SAMS Teach Yourself PHP4 in 24 Hours (Teach Yourself -- 24 Hours) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Consisting of 24 one-hour lessons, Sams Teach Yourself PHP4 in 24 Hours is divided into five sections that guide you through the language from the basics to the advanced functions. The first section of the book teaches the fundamentals of PHP. Building upon what has been taught in the first section, sections two through four show you how to apply that knowledge in order to interact with the user by creating and managing forms, cookies and authentication. It also teaches how to access databases and how to integrate system components, e-mail, LDAP, network sockets and much more. The final section of the book covers advanced functionality including how to debug and optimize scripts, maintain script security, and extend PHP with API.

From the Back Cover

Consisting of 24 one-hour lessons, Sams Teach Yourself PHP4 in 24 Hours is divided into five sections that guide you through the language from the basics to the advanced functions. The first section of the book teaches the fundamentals of PHP. Building upon what has been taught in the first section, sections two through four show you how to apply that knowledge in order to interact with the user by creating and managing forms, cookies and authentication. It also teaches how to access databases and how to integrate system components, e-mail, LDAP, network sockets and much more. The final section of the book covers advanced functionality including how to debug and optimize scripts, maintain script security, and extend PHP with API.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (June 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672318040
• ISBN-13: 978-0672318047
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,395,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Straight Forward and Easy to Follow, July 22, 2000

By	A. Flum (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is very clear and easy to follow. It does not have the depth of Professional PHP Programming which is still the best PHP reference so far. It also does not have any in depth practical examples. However, this book is excellent for beginners. Every concept is explained, nothing is assumed. This book also makes a good reference because it it well organized. I give it 5 stars because it is the clearest, easiest to follow and best written PHP book to date.

To summarize, if you want an easy to follow, easy to read book on PHP, buy this one. If you want an in depth reference with actual in depth programming examples, by Professional PHP Programming. If you want an easy well written introduction to using databases with PHP, buy PHP Essentials.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awsome Book!, September 19, 2000

By	ellis of geeknews.net (Ft. Worth, Tx) - See all my reviews

I'm still reading this book, but it has helped me out a lot already in the PHP arena. The book has great examples, quizzes and activities to make sure that you are getting the point of each hour (chapter). The only bad thing I can say is that the book does have some minor layout problems, but you can just over look those. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to start scripting in PHP. **Side note - the book covers Unix based installs of PHP4. If you want to install PHP4, MySQL and Apache on your Windows machine go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/phptriad/ and download their install program.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting new language effectively presented, January 1, 2001

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

A former student recently sent me a message describing the work he was doing in web design using PHP. Not having any experience in the language but hearing good things about it prompted me to take an interest. In other cases, I have read programming books like this due to a pressing need to learn the language. However, this time I read a book just to see what the language was all about.
The language itself certainly holds promise in the area of the creation of dynamic web content. As far as the book, it also lived up to the promises. The features of the language were presented using clear, basic examples that were easy to follow. What was most impressive was that less time was spent on the routine features such as variables, data types, flow control, objects and such. The points of interest were the mechanisms whereby the state of the operation could be saved and the section on debugging. As one who has debugged many a JavaScript program with alert boxes and selectively commenting out code, the presence and concentration on the debugging features were considered well done.
I learned a great deal about the language from the book, even absent the usual pressure to learn a language in the titled 24 hours. PHP is a language that has a lot of potential, and the coverage in this book makes that and the language clear.