Customer Reviews

PHP Reference: Beginner to Intermediate PHP5

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the very first page, the author of this book lets us know exactly its purpose - to act as an off-line reference to the hundred or so domestic PHP functions one might use in the course of writing software, and a couple of their lesser-used variants.

One of my favorite parts was the list of related functions below each description: this allows you to hyperlink your way around the book in a more semantic way than simply reading it front-to-back.

This is certainly not a book just for beginners, because I wouldn't consider output buffer functions to be used by beginners (if you don't know what I mean when I say ob_start() or ob_flush(), then you should probably pick up a copy).

This is the kind of book you should throw in your laptop bag as you get started on a new project, or keep on the shelf of your cubicle. Think about which is faster - tabbing back and forth between your browser window with the current page you're testing, and your text editor, AND the php.net site, or just having a small reference book next to your keyboard.

Also consider your ability to make notes next to functions about your own personal tricks and experiences - I always find myself digging back into my own code as a reference, but if you just had this paper version to carry with you everywhere, you could save yourself a lot of time by not having to grep through your code.

Completely worth your time and money.

I kept getting stuck forgetting little things when coding and I like to get away from my desk a lot, so carrying a 500 page all inclusive book didn't work for me, but this fit the bill. It doesn't have everything in PHP in it, and that's a good thing, because it makes it more portable and fits 95% of my needs. Incredibly handy.

As a casual PHP coder (I pick it back up every few months to add to my websites or tweak something), I have found this book to be a perfect fit.

The author breaks the whole book down into the typical sections: String functions, Array functions, MySQL, etc. Like many other books I've purchased, I can always learn more by flipping through a chapter page-by-page, but I pick this book up more often because I can quickly get around to exactly what I need because it is focused around the functions and operators that are key to doing everything in PHP.

I actually keep a bookmark in the RegEx and Date() pages because I refer back to them so frequently to 'refresh'. It's an excellent book that hasn't disappointed me yet when I dust it off and start coding again.

I am an experienced programmer, and recently had to learn PHP and start writing programs using it ASAP. The beginner books are a total waste of time for me. All I did was get this book and look at the various PHP features. It took me about 10 min to write my first program (the PHP syntax is just so much like C), and I constantly refer to this book for the various "standard library" functions I can use in my programs.

This was just the perfect book for me. I know KSH and it reminds me of Korn's book in terms of both explaining a function and then providing one or more simple examples of it in real usage. Perfect.

If you write PHP code you want this book!

As a university student, I found this book to be an excellent compliment to the web development course I am currently taking. With respect to a previous reviewer of this book, I found the physical quality of this book to be more than reasonable. I certainly would not call the paper quality "cheap". Overall, this book is excellent for anyone who is interested in becoming more familiar with PHP. As the title suggests, this book is suitable for a wide audience, regardless of whether you are a complete beginner or are already somewhat familiar with PHP.

This a very handy book, and a true reference book. It's small but has a lot of functions, organized logically. There are two indices: a common language index, and a function index which make quick work of getting you to relevant content. The examples are illustrative. Really, the title says exactly what this book is, and who it is for.

Well written and designed - with no tech errors.
Small, easy to carry, very helpful. Saves trips to php.net.

The examples are clear for beginners and easy to follow. Even functions I've never tried to understand before when looking on php.net. As I've started looking into object-orientated programming, I wish this book covered that as well, but I guess that would be more advanced.

Update: It's proven to be helpful to me, but my earlier comments below still hold. I bumped it up one star.

I didn't expect much more than a terse reference guide and terse it is. Don't get me wrong, there are good and terse reference guides out there, Dan Rahmel's Visual Basic: Programmer's Reference, for instance. It's clean, easy to read. This guide is not. The paper is unpleasantly beige and the layout is cribbed and visually difficult with text touching borders all over the place. The typography is awful. And, the functions, etc. even though they are grouped, ARE NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER!!! I hope I get used to it, but I doubt it. I give it one more than one star because there is undoubtedly good info in the book for those whose minds are not bothered by dreadful presentation.

The book is what I expected. The content is basic PHP and has good explanations to refresh you on the syntax. However, I wish it had mysqli functions. It doesnt cover this at all. What made me return this book was the fact that the pages are made of cheap paper. The paper was a musty yellow color. Definitely not clean white, and that bothered me, so I returned it. Maybe I got a defect, but I did buy it new from amazon.