PHP Pocket Reference
by Rasmus Lerdorf
PHP is an open-source backend scripting languages for Web pages. It helps you to create dynamic HTML pages quickly and easily. It allows for things similar to SSI, Perl, and even JavaScript. And it's hard to believe that something as massive as this can be explained in a tiny little book.
The first few pages take you through installation and setup of a new PHP system. While I wouldn't recommend this book as the ultimate source for installing your first PHP Web site, it is a handy resource for someone who is familiar with the ideas and just needs a reminder for putting up a second system.
The meat of the book is in the functions. These are divided up by category rather than alphabetically, as in the HTML Pocket Reference. This would seem, at first, to make the book more difficult to use as a reference, as you have to think the way the author does to find the information you're looking for. However, the information is categorized clearly and you'll soon understand where to find things.
There are sections on:
- arrays
- database access
- date and time functions
- files
- graphics
- ...and much more
I especially like the section near the beginning of the book entitled "Examples". This gives people many different ways to attack the same information. People who learn by reading can see the PHP syntax right in the book, while people who learn by doing have the opportunity to set up working examples to understand the inner workings of PHP.
