By Karen Morrill-McClure
Where to start in a review of a book that’s over 900 pages long? Hard to say.
Maybe I should start with what I was looking for. I’m not a complete beginner with PHP, I’ve been using it on my sites for several years now and I’m starting to write more complicated web applications using both PHP and MySQL. I’ve mostly used online resources to learn about PHP and MySQL. I have one old resource book, a 2001 PHP and MySQL Web Development manual from SAMS.
A couple of months ago, I started looking for a new PHP/MySQL manual for reference. I got tired of searching on the web every time I had a problem. I wanted everything in one place. Of course, it would be nice if that one place was a little more compact, but PHP and MySQL are mature and complicated themselves, so any book about them will be long.
After a little searching, I found Beginning PHP and MySQL. The tag line is ‘from novice to professional.’ Since I consider myself somewhere in between those two extremes, it sounded good to me.
First off, this is not a book that I recommend you curl up with in front of the fire for a nice evening of reading. I love manuals, but even this one got a little obtuse for me at times. Just when I was beginning to despair, I had to look something up for a project. I can never remember how to code checkboxes so that I can get all the results that have been checked in the HTML form. Beginning PHP and MySQL to the rescue, not only was the index easy to use, the section on forms was concise and easy to understand.
Reading on through book, I learned a bit more about dealing with dates and times in PHP. I coded a scheduling application for a triathlon training group, it might have been a little easier with this information. Next time I’m working on a calendar or schedule, I’ll definitely pick this book up and read this section again.
The author is knowledgeable, not only about PHP and MySQL, but about how they are often used. I like that he said that most PHP programmers don’t have the date function memorized, they have to look up the options. Whew, that made me feel better, since I had to look it up every time I used it.
It’s hard to gauge how useful this book would be to a true beginner, but we all have to start somewhere. It’s certainly proving to be a valuable resource to someone who already knows the language fairly well and wants to take it to the next level.
I’d recommend it to anyone looking for an overview of PHP and MySQL. It may not delve specifically into some of the ecommerce features, but I’ve found that manuals that have a very specific focus usually aren’t doing exactly what I want to do. The beauty of PHP is that I can build anything I want with it. I don’t want to make a travel reservation system, but I do need to know how to use built in functions and how to manipulate strings to create what I want to create. This book helps me do just that.
Dear Karen,
I am contacting you from Apress to thank you for your thoughtful review of Beginning PHP and MySQL 5 this past month. We would like to request your permission to quote from it on our website and possibly on the cover of a future reprint edition.
If you have any questions, please contact Cheryl Martinez, Marketing Supervisor, at cheryl.martinez@apress.com.
Please contact Cheryl or me with your permission, and any special requests for how you would like to be cited. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you in advance,
Christopher Suen
I’m sorry, but i forgot to leave my contact info! please contact me at christophersuen@apress.com. Thank you!
The book goes into specific detail on what everything is and how to perform actions. However, before you start it’s important to learn the MySQL layout to avoid any delays. Later.
-Misterwacom
I like the PHP 5 Recipes book better. It has the nuts and bolts beginning plus very useful code for doing things beyond adding 1+2. Same publisher, just a little more advanced.
I’m very much a begginner with PHP and I would have to say that this is not a book for complete beginners. I feel it gets into too much detail too soon and is overwhelming for someone just starting out.
A very helpful review that reminded me that one book cannot answer all your needs. I did have some problems understanding – all about the MySQL layout, as misterwacom points out.
Time to go back and review the basic basics before diving in properly.
I think these types of books are better as a slow read, rather than reading from end to end. if you take your time, you shoudl be improving as you go along, mean the beginning will be read when you are a beginner, and the end will be read when you are more advanced – then it applies a lot more.
Hey interesting article. I found your site on bing randomly. Not usually the kind of site I read but im definately glad I came across it. Where did you come up with the idea for this article?
As far as I know, this book is a good book on PHP and MySQL that are quite complete. But because it is quite thick, I often ignore it and choose to practice. If there is not I understand, I look and see it through the table of contents
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I saw many books about PHP & MySQL but this look interesting. Thanks.
This is very good book, many real examples ready to use.