PHP Books

This is one of the best.

I have the book Mairving mentioned, its a pretty good book but found I had to know a little bit about php/mysql before I could understand a lot of it.
there is also a couple of mistakes in the book, (like any) so check the web site for the fixs. I found another error but havent been able to email them about it, error is the spelling of the word tire, it's an Australian book rewritten for the American market I think so has both spellings of the word tire (tyre and tire) so some of the exmaples dont work

if you want to learn php make sure you bookmark
http://www.php.net
http://www.phpbuilder.com
http://www.zend.com

and of course
http://www.webmaster-forums.net

all far more valuable references than any book ive ever read

Busy, I tyire of you

You can learn a lot of line but it seems like most online tutorial sites don't give tutorials in much depth. The book does. It also gives some info on database design which is a forgotten art. Some of the coding is not my style nowadays, but it is still a good source for starting at the beginning and going further. Read and book, look at some of the online tutorials, download some scripts and edit them are all good ways of learning. When you get to where you can write for statements in PHP and have them work, you will be a guru.

I have Beginning PHP4 from Wrox Pres. It's a good book, although there were a few small things that weren't explained well enough.

(and yes, I've been procrastinating on that... again...)

Thanks for all of the replies!

This is what I bought and recommend: Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL

This is at least the 10th time that this question has been asked. The answers are invariably the same. Maybe we should make this a sticky.

i have "PHP4, A Beginner's Guide" by Bill McCarty on Osbourne Press
its pretty good...i'm trying to learn from it, we'll see what happens

I have 'Sams Teach Yourself PHP4 in 24 hours'. its good for a fast learner, but should be changed to 24 centurys, never read it to be honest. it can wait, lol.

i highly recommend 'PHP 4 Bible'. it is a very good book. the book, 'PHP and MySQL Web Development' is good if you know some basic stuff about php, but the 'PHP 4 Bible' is a good book for beginners as well as getting into some more advanced stuff near the end.

Ok. I've tried many different formats of books (some ranging up to £35, but not all fopr PHP). But I've found a very very good series of books for beginners is In Easy Steps series. http://www.ineasysteps.com I have the HTML 4 Book in Easy Steps as a reference to HTML, I still get it out needing a small piece of code which I may have forgotten. Taoday I bought PHP In Easy Steps. It is very good. It has bits about variables and in the end has a project to create a MySQL/PHP guestbook. It is really good!