PHP and MySQL are quickly becoming the de facto standard for rapid development of dynamic, database-driven web sites. This book is perfect for newcomers to programming as well as hobbyists who are intimidated by harder-to-follow books. With concepts explained in plain English, the new edition starts with the basics of the PHP language, and explains how to work with MySQL, the popular open source database. You then learn how to put the two together to generate dynamic content.

If you come from a web design or graphics design background and know your way around HTML, Learning PHP & MySQL is the book you've been looking for. The content includes:

• PHP basics such as strings and arrays, and pattern matching
• A detailed discussion of the variances in different PHP versions
• MySQL data fundamentals like tables and statements
• Information on SQL data access for language
• A new chapter on XHTML
• Error handling, security, HTTP authentication, and more

Learning PHP & MySQL explains everything from fundamental concepts to the nuts and bolts of performing specific tasks. As part of O'Reilly's bestselling Learning series, the book is an easy-to-use resource designed specifically for beginners. It's a launching pad for future learning, providing you with a solid foundation for more advanced development.

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Errors in first 23 pages cost me a whole day,  August 22 2008
Submitted by Mike   [Respond | View]

This review may be premature, as I am still struggling through Chapter 2 on installation.

Thanks, O'Reilly, for blowing nearly a whole day of my time because of errors and omissions in the book. I've been struggling with getting mySQL to work with PHP (after all, that's what the whole book is about!!!) only to discover the erratum on page 23.

Seriously, O'Reilly? The whole book is devoted to PHP and mySQL and you couldn't even get that right in the installation section? I have absolutely no confidence in this book now, given the gravity of that error, plus the other obvious errors I've seen so far. How can I trust any instructions I'm being given? I wonder how much more of my time you're hoping to throw away making me chase answers to problems that only exist because of errors in your book?

This is pathetic considering the book cost $30 USD.

Because of this single error I'm a day behind now. Some errors are trivial enough to be excusable. Failing to include steps in the installation instructions necessary to move forward with the very subject of the book is inexcusable.

Hey editors - how about actually proofing a book before you release it? Your obviously slack attitude has real consequences for your customers.

I also find it shameful that the author pretends that the errors in the book are OK or trivial. Failing to actually describe steps is not the same as a typographical error. But maybe she thinks I should have assumed I was supposed to do something that I was explicitly instructed NOT to do, in the same way we're supposed to assume "slash" means "backslash."

Do not buy this book. O'Reilly has not earned your money on this one.


Absolutely satisfied,  August 08 2008
Submitted by Tristram Shorter   [Respond | View]

This book was everything I hoped it would be and more. Being an almost complete novice at programming, I bought this book in order to learn enough to devellop a web-based POS and stock control application. I followed the book as a course, (admitedly skipping a few parts, such as object-oriented programming, and PEAR). Now I'm writing my code quite happily, and parts of my application are already in use, being a significant improvement on what we had previously.

I did find a few typos, but nothing to write home about, certainly nothing that was difficult to spot quite quickly. I would say the authors must have tested their code pretty thoroughly before publishing.

The part I found wanting really were the instructions for installing Apache/Php/MySQL. In the end I had to uninstall everything, and start again using instructions on this page:
https://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/
One has to update for all paths and filenames, as these are out of date. Then, as this page is for php 4.3, I used the instructions in L P&M; for downloading and installing the MySQL extensions.

As a conclusion, I would like to sincerely thank the authors for the work they put into this book. Those were 29.99 very well spent US dollars!


Mistakes make the book frustrating at best,  July 22 2008
Submitted by Becka   [Respond | View]

I bought this book because I have had good luck with O'Reilly books in the past. This book was full of errors. The most frustrating and time consuming were in the code examples. I just spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what was wrong with my installation of PEAR, until I ran across some code on another web site that pointed out the line on page 193 should have included "UNIX +" after@ and before $db_host. How I would have figured this out on my own is beyond me, especially since I am not running UNIX. The author reviews her own book saying -
"As the co-author of this book I'd like to say the following:
* Yes there are some typographical errors"
She goes on to say that they are addressed in the errata, wouldn't it have been more circumspect to have found and corrected the typos BEFORE the book went to print. Perhaps even worked through the code examples to prevent the numerous mistakes. As an instructor of computer science at a collegiate level I would HIGHLY recommend finding another book to use to learn PHP.


Great Book!,  July 09 2008
Submitted by Caldon Smith   [Respond | View]

LOVE this book! So thorough that not a single detail is overlooked, yet so well written that even a beginner can follow along with ease. This book will give anyone the confidence to delve into what can seem to be the very daunting realm of web development. Equally important, the authors have actually made it an enjoyable experience rather than one of further confusion and frustration.

I had many Ah-Ha moments while charging my way though this book. My many thanks to the authors and O'Reilly for producing such a wonderful guide. A whole new world has been opened up for me. This is now my handbook.

