Best way to learn PHP?

[Midwifery Online]

I have decided that I spend enough time messing about with PHP that it is about time that I learned what it actually meant, so I understood what I was doing.

Is PHP hard to learn?
Does it take long to learn?
What is the best way to learn?
And it there a 'must have' book that I need to learn...

A lot of learns there.. Guess I need to learn something

[kos]

1. IMO, no (I did it pretty fast)
2. Not in my case, but that depends on how fast you grasp what you read
3. reading tutorials and then putting them into practice. once you get the point you can start developing your own "homework" and go on from there. This way you'll get into trouble, so you'll be forced to go search for tutorials about how to deal with your problem. So you get an answer to your problem and also you have learned something new as well
4. that depends...there are so many books about php so I can't just recommend one..maybe other members can do that

[Midwifery Online]

See I just don't know where to start... I don't know what the basics are.

What I am interested in learning is how your pull information from a database so it shows in a page.

But I suspect there is lots I need to learn before I can do that, see I am lost as where to start lol.

[kos]

I started with a tutorial for beginners from linda.com. I downloaded from torrents because I didn't have the money to buy it, so I listened for that borring guy talking about what php is for 2 days while developing a sample website(db connections too) and after that I've taken that website to a more in deep inspection. I've searched the php.net documentation website for those functions I didn't understand quite well(you'll also find there a lot of information about OOP) and then get back to that sample website... I tried different things like a simple echo, then trying to create a function and calling that function in my pages...then searching for tutorials for OOP and so on...

hth

[Midwifery Online]

What the heck is OOP? Lol, I think I may just google and go check out that linda.com

Thanks though, atleast I have an idea of somewhere to start

I bet I suck at it haha

[Uncle Dog]

I would recommend the PHP tutorial at W3Schools.com

As they say at the start:

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

* HTML/XHTML
* JavaScript

I'm assuming your HTML's up to scratch but if JavaScript is still a mystery then their JavaScript tutorial will get you off to a good start.

The basic structures and logic that you learn in any? programming language are usually applicable to others so don't worry about learning PHP by way of JavaScript. Once you've got one under your belt you'll be surprised how easy it is to pick up another.

[kos]

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3940446/Lynda.Com_-_PHP_with_MySQL_Essential_Training (I don't know if this the one, but you can try it out, or go and search linda.com for this one)

begining php, tutorial:
http://php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php

oop (Object Oriented Programming):
http://www.killerphp.com/tutorials/object-oriented-php/
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/oop-in-php/

[Midwifery Online]

Thanks guys, I am off to do some homework

Well when I get off V7N of course.. Uh Hum.. Ssssh

[dmvictoria]

I find this site has some things w3schools does not. If you get advanced and you need to know endless variations on a specific command or function go here. The later is not easy to navigate sometimes, but if you find what you are looking for you will have endless examples.

[Midwifery Online]

All morning I have been reading the tutorials from the 1st link that dmvictoria gave, and I have to say I actually 'get it'. I didn't think I would understand PHP easily but I actually do, I guess the hard bit is trying to remember everything to actually write it!

Thanks for the links!

x

[Midwifery Online]

I've been doing a few practice bits along with the tutorials, using the examples they give then altering it and trying to write it from memory but altered. Good fun so far.

[dmvictoria]

Originally Posted by Midwifery Sanctuary

I guess the hard bit is trying to remember everything to actually write it!

I'm glad you found the tutorials helpful. Don't worry about remembering everything, just the basics like 'if', 'else', 'echo' and the ';' at the end of the statement. What is most important is that you understand how it works and that you bookmark good references to command lists.

I like the lists a w3 schools (though they are incomplete) and you should take a half an hour or so and just read through them so you know what is out there. Like I said you don't need to remember each function or command, just know where to find it. When the time comes and you need to do a certain function you will recall where you seen it and know how to find it.

Cheers!

[deutsched]

I learned PHP just by analyzing a few simple scripts, and modifying them by searching through tutorials on the internet
In my first day learning PHP, I had modified a ranking script to display a number of stars equal to the rank of a site, instead of just displaying a number
Then I start modifying harder tasks
That's the best way in my opinion, hands-on experience

[chris.reed]

Agree with the hands on advice. PHP coding is what the day job consists of, and I found the easiest way to make it "stick" is to just go in and do it. Try to do something, trial and error until it works, rinse and repeat.

And if your'e planning to make this a serious go, learn OOP. Otherwise you'll hit a glass wall career wise real fast.

[csm]

I recommend to learn HTML/CSS first, then a scripting language.

w3schools.com has all you need, from there you can use Google to find tons of tuts.

If you need you can buy some books, basically it is not needed.

[Midwifery Online]

What's oop?

For now I have given up (short attention span) I've ended up paying someone to do what I needed (also impatient). I have no hope lol.

Thanks for the advice though maybe one day I might actually figure it out.

[exit44]

IMO, the best way to learn PHP is to have a little mini application of your own that you want to try. If you want to pull data out of a database and print it onto a page than that is a great place to start. The key is going to be spending time with the language on a consistent basis. Try to learn one little thing new each time you use it and over time you'll learn it.

[awesomenyn]

first i buy a book and read it after that i bought cd to learn php

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Originally Posted by exit44

IMO, the best way to learn PHP is to have a little mini application of your own that you want to try. If you want to pull data out of a database and print it onto a page than that is a great place to start. The key is going to be spending time with the language on a consistent basis. Try to learn one little thing new each time you use it and over time you'll learn it.

Originally Posted by awesomenyn

first i buy a book and read it after that i bought cd to learn php

If you had read the whole thread you would have seen:

Originally Posted by Midwifery Sanctuary

For now I have given up (short attention span) I've ended up paying someone to do what I needed (also impatient). I have no hope lol.

Thanks for the advice though maybe one day I might actually figure it out.

[dmvictoria]

Originally Posted by Midwifery Sanctuary

For now I have given up (short attention span) I've ended up paying someone to do what I needed (also impatient). I have no hope lol.

Sorry to hear you gave up, I hope you would reconsider. Since I learned PHP I was wondering how I ever got by without it. Once you grasp the power of PHP those html walls melt away and you are endowed with an ability to create something really unique, powerful and hopefully useful.

...You'll be back, those html limitations get frustrating more and more often. Paying someone to code for you is not fun either.