Php books?

[Jaaaacccckkk]

Hello!

Has anybody bought a book on php?

I feel asif i've got a decent knowledge of php, however i just want to go a little further.

I don't feel asif i could read and learn from the php manual, i just wouldn't take any of the information in. -_-

I've been learning php for about 2 and a half years now, that should give you a little understanding on where i'm at :)

Basically, the question im asking is, if you've ever bought a book on php or any other language, did it give you a better understanding, and what was the book called?

Are they even worth it?

;)

Edit*

I was also thinking about buying one to learn much more in ajax! :whistling:

[Curt]

In my 2 years of PHP development I only bought one book and this was very early on when I became interested in PHP.

The book i bought was PHP & MYSQL for Dummies 2nd edition.

I will admit if you are brand new to PHP and MYSQL then this book will help you, but if you already have a little experience then this book doesnt help much.

This book is geared toward brand new PHP and MYSQL developers, so if you have a basic knowledge of these two things then I would pass this book up....

Also you can learn all you need from the Internet for free...it just takes some research :P

Hope this helps :)

[Djkanna]

http://oreilly.com/php/index.html

I've never bought a PHP book from O'reilly, but I hear good things.

[Dave]

http://oreilly.com/php/index.html

I've never bought a PHP book from O'reilly, but I hear good things.

I learnt the basics from an O'reilly book, Very good examples and so on.

[Dominion]

Well my advice would be since you know something about php anyway, go into your local book store and read a few of the pages on the basic functions etc. If you feel it covers everything it should go to something in the book you don’t understand and look over a page or two, any good book should have you understanding what you’re reading before you even buy it. There are some big 500-1000 page books on php, although most of the stuff they say can be found online. One big thing I would suggest is avoid the “php 6” books on sale still as it’s not out yet and is undergoing a “rethink” so the books will most likely be wrong. Books are only better then the online documents if you’re like me, and prefer learning from them rather than sitting in front of a computer screen.

[Danny696]

Ive got afew oriely books, and 'for dummies' books, all are usefull.

[DeaTH_RideR]

i bought php 5 for dummies and i have to say i cant stand it i might be good for 5minutes. i need interaction the book dont keep me interested at all. I been thinking about maybe taking some class or something else idk but for me the book can go to the trash only cause ill never read it.

[a_bertrand]

Well it all depends what you are looking for and at which level plus how you personally learn. I learned PHP by simply checking the PHP manual and it was enough for me (but PHP was clearly not my first programming language). Books could be split up in different categories:

- Tutorials: which goes through all (or more or less all) the steps to explain you something

- Reference: which give you just a list of function / classes with maybe some examples for each

- Goal oriented: for example books which take a single example for example a web shop and explain all the steps to make it work

- Design oriented: design patterns, algorithms written in the language which you can learn from.

So you have to choose what you need / want and maybe once you know it let us know, then we may point you to one more than another.