Any coder loves to cut & paste rather than type in the code from the book. It is really a shame that this book has some good examples but they apparently force you to type in the examples by hand. NO CD and as far as I can tell, no website to download from. If you want to read examples then this is your book, if you want to try the examples then find another book with a CD or website support.

I'm a intermediate-advanced PHP coder. I own 13 PHP books, some I use more than others. The only book of the 13 that has NEVER been useful for a single thing was this (sorry) "cookbook." Explanations are poor and the index is horrible. I wonder if the people giving this book high marks have really tried to use it. For real answers to how to do things give me Professional PHP or PHP and MYSL Web Development. Or if you're really stuck and need a clue, check out the DevShed.com forums. Cookbook? More like "compost heap." I think the authors just decided to take a bunch or random code they'd written and paste it all together into a "book." Gosh, maybe I should take some of my old stuff and publish it too.

The book has very poorly designed code example and a lot of them don't work. I only read two chapters, but I almost pulled my hair off! I'm a pretty good C programmer but this book has nothing to do with programming at all!

This is a singularly useless book. I bought it because I liked the concept of a "cookbook," a collection of PHP recipes, which I expected to be common tasks. Instead, it is organized by programming concept.

The authors say they assume a basic level of PHP or programming knowledge, but their idea of basic is very uneven. You'll find much better resources for common tasks online.

Bought this book hoping it would be similar to the Perl cookbook - as another reviewer commented, there are "gaps" in the content. Every time I needed a solution to a particular problem in Perl, I found the answer in the Perl cookbook. Every time I needed a similar solution in PHP, I found myself using [their wedsite] because the PHP Cookbook made no mention of the problem.

Hopefully there are better PHP books out there - I think I'll stick to [the website] for now and get free, detailed help from the PHP community.

Not for beginners but excellent for someone who knows the basics of php! Best php book I ever bought, real value for money.

This book takes PHP to the depth and reveals many of the methods and functions which can be only found out after years of extensive programming.The topics are very well organized. If you are looking forward to learn PHP grab this book.Although if you are looking for database sychronizations this book doesn't cover a lot.If you are looking for a PHP book other than Database applications this is the right one !!

This book is quite handy to put in the next of your monitor. When you are facing problem on some implementations, open this book and it will give you insight how to do it. Every aspect of the problem solving implementation has covered in this book.
Cool.

Most of the great texts are appropriately named and hold themselves in particularly high esteem. This book doesn't do that, its about solutions. It offers practical solutions to every day problems (really, the book in many cases has actually had the exact solution to the problems I had!) And not only that, but the book is also very easy to read from front to back. Although its not intended as a book that should be read fluently, reading it chapter by chapter will actually increase your knowledge of PHP a hundred fold, both authors are on the PHP Development team, and they explain how PHP really works, inside out. A must have for any intermediate-experienced coder, looking to take there coding skills to the next level.

This book is a must-have reference for any PHP coder.

Becoming more advanced in the field of PHP programming, I needed a solid reference to help me along the way. This book did just the trick.

It gives problems and solutions to everyday problems that programmers face, and conveniently groups the examples by category, such as strings, arrays, etc.

PHP Developer's Cookbook helped me with many of the tasks that I was currently embarking upon, and looking through its contents helped me find new and better solutions for current and future problems.

A word of warning, however, this book will probably NOT teach you PHP. The categories are not placed in a good order for beginners, but are great for those of intermediate and expert programmers alike. If you are new to PHP, I would say look elsewhere, say PHP Essentials, but I would recommend that you definetely keep this text in mind if you decide to further your PHP skills. Strongly recommended for intermediate and expert PHP programmers.

Having used PHP for about 2 years now, I was fairly comfortable with the language and originally bought the book because I saw Sterling at the PHP Conference and liked his attitude so I thought I'd buy his book. The approach of this book is far different from most of those lofty, heady books with their $foo after $foobar examples of basically useless coding ideas. Sterling takes real life needs and cooks them up with short, useable snippets of code. He says in the opening that, "This book is meant [to used over and over as a daily reference for problem solving]." Well, Sterling, you hit the mark. Another nice thing was that I started finding functions that I didn't even know existed and then started imagining uses for them to solve problems I hadn't thought of as problems!

