Where did you learn PHP?

[cyphix]

Hey guys..

To all the people who do PHP/MySQL coding..

How did you learn it? I'm attemtping to teach myself it, been thinking of it for awhile now but been too lazy to do so lol.. but something someone said (clemzonguy?) in another thread about learning coding yourself so you can save money AND time on your projects gave me the boot up the a** I needed! :-D

I delved into Perl coding a few years back, didn't get too far into it but got into the basics off it (have a half-done script for one of those old threaded message boards :-D) so learning the initial stages of PHP from web tutorials has been pretty easy for me.. a lot of it is the same, except I see arrays work a little differently then what they did in Perl.

Anyway, I've read a few web tutorials but I need something thats going to take it a little bit further.... something that will explain things as simple as possible & is easy to understand.

Anyone know any good books or tutorials that go a bit further into things? I really need to start learning about using databases with PHP etc..

Cheers!

 

[cyphix]

Oh.... I must say that..

All the books I have got in the past, the best I have found have been "Teach yourself XXXXX in 21 days" by Sams Publishing .. I have gotten these for HTML, then Visual Basic & also the one for Perl.

These books have been lightyears ahead of other books I have in respect to how easy they are to understand & the way they are laid out.... anyone have the PHP one of these? How is it?

I also have one of those "dummies" books for javascript but found that *very* confusing, dunno, I must be very stupid lol

I also have tried "Learning Perl" by O'Reilly, but found that also too hard to understand, probably for more experienced coders... that's why I went & bought the one by Sams Publlishing on Perl.. a heck of a lot better for newcomers!

 

[alien]

The book "Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL" from sitepoint.com is good to get you started.

 

[NameTower]

I've never read a book on PHP/MySQL programming.

Yet I can do almost all that I need to myself.

I guess sorting through the vBulletin code and such was helpful, and I just applied the patterns I saw to my own code, experimented, and saw what work.

On occasion I do make sure of what I'm doing via php.net/function name but other than that, maybe I read one or two tutorials on this lycos php programming site..

Good Luck!
- Jordan

 

[seeker]

I got the book from sitepoint as well.
It was excellent, and I learned quite a bit as far as programming is concerned (I started programming on an Apple 2 in the late 70s early 80s).
The problem is, I never figuref out how to actually place and run any code on a server, just locally...

go figure.

 

[hotdog_pk]

PHP goes hand-in-hand with mySQL, so....

SQL =
www.sqlcourse.com
www.sqlcourse2.com

PHP =
www.phpfreaks.com

I am also developing a site featuring php tutorials and a friendly community. Should be finished soon :-D

 

[cyphix]

Thanks for all the info guys!

Anyone else recommend any other good books?

Thanks!

 

[seeker]

Php and mySql web development by SAMS
big book, super info

 

[darrenl]

Looking at open source scripts...

 

[clemzonguy]

Php and mySql web development by SAMS
big book, super info

I found this book the other week. Haven't read all of it yet but looks very great in comparison to other books which I own. I would not get PHP in a nutshell b/c it will only confuse you. PHP is a lot like perl in a lot of ways. The way to figure out any program is to trace the code. You need to be familiar with the basics like what does an IF statement do, what is a WHILE loop, a FOR statement, why are GOTO statements bad, what is a function, etc. These kind of questions are ones answered in a college curriculum program. The program that I learned with originally years ago was ADA 95. Then we moved into C. Soon after that C++ or object oriented programming was the way to go. A lot of programs these days use INCLUDE statements at the top. That makes a lot of code object oriented. It helps break it down for organization purposes. Don't let this confuse you. I would NOT recommend using vbulletin code to learn from. Even I don't understand all of it. You will need to know something a lot simpler. Start with programs that will allow you to sit at a terminal and output information to a screen. With web languages you can output to the browser but in my opinion it's not the same as the non-dynamic ancient languages. This will definitely be a time investment and you may have to cut out a lot of activities. But it can be very fun especially when you find out how powerful a single program can be to saving time and makey money! And in summary....sometimes you just gotta hack the code until it works!
:evil:

 

[cyphix]

Thanks alll & thanks for the big write up Clemzon! :-D

 

[Steen]

I still don't know HTML :-(

 

[encodedbrain]

phpfreaks.com is a place, you might want to visit. they got some nice tutorials, open source codes for you to learn easily and the best part, when you're struck somewhere, you can always ask at their forums and you get the solution almost instantly. php is fun to learn and exciting. all the best!

 

[skylight]

php.net
phpbuilder.com

wdvl.com

 

[Bob]

I started by learning PERL. I taught myself everything I need to know. I am by no means a PERL guru, but I do know quite a bit. PERL is one of those languages that the more of it you learn, the more you realize you do not know anything. The next progression for me was to deal with mySQL databases. I got pretty adept at this.

After PERL, I had clients who had code in PHP, so it was a necessity for me to learn PHP. Again, I taught myself PHP. Having already known PERL, PHP was a breeze. You can see how PERL influenced PHP.

When I decide to learn a new language, I typically buy two books.

1) PHP for Dummies
2) The O'Reilly book (Programming PHP)

My philosophy is that the "PHP for Dummies" can get me up and going quickly while the O'Reilly book will give me a solid reference for things that always arise and that are not covered in the PHP for Dummies book.

Lastly, I always build a self-interest site to learn the langauge. This keeps my interest high because I am working toward something that I want completed. After that, then I feel I am usually ready for any client demands

Happy coding.

-Bob