PHP books (best?)
 

whats the best book out right now to help learn PHP, i see so many, has anyone used/read any good ones? would be nice if it would tell you how, then have u do "projects" and stuff, that to me is the best way to learn anything

I highly-recommend Kevin Yank's book from SitePoint.com.

Great, I'll check it out. I'd like to know some good ones, also. ANyone else have a reccomendation?

Try searching at amazon.com...

I am sure there are many available...

Satan

Beginning PHP4 by Chris Lea et al / Wrox Press
and
Professional PHP4 by Deepak Thomas et al / Wrox Press
both very good books. Also if you need a MySQL book, get MySQL by Paul Dubois / New Riders Press.

I'm reading that one at the moment. A good book so far.

If you have a "basic" coding experience with any programming language (except HTML), you really dont need a book to learn PHP. Just download its manual from php.net. It is all you need..

If you dont have any experience with any programming language, maybe you should reconsider if PHP is a good start. It's really highly integrated with SQL, HTML, Javascript, Web Design and Websecurity and IMO it shouldnt be the first coding language anybody would start learning..

I'm waiting for the PHP5 book. :)

I must disagree, Logician. PHP is commonly associated with MySQL, but it is just another way -- out of many -- to store data you manipulate with PHP. It is also not really integrated with Javascript, designing or security. (although security should always be in mind when coding, in any language)

If you start with the basics, PHP is really not a hard lanuage to learn, compared to Perl for example.
A book is always good and helpful, but also not necessary. I learned PHP by reading code I found on sites, and especially vBulletin. Then again, I had some background in C++ so it might not work for you.
But I think buying a book is the easiest, if not best, way to learn a language. Either that or a course, choose whatever fits you more.
A book, unlike the manual, will most imporantly teach you techniques and little secrets you might never find in the PHP site. This is why it's also important to read tutorials.
Learning and knowing the syntax is probably the easier thing when learning a new language. It is much harder to use it wisely and efficiently.

Just don't expect to write complex scripts overnight. Start with small things, then make your progress, slowly but surely.

If you want to play with echo commands, it's sure the very basic and easy language to learn. But if you are learning PHP, it means that you have intentions to write a dynamic web application. (If not, you just picked the wrong language anyway) :)

Creating a dynamic web aplication has a lot to do learning SQL (My, MS, Oracle, no matter) OR learning file structure/permissions of various systems (nt, unix, linux), know HTML/javascript good, have a very good command of web designing and more importantly web security. All these are advanced topics and if you dont know what a "variable" or "array" is, you will really have serious problems while you dig your way in the PHP.

IMO, for such a newbie PHP is not a good start, he can begin with a language such as "visual" languages (Visual Basic, Delphi for instance) to get the basics of coding. Then learning HTML, SQL and web security must be a great concern before elaborating on web languages such as PHP, Perl or ASP. After getting the basics, learning the PHP will not be a problem for anyone, I agree..

But I really dont know a good PHP coder, who doesnt know any other programming language and started his career with PHP..

I highly recommend all books by Wrox Press, to put it simply.

I don't think learning Visual Basic is a good base for learning PHP. It is very different, very very different. I'm learning VB myself at the moment, and it's really nothing like PHP or C/++. The latter on the other hand, is a great way to get familiar with coding (if your itention is to learn PHP).

But the bottom line is, if you want to learn PHP, you really don't need to learn other languages on the way. It will be a waste of them and you will possibly get confused with the languages. Now that I'm used to code in PHP I can't stop putting $ before variables in C. :) Just like I constantly use single quotes in VB or == in comparisons.

If you want to familiarize yourself with visual languages, go ahead, Visual Basic is a very good choice to begin with. You will learn all you need to learn about Visual Languages after studying Visiual Basic.

But I have some suggestions for you:
1- Considering the fact that you already know C, why not try Visual C, instead of Visiual Basic? You will be very comfortable with the syntax, besides both languages have strength in the same field: Desktop Applications. So you can do anything with Visiual C, that you plan to do with VB. VC is much popular among professional programmers too..

2- If you plan to have expertise in desktop application programming, I would strongly suggest Java among all others. It's the future! ;) VB and VC has many advantages to coders especially if you are a Windows programmer, but Java is a platform-free enviroment and your application will work with all platforms, not only in Windows. So it's really very popular in professional programming business. (except MS's recent strategy to finish it)

Regards,
Logician

Had anybody uesd it ?