Recommended books on php & mysql

fourreux · 2011-02-26 18:39:52

Hi there!

I wanted to ask if someone could recommend a book or books on php and mysql for web development. I was searching a little via amazon but find it very hard to judge... Some seem outdated and many poorly edited. So I wanted to know if someone here has a recent reading experience and would like to share his or her opinion.

I'm a beginner at programming and so far I was looking through thousands of pages on the net (I'm trying to make a dynamic cms-like homepage). Just now I realised that I got no concept of what a class is nor how to use it and that this seems to be a pretty heavy lack of knowledge. I was trying to access php code stored in the database and found a dozen of forum entries where people (like me) wanted to use eval() to access it. Very often the answer to the posters was: You understood nothing of the concept of php! Just that you know what my level approximately is: pretty low. But hey: I got a running Arch system and am very happy with it!!

So, back to php & mysql I asked myself: how about a good old book

Any recommendations?

litemotiv · 2011-02-26 18:57:59

I think these are a good place to start:

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_intro.asp
http://www.php.net/manual/en/

iFSS · 2011-02-27 01:18:15

A good recent beginners book is Larry Ullman's deceptively-named "PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide" - though it doesn't cover OOP, his "PHP 5 Advanced: Visual QuickPro Guide" does, and is also worth a read.

As above, the PHP manual is a good place to start too, and it should be the 1st place to look when you are stuck/unsure of something.

fourreux · 2011-02-27 09:13:28

though it doesn't cover OOP

Well this is a good point! Think I should know something about (let's say) the principles of OOP. So would it be worth to buy both? The "PHP 6 [...]" and the "PHP 5 [...]" and the latter one simply because of OOP related parts? Or would there be better solutions for a quick OOP Intro?

And thanks for the links, too. These I already know and can say that w3schools is a valuable (and most often the first) source of information. It is very basic though. The php.net/manual on the other hand sometimes is a bit confusing (nevertheless an excellent resource). That's actually where the need for a book comes up: I'm expecting the pedagogical structure of w3schools combined with the variety and complexity of the php.net/manual.

iFSS · 2011-02-27 12:06:53

fourreux wrote:

Well this is a good point! Think I should know something about (let's say) the principles of OOP. So would it be worth to buy both? The "PHP 6 [...]" and the "PHP 5 [...]" and the latter one simply because of OOP related parts? Or would there be better solutions for a quick OOP Intro?

You would possibly be best off getting both - I don't know of any other PHP books for beginners that have a better introduction to OOP (Matt Zandstra's "PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice" is the best PHP OOP book I know, but it assumes a high level of knowledge of PHP and goes in-depth very quickly - I wouldn't get it unless you plan to work on sites/projects other than your own homepage).

Alternatively, there are 100's of PHP OOP tutorials on the interwebs, of varying quality/usefulness, e.g.:
http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/
http://www.killerphp.com/tutorials/object-oriented-php/
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/oop-in-php/

moljac024 · 2011-02-27 13:24:18

A classic:

http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Web-Dev … 0672329166

fourreux · 2011-02-28 09:11:15

PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition)

Stumbled upon that. But this is a good example - as any other would be, I guess, because it's alway the same on amazon once I read the reviews (the bad ones of course):

this is not even close to a 5 star book. Part of it is not really the book's fault, however. Because PHP is continually changing, a lot of the functions get upgraded. On more than one occassion, I followed what the book suggested to a tee, only to find out that it did not work (I currently use PHP 4.2.2). The functions suggested for session management and file uploading (to name a few) simply don't work with this version of PHP. Also, this is a typical beginner's book and does not tell you how to solve problems that you'll run into in real life.

For a beginner, this book has too many pages without examples. It just goes too deep. For me, I need a page of description and then an exercise to see how things work. There are sections of this book which go on forever without examples, and the writers say you can do things this way, or that way etc etc. This is just confusing and too dry to hold my attention.

The code examples are very poor and their purpose is unclear. Example web pages are created to illustrate various functions, etc. but then they are forgotten or abandoned for several chapters, leaving you wondering why you took the time to read the code, let alone actually type it and try it out.
Several examples use very bad coding such as concatenating literal text with variables while using double quotes. Anyone who has spent 5 minutes with PHP knows this is unnecessary. Some intermediate/advanced functions are skimmed over while simple concepts are repeated over and over, to the point of boring even beginners. Why even mention PHP features if the only thing you do is show the prototype from the manual or say "see the manual for information"?

... and so on in the one star reviews ...

So what to think of it?

Well, one of the 1 star reviewers recommends Larry Ullman's "PHP 6 and MySQL". So let's have a look:

PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

This book is for PHP 6 which... does't exist. The description says "PHP 6 (due out in 2008)." It didn't come out in 2008. It hasn't come out in 2010. No one knows when it will come out. This is a technical book about a non-existent technology.

This book is full of coding errors. I completed an errata form on the first one I found and, at the same time, wrote to Peachpit about my disappointment. They rudely replied just to complete an errata form. No "sorry about that" or anything.

Much of the text seems repetitious - not in a "let's repeat crucial concepts so they will sink in" kind of way, but in a "let's turn a 475 page book into a 602 page book (not including the index) so we can charge more for it" kind of way.

So again: What to think of it???!!! :still confused:

moljac024 · 2011-02-28 09:25:50

Actually, I can confirm that review for PHP and MySQL Web development 4th ed. It's just that everyone seems to be recommending it everywhere.

How about this then:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565926813

iFSS · 2011-02-28 11:38:02

fourreux wrote:

So again: What to think of it???!!! :still confused:

Read the comments on those reviews on Amazon (the 1st hasn't read it - though PHP 6 was a misleading title, the 2nd wasn't an error, and the 3rd had only read the 1st chapter) and notice the 115 5-star reviews...

Incidentally, I used to have a copy of the 1st edition of the PHP Cookbook that moljac024 links to, and it was very useful. It covers the topics of both of Ullman's books, so if you prefer the individual recipe style (rather than larger context tutorials), you may like it better.

fourreux · 2011-02-28 14:22:47

Thanx for the help. I ordered both. The cookbook and the PHP QuickPro Guide.

So let's see! Alea jacta est.

Thanx again.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-26 18:39:52

Recommended books on php & mysql

#2 2011-02-26 18:57:59

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#3 2011-02-27 01:18:15

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#4 2011-02-27 09:13:28

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#5 2011-02-27 12:06:53

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#6 2011-02-27 13:24:18

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#7 2011-02-28 09:11:15

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#8 2011-02-28 09:25:50

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#9 2011-02-28 11:38:02

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

#10 2011-02-28 14:22:47

Re: Recommended books on php & mysql

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