Best way to learn php?

[Facebook]

I tried to read books but the infomation goes through one ear out the other, so I didn't get any information out of that. What is the best way to learn php I know how to out put text to the webpage, if statements and storing variables. But I want to learn more any tips? Thanks!

[Ron]

Get a book. The one I used was Sam's teach yourself PHP in 24 hours. From there you just learn by experimenting, doing as many projects as possible, allow people to find flaws in your code and improve every day.

Get a book to learn the basics then experiment from there.

[TimeBomb]

Assuming you understand the basics of PHP and programming in general, I would just code. Challenge yourself, but not to the point where you are absolutely clueless.
Sometimes just picking apart other scripts or chunks of code, figuring out how they work, and refactoring them to work slightly differently, i.e. how you want them to work, can be a powerful learning experience.

[WizCoder]

Books.. Videos.. You choose but here;'

Watch tutorials try : thenewboston - YouTube and go to videos -> Playlists, it varies from a bunch of languages choose PHP. Watch all 200 videos, practice and practice. As timebomb said , challenge you're self because every tutorial you make a different script and from that try to advance it into something else every time.

You will learn basic PHP to -> PHP OOP which is perfect. btw I hope you understand HTML good.

Good luck

[Solo2]

You have to learn how to concentrate and develop patience...
Books are the best way to learn.

As for beginner books there are 3 I can recommend:
1. PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition) by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson.
2. PHP for Absolute Beginners by Jason Lengstorf.
3. Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites by Robin Nixon.

Pick one :)
If you don't like it, pick another!


I didn't much like tutorial videos from phpacademy/TheNewBoston.
They are chaotic and random. When I was starting with PHP the only thing they managed to do is confuse me.
If you want to watch videos rather than read a book then you could start with lynda.com.

[Ron]

Listen.. Forget books.

Watch tutorials try : thenewboston - YouTube and go to videos -> Playlists, it varies from a bunch of languages choose PHP. Watch all 200 videos, practice and practice. As timebomb said , challenge you're self because every tutorial you make a different script and from that try to advance it into something else every time.

You will learn basic PHP to -> PHP OOP which is perfect. btw I hope you understand HTML good.

Good luck

Telling someone to "forget books" is one of the most retarded things I've ever heard.

Books offer much more than just information. If you forget something, go back and look it up. Re-read the section and learn from there. Put tabs on important notes or snippets of code to reference later.

When you learn from a book you get far more information than learning from a video. You get the code, plus the theory behind what is being said and the history. You will always learn much more from a book than anything else and that will never change.

I've seen all the popular series of PHP videos and I have to say, the information I've gotten from books exceeds that of what was in the videos by far, which is why I paid for them. It also never hurts to have that physical copy to reference later. Many books explain the same thing different ways so you can pick what works for you, however most videos will tell you "do it this way, it works" and give you no other option.

Wow, what a messy post. Kind of raged after seeing someone actually tell someone else to forget books.

[s-p-n]

I find I learn PHP best when my eyes are closed.. No- seriously, try it! It is THE best way to learn PHP.

[NubPro]

I find I learn PHP best when my eyes are closed.. No- seriously, try it! It is THE best way to learn PHP.

those are one of my solution :)
Trying to think further and much more details.

[WizCoder]

Telling someone to "forget books" is one of the most retarded things I've ever heard.

Books offer much more than just information. If you forget something, go back and look it up. Re-read the section and learn from there. Put tabs on important notes or snippets of code to reference later.

When you learn from a book you get far more information than learning from a video. You get the code, plus the theory behind what is being said and the history. You will always learn much more from a book than anything else and that will never change.

I've seen all the popular series of PHP videos and I have to say, the information I've gotten from books exceeds that of what was in the videos by far, which is why I paid for them. It also never hurts to have that physical copy to reference later. Many books explain the same thing different ways so you can pick what works for you, however most videos will tell you "do it this way, it works" and give you no other option.

Wow, what a messy post. Kind of raged after seeing someone actually tell someone else to forget books.

It was about 3AM, I didn't literally mean Forget books . I was more speaking into videos would be best to look at first , since phpacademy/TheNewBoston very much do a good job at explaining the basics -> advanced of what you would need to know and from that you can gradually increase you're knowledge by practicing what you had learned.

Books are great too but some people prefer using videos which is like having someone read the book to you but then again people learn different ways.

Another tip is as when I was learning new stuff in PHP I always take notes in a notepad or on a piece of paper. I write every new syntax / keyword that I learn and write the definition out beside it . That notepad up till today is filled with hundreds of syntaxs that I do memorize but sometimes forget, it's a great way of picking up and learning, I don't look directly at it but if I forget something and need a reference i can easily flip to the notepad and check it out.


