PHP Functions Essential Reference 1st Edition

by Torben Wilson (Author), Zak Greant (Author), Graeme Merrall (Author),

16 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0735709706

ISBN-10: 073570970X

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The PHP Functions Essential Reference is a simple, clear and authoritative function reference that clarifies and expands upon PHP's existing documentation.
The authors have spent time evaluating all of the PHP functions and have selected the essential functions to include in the printed book. This includes around 900 of the 1500 functions. The remaining functions will be covered in the same depth and treated in the same way, but they will appear on the newriders.com web site along with the content of the entire book, which is provided under the OPL.

Review

This book is an excellent complement to other, more tutorial focused books, or even to the PHP Manual itself. -- Sterling Hughes, PHP Core Developer and author

From the Author

Much of the attraction that PHP holds for its developers is its extensible nature. Adding functionality to the language in the form of optional modules is not only allowed, but encouraged- and often users find that an extension they've written makes its way into the official distribution. However, this extensibility comes at a price: There is a vast amount of documentation of which only a fraction is generally applicable to any given project. This book solves the problem of widely scattered documentation by providing, in printed form and on the book's web site, extensive coverage of every essential PHP function. Zak Greant

From the Inside Flap

The web site for PHP Functions Essential Reference contains materials to support and expand on the book. Over 700 additional function writeups are available, along with updates, errata, and a few surprises.

From the Back Cover

PHP Functions Essential Reference is a detailed and practical funtion reference for the PHP programming language. Concise and authoritative, this working programmer's guide covers the core function groups plus 300 additional commonly used PHP functions, and details 800 more functions on the book's web site, php-er.com.

Written by working developers and PHP community leaders, this book is full of working code that utilizes the rich variety of functions available with PHP. Every function is supported by one or more examples that illustrate the function in action. This definitive guide to PHP is a must-have for any serious PHP programmer.

About the Author

Zak Greant is lead developer for 51 Degrees North and is the founder of the Foo & Associates programmer's cooperative. He leads the PHP Quality Assurance Team and (when not writing) is an active contributor to the PHP documentation, mailing lists, and source code.

Graeme Merrall graduated from university in 1993 with a degree in biochemistry. While at university, he discovered the Internet while it was still very much in its infancy. This led him away from biochemistry into employment with an ISP and later with a leading web design firm in New Zealand, where he developed his skills in PHP and ASP. As well as his programming, Graeme has written for the local newspaper in his former home town in New Zealand, and has written several tutorials and articles on PHP for Wired Digital's Web Monkey. Born and raised in New Zealand, Graeme currently resides in Sydney, where he runs his own consultancy, specializing in e-commerce and business integration with the Internet. In his spare time, he enjoys modern literature, music, and crocodile wrestling.

Torben Wilson is a freelance developer, technical writer, and member of the Foo & Associates programmer's cooperative. He has been programming in PHP since 1996 and has been a contributing author to the official PHP manual since 1997.

Brett Michlitsch is a producer/senior developer at a leading multimedia training development company based in Minneapolis, MN. As a leader in software design and development, Brett has mentored aspiring developers, led in-services on database design and software architecture, and been recognized by colleagues for his outstanding technical feats. In addition, he has led the design of several web sites and web applications, overseeing the database, business logic, and interface design, and using scripting languages such as PHP, ASP, and Perl to carry out his designs.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sams Publishing; 1st edition (September 27, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 768 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 073570970X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735709706
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.01 x 1.58 x 8.97 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,033,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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- #7,566 in Computer Programming Languages

Customer Reviews:
16 ratings

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Josef C. Tran

Very helpful

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is excellent for programming PHP and has everything including functions clearly defined. I've used it to make many websites. Great book.

Helpful

William Hargen

corrected URL for online book

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2004

Verified Purchase

Reviewer Kevin Carlson noted that the book was not available online at the web address that it mentions. It turns out that there is an errata at [...] giving the correct URL: [...]

5 people found this helpful

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FordLover37

This book is out of date

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2007

Verified Purchase

While there is much good information in this book just look at the publication date ***2001*** Enough said... almost. I'm in the 6th week of a PHP/mySQL course and the main thing that is clearly missing are the mysqli functions. The book may still be useful but it is a disappointment :-(

3 people found this helpful

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Brent Knigge

A must have PHP reference

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2004

This is without a doubt, a brilliant PHP reference book.

The PHP functions are grouped in chapters based on their relevance. E.G. String functions are in one chapter, Session functions are in another etc. So even if you don't know the name of the function you're looking for, you'll most likely find what you need in the relevant section.

