Hi, I'm new here. My friend's dad recommended me to start out with programing PHP and MySQL, so I was wondering what is a good PHP book to start out with.(number of pages doesn't matter)

check thru the threads here

but my recommendations are

php programming wrox press

php essentials julie meloni thick book press

_________________
Lostboy

Cat, the other other white meat

Please read Posting Etiquette before posting

You can always try Google

At the risk of contradicting what this forum is about, I suggest that you first of all consider the PHP documentation, which would pass as a book in its own right. Personally I learned PHP using only the online documentation, which is available at www.php.net/docs.php

The only PHP book I've every bought is the ZCE certification guide, which I would not recommend for beginners.

Having all that said, I don't know who or what your friends dad is or what he does, but I think you should take more into account than the recommendation of your friends dad before choosing what programming language to learn. Perhaps another language like Python, Prolog or 8051 Assembly :wink: may suit you better. Don't get me wrong. PHP is an excellent language to start off with, with an number of advantages, but there are disadvantages too, which you may want to take into account.

PHP is a great language to start out with. If you are looking for a solid PHP book recomendation it would depend on which version of PHP you want to learn. There is PHP4 which is still in use on most web servers, then there is the new PHP5 (i suggest if you know nothing at all you start with PHP5) This may seem like a bad suggestion at first because there are not a lot of web hosts that support it yet, however by the time you get through the in's and out's of the learning curve then by that time i think they will be widely available.

I can suggest a few books on PHP5 that i have in my library and find useful.

Core PHP Programming
ISBN: 0130463469

MySQL / PHP Database Applications
ISBN: 0764549634


Also keep in mind you will want a good database book too since PHP works closely with databases. You can choose whichever database you want to use. Some examples are Sqlite, MySQL, Postgre SQL, Microsoft Access, MS SQL Server I personally use MySQL and have the following book.

SQL The Complete Reference
ISBN: 0072225599

Now as previously stated, you dont need to buy any books to learn the basics of PHP, that is if you can understand the manual (90% of people can) http://www.php.net/docs/

Now i learned PHP by the online docs and trial and error. However now that i am getting into the more advanced aspects of it, i have to learn Regular Expressions (you might want to start early on this), JavaScript, Design Patterns (this is a biggie when coding Object Oriented applications)

I know what i said above you may not understand it all however google for things such as design patterns, regular expressions etc.. and learn about them ;)

Enjoy

_________________
Joseph Crawford
Zend Certified Engineer
WebOS Tutorials / Information
http://www.josephcrawford.com/

I recommended "PHP and MySQL for beginners". These books are the best to teach you concepts that are entirely new.

_________________
translation companies

Thats a very nice book for beginners with all sort of installation information and starting with the php and MySql programming basics and their execution

PHP and Mysql Visual Quickpro Guide. Peachpit Press. Very nice. The kool thing about this book is that it includes sufficient info about using PHP n MySql on mac os x too.

_________________
cbse 10th result 2013 | cbse 12th result 2013 | cbse results 2013 | cbseresults.nic.in | cbse result 2013