Learning PHP & MySQL Development

I am in the target audience for this book. I have a tiny bit of knowledge about PHP. My MySQL knowledge is stronger as I am pretty good at queries in the basic sense but things like inner/outer joins just confuse the heck out of me.

This is one of the best developer books I have read to-date. The way the material is presented is easy to understand and concise. It almost feels like the authors were sitting around a table with me actually walking me through the examples. It did not feel “super-techy”, which is a good thing when you are trying to learn something new.

Learning PHP & MySQL Development

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Chapters 1-6 take you through basic orientation, the installation of Apache, PHP and MySQL, followed by an intro to PHP statements.

Chapters 7-9 introduce database concepts and step you through getting PHP to talk to MySQL.

Chapters 10-17 begin the process of creating forms and other components of Web sites and applications following all the way through to integrating some sample applications.

While this book is very basic, meaning you will be able to run basic functions, and database connections, it is a good foundation to build upon. What I like is that now I have a clear understanding of PHP terminology for giving direction to programmers that I work with. I also now understand the basics of database query joins which for me was worth the purchase price alone.

Many developers I work with talk about PEAR and this book has a short chapter on using PEAR in your development to get PHP to talk to MySQL.

This book will wet your appetite to want to learn more about PHP and MySQL.

Product Rating:

Company:
O’Reilly

Requirements:
Ability to read?

Pricing:
$29.99

Reviewed by:
Allen

Competition:
n/a

Pros:
Language is easy to understand even for non-technical folks.

Cons:
For beginners, pros look elsewhere.

Bottom Line:
A good read for the newbie to PHP and MySQL development.