PHP Recommondations.

[Wee]

Looking at starting to learn PHP 5 and MySQL to help advance my web work. Was looking at afew books to get me started, but there seems to be so many that claim to be for beginners, i'm starting to get a bit overwhelmed.

Was looking at "Beginning PHP 5 & MySQL: From Novice to Professional", but a few reviews claim it's not to good for a complete novice (which is what i am, of course).

Anyone used this book? Is it any good for a novice? Or does anyone else have any other suggestion for decent books for beginners?

Appreciate any help. Cheers.

 

[MossyUK]

i recommend against the dummies book on php and mysql, its really not very good. I also recommend against the lynda.com php lessons.

I had a good one by Glasshaus on dreamweaver and php/mysql - that got me started. I thoroughly recommend w3c schools website (google it) for when you get a little bit more knowledge.

 

[theMAD2]

I find the Sams 24 hours books quite good, the php one got me going ok.

 

[Adnams Drinker]

Was looking at "Beginning PHP 5 & MySQL: From Novice to Professional", but a few reviews claim it's not to good for a complete novice (which is what i am, of course).

The review dated 3rd March on the Amazon page you linked to is actually by me. I bought that particular book earlier this year and I still stand by what I said - it is incredibly thorough and in-depth about PHP, but I don't believe it is for beginners, certainly not total beginners without experience of any other programming language anyhow.

I've had to take a kind of scattergun approach to learning PHP - not ideal, but I don't often have a lot of time available to me, so I bought about half a dozen of the ones that got the best reviews on Amazon and make sure I have one to hand at all times. When we go away for the weekend, there's always a PHP book in with a change of clothes - which the wife rightly thinks is incredibly sad ...

The two I've learnt the most from are:

PHP & MySQL for Dynamic Websites

Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8

I use Dreamweaver at work for sheer speed and the second book is the one that has given me the confidence to experiment for myself a lot more - I'm one of those people who loves to experiment, but gets put off easily when things don't work. A combination of a lack of faith in my own ability and a lack of patience, no doubt ...

MossyUK was right - I wasn't overly impressed by the 'For Dummies' book on PHP and MySQL either.

I tend to pick up little bits here and there, read the appropriate sections of the books I have, try out a few theories in code and immediately put them to use on the sites I do at work - a case in point recently was discovering the PHP 'include' command ... a real moment, something so simple, but when used correctly has saved me no end of time on a site I'm currently working on. I could've used a Dreamweaver library item or template I suppose, but doing it this way feels simpler and yet more elegant and powerful at the same time.

 

[Wee]

I remember getting a Dummies book for JavaScript last year. Was a complete waste of time. They don't attempt to teach you anything. They simply show the code and leave it at that.

Cheers for the advice everyone. Very much appreciated.