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Programming PHP

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Programming PHP, 2nd Edition, is the authoritative guide to PHP 5 and is filled with the unique knowledge of the creator of PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf) and other PHP experts. When it comes to creating websites, the PHP scripting language is truly a red-hot property. In fact, PHP is currently used on more than 19 million websites, surpassing Microsoft's ASP .NET technology in popularity. Programmers love its flexibility and speed; designers love its accessibility and convenience. As the industry standard book on PHP, all of the essentials are covered in a clear and concise manner. Language syntax and programming techniques are coupled with numerous examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. With style tips and practical programming advice, this book will help you become not just a PHP programmer, but a good PHP programmer. Programming PHP, Second Edition covers everything you need to know to create effective web applications with PHP. Contents include: Detailed information on the basics of the PHP language, including data types, variables, operators, and flow control statements Chapters outlining the basics of functions, strings, arrays, and objects Coverage of common PHP web application techniques, such as form processing and validation, session tracking, and cookies Material on interacting with relational databases, such as MySQL and Oracle, using the database-independent PEAR DB library and the new PDO Library Chapters that show you how to generate dynamic images, create PDF files, and parse XML files with PHP Advanced topics, such as creating secure scripts, error handling, performance tuning, and writing your own C language extensions to PHP A handy quick reference to all the core functions in PHP and all the standard extensions that ship with PHP Praise for the first edition: "If you are just getting into the dynamic Web development world or you are considering migrating from another dynamic web product to PHP, Programming PHP is the book of choice to get you up, running, and productive in a short time."--Peter MacIntrye, eWeek "I think this is a great book for programmers who want to start developing dynamic websites with PHP. It gives a detailed overview of PHP, lots of valuable tips, and a good sense of PHP's strengths."--David Dooling, Slashdot.org

521 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

112 people are currently reading
1277 people want to read

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Rasmus Lerdorf

8 books11 followers

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5 stars
295 (37%)
4 stars
266 (33%)
3 stars
174 (21%)
2 stars
46 (5%)
1 star
13 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
Profile Image for Luke.
150 reviews18 followers
August 4, 2013
Excellent introduction to the PHP scripting language, written by its creator, Rasmus Lerdorf. The introductory chapters were concise yet informative, serving as an excellent primer to the basics of the language. Subsequent chapters deal with common applications of the language: dynamic web pages, interfacing with databases, and graphics applications. I highly recommend this book.
Profile Image for Hendry Lee.
4 reviews5 followers
January 6, 2009
A mild introduction to PHP. Unlike other book, it gives quite a bit of examples of powerful PHP usage. This is more appropriate for programmers or developers who have some knowledge in other programming language.
Profile Image for Tom.
88 reviews11 followers
February 21, 2008
I had the good fortune to meet Rasmus when I worked for Yahoo! This is a great book on PHP, and he is one of the great engineers living today.

I recommend this to anyone looking to learn PHP.
Profile Image for Chance.
35 reviews
November 5, 2008
This was good for beginner to intermediate PHP programming...back when I read it.

While I haven't actively worked with PHP since PHP 4 was still fairly new, I could already see that PHP was trending toward a more object-oriented style.

So it's interesting that the co-author of the book who happens to be the guy who fucking INVENTED PHP actually focuses the book around function-based programming.

As such, this is a good cover-to-cover read for beginners and a handy reference for looking up simple, high-level concepts you haven't touched in awhile.

I remember my primary concern going into the book was that someone who's obviously such a heavy programmer may not be able to communicate how to use his language very well...Rasmus proved me wrong.
Profile Image for Mermarie.
461 reviews
February 8, 2015
I can remember reading this few years back, and it helped me in some rather difficult areas. It was written in a manner that appeals to most programmers 'language', and at first that was intimidating to me, but overall--it eventually panned out. I mostly used it for news/mini blogs, and cutenews accessories. :*) Needless to say, beginners, having little computer language experience, may find it difficult as an beginning guide. With this book and the PHP.net, you should be able to get a better understanding of the language itself. PHP.net have some indepth introduction tutorials that give you a better visual of the language put into effect!


