18 replies to this topic

[adenrake]

I would love some recommendations on what books are most helpful for learning PHP.

I know XHTML, CSS, some Javascript. I do know some PHP as well.

Also can someone also recommend some books on Advanced PHP, that actually shows how to create a fully functional and somewhat complex website/application. (Like RailSpace does for Ruby on Rails)

[alex1985]

The good book for learning PHP especially for beginners is PHP for Dummies, www.dummies.com.

[jlhaslip]

Author: Larry Ullman writes some very good books on Php and MySql.
The beginning book is called "PHP: Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Ed.)", and the next one is titled "PHP and MySQL: Visual QuickPro Guide (2nd Ed.)".
There is another one that is for intermediate/advanced users named "PHP 5 Advanced: Visual QuickPro Guide (2nd Ed.)".

He also has a series of books about MySql programming. Very clearly written. Easy to follow.
I have several of them and they are the ones I keep going back to reference when I have a problem.

Information about these books can be found at his web site located at http://www.dmcinsights.com/ .

Awesome teaching methods and uses real examples. Check with your library, or look them up at a book store near you...

[gisellebebegirl]

i dont see why you would need a book to learn php or html (: im 16 and i learned it pretty quick.. just through testing stuff out! haha
and my site is fully php now.. it might have some errors.. but it works for me ha!

[cooleappie]

Why don't you do both? You try something out yourself, and you try to get help from a book.. that's the way I learned it, and I'm still learning

The PHP for dummies is indeed a very good book, I used it too, but after a little while you can easily do without, so I would try to borrow it somewhere, maybe by a library, instead of buying it.. just an advice

[iGuest]

Learning by testing
What Are The Best Books For Learning Php

Replying to gisellebebegirl
You say you learned PHP by trying stuff and it "works for you".
But all that means is that it works on one web server (the one you tested on - e.G. Apache?) and in one browser on the client side (e.G. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6?).

What happens if your ISP changes to another web server (e.G. IIS)? What happens if your users are using Firefox? Or Safari? or MSIE 5? or MSIE 7?

It will break, that's what will happen.

That's why you must NEVER "learn" a language just by trial and error. Understand what is SPECIFIED in the language definition. Then, later, you may need to make tweaks for bugs in specific browsers or servers. But you will be doing that from a solid base.

The way you have learned it, you are building on quicksand.


-reply by Nostromo

[iGuest]

1. The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP
The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP
By David Powers
5.0 stars 23 reviewsReleased 2007-07-22

Try these!! ( Random Number )

2. PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
By Larry Ullman
4.5 stars 132 reviewsReleased 2007-12-29

3. Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP
Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP
By Quentin Zervaas
5.0 stars 6 reviewsReleased 2007-12-20

17. Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer's Guide to SEO
Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer's Guide to SEO
By Jaimie Sirovich, and Cristian Darie
0 stars 0 reviewsReleased 2007-04-16

9. Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
By W. Jason Gilmore
4.0 stars 95 reviewsReleased 2008-03-24



7. Programming PHP
Programming PHP
By Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe, and Peter MacIntyre
4.0 stars 52 reviewsReleased 2006-04-28

14. PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (Solutions)
PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (Solutions)
By David Powers
4.5 stars 29 reviewsReleased 2006-11-20

5. Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems
Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems
By William Steinmetz, and Brian Ward
5.0 stars 3 reviewsReleased 2008-02-09

12. Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Practical)
Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Practical)
By Quentin Zervaas
5.0 stars 6 reviewsReleased 2007-12-20

15. Regular Expression Pocket Reference: Regular Expressions for Perl, Ruby, PHP, Python, C, Java and .NET (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))
Regular Expression Pocket Reference: Regular Expressions for Perl, Ruby, PHP, Python, C, Java and .NET (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))
By Tony Stubblebine
4.0 stars 26 reviewsReleased 2007-07-18

18. Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers: A Guide to Developing Internet Agents with PHP/CURL
Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers: A Guide to Developing Internet Agents with PHP/CURL
By Michael Schrenk
4.5 stars 11 reviewsReleased 2007-03-30


4. PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library)
PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library)
By Luke Welling, and Laura Thomson
4.5 stars 174 reviewsReleased 2005-01-01

24. PHP Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
PHP Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
By Adam Trachtenberg, and David Sklar
4.5 stars 35 reviewsReleased 2006-08-25

6. Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition
Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition
By Hugh E. Williams
4.5 stars 55 reviewsReleased 2004-05-16

16. PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual QuickPro Guide)
PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual QuickPro Guide)
By Larry Ullman
4.5 stars 132 reviewsReleased 2005-07-01

25. Web Standards Programmer's Reference: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and PHP
Web Standards Programmer's Reference: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and PHP
By Steven M. Schafer
3.5 stars 3 reviewsReleased 2005-08-05

26. AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications
AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications
By Cristian Darie, Bogdan Brinzarea, Filip Chereches-Tosa, and Mihai Bucica
4.5 stars 27 reviewsReleased 2006-03-01

28. PHP Programming with MySQL
PHP Programming with MySQL
By Don Gosselin
1.5 stars 7 reviewsReleased 2005-12-26

8. PHP & MySQL For Dummies 3rd edition (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
PHP & MySQL For Dummies 3rd edition (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
By Janet Valade
4.0 stars 14 reviewsReleased 2006-11-20

27.Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself)
Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself)
By Chris Newman
4.5 stars 5 reviewsReleased 2005-04-08

11.PHP for the World Wide Web, Second Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide)
PHP for the World Wide Web, Second Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide)
By Larry Ullman
4.5 stars 77 reviewsReleased 2004-02-02

10. PHP 5 / MySQL Programming for the Absolute Beginner (For the Absolute Beginner)
PHP 5 / MySQL Programming for the Absolute Beginner (For the Absolute Beginner)
By Andy Harris
4.0 stars 16 reviewsReleased 2004-07-23

23. Web Publishing with PHP and FileMaker 9
Web Publishing with PHP and FileMaker 9
By Jonathan Stark
5.0 stars 6 reviewsReleased 2007-09-04

13. PHP 5 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach
PHP 5 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach
By Lee Babin, Nathan A. Good, Frank M. Kromann, and Jon Stephens
5.0 stars 9 reviewsReleased 2005-09-23

22. Learning PHP 5
Learning PHP 5
By David Sklar
3.5 stars 24 reviewsReleased 2004-07

19. Open Source Development with LAMP: Using Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, and PHP
Open Source Development with LAMP: Using Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, and PHP
By James Lee, and Brent Ware
5.0 stars 3 reviewsReleased 2002-12-27

30. Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax: From Novice to Professional
Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax: From Novice to Professional
By Michael Purvis, Jeffrey Sambells, and Cameron Turner
4.5 stars 9 reviewsReleased 2006-08-14

29. Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
By W. Jason Gilmore
4.0 stars 95 reviewsReleased 2006-01-23

20. Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8
Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8
By David Powers
5.0 stars 36 reviewsReleased 2005-12-19

21. PHP in Action: Objects, Design, Agility
PHP in Action: Objects, Design, Agility
By Dagfinn Reiersol, Marcus Baker, and Chris Shiflett
4.5 stars 8 reviewsReleased 2007-07-03

[iGuest]

Just try these book!!
What Are The Best Books For Learning Php

Go here ==> http://top-books.Org/php?Popularity.

-reply by black lunxer

[Athleone]

Some good books are

Developing PHP Applications for IBM Data Servers
Programming PHP
A Programmer's Introduction to PHP 4.0
PHP 5 Power Programming
Practical PHP Programming

Hope that helped!

[minimcmonkey]

Well, when i started learning PHP, I bought a few books on it, the two I found very useful, were
The PHP and MySQL bible (Converse & park with Morgan), which is very detailed information about most of the language,
and PHP and MySQL web development third edition (Welling Thompson), Which includes many exemples like a forum, which are useful for setting up a large website.
Of corse the web is a very helpful resource too, w3schools is a very useful site, and just typing problems into google is very useful.
However, I personally often find web tutorials are not detailed enough, and dont explain how things work, or explain in enough detail how to do more useful things with what they teach you to do. But the web is useful for the odd tip.