Rating:  - Example-driven, to the point!
We purchased dozens of copies of this book and use it for our PHP and MySQL Bootcamp. This book is straight forward and loaded with real-world examples. Most of the examples can be used for actual websites right out of the book. The book also comes with a CD with all the code (though it'd be nice to have it online as well - not sure if they provide it).
Overall, highly recommended for anyone who prefers to learn by example.
Rating: - Computer libraries strong in PHP5 or MYSQL need this.
If you're a newcomer to PHP 5 and MYSQL and lack programming or database background, that shouldn't keep you from benefitting from PHP and MYSQL By Example, which assumes no prior knowledge and starts from ground zero in instructions. Its 'by example' system is the key to success, with chapters offering diagrams, charts, and plenty of visual examples. Computer libraries strong in PHP5 or MYSQL need this.
Rating:  - should give more discussion on PHP AND MySQL
Quigley's book acknowledges a major usage of PHP. To write some kind of front end user interface program that hooks to a back end MySQL database. Both are free and open source, and the combination has proved popular. Especially where the front end involves making an HTML web page with embedded PHP commands.
Not every example involves both PHP and MySQL. Though all examples have PHP. Many demonstrate how to use PHP inside an HTML file. Like writing user-defined functions, or nesting functions. Or making or using function libraries. The functions are a key idea in PHP, that take you beyond the elementary syntax. Functions also let you gainfully use code by other PHP programmers. Important if you are part of a coding group that has to divide up the programming effort in some manner.
Actually, the book has a serious drawback. Despite the use of MySQL in the title, it is only relatively late in the book that you encounter MySQL. Chapters 13 and 14 give a quick guide to MySQL, as a standalone entity. Out of 17 chapters, it is only Chapters 15-17 that involve both PHP and MySQL. Perhaps the book should have a more extended discussion. To this ends, maybe some of the earlier chapters could have been shortened or dropped. Because the reader is getting a book mostly on pure PHP. I suggest that given the very title, it is a reasonable expectation of most readers that the book will devote most of its attention to both subjects. Especially when there is "and" in the title. Readers are programmers, and the "and" has a very precise meaning to them.
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