Whats the best way to learn PHP?

13 years ago

Honestly, i've been programming since i was 11 years old...and the way i started and the way i will always learn the most is by reading examples/tutorials and trial and error...there is no book that is going to tell you exactly what you want to do, and the best way to learn is to dive right in.

It may be daunting and discouraging at first, but once you start getting small things working here and there, it will motivate you to continue and figure the rest out.

And nowadays pretty much everything you ever want to figure out can be found with a google search, my suggestion is to start there and see if anyone else is doing what your trying to do, and over time you will eventually get the hang of it.

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Jake Gray

13 years ago

You only learn from application. Take what you have learnt and create
something with it. No matter how many books you read, No matter how
many people tell you to do something, you will not retain the information
if you don't do it!

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oclseo

13 years ago

You can find tutorials on lynda.C0m, PHP tutorials lynda.com teaches new and experienced web developers the steps for building dynamic, data-driven, interactive sites

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InterMG

13 years ago

Try htmldog

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Amod Oke

13 years ago

If you can do basic php and sql, why not try bidding for some projects on elance/freelancer and get some first hand experience?

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TrueStory

13 years ago

I have went through large list of programming languages in my life, starting with BASIC and all the way to Java, C++, PHP, even hardware machine code languages.

So here is the thing:

the programming language is really nothing more than a bunch of loops, if-else statements, arrays, variables, and other conditional execution.

To advance your PHP experience from basic-knowledge up to something cooler, you should start looking at PHP as object oriented language. Learn about Classes and how to properly work in OOP environment.

to push your knowledge further, use already pre-written environment like CakePHP. It's more than a set of libraries, it's a whole framework in its own.

look into AJAX and JQuery to enhance your server-client interaction; currently less and less websites use traditional POST (page reload) approach;

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Jake Gray

13 years ago

There are tons of free resources on the internet. If you want to gain an
extra edge, you should check out your local library and read some books
on web development and PHP.

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try_hard_samurai

13 years ago

As the others mentioned, hit up the forums and check out sample scripts on php.net.

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paigelee

13 years ago

You may try checking out w3schools has helped me out to enhance and develop..but i do agree that you need to have some firsthand experience..because you can only learn a lot once you do the actual programming. and from there you will learn some tricks that will develop your programming skills

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JohnnyS 13 years ago

W3Schools is the best site for PHP tutorials it also have great examples that you can easily follow.
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espe

13 years ago

I highly recommend you learning for FREE at developphp.com the guy is awesome, cool video tutorials and he also explains other languages like action script

hope that help

bye

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Ken Durham

13 years ago

write your own wordpress type CMS. That will pretty much cover anything that you'll ever need. As mentioned, concentrate on object oriented programming, including creating your own objects, etc...
There is nothing like experience to teach you...

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upendraets

13 years ago

Just go to w3schools.com and learn PHP with a simple method.

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YongC

13 years ago

The first you should study php basic on w3school.com or the same website and try to code some simple website ... when you familiar with php basic you can training it more on php.net ...=> code and code .... that's my way

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leppozdrav

13 years ago

Buy one of the Sitepoint tutorials. They're easy and very insturctive

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danadan

13 years ago

You can learn them by tutorials . and you will find videos in you tube check it

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kodugitu

13 years ago

There are so many online free tutorials available on internet.Just search it on Google.

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jalicia18

13 years ago

Originally Posted by avjoseph

I already know some PHP & SQL but everything I know i learned from books, forums, and online tutorials. The books ive read are all the same, very simple and pretty much just cover loops, building simple applications, etc. I would really like to learn more advanced PHP and all about PHP/SQL security. The universities around here dont offer PHP classes. Does anyone have any suggestions?

You can start your own project or somewhat building a site using PHP and probably you'll encounter errors, try to solve it in yourself, ask help from forums and learn. In this way, it will develop your knowledge and further.