Sorry if I offended you.

[Facebook]

I find I learn PHP best when my eyes are closed.. No- seriously, try it! It is THE best way to learn PHP.

Are you serious? 0.o

[Ron]

It was about 3AM, I didn't literally mean Forget books . I was more speaking into videos would be best to look at first , since phpacademy/TheNewBoston very much do a good job at explaining the basics -> advanced of what you would need to know and from that you can gradually increase you're knowledge by practicing what you had learned.

Books are great too but some people prefer using videos which is like having someone read the book to you but then again people learn different ways.

Another tip is as when I was learning new stuff in PHP I always take notes in a notepad or on a piece of paper. I write every new syntax / keyword that I learn and write the definition out beside it . That notepad up till today is filled with hundreds of syntaxs that I do memorize but sometimes forget, it's a great way of picking up and learning, I don't look directly at it but if I forget something and need a reference i can easily flip to the notepad and check it out.


Sorry if I offended you.

Both videos and books are a great combined method, just don't ever completely disregard books. They're written by someone who has years of experience and the fact they took the time to write a book to educate others only enhances their information as it proves their willingness to educate others. Books take far longer to make than videos. :P

I suppose it would be good to watch some videos to see how the language works but its always a good idea to pick up a book at some point and follow all the way through it.

[jMerliN]

The best way to learn PHP: don't.

[TimeBomb]

The best way to learn PHP: don't.

As someone who has several years experience with PHP, I am afraid that, all in all, I agree with jMerliN.
Python, Ruby and Java are all better formed languages that can do just about everything PHP can, and then a lot more.

Personally, If I could go back in time, I would learn Python instead of PHP.

That being said, PHP is arguably initially easier to use than Python, Ruby or Java. It can do quite a lot for a website, but the aforementioned languages can usually do a better job. PHP has a lot of libraries do to its popularity, which is due in part to how easy it is to use the language, but the language is messy and moderately inconsistent. The digger I deep in PHP and the more I try to mold it, the more frustrated and baffled I get with how poor some of the ways it does things are.

[jMerliN]

As someone who has several years experience with PHP, I am afraid that, all in all, I agree with jMerliN.
Python, Ruby and Java are all better formed languages that can do just about everything PHP can, and then a lot more.

Personally, If I could go back in time, I would learn Python instead of PHP.

That being said, PHP is arguably initially easier to use than Python, Ruby or Java. It can do quite a lot for a website, but the aforementioned languages can usually do a better job. PHP has a lot of libraries do to its popularity, which is due in part to how easy it is to use the language, but the language is messy and moderately inconsistent. The digger I deep in PHP and the more I try to mold it, the more frustrated and baffled I get with how poor some of the ways it does things are.

PHP: a fractal of bad design - fuzzy notepad

PHP is old faithful. It's simple, incoherent, yet capable. It's poorly designed, poorly implemented, and even more poorly understood. It's incredibly insecure, yet it runs some of the largest websites on the planet (sure, they're migrating away from it, too).

The reason it's so popular is because it filled a huge void when nothing else did. And software has properties like gasses do -- if introduced into a vacuum, they tend to spread out and fill it entirely, if thinly. It was there, in a time when the only other option was a CGI script (either in C, perl, bash, or ASP or something equally terrible). So it got huge support from HTTPD developers and was made easily available on just about any platform. Its pervasiveness is why it's effectively the web's version of old-faithful. If nothing else will do, PHP is probably going to work. It may not be pretty, it may not be sexy, it may be a downright ugly hack, but it will probably work. And that's why PHP is still relevant in light of how pathetic the language is on its own.

But now we have the tools with the requisite availability to fill that hole a little more effectively. I'd recommend Python or Javascript for server-side needs. Java is OK, too, and even .NET is a decent choice. All come with their own advantages and disadvantages (app server vs HTTPD plugins vs running your own HTTPD), but they're almost universally better solutions for web development than PHP ever was. But PHP is still old faithful, it's simple, everyone basically knows it, and so it'll stick around for a while, but only as a crutch. So I recommend new people avoid it, because the industry is moving away from it.

[VibeTribe]

for luck, im working on a company and learn ASP.NET with C# now. its so much better, it cares alot of things for me. ie. for validations i just set an asp validator in my aspx file with the runat="server" attribute and the compiler will build the java script and server script to validate my controls when sending them.
also i can work with big OOP structures, three tier systems and whole concepts, something, that cant be done in PHP without losing the overview, control, and the safety.

specially the no type comparing with "==" operators, no need for strict declarations are sucky in php, thx for the article, i was even shocked about whole dimension of the mishandling by returns values of many functions, like the 0 / false problem by str_pos or uses in arrays.