Rating:  - A Must Reference for PHP Developers
I do a lot of PHP web development. The books that use the most are "MySQL by Paul DuBois", and this one.
I hear a lot of comments stating, "you can find it online". Yes, its true, you can. But, when you are writing code the last thing you want is another window open or spend valuable time trying to find an answer.
The authors have done a great job laying this book out. The information is catagorized and aphabetized. There are short examples that do a good job of explaining how each function works. And what really sets it apart from others, is it tells you if the function has been deprecated and/or what version of PHP and OS supports it, it has a "see also" for each pertinent function, and a great layout(check out the sample pages).
If you program using PHP, get this book. The time it saves is well worth the price. This book is for all levels of PHP programmers, novice to experts. Don't be fooled into thinking all you need is the downloadable manual from php.net. The manual is useful, but it doesn't work as well as this book.
This book is always within arms reach when I'm programming and I'm sure it will be the same for you.
Rating: - Reference, not tutorial
This is a reference, and a very good one. Not for the "learning" set, but it will be kept when you are doing PHP.
Rating: - Excellent Reference Material
This is the perfect book for someone who wants a comprehensive reference of the functions available to PHP programmers. An brief description and example usage is provided for each function.
I must have 10 books on PHP and MySQL, this is the one I use the most.
Rating: - An Awesome Resource
Whether you are new to PHP or a seasoned web developer, this reference book is an absolutely must. Clean, concise, and well written, the authors are well-known and respected in the PHP community. Zak Greant heads up the PHP quality assurance squad, Torben Wilson is one of the longest-running credited authors of the PHP manual, and Graeme Merrall contributes to several areas of PHP development.
This book is fast. You can get to what you need quickly, and if you're not sure what you need, the logical hierarchy and table of contents makes narrowing things down very snappy. Within minutes of picking up the book, I've learned new things about PHP, even after 4 years of hardcore PHP development. Not too many books do that. The only downside I can find with it is it won't fit in my shirt pocket.
This book has many other strengths.
- It has a companion website that compliments the book and is maintained by the authors.
- It has been released under a license that reflects the very nature of PHP and Open Source Software, a real credit to the authors.
- One of the Technical Reviewers of the book during the process of it being written was none other than Ken Coar, one of the leaders of the Apache Foundation (author of the best darn web server ever made) and one of the Open Source movement's greatest assets. Buying a PHP book reviewed by Ken Coar is like buying a Bible blessed by the Pope.
If you can't RTFM, then for sure, RTFB.
That is: Read This Friendly Book. ;)
Rating: - Great time-saver
I found this book surprisingly useful as an ordinary PHP user. I thought it might be only for gurus, but when I picked up the book it fell open to a function that could have saved me hours of programming on a previous project. I built it from scratch when I didn't know the function already existed.
That's the value in this book. There are hundreds of PHP functions, the vast majority of which are unknown to the casual user. If you're on deadline there isn't time to learn them all, or even to wander the PHP sites until you hit paydirt.
This book simply lays them out, with a clear description and example attached to each. It's a huge time-saver.
My one suggestion is that the book would benefit from having a usage index. Right now, functions are grouped by type (say, time & date functions), then listed alphabetically. But often users don't know what a function is called. They only know what they want it to do.
It would save even more time if there was an extra index where you might look things up by use, say, "Create random password." That would make this time-saver even faster.
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