book will be next to me!

I gave this book a trial run for a day of programming, in an effort to find a handy little reference book I could refer to when I forgot syntax or needed a function but couldn't find the name.
I found the index suitable, but the descriptions of functions made lots of assumptions about what you should do, rather than present a clear explanation. Then, a large chunk of code is presented as an 'answer', with the inclusion of a lot of confusing parts. This is not a good phrasebook, but more of a skimpy tutorial book with a slant.