There is only one shortcoming to this book (with the exception of Julie Meloni becoming Julie "Melon" in the opening section :P), the lack of source code availability. If you want to see the samples in action and play with them, start typing. That's not too bad for most of the 10-30 line snippets, but for things like the basic search-engine code, it's quite tedious. I OCR'd it... but not everyone has that ability. Hopefully SAMS will either get him a CD to include in his book next time or set up some web space for us to grab it.

Without a doubt this is a must-have for any serious medium-to-advance level PHP coder.

I spent a lot of time reading reviews and thumbing books in stores before I decided to buy this one.

I needed a good quality book that would extend my PHP knowledge without treating me like an idiot for the first four chapters or wasting my time with high end stuff I'll never use.

I appreciate cookbooks, I have the Perl Cookbook, Perl CGI/Cookbook and a couple of similar C volumes and find they are useful to get me pointed in thie right direction in both method and style. Often, of course, the code I end up with bears little resemblance to the cookbook code but it saves me time. They also provide a large number of examples of how to perform real world tasks with a language which I find an easier way of learning a language than some dry textbook with short snippets of example code.

In the 24 sections this book covers a huge range of tasks, from the simple, such as string manipulation, through to the highly complex such as drawing graphics with GD and outputting XML.

Each section is broken down into a number (the average is about 8 or 9) problems, each problem comes with at least one solution and a discussion. The discussion will often mention other avenues of approach for variations of the original problem as well as detailing the various parts of the solution.

This book is extremely well structured, well written and useful. I would recommend it for anyone already using PHP or intending to do so in the future.

I like this book. For me as a semi-advanced programmer (with quite big perl background), is well written. It takes you directly to the battlefield, giving solutions to most common problems you could encounter. But, there should me more. Sometimes examples are quite large - larger than the explanation.
I wish, there could be more content, more examples, more problems to solve. 500 pages is not enough.

This is a great book for beginners and experts alike. It has some really good examples of the powerful uses of php. I recommend this to anyone that wants to create their own applications online.

This book started saving me time the day it arrived. The little code snippets and examples apply to lots of common and odd tasks that many programmers will run into. The organization of the book also plays well with the on-line php documentation: it is grouped by function categories. I like consistency between documentation organization so multiple sources can function like a "super-manual". While I would not recommend this book as a reference it is a great adjunct to the php.net manual or a number of other books that are intended to be manuals.

This is a great PHP book if you are an experienced programmer. It gives a great overview of what PHP can do. It even has sections on extending PHP with your own functions in C. So, if you are an experienced programmer that wants to know what PHP can do this is a great book. If you are new to programming you might want to try this book later.

For anyone who learns by doing rather than memorising methods and functions, this is the book for you.

I have read the Wrox Professionals, PHP Bible, Core and New Riders books but this is by far the best.

Once you know the syntax of the language ..., you need a book which can show you examples of usage. I found myself revisiting a lot of my code after reading this book and changing the way I had done things.

You might find that receipts in this cookbook are useful as well as easy to use. It covers major functions to program in PHP. However, this book does not cover many useful commands, which you might use to make advance software in PHP. This book will become more useful when you also buy the PHP 4 Developer's Guide written by Blake Schwendiman and merely one of the must have books for any web developers.

You might find that receipts in this cookbook are useful as well as easy to use. It covers major functions to program in PHP. However, this book does not cover many useful commands, which you might use to make advance software in PHP. This book will become more useful when you also buy the PHP 4 Developer's Guide written by Blake Schwendiman and merely one of the must have books for any web developers.

Good for the intermediate programmer. This book is *not* a HOWTO or an introductory text. Instead the book lists common problems broken down by functionality and provides solutions and explanations to the problems. If you can't find a solution in there, it certainly provides an excellent place to look. I've always found the 'Cook Book' type programming books an excellent source of inspiration, and this book is no exception.

