I really liked this book. I'ts easy to understand, and it covers the basics. Just as a warning, this book is focused in people that already have som basic knowledrge of programing and HML.

I can certainly recommend this one for the upcoming PHP developer. The insight contained within was valuable.

I used this book at work, and wasn't impressed.

Now, maybe it's the language itself that lacks consistency and isn't all that interesting, I don't know.
I wasn't as much exceited reading the book as I was when I read, for example, K&R (C), Paul Graham and Peter Seibel (Lisp), Meyers (C++). The book will help you get things done, no doubt, but there doesn't seem to be anything special about it.

And I am not saying this lightly. I am writing about 2nd edition. This is a great PHP book, even for a beginner to PHP. I have been programming for years now, and read a bunch of programming books, and this is one of the best books I read so far. It is easy to follow, easy to understand, and it covers everything you need to become a greap PHP programmer.

Most of the books I've looked at on PHP have tied it in a three-legged race with mySQL. I was looking for something that taught the core language itself and its place in applications besides those in which it is teamed with mySQL. This appears to be that book. The core PHP language is very good at handling strings and arrays and objects. Along with standard and optional extension modules, a PHP application can work with databases like Oracle and MySQL, draw graphs, create PDF files, and parse XML files. You can write your own PHP extension modules in C to provide a PHP interface to the functions in an existing code library. You can also run PHP on Windows and use it to control other Windows applications such as Word and Excel with COM or interact with databases using ODBC. This book is a guide to all of these capabiliies of the PHP language, as well as a tutorial on the core language itself. This book assumes you have a working knowledge of HTML and that you know how to program - preferably in either C, C++, or Perl.

The first six chapters teach the core language itself. The six chapters include a dedicated introduction and a chapter on language basics which acts as a concise guide to PHP program elements such as identifiers, data types, operators, and flow-control statements. The next four chapters after that concern functions, strings, arrays, and objects respectively. The following is an outline of the remaining chapters of the book:

Chapter 7, "Web Techniques" - PHP was designed as a web-scripting language and, although it is possible to use it in purely command-line and GUI scripts, the Web accounts for the vast majority of PHP uses. A dynamic web site may have forms, sessions, and sometimes redirection, and this chapter explains how to implement those things in PHP. You'll learn how PHP provides access to form parameters and uploaded files, how to send cookies and redirect the browser, and how to use PHP sessions.

Chapter 8, "Databases" - PHP has support for over 20 databases, including the most popular commercial and open source varieties. This chapter covers how to access databases from PHP. The focus is on the PEAR DB system, which lets you use the same functions to access any database, rather than on the myriad database-specific extensions. In this chapter, you'll learn how to fetch data from the database, how to store data in the database, and how to handle errors. The chapter finishes with a sample application that shows how to put various database techniques into action.

Chapter 9, Graphics - Many web images are dynamically created, such as graphs of stock performance. PHP supports the creation of such graphics with the GD and Imlib2 extensions. This chapter demonstrates how to generate images dynamically with PHP, using the GD extension.

Chapter 10, PDF - PHP has several libraries for generating PDF documents. This chapter shows how to use the popular fpdf library. The FPDF library is a set of PHP code you include in your scripts with the required function, so it doesn't require any server-side configuration or support, meaning you can use it even without support from your host.

Chapter 11, XML - This chapter shows how to use the XML parser bundled with PHP, as well as how to use the optional XSLT extension to transform XML. Generating XML is also briefly covered here.

Chapter 12, Security - PHP's convenience is a double-edged sword. The very features that let you quickly write programs in PHP can open doors for those who would break into your systems. It's important to understand that PHP itself is neither secure nor insecure. The security of your web applications is entirely determined by the code you write. This chapter gives tips on making that code secure.

Chapter 13, Application Techniques - This chapter demonstrates some techniques you may find useful in your PHP applications, such as code libraries, templating systems, efficient output handling, error handling, and performance tuning.

Chapter 14, Extending PHP - This chapter demonstrates writing C language extensions to PHP. Although most functionality can be written in the PHP language, sometimes you need the extra speed and control you get from the C API. C is the mechanism for creating the thin middle layer between PHP and any third-party C library. For example, to be able to talk to the MySQL database server, PHP needs to implement the MySQL socket protocol. It would be a lot of work to figure out this protocol and talk to MySQL directly using "fsockopen" and "fputs" from a PHP script. Instead, the same goal can be accomplished with a thin layer of functions written in C that translate MySQL's C API, implemented in the libmysqlclient library included in MySQL, into PHP language-level function calls. This thin layer of functions is known as a PHP extension.

