A good book to learn advanced-level php

[cashboy]

heya everybody! :hi:

After a break of about six months, I am deciding to get back to web development and to the most fascinating programming lang, php. This time I want to pay more attention at advancing my php skills than worrying about desiging. Thus, I'm looking for an easy-to-understand book about advanced PHP programming to solidify my PHP skills.

I've also checked out several books on PHP at Amazon. They all seem pretty good, but I'm not sure which one is the best. The one that I'm currently considering is PHP 5 Power Programming.


What do you guys think?

 

[Keral_Patel]

I think that practical projects are the best way to learn advanced PHP..
If you know the loops and IF's properly you can make anything with it.

Yeah the advanced books may be needed just to know the overview of other features and syntax for the particular language but to me it has always been practice and projects.

I would suggest "PHP - Black Book" for it.

 

[Shorty]

Well cashboy, I think if you already know the basics then getting a book is going in the opposite direction to be honest...

But if you insist on getting one, here's the one I bought, and I found it quite useful.

From:Amazon.CO.UK or the same book from: Amazon.COM

 

[Palyriot]

Sorry to not show you a book, but the way I got advanced in php was all through php.net and making all of my own scripts. You can also go to hotscripts or something else and just look through the script and look up every function on php.net. Php.net also has a huge manual you can read. It's the exact same as a book, just a little bit more boring. Another nice thing about php.net is that there are TONS of user comments on ways to help you out. Good luck!

 

[thibeaz]

yes I agree with you on that and that is where I learned my php scripting

 

[santro]

I learnt PHP by mere practice. But I have a couple of e-books

 

[monty]

Yeah yeah yeah, ofcourse the best way to learn any language is by practising but the guy wants books, not lectures on how to learn a language. There are some very nice books out there which teach you a more advanced approach on PHP, here's a few which helped me out in the past:

WILEY - Secure PHP development - building 50 practical applications
Focuses more on PHP development for intranet solutions but still offers a lot for a modern-day web developer

Advanced PHP for web proffesionals
Not that great for learning, but a very nice reference

my favorite, focusing on pretty much every aspect of this great language from caching issues (performance tuning and data component caching) to distributing issues and Zend Engine internals and basics like coding styles, OOP and templates:
Sams - Advanced PHP Programming

I've got quite a collection of e-books on the subject, if you're interested PM me and we will find a way to get them to you.

-monty

 

[CreedFeed]

SitePoint has a couple of good books you may want to take a look at, specifically The PHP Anthology.