I love books that are organized by commands when it comes to programming languages. I also love books that give tips for specific solutions(ex. 1001 Java Programming Tips). This book is based on solutions like a mail form or a shopping cart. So, I guess it depends on what style you like. For me, its a nice reference to the commands with "how to use it" added in. Then a tips book would be great for quick tips on specific programming situations. So with that said, I give this book a middle-of-road rating. You might get something out of it, but its not as useful as others that I have used in other languages. I have yet to find a PHP book that I really like.

I'm new to programming, since I started a crash course in learning PHP and Mysql. I'm now pretty decent and have built a complicated commercial site. The code ain't pretty, but it works. I have bought nearly every PHP book published (except for those which got extremely negative reviews on Amazon.) Ones I find useful are Professional PHP Programming (WROX), Beginning PHP4 (WROX), PHP Fast &Easy Web Development by Meloni, Visual Quickstart Guide, and Sams Teach Yourself PHP4. By far the best for the novice to get started is Meloni's book PHP Fast & Easy Web Development. Great great book! The Developer's Cookbook has not been helpful. It may be useful for an advanced programmer, but I find the code explanations too terse to be helpful. Whenever I find a piece of code in the book I think might be helpful, it's not explained adequately or turns out not to be quite what I wanted. Also, the index is poor, so that I can't use it as a reference. Even basic terms and concepts are often not listed in the index, so I can rarely find what I'm looking for. Using the other books I listed above, I've always been able to find code examples I needed, or at least enough hints to work out the code myself. As a result, I've only used the Cookbook a few times since I've had it, but I use the other books many times a day.

A few years ago, I gave up on PHP because the books available were so terrible. When PHP4 came out, I decided to revisit both the scripting language and the available resources.

First, the excellent Wrox books came out, and now PHP Cookbook, another excellent resource for PHP programmers. The code snippets are useful on their own, and the coverage of the language is very good. I find myself turning to it even to look up basic function calls, because the use of the function often points out approaches (and additional functionality) that I wasn't aware of.

The book and code samples are well-written, my only complaint is that the source code for the recipes aren't available.

I found this book to be very helpful to me while developing in PHP. Some reviewers complained that this book isn't a good book for beginners. Well, of course it isn't. If you would have read the introduction and purpose in the book, it clearly states that this book "is meant to help you solve the everyday problems that you encounter as a programmer". Besides, thats what a cookbook is; a collection of recipes. A cookbook isn't meant to teach you HOW to cook. The same goes for this book, it shows you many solutions to many problems that you will encounter as a PHP programmer.

This book is way to generic. Not great at all for someone who's starting to learn php, and isn't clear on the syntax or semantics of php. For example the code it gives to connect to oracle 8 and run a query is literally two pages long. Most of it is redundant and unclear. Further, commands like include_once("DB/standard.php"); does not parse on Windows NT machines running php. (A lot of syntax errors in book.) So, if your fairly new to PHP, and/or running anything either than a unix/linux/solaris box this book isn't for you.

Oo the solution for the problem about include_once("DB/standard.php"); is to give the absolute path: include_once("c:/php/pear/db/common.php");

If you have learned PHP - then you must own this book. The regexp and file handeling sections are great. Best book to date for someone who knows a little PHP.

Which isn't to say it's a pure reference book, just in the class for people who are serious about using a language. This book is like having a knowledgeable coworker who gives good examples. This is useful for people who are experienced with the language, but are self-taught (and/or work alone), and want a perspective into another person's style of problem-solving.

This book expects you to know basic and intermediate php syntax. It isn't going to tell you how to create an array or include a file, for example. (Although if you read the code, you could find such things out indirectly).

But this shows you how to do lots of tricks with the language, and even if it doesn't cover what you want to know exactly, you should be able to find answers to most questions in it.

I agree that this book is a worthwhile purchase for any serious PHP developer - it offers a wealth of useful ideas and immediately became the most used resource on my PHP bookshelf.

