Head First PHP & MySQL: A Brain-Friendly Guide

I've purchased around 6 or 7 books on PHP (for beginners) and each book has a common pattern where i get to a certain point and nothing else makes sense. I put down that book and pick up the next and re-learn what a variable is and learn about associative arrays, then they jump into checking if GET variables are set, but i don't even know what they are yet??Head First PHP & MySQL pulls you into the pool fully dressed and forces you to get typing in a way that no other book even comes close to. It's easy to sit back and write a bad review that there's mistakes, parts that are difficult to learn etc - but if you review this book relative to what is out there - the others just can't compete. Head First successfully attempts to deliver an extremely educational book while being fun and modernistic. It is made up of several long, hands-on php/ mysql tutorials that do a great job of showing you how to apply top to bottom php coding. For me, the most impressive thing about this book is it's attention to detail - on more than one occasion I've wondered why something was done in a certain way and I turn the page to find that the detail has been answered! This is what I think helps the book to distinguish itself as the best 'how-to PHP' guide on the market.I strongly recommend this if you would like to learn PHP, however I would also strongly suggest that you buy yourself a beginner's PHP book to accompany it, that isn't tutorial based, such as PHP for Absolute Beginners (Expert's Voice in Open Source).I'm mid-way through Head First PHP and stopped doing the tutorials just so i could write this review. In fact i found a free version of this book somewhere online and liked it so much that i went ahead and bought it on amazon because i felt the value I received was well worth the money.. plus it's like having a little PHP bible next to me:) Strongly recommended:)

There are only a few things that are important and the popped out in this book right away: How to post a form with data and how to take the posted elements to the database. The book totally covered the necessities with a comical data-entry form.Great reading: you just have to know how to skim through lower-level material and spot your target. Great book!

To start off, this is my first review of any book, well actually, of anything.I have recently started a position maintaining our company's web site. We are starting to use PHP instead of ASP.NET so I needed some way to learn PHP quickly. I have used other Head First books (I haven't actually finished any, but I have gotten pretty far in them), SQL, C#, HTML and CSS. The other Head First books that I have read are great, I have learned more from them than I have from any other source, and that includes school, other books, videos, and the internet. This one is no different. I love the various ways that are used help retain the information. Now I admit, I do supplement this book with other books, and the internet, but this has been my main source to learn from. The only drawback for me was the amount of MySQL in the book, but hey the title does say PHP and MySQL, and even though I feel at times that I am going through my 100th SQL tutorial, I have learned something I didn't know before. II know a lot of people may be turned off by the crazy style of the Head First series books, but it works for me, and the Head First PHP & MySQL book is no different. The only reason I gave it a 4 star instead of a 5 was because in the Kindle version that I am using you are not able to expand images, so some to the images that contain graphical demonstrations of what was learned are too small to read all of the information. But overall I enjoy the book alot.

I'm a Web Design student, and I got this book for a database class I had to take a little while back. Unfortunately my instructors style of teaching didn't fit my style of learning (in other words I don't learn PHP from a 60 page powerpoint slideshow...). So a friend recommended me this book so that I can just teach it to myself. I gotta say I am very happy with it. For beginners I can't stress this enough how easy this book is and how well it explains everything. I mean the "humor" that the book tries to push is really corny, but once you get past that you can learn some pretty solid principles and easy exorcises that you can apply to a lot of web applications. It mixes PHP and SQL together teaching you the basics of what you need.Now this book is not a standard textbook that covers every single component of PHP and SQL but more of learning through some basic exorcises. I personally don't like the soulless and dry text book style books that just present everything in the most boring way. This book tries to mix it up and be a little less serious which in my opinion makes it easier to take in. If you are looking to learn basic PHP/SQL applications then I would highly recommend this book. The more advanced programmer may not find it as helpful however.

Delivery was on time and the condition of the book is excellent.

Very good book, i love it! Absolutely never boring because u learn by doing real projects more and more complicated. Very good!👍

Easy to read & go though quickly ! Great examples & connects you throughout the book

Es un libro que contiene mucho más de lo que promete. Paso a paso, te enseña cómo hacer pequeñas cosas, una a una. Antes de que te des cuenta, ya sabes hacer muchas cosas como preparar scripts y bases de datos.Está en inglés, pero si no entiendes inglés, tampoco se entiende qué haces intentando programar (todos los lenguajes están diseñados en inglés)...El sistema de aprendizaje es sencillo y rápido, se lee como si fuera una novela.Como contras, destacaré que está en blanco y negro. No es que sea importante el color para lo que se explica, pero por lo que vale, creo que podrían haber incluido colores...En general, muy buena compra.

Ich habe jahrelange Erfahrung in der Softwareentwicklung speziell mit Java und möchte durch dieses Buch in die PHP Entwicklung einsteigen.Die offene Struktur und die Einbindung vom Leser gefällt mir außerordentlich an den Head First Buchern.Durch praktische Beispiele die Teilweise aufeinander aufbauen (jedoch nicht erforderlich erweise gelesen werden müssen) werden verschiedene Eigenschaften von PHP erklärt. Wenn man allerdings schon Erfahrung in der Softwareentwicklung hat fallen einige Problem schon vorab auf, die im späterem Verlauf des Buches dann zur Verbesserung der Beispiele bzw. Erklärung von anderen Eigenschaften von PHP genutzt werden.Mir hat das Buch als Einstieg sehr geholfen es kann aber auf keinen Fall mit dem Detailgrad des PHP Manuals mithalten - Erklärt aber vieles einfacher und weniger steif.Das Buch besteht aus sehr vielen Bildern bzw. Skizzen und Diagrammen, die auf dem Kindle schwer zu lesen sind. Die Zoofunktion war da hilfreich obwohl einige Bilder mit Text trotzdem schwer zu lesen sind.