Chapter 15, PHP on Windows - The most common reason to use PHP on Windows is to develop web applications on your Windows desktop. What can be confusing at first is the number of various configurations and choices available. There are many variants of the Windows operating system, and many web servers are available for those operating systems. PHP itself can run as either a DLL or a script. This chapter explains how to install, configure, and make the best use of PHP on Windows systems. One approach is taken and followed to its conclusion, although there are a number of different ways to arrive at the same destination. Also explained is how to take advantage of the features unique to the Windows platform, such as connecting to databases with ODBC and controlling Microsoft Office applications through COM.

As you can see this book really provides two functions. It is a very thorough tutorial and reference on the PHP programming language, and it is also a tutorial and showcase of all of the different uses PHP can have. Well commented code and instructions are provided throughout. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to learn the PHP programming language as well as those that know the basics and want to put the language to work. Just make sure you know HTML and programming - preferably both C and PERL - first.

'Programming PHP' by Kevin Tatroe is a solid look at this popular open source solution for generating dynamic web pages. Competing against the money solutions ASP and JSP, PHP will give you the same kind of functionality, but at a much lower price! Packed with over 500 pages of PHP goodness, this book will make you a better PHP programmer and teach you how to go all the way from defining the most basic of variables to performing database tasks and all sorts of other important tasks and tricks of the trade. I highly recommend this well-written and well ordered book, perfect for anyone that wants to learn and excel at PHP programming!!

Chapter Overview

01. Introduction
02. PHP Basics
03. Functions
04. Strings
05. Arrays
06. Objects
07. Web Techniques
08. Databases
09. Graphics
10. PDF
11. XML
12. Security
13. Application Techniques
14. Extending PHP
15. PHP on Windows

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

It's not the best computer language book I have ever read, by a long shot, but it did give me most of what I needed. I found a number of errors, including places where the example code differs from the text description. This is mostly the editor's fault. Also, there were a number of important details that were left out. This brings me to my main concern: it is not clear who this book was written for. A novice would be overwhelmed, I think, while a more experienced programmer like me may be frustrated with some critical omissions. On the whole, though, it did get the job done.

I'm assuming via the dates of the other reviews, that most of them are referring to Version 1.

I have Version 2 with me and after reading a few chapters, have come to the conclusion that this is a worthwhile investment.

The author(s) appear to have read my mind as I thought about counter examples ("what about in this case?"), for in the following paragraph such concerns are addressed.

This is an easy read and easily absorbed; yet not too verbose (yawn).

I'm giving it 4/5 stars, simply because there's no downloadable example code. But that is a minor issue; for me.

This is a good book and I shall keep it.

Spent an hour examining this 2nd edition. I've also spent some time reading the reviews of the 1st edition and you are right on the money, Nathan Torkington. Many of the reviews show that the reviwer did not take much time or care going thru the book. When you've got the kind of talent and writing experience shared by the two authors, you have got to be one doozy of a PHP person to find the kind of faults some reviewers report. O'Reiily does a great job of maintaining an ERRATA page for each of their books. You never made a typo, guys ? In general this is a nice cleanup of the book. Very good for starters & intermediates.
And thank you to David Wall, who says it all: "The authors use a Talmudic (JBC adds:For readers not familiar with the TALMUD, check out Wikipedia)style to explore PHP's capabilities and explain them to their readers, meaning that they like to present code and commentary in close formation, with each enhancing the other. Typically, they'll present a capability generically and show the relevant code. Then they'll dig into variations on the theme, calling attention to required code alterations as they go. This is a book about PHP itself, so practically no attention is paid to PHP Builder or other development tools. Regardless, this book will help you solve programming challenges with PHP, and enable you to write efficient, attractive code."

Like many people I know, I have to use multiple programming languages, and php happens to be one of them. Programming PHP is a great book for PHP speakers and the excellent php function reference in appendix A is really adequate value for the book.

Take heart, you can do without the book, if you don't already own a copy, but owning a copy is also a great way to support the community, so go get on.