The book is very well laid out, there are nice descriptions (not too long and not too short) of the function and its use. There is example code showing how to use the function and the functions have a 'related functions' part as well which in my case encourages further reading and thus expanding your knowledge of all things PHP.

Unfortunately though I've found that not all functions are covered in this book. I agree you can't cover them all, but surely a string length function would be covered? Don't let that discourage you though because I've only found a couple of functions that I've needed that weren't covered in this book. Apart from that, I wholeheartly recommend getting a copy. One of the best reference books I've ever purchased.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Marcus Olson

Reference Material

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2001

This book is undeniably the best PHP Reference book I own. It's saved my butt in many situations while programming. Using an index in a regular book to reference a command is anoying and time consumable. Using this book to reference a command is so fast and easy. The index is setup so nicely. Think about it your not always looking for a way to use a particular command sometimes your looking for the command in general and sometimes you don't even know what the command would be under. For instance I had to figure out a way to make pages so they were refreshed at every visit. I didn't even know where to begin. So I went to the index and looked up Caching, boom right there, "preventing, page 238" less then 1 minute later my page is running smooth. I tried that previously in my other reference book (this book is awfull and will remain secret for their sake) impossible. Don't take a risk buy this book wether our an experienced programmer or new to php. Its awsome, I even like the size, easy to tote around and set next to your keyboard unlike these massive 2000 page bibles of unneeded text and garble.

9 people found this helpful

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Mike Robinson

An Awesome Resource

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2002

Whether you are new to PHP or a seasoned web developer, this reference book is an absolutely must. Clean, concise, and well written, the authors are well-known and respected in the PHP community. Zak Greant heads up the PHP quality assurance squad, Torben Wilson is one of the longest-running credited authors of the PHP manual, and Graeme Merrall contributes to several areas of PHP development.
This book is fast. You can get to what you need quickly, and if you're not sure what you need, the logical hierarchy and table of contents makes narrowing things down very snappy. Within minutes of picking up the book, I've learned new things about PHP, even after 4 years of hardcore PHP development. Not too many books do that. The only downside I can find with it is it won't fit in my shirt pocket.
This book has many other strengths.
- It has a companion website that compliments the book and is maintained by the authors.
- It has been released under a license that reflects the very nature of PHP and Open Source Software, a real credit to the authors.
- One of the Technical Reviewers of the book during the process of it being written was none other than Ken Coar, one of the leaders of the Apache Foundation (author of the best darn web server ever made) and one of the Open Source movement's greatest assets. Buying a PHP book reviewed by Ken Coar is like buying a Bible blessed by the Pope.
If you can't RTFM, then for sure, RTFB.
That is: Read This Friendly Book. ;)

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andra

Great time-saver

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2001

I found this book surprisingly useful as an ordinary PHP user. I thought it might be only for gurus, but when I picked up the book it fell open to a function that could have saved me hours of programming on a previous project. I built it from scratch when I didn't know the function already existed.
That's the value in this book. There are hundreds of PHP functions, the vast majority of which are unknown to the casual user. If you're on deadline there isn't time to learn them all, or even to wander the PHP sites until you hit paydirt.
This book simply lays them out, with a clear description and example attached to each. It's a huge time-saver.
My one suggestion is that the book would benefit from having a usage index. Right now, functions are grouped by type (say, time & date functions), then listed alphabetically. But often users don't know what a function is called. They only know what they want it to do.
It would save even more time if there was an extra index where you might look things up by use, say, "Create random password." That would make this time-saver even faster.

14 people found this helpful

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David Kucharski

Title Says it ALL!

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2001

Essential Reference is EXACTLY what this book DELIVERS!
For the person working with PHP, this book lives up to its promise. The examples that are included with each functions description make putting this resource to work quick and painless. That allows time to get back to the task at hand instead of wasting time trying to figure out where you need to look next just to figure out how to use the information presented. In only minutes you can find the info you need - (they used that ALPHABETICAL style of organization that most everyone understands)-- and toss the book back onto the shelf where it will be handy for your next question, when you need it!
Great Resource for the busy professional!

One person found this helpful

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Malcolm

Not so essential

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

Not only is this book dated it is also far from comprehensive. The function I needed was not included even though it was included in PHP4. The problem is there are so many functions and editors have little means of knowing what the user is likely to need and simply include those they use themselves. The chm help file availabe online is the only reliable and inclusive source at present.

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PHP Functions Essential Reference 1st Edition

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