Reviews for PHP and MySQL Bible

1. brilliant

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   great php reference. i use php all the time and its useful to have a solid reference book to guide you through the proper way of doing things.

2. Indepth but Lacks something

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2005

   First of I would like to say this is a great book and covers ALMOST everything for PHP. However it lacks something and that is continuity. Right from the start the book throughs are you extremely complex examples even for the form handling stuff. Which shows you how to make a newsletter manager.

   This is not ideal for a beginner. I suggest you get other books, and use this to expand on points.

   It does give you case studys at the end, but I do not feel they are explained enough. Buy other books, and if PHP still interests you get this. Otherwise leave it, you are not going to build interest by reading this book due to it being too complex.

3. Beginners guide.. NOT a bible.

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2005

   This big chunk of a book has some very in-depth texts about PHP covering practically all areas of it's use, unfortunately, I was mislead about the MySQL part and on the back of the book where it says "in-depth" unfortunately this isn't so, infact, the only real information you're going to get from the book regarding SQL is basic "joke of the day" databases and doesn't even cover important areas like stored procedures, infact it has a paragraph saying you should look into stored procedures to speed up database access, I assume this to mean buy another book. Rule of thumb here is look to Addison Wesley books before even contemplating any other books, especially the bible series otherwise you will be disappointed when important features are left out, so the PHP side gets four stars but the book is dragged down by the lack of SQL information.

4. Great Starting Point

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2004

   Purchased this book as a starting point for learning PHP and MySQL.

   I've learnt other languages (some albeit unsuccessfully!), and have bought plenty of material to try and aid my learning to some degree. I turned to PHP and MySQL for my final year project at uni, and wanted an 'all in one' book which will make sense to me from the beginning.

   This book has been everything i've wanted it to be. Its given me a full briefing of the languages and where they came from, how they interact, how they compare to ASP, JScript, Oracle etc. If you want to learn these two languages in a clear and concise way, this is the book for you. I've read 'Sam's Teach Yourself PHP in 24 hours', and it didn't have half as much information or help as this does.

   If you're in two minds bout this book, get it on this recommendation. You will not be disappointed.