Very strongly recommended to all!



Re: Second Edition? Huh?,  July 09 2008
Submitted by Michele E. Davis   [Respond | View]

I'd Call It Very Good!

As the co-author of this book I'd like to say the following:

* Yes there are some typographical errors
* The example that illustrates the correct slash, the premise was that the reader would know we meant backslash since the example showed one
* The illustrations are one of the best parts of the book. They are attractive, easy-to-understand, well-rendered, and, lastly, relevant. We did not willy-nilly throw them in, we gave a lot of thought, time, energy and discussion into deciding what should be an illustration and what shouldn't. Keep in mind, as you stated yourself, this is a book for someone who doesn't know these concepts
* We must have missed the memo that said it was necessary to be stand-up comedians to write tech books. Puns are considered bad English. The book had a chatty feel to it, but clever little puns isn't our style.

We're sorry you don't like our style. Your complaints about typo's are dead-on and are being addressed in errata.


Re: Second Edition? Huh?,  March 26 2008
Submitted by Tommy Dugandzic   [Respond | View]

I was shocked at the overall low quality of this book considering O'Reillys Perl books were so good. Let me give examples:

On page 249 the author gives an example of how to make the system call "df" in linux and then print the results on a html page. In the 9 lines short example he makes two errors. First he starts the <pre> tag with "</pre>" instead of "<pre>". Ok, that can be obvious for some readers and they can quicly correct it. But then he writes this in the same example:

exec(escapeshellcmd(“df”),$output_lines,$return_value);
echo “$o”;
}

WTF? Considering the very point of his example is to show how to output the contents of a file, his error is not obvious. In one place he calls the variable $output_lines and in the other place he calls it $o. That is not simply a typo.

On page 51 he calls the character "\" backslash, which is correct. On page 52 he suddenly starts calling the character "slash" instead of "backslash". He does that consistently three times on the same page.

If this would have been a story book I would have kept reading anyway if the story would have been good. But these kinds of errors are unacceptable in a book that teaches programming where every letter is crucially important. I make enough errors on my own learning a new programming language. I don't want to guess what errors are mine and what come from the author of the book.

The illustrations that are supposed to help you understand basic concepts such as variables only confuse you. It feels like the author added them afterwards because his boss forced him too, and not because the author really wanted to include any himself.

I read the first 70 pages (I skipped the sections describing how to install PHP and its prerequisites since I already knew how to do that) and I didn't catch even one joke nor pun during that time. I remember the O'reilly Perl books where full of them. Ok, I'll admit humor is not essential to a programming book but it really makes the read so much more enjoyable with clever little puns.

I do not recommend this particular book to anyone. The O'Reilly Perl books and HTML books on the other hand were very, very good. So if you have a few books to choose from I would recommend the O'Reilly one. In general, that is.



Second Edition? Huh?,  January 31 2008
Submitted by Derek   [Respond | View]

When I received notification from O'Reilly that they were going to replace my copy of Learning PHP & MySQL for free based on the negative feedback received about the first edition, I was pretty excited. I hadn't yet delved into my first edition copy, and so I figured I'd get a nice refresher on PHP and MySQL by waiting to dive into the second edition. Imagine my surprise to find that the second edition is rife with typographical errors, inconsistencies in code examples, and bits of code in entirely wrong places! The command-line MySQL tutorial swaps table and field names between examples, making them awkward to work with, and typos in the code examples ("< strong > ... </ string >") could easily confuse novice web designers. I was finally prompted to write this review when reading the section on "Validating text boxes and text areas" that completely inappropriately reused the code example from the previous section, "Validating checkboxes, radio buttons, and selects".

I generally love O'Reilly books and recommend them readily to people looking for reference guides or tutorials, but I'll definitely be pointing people to other titles (albeit probably other O'Reilly titles) rather than this one for an introduction to PHP and MySQL.


Not bad at all,  October 16 2007
Submitted by Leam   [Respond | View]

I really enjoyed reading this one! The authors have an easy style that lets you accelerate if you already have a good grasp of that topic but want a refresher. If the section covers something you don't know then there are clear code examples and text that explains what the code does.

Don't make the assumption you'll learn lots of PHP and MySQL from one book! You'll get an introduction to both that is much lighter than covered in other O'Reilly books. Where this book shines is in the juncture of the two; it really makes clear some of the ways you can customize web pages using a database. Once you lay this one down you should spend a few hours with a favorite beverage; just toss some of the possibilities around in your head.

If you have a beginning understanding of PHP and/or MySQL, this book will help you take the next step. It will also help you understand technologies like Joomla and other database-driven websites. You won't learn how to program, in a general sense, but you'll get turned on by the possibilities. If you're already a coder but new to PHP and MySQL, you'll get a taste of what can be accomplished with this powerful combination.

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