This book lacks examples. It describes a function in English words but rarely gives an example of how to invoke it. If you're trying to do File I/O this book is NOT for you.

PHP is a programming language that can be embedded in web pages. It makes it significantly easier to develop and maintain web pages.

This is a clear, well-organized reference manual for PHP. I've found it very useful.

It is not a tutorial for PHP. It does not cover PHP 5.

If you wish, checkout my somewhat longer review on the Oakland Perl Mongers site.

George Woolley of Camelot.pm and Oakland.pm

This book is perfect to begin to learn PHP, being only necessary to have some previous knowledge of programming, because the explanations are clear, concrete and contains many examples. This book is not very deep in the aspects that treat but it is very complete in general.

The book consists of four parts differentiated clearly.

In the first part, from chapter 2 to chapter 6, it approaches all the characteristic of the language with clear explanations and clear examples, from the basic elements of the language to the OOP.

In the second part, from chapter 7 to chapter 13, it applies the characteristics of the language shown previously to solve situations common, with many complete examples and clear and short explanations, with the WEB, databases, graphics, PDF, XML, security and application techniques.

In the third part, appendix A, there is an extensive list of the functions of the PHP, this part is poorest because it consists of a simple reference of functions without examples nor too many explanations, but also necessary being given the great amount of functions that has the PHP and that the book is showing in the chapters as they are necessary.

In the last part distributed in chapters 1, 15 and 15, and appendix B, show how to install, to execute and to expand an installation of PHP in Linux and in Windows.

I work in a student design center and use this book to create applications of various complexity, from simple webpages, to a small online marketplace, to a complex, dynamic database. Everyone that found this book "out of focus" and the examples irrelevant is simply a coder below the level of the book. If you know your way around programming, this book is very helpful. If you don't, it'll confuse you. I have little "formal" training in programming, but I've been messing around with various languages like Pascal and C++ since I was 10, so I can read books like this easily. Someone who just wants to make a "rad" webpage and has no coding background (CSS expertise doesn't count, sorry boys and girls) will run into a brick wall because of the level of understanding this book requires.

The so called "typos and errors" are false accusations. They are most likly attemping to script php5 code examples in a PHP4 setting and not realizing it. Yes, some of the examples do not realte which also happens in a few other books, but the point of this book is to pass a message on HOW to script. The examples should not need to relate in any specific manner. If you need a book that uses the same examples over and over again to get the point through, i reccomend "PHP: A visual quickstart guide" or just not attemping PHP at all and sticking to HTML. And if you do not know HTML, dont even attempt this scripting language becuase you will never be able to figure out PHP.

This was not my first PHP book, and probably it is not the best first book because it doesn't have a fun project to get you psyched. If you've got some of the thick books and feel like you sort of know PHP, this book is like taking a class from a master, with an emphasis on fundamentals. Disorganized and others have said some errors, but you are going to learn something. It is the book I always refer to first and it usually answers my question. I like the fact that it is thin by programming book standards. So to summarize, if you are going to buy 2 or more PHP books I highly recommend this one!

O Reilly publishes the best programming books--they're accurate, elegant and get to the point quickly. Unfortunately, this book is an exception. I agree with the complaints of the other reviewers, e.g., the text has buried information and incorrect examples. However, my main ojection is the index. It appears that the authors simply searched for every keyword in the book then tabulated them in the index. Thus, the index is hardly useful. It's no good to look through several pages just to find that the keyword was used once in a passing sentence that has little to do with that topic.

It sure tries to teach you something but cannot achieve...
As everyone mentioned before, it has countless errors and typos. But there is more than that. Book is out of focus. Examples makes no sense and not related to each other, which is very confusing.
A piece of code here and other piece is there. Every example is coming out of nowhere. It doesn't have a project. So everytime different variables, situations. Like, in one example it uses Flintstones character names ($name=Fred, $name2 = fred etc.). Next example is subjects of a class (math, science, history, english etc.), on other one it uses very random strings like ("I like paris in november", "the key is in my pants")
If you want to learn PHP, stick with "PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition" By Luke Welling, Laura Thompson.

This book has code examples which are full of typos. For example, the code for "self-processing pages" on page 166 won't parse. The publisher's list of unconfirmed errata goes on for 12 printed pages. This is in addition to the confirmed errata, another 2 pages. It does not look like the book's authors want to acknowledge their mistakes or participate in correcting them.

