Best book to learn PHP 7.0 or PHP 7.1 fast?

Cromulent · 1 Oct 2017 at 00:22

I have an idea for a framework and I've been back and forth looking over all of the available frameworks and the different languages I could use to make the website and for just pure speed of development I'm highly tempted to use Laravel and PHP. The only problem is I've never programmed in PHP before.

So does anyone know any books to get up to speed with PHP 7.0 or PHP 7.1? I have programmed in a couple of other languages such as Python, C, C# and Java so I don't need to learn the basics I just need a short overview of the language so I'd rather avoid one of those 1,000+ page monsters if I can help it.

Thanks for any advice

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Edit: Do you think it is worth subscribing to Laracasts for a couple of months to get up and running quickly? It looks good but would be interested in other peoples opinions.

Hades · 1 Oct 2017 at 19:15

I learned the basics with a YouTube series from mmtuts. Not sure if it's v7 though.

antijoke · 4 Oct 2017 at 10:40

IMHO learning a framework before knowing the language is a bad foundation to build on.

I don't think you have to subscribe to Laracasts do you? They are all free resources to teach you the framework.

I like this resource for learning PHP.

http://www.hackingwithphp.com/

You can learn 5.6 there and they also have 7 as a $20 purchase.

Itchytrigg · 4 Oct 2017 at 13:59

Laracasts have free and subscription videos. All the basics are free, and they release a new version of "from scratch" each year based on the latest release.

I've yet to need the paid content, but then I've not done a huge amount outside a few basic sites so far. I intended to subscribe once I've finished all the free content as I am loving the framework.

Cromulent · 4 Oct 2017 at 18:49

antijoke said:
IMHO learning a framework before knowing the language is a bad foundation to build on.

I don't think you have to subscribe to Laracasts do you? They are all free resources to teach you the framework.

I like this resource for learning PHP.

http://www.hackingwithphp.com/

You can learn 5.6 there and they also have 7 as a $20 purchase.

I actually managed to get another programmer interested in my idea so I let him decide on the technology we will use for the website. We'll be using the Go programming language and the Revel web framework along with PostgreSQL.

I'm pretty happy with that as Go looks like a really nice language and I should be able to pick it up quickly and I've already used PostgreSQL in the past.

TheAlex · 5 Oct 2017 at 18:38

I coded my own website in PHP with no prior knowledge of it. I mostly used W3Schools I think, and searched questions on StackOverflow when I was stuck. My previous experience was very basic BASIC and ASP classic.

I haven't used it myself, but I see CodeAcademy recommended often: https://www.codecademy.com/tracks/php/resume

As for PHP books, I have no idea!

JamesM · 10 Oct 2017 at 18:40

I'm 'self taught' with PHP and have been doing it as a bit of a hobby for a while.

Last year or so i've been working with Laravel and pay the monthly Laracasts subscription.

I'd fully reccomend Laracasts, the videos are superb and easy to understand and the forum is very, very helpful.

Working with Laravel has definately increased my knowledge of PHP as well.

Tom B · 9 Nov 2017 at 19:28

This is a shameless plug but I just released a book on this very subject. https://www.sitepoint.com/premium/books/php-mysql-novice-to-ninja-6th-edition (hardcopy available on amazon)

If you've done any programming before you'll whizz through the first few chapters, but I go into detail about OOP and the reasoning for design decisions made in modern frameworks. By the end you have essentially created your own OOP framework with its own basic ORM. The final code you end up with is available here: https://github.com/spbooks/phpmysql6/tree/Final-Website