Honestly, I'd still rather code HTML in notepad. ;P
1 review
Want to read
July 7, 2017
no
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
16 reviews1 follower
January 26, 2012
This is probably a good way to illustrate how programming books ought not to be written. I have high respects for the authors - especially Rasmus, all of us should be indebted to PHP founder. But, the book runs just like program documentation. Nothing wrong with it for super-geeks who learn everything from the man pages, but for the rest of us mortals there should be some mind-exercises, a few good problems, a theme to apply what we learn and what not. The book nicely goes from the basics to the more advanced concepts, but "provide it as a feature documentation" view doesn't help with the flow. The PERL camel book comes to my mind, probably writing a good teaching book requires more than just the expertise.
4 reviews
March 8, 2014
I don't enjoy PHP very much, but this is a good book on the subject.
Profile Image for Frank.
409 reviews
September 1, 2018
A good solid overall treatment of the web programming language PHP. Some of the examples are a little terse or strange, but not enough to cause disdain. I needed a book to get me up to speed on PHP and this one did the trick.

Additional kudo for a decent index -- possibly due to being published by quality publisher O'Reilly.
Profile Image for MOSS Elo.
2 reviews
June 29, 2017
Very good for a next level php programmer beginner.
10 reviews
March 30, 2018
Rather to be used as a dictionary.
Profile Image for علي العمامي.
8 reviews
February 5, 2021
جميل جدا ⭐، يعطيك كل المعلومات الأساسية وأكثر عن ال php.
رغم ذلك الطريق لتطوير مواقع الويب أطول ^^، الحماية والتعامل مع قواعد البيانات وغيرها.
أنصح به 💜
1 review
November 4, 2022
Книга совсем не подходит для новичков, больше похожа на справочник, а не на учебник
Profile Image for Sammy.
6 reviews
July 26, 2019
One of the best, most clear set of reasons and reflections I’ve ever read. Everything he writes is brilliant.
Profile Image for Arun.
211 reviews66 followers
March 9, 2017
I read the kindle edition. Code sections are not badly formatted as is common in Kindle editions.

Good book, not so good language. Last few chapters doesn't go into much depth on the chapter topics but gives references for further study. The last section of the book has the entire function reference by category and alphabetical listing of PHP functions so it is useful as a reference.

So, in the end, PHP get things done! Read this book to know both good and the ugly side of the language. After all, the likes of Etsy and Facebook are using it successfully (could be my confirmation bias!) but YMMV.
Profile Image for Michal Angelo.
121 reviews
July 14, 2015
In the O'Reilly world there is a pecking-order that goes something like: [Learning abc], [Programming abc], [abc Cookbook], ... and I've come to depend on them as my career progresses through the decades. An embedded engineer by trade, I've a budding interest in web design and have already built my first simplistic page (woo-hoo!)

Already knowing what PHP's design was for, I simply wished for an overview of the language and found exactly what I was looking for here. The authors promise "if you make it through these chapters, you will have mastered PHP" and I believe them.

I'm not at the point to start cutting PHP just yet, but Programming PHP (2013 edition) will enter my research-library.
Profile Image for Gerd.
19 reviews
September 17, 2015
Good for beginners. Provides a good balance between raw commands on the one hand (the function reference at the end is notable) and illustrative examples and code snippets on the other hand. Thus, that they can be used in immediate pratical applications. However, it does not cover advanced or enterprise topics such as frameworks and patterns. I am also reading 'PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice' which is complementary to this book.
A drawback is that some chapters are just too short, failing to give even an overview. They might as well have been cut.
18 reviews1 follower
April 18, 2008
I have my 1st PHP project at work in many a year. I don't even really remember this language, even though I wrote a few web sites in it years back. It looks like Perl to me . . . I find the online API documentation to be about the best way to figure out how to use this, though.
Profile Image for Jeff.
41 reviews
August 30, 2014
The prose is second-rate, for the most part, but the breadth and depth are fantastic for a volume this length.
Profile Image for We Sy.
1 review
Want to read
April 28, 2013
to read the book, and to learn it
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews

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