If you are a beginner, steer clear of this book. If you do get it, be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time researching each and every parse error.

I almost always turn to O'Reilly first when purchasing a new reference book, however this time I was disappointed. This book is fairly shallow in content and much of the information that you need is actually buried in the text instead of being presented as a topic unto itself.

The thing that is the most bothersome, however, is the plethora of flat out errors. Many of the examples have typos, missing code, etc. Even as a PHP novice I was constantly spotting errors which is frustrating when you're trying to learn the language.

On top of that, many of the examples exhibit just plain bad programming form (inefficient code, variables that are only used once, etc). It's the kind of thing that makes a seasoned programmer wince (and if I was reviewing the code I would send it back to the author with lots of red ink).

I was disappointed in this book. The title implies that the book would cover PHP in the same manner that Programming Perl (from the same publisher) covers Perl, but this is not true. Programming Perl is a very good in-depth reference for Perl, and I still use it frequently. Programming PHP is much too shallow, and I usually have to refer to the online PHP manual available at php.net instead.

this is a thin, mediocre book. at 373 pages, not counting the appendix, this is not a thorough treatment of the language. Maybe Oreilly should rename this "Learning PHP, and put out a thicker, more in depth book that will teach you everything you could possible want to know about php. Think Programming Perl 3rd Edition.

The creator of PHP himself, Rasmus Lerdorf, put together a thorough and enlightening guide to PHP. In this book you will find everything you need to know about PHP from variables to a long list of all the PHP functions and how to use them. I found many features of PHP that I had no idea existed (such as creating PDF files). I use this book as a reference for a PHP course I teach, and its examples have been more than helpful to me in designing lesson plans.

The one caveat of this book is that it is not geared toward brand new web programmers. PHP as a language derives from C, C++ and Perl, and if you are not at least somewhat familiar with these langauges, you can get lost in this book. The authors really want to draw a parallel between PHP and its predecessor languages so that programmers can pick up PHP more easily. I really like the fact they try to do that, and it has helped me enjoy this book more. But on the flip side, it will be more difficult for new programmers to read this book. I really hope O'Reilly comes up with a "Learning PHP" book that will be more for beginning programmers, because PHP is a great language to learn, and it would be nice to have books to appeal to all levels.

In any case, for a book about PHP, you can ask for no better book than one written by the author itself. This book does keep up the tradition of professional, useful O'Reilly programming books, and is worth the time for web programmers to read. Thus I think it earns 5 stars.

* I am an experienced programmer. I finished the first seven chapters in one day. Because the book is good or because I got used to programming ?? I am not sure.

* The second day (today) I read chapter 8 Database. I can not understand anything X-( They say something like For more on SQL, see SQL in a Nutshell X-( And I don't know any about Databases so I can not read it.

* The rest of the books cover some topics that I'm currently not interested in, I haven't read them, so I can not give any comments about these chapters. (in fact I have read some parts I think they are fine because I can understand :D)

* The way the authors present information is not clear either. I think they put a little effort on it. Everything is so brief.

This is definitely not a 5* book.
4* ?? No. I am not pleased.
3* ? Well, I got some basis of PHP. Thank the authors :-)

An excellent intermediate level book, the authors in depth knowledge of the inner working of PHP make the difference, especially when they suggest better practices. After a brief introduction to the language (too brief for most beginners), it covers many topics, from strings and array, to the more advanced chapters on XML, PDF and image generation.
Buyers must be aware that the database section is pretty limited and focus on using PEAR and around 100 pages are dedicated to a function reference that may be somewhat redundant for many developers

I've had this book for a few months now and I have to say it's really a great PHP resource all around. It's very clear, has great examples and best of all is inexpensive. I have other PHP books and this is the one I always consult first, and often last.

This book is an excellent introduction to the PHP scripting language, which is one of the most popular ways to add dynamic content to the web; PHP seems to be displacing Perl on Unix and ASP on Microsoft platforms for this purpose. PHP is suitable for low to medium traffic sites, and is said to be faster than either Perl or ASP. Because it's an interpreted language, it's not as fast as JSP or natively compiled cgis, but few sites need the level of speed or the complexity that comes with those technologies.

