PHP Book

[Craig321]

Hi,

Can anyone suggest a PHP book that I can get please?

I have been learning PHP for a while now and have learnt quite a bit but would like to learn more.

What's a good beginners PHP book that I can get please? Not super beginner as in teaching you about stuff like include " "; but just after that stuff.

Thanks
Craig.

 

[Mark JB]

The PHP Cookbook.

This is more of a referance text than a guide you through it text but it has of practical exaples with the relevant code to get you through comman pitfalls!

 

[Bloo_Fish]

I absolutly love the sitepoint books, http://www.sitepoint.com/books/

as they always seem to have a good mix of what your looking for but instead of showing you examples with out dated HTML methods they use XHTML and standards

The one you want to start with is

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpmysql1/

and then for later

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpant1/


You can also find these cheaper on Amazon.co.uk, but sometimes sitepioint do a good deal to make it worth buying directly from them.

Hope that helps
Si

 

[Moredhel]

You really can't beat php.net as a guide. I wouldn't waste money on books.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

If you are a beginner to programming altogether, php.net will go over your head. O'Reilly has a good selection of books for all ranks of developer.

 

[Berserker]

I'd always recommend taking a look at the O'Reilly collection first for any new programming language/system. Not that I use books myself - I just jump in at the deep end and hope for the best.

 

[Craig321]

PHP.net has helped me a lot, and I understand a lot of it but sometimes don't. So it's more for those times when I don't understand it and don't understand where to put the coding or something.

Thanks for the book suggestions I'll look at them and decide which one I might get.

I was looking at "PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites (Visual QuickPro Guides S.)", is that any good?

[Edit]
Also, to avoid me making a new thread, can anyone suggest good tutorials/websites/books for CSS as I'd like to keep up with the 'modern' website design coding and it also looks very good from what I have done, looks pretty simple aswell.

Thanks
Craig.

 

[SteveB_NI]

I absolutly love the sitepoint books, http://www.sitepoint.com/books/

as they always seem to have a good mix of what your looking for but instead of showing you examples with out dated HTML methods they use XHTML and standards

I fully agree with that - the PHP / MySQL title is an excellent book - very good for learning the basics.

Steven

 

[Augmented]

There's also the online book at http://hudzilla.org/phpbook/, which has now been published as "PHP in a Nutshell". Very good resource.

 

[Craig321]

Cool, thanks for all the sites & books everyone

Craig.

 

[Munday]

I have been using PHP & MySQL for dummies and although for a basic book I have found it to be quite helpful.

 

[Haly]

I was looking at "PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites (Visual QuickPro Guides S.)", is that any good?

I've got that book It was really helpful to me in the summer. Sadly I stopped learning and forgot everything I'd learnt But that's my own fault not the book's
I found it to be very clear and concise.

When I'm learning a new language I tend to use a combination of books and websites, call me old fashioned but I just like books.

 

[paulsheff]

I read Dummies and O'Reilly, and though it all went in, it wasn't till I read an e-commerce book with Php and MySQL used could I actually understand how to apply stuff. For me it was always "Hmm, yeah that sounds great, but what the hell would I use that for..." I think for my brain I need to see things from a point of application for me to understand it.

 

[Craig321]

Some of the time that's the same as me, I need to see it in action to know how to use it and understand what it does properly.

I have learnt most of the PHP / SQL coding I know from PHP.net, from scripts and also from one tutorial I did a while ago.

Would be cool is anyone could suggest a good .pdf / website tutorial/guide that I could go through to learn some more stuff as I really don't have any money right now to buy a book.