But there are a couple of weaknesses that other reviews have not touched on.

The main disappointment is the choice of topics coverered - there are some pretty major omissions.

As others point out, this is not a book for beginners - a fair bit of knowledge is assumed. Yet much space is taken up with very basic topics which are well covered in the introductory texts, such as creating a class or opening a file.

While this has the virtue of completeness, it has reduced the space for detailed coverage of the really tough issues that are beyond the scope of the PHP introductions.

Of the more advanced topics, I particularly liked the database API - this is the most elegant and efficient solution I have seen, and is worth the price on its own. And there is plenty of detail on email handling, socket programming and XML.

But other key topics such as form handling, data validation and user authentication are barely touched on. Given that the built-in facilities for error handling are still poor in PHP4, I was particularly disappointed that this issue is not really addressed. Another weakness is the rather superficial coverage of the challenges of building usable and efficient search facilities.

My other concern is the rather condensed coding style. Comments are pretty thin on the ground, and the local variable names are often cryptic. So you sometimes have to work quite hard to understand what is going on.

Overall, a great contribution to the PHP literature, but not as comprehensive as it might be. Perhaps this could be addressed in the second edition??

This is the most useful "second" PHP book available. I say "second" because it's geared towards those that understand a bit already but still, it'll even help the complete newbie as it's easy to read and will make sense to most anyone. Excellent tips, short-cuts, examples, etc. Curious about shortening, optimizing and streamlining your PHP code? This book will help. Includes uses of various PEAR classes too (PEAR being similar to Perls CPAN). This cookbook WILL suit your PHP hunger, we need more books like this.

what is a McBook?

"A quick,cheap book which can fulfill your hungry,but lack of extra vitamins". Yes,it is quick.You can find out what u need quickly,especially some simple questions,e.g. converting ascii to html,which you don't want to write a function yourself.Then this book is for you.

Given the size of this book is small,u can't find extra vitamin that is essential to keep your body healthy,youu really need a good intro book,e.g. teach yourself php4 in 24hrs. and a guide book which contains long examples.e.g. shopping cart,discussion borad,e.g. professional php programming from wrox,or php/mysql application from mindware.

It's a good book! It suits me admirably. Starting from knowing no PHP I could code reasonable complex things within a week. However a few warnings to others.

1) It assumes you are an experienced programmer. An if you are not then this is not really the best first choice.

2) It is tasked based. In other words you have to define the task in your mind (like I want to invert a character string) and find where it teaches that. So it is laid out in sections labeled 'Problem' and 'Solution'. eg

Problem: I want to locate a record in binary file and update it in place:

Solution: A chunk of code which solves the problem.. ...often more than one way, then an explanation of how an why

3) It is not a true reference. There are no tables of regular expressions, function lists, special symbols etc.

4) If you know PERL then this IS the book for you as it draws frequent comparison and borrows from your perl experience. If you do not then it will be more difficult. (possibly other list based languages would do just as well)

The above are criticisms in the true sense of the word. For me the book is excellent. Incidentally, it's a pig trying to switch backwards and forwards between PERL and PHP. They are JUST different enough that you keep using the wrong syntax - at least I am during these early days.

Have any of you done Perl and worn the Perl Cookbook cover off? Then this is your book.

The layout and general concept of this book is very similar to that other beloved cookbook. Some entries are nearly identical. One feature I adore in particular is multiple recipes for one task, stating which is faster/more efficient, and then telling you why.

I have been scripting PHP for 2 years, mostly professionally, but many fun, personal projects as well. Not only do I wish I had this book, but I am gald that I have it now. I have been reading this thing randomly but voraciously, and I have found little gems even under the elementary topics.

I will be working on 2 major projects soon, the development stage of one has just begun. One is a massive intranet site, (authentication, sessions, customization, etc.) and the other is an ecommerce site/application. I will be using this book continuously as a: 1) code reminder 2) how-to resource 3) code-refiner 4) style-refiner.

I've already used it several times for custom classes - don't pass this one up!