"Programming PHP" does an excellent job of teaching the language to those with a little bit of software background, for example in Perl or C. The first few chapters quickly demonstrate what can be done with the language and document the language basics, which, while C-like, have a few differences that are important to be aware of. The book is clear enough that it may be useful to a savvy person with no computer language background.

The rest of the chapters cover specific issues in more detail. There are chapters both on more involved language features, like PHP's treatment of strings, arrays, and objects, and on applications of the language, such as using databases with PHP and how best to handle web site security issues in a PHP based site. These chapters are independent of each other, so the reader can focus on various issues as they come up - though a few, like the security chapter and the application techniques chapter, are worth reading earlier if you have time, as they will help you set up your web site scripts so as to prevent headaches later on.

The text has many examples, which are well designed to succinctly document language features. These examples seem to be largely accurate and bug free. It may help that one of the authors, Rasmus Lerdorf, is the original creator of PHP.

Written in part by PHP's creator Rasmus Lerdorf, O'Reilly's Programming PHP is an excellent beginner's reference for PHP programming.

The book covers language fundamentals--many of which are similar enough to Java, C, JavaScript, etc. that a programmer with even a modicum of experience with those languages will quickly pick up the syntax--and then goes into detail on various aspects of PHP programming, from web programming to database integration.

The book does only touch on some areas; the database chapters, for instance, concetrate mainly on the MySQL interface, though PHP can easily be used with PostGRESQL and even products like Oracle and Microsoft SQLServer. However, there are more in-depth books for readers wishing to explore those topics in detail.

The programmer's function reference and other appendices are useful as well, although at times finding a function in the index will only direct you to a short entry in the function reference, not an in-depth explanation as to its application.

If you want to set up a scripted, interactive web site without having to learn the more difficult (and at times less suitable) Perl, then PHP is for you. As the language exists on both Unix and Windows platforms, PHP can serve as an alternative to other scripting languages as well such as ASP / VBScript. This book is the key to getting started.

easy to read and very illuminating on the working of PHP, however, I was hoping for more dirty details and advanced examples. Basically a thicker book would have made me happy

Very good book, everything is well explained and very well organized so you can find just what you're looking for without too much effort. Great to have as a reference book, a must have if you're a PHP developer.

Very helpful aside from minor coding errors.

This book is really hard to understand for beginners. Topics jump all over places. It's so unorganized to follow. Trust Me this book is not for beginners.

Let me start by saying in general O'Reilly books have been the best books I've picked up to learn from. The usually cover the basics in depth and then provide excellent examples and more advanced topics to ponder. This book covers the basics, mostly, and then procedes to fail to provide good examples, and really doesn't enter into the depths of PHP.
Other more knowledgable people have said this already, I'm just helping drag the rating down to where it deserves to be, which is not more than 2 stars.

Programming PHP is a great introduction to PHP. The chapters are well written with good examples that explain what is being discussed. The chapters are not written in a "read one after the other" fashion, so you can easily go to the chapter you need information on and find what you are looking for. This book did have some errors in the sample code, but if you read the text and actually try out the examples you can easily figure out what needs to be fixed to get them running. Since the O'Reilly "Programming" series is more about advanced programming issues, I think this book should have had the title "Learning PHP". It just seems to be an introduction, because it did not delve into any advanced topics. It is worthy to have on any PHP developers bookshelf. Recommended for beginners.

This text is another well-produced O'Reilly reference. It provides a methodical description of the PHP server scripting language. If you don't know what PHP is, this is a good starting point. If you have never programmed before, why are you using PHP? (you should learn programming somewhere else than exposing your work on the WWW - in my opinion!). Very detailed descriptions of the language elements are provided; language structure, data types, variables, operators, anything you would expect from a programming language text. Good detailed sections on string handling (isn't that chiefly why you use server scripts?) and arrays are included. Examples showing how to strip 'bad characters' or HTML from strings are helpful, detailed regular expression usage and variable argument functions are very practical. For advanced programmers, the text provides details on objects (called classes) that allow you to incorporate OOP into your server scripts. Sections are provided that gives details of graphics programming using the GD extension and PDF text document creation that I found to be useless. The appendix includes a good section on all PHP functions which is a handy reference.

... The description of database support is really limited. They hardly mention MySQL or mSQL and focus more on PEAR DB, which is an object-oriented database system. I found this as a major weakness. Otherwise, this is another admirable O'Reilly offering.