I want to Learn PHP?

by 71 replies
81
Hello,

I want to Learn PHP. so give me the best site for learning......
#programming #learn #php
  • I Always used http://www.w3schools.com/php/ for where I learn things from. I initially used it to learn javascript/AJAX. So Im sure its PHP lessons would be good.
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    • I agree with PRBandit w3schools.com and php.net

      But do you know to program?

      If you already know programming w3schools.com is excellent, but if not I do not recommend you php to start.
  • Check out Lynda.com - $25 a month for their subscription. but there learn wp-plugins covers php - going through it now.
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    • Plenty plenty plenty of free resources -- you can learn a lot also by jumping into Wordpress and using their Codex.

      Small tips:

      - Find a text editor that has syntax highlighting for PHP, IDK if you program otherwise or are primarily a HTML / CSS person but this will help you with the more complicated conditional / variable structures of this scripting language.

      - Turn on error reporting on your local development environment / IDE / production server (just for development period, turn this off when you're going live.

      Finally, if you really want to spend some money check this book out:

      Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript - O'Reilly Media by Robin Nixon

      (Sorry can't post links here yet).
  • True that. You should really get notepad++ or textwrangler or something.

    I would suggest starting with HTML first. Then PHP will make more sense.
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    • Yeah. We first learn HTML at school and PHP is up next.
  • w3 schools is a great place to get started learning HTML CSS, Javacript and PHP.
  • I learned most of my php from:
    PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner

    I can create some useful apps now. I'd highly recommend you the above tutorials - they're user friendly and what not.
  • If you want something really comprehensive. Go to Lynda.com
  • Wrox puts out some amazing books written by programmers. You can certainly find them at your local library. Learn at your own pace, and it's free. Books - who knew they were still useful? It's how I learned just about everything that I know about coding and programming.

    After you read, then it's practice, practice, rest, more practice, rest, practice, practice...

    Go to your library and look for 'Beginning PHP5, Apache, and MySQL Web Development (Programmer to Programmer)' or any book called 'Beginning PHP' published by Wrox, they have pictures of dorky looking programmers on the front. I'm refreshing with 'Beginning Javascript' right now, highly recommended as well.

    -Noah
  • friends..thank you for sharing the sites having the information about php
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  • Yeah, it really depends on where you are at. If you kind of already do a bit of programming, or are familiair with the type of programming then a site like w3schools is amazing! No matter where you are in your learning, w3schools should always be an option you can turn too! I find it amazing... So even if you don't find it helpful in "learning a new language", defintly keep it for later or for quick checks.

    I can't provide more suggestions for websites, but you could also look into books. Or you could try and find a mentor / coach. If you asked around enough on this forum I'm sure someone would pop up for the job! Hope this helps mate, it's not easy.

    EDIT: And defintly check out youtube vids too, as suggested above - (for specific things you are trying to figure out)
  • It is best you will enroll in a school that offers related courses. You can hire a teacher also if you want.
  • There's tons of good suggestions in this thread.

    I'd also like to suggest books. Your local library probably has lots of them which would be suitable.

    One nice thing about learning PHP from a book is that you can't just copy and paste the example code into your text editor and run it. Instead, you have to type it out character by character. That might seem tedious, but I think it helps a lot with learning the syntax and in gaining an overall understanding of how everything about PHP works.
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    • There is no need to buy anything to learn PHP. Just visit W3schools.com and it will teach you nearly everything that you need to get you started. I learn programming languages by having a goal in mind, and doing whatever I need to do to reach that goal. Along the road, I will learn and have a fundamental grasp on the language, Once you have the fundamentals, practice is all you need with PHP.
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    • If you do not have any prior programming experience, I would recommend to spend a few hours on flowcharting so you know how to break things into blocks and how the data should flow.

      If you want to learn more, the next step is to check out UML (Unified Modeling Language).

      Most people skip these steps.... but they will make it easier for you to excel in the programming field.

      How to force yourself to learn?
      Just tell your [friend/boss/neighbor] that you will develop a simple program for them in 2 weeks. And, you will show them a mockup within 3 days.
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  • I like this instrument, behave it all the time. I just want to point out for those reading, that php.net is not a study, it is a manual, you handle it when amfunction is acting unique.
  • I also interested to learn PHP, My close friend are expert in php, he told me that php is very easy language to learn, we can also learn php online.

    My friend suggest many site which provide PHP programming codes and tutorials, with the help of these we can easly learn php online, now a few days i started to learn php. W3G schools.com are very helpful to me.
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    • As above, w3 schools and lynda.com

      Alan
  • very good stuff guys.
  • What's the best way of debugging PHP? I've done some C++, Java and javascript before and these all have good IDEs, anyone recommend one for PHP?
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    • Xdebug is usefull for debugging PHP. There are extensions available for it so that it can work with Vim, Eclipse, Notepad++ and many other clients.
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  • I've got to put in a vote for Lynda tutorials. They are simply the best there are! Some of the tutors' voices get annoying, but for the most part, they're awesome!
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    • PHP.net

      Try installing wamp, which is a LAMP stack for windows
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  • PHP development by Luke Welling was the book I learnt a lot from.
    Also, if you like PHP; you can always go for Zend PHP Certification. Its not a requirement, but it might prove useful if you are going for jobs.
  • If you are serious about learning than find a n experienced person and learn from him for getting some knowledge you may visit Lynda.com.May be you get some help.
  • Yeah scriptdesk is good. I have also studied php from their only.
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  • whattt iss the diffrence between html and php?
    im a newbie here so sorry.
    i have followed some tutorials video on how to create a website..
    so the video shown at first using html files,at last change to php.
    why dont just stick with the html file?
  • Truthfully, PHP is best learned, as with any programming language, by doing. I would strongly recommend against installing XAMP or some other windows stack, and instead install a LAMP stack inside of a Linux VM, using, say, VirtualBox. But getting back to my point about learning: Ask people ideas for simple websites. Maybe a site with a mortgage calculator on it or something. If you do two or three little sites or pages with PHP, I think you'll really start to get the hang of it fast. You can then focus on more specific advanced issues if you want to tackle them.

    As far as learning the absolute basics, call me a freak but I think reading PHP books will help start you off. A lot of them come with CDs with code on it so you can follow along, etc. I'd recommend "Novice to Professional - PHP5 and MySQL" and "PHP5 and MySQL Bible."
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    • That's definitely true. I learned more about PHP by spending a day writing a simple gallery app than I did reading a bunch of O'Rielly books at Barnes and Noble.

      Also check out php-mysql-tutorial.com Home - PHP MySQL Tutorial[/url] it puts you on the right track to learn the basics.

      And if you're learning a scripting language, I found that starting with python was easier for me as it's a little more forgiving. But in the end, pretty much all scripting languages are similar (except javascript )
  • Websites are good and ebooks are great. BUT if I were you and wanted to really learn PHP. I would buy a real course. :-)
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  • w3schools.com
    Lynda.com

    YouTube etc etc

    But get writing some basic scripts, i think you learn quicker if your actually having a go at some coding.

  • Head First PHP....

    A great book that throws you right into PHP. No boring theories...you get to work on fun projects right away!
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  • I will just second, third........whatever it is anyway : ) yet another vote for w3schools.com. That is where I started and a lot of other people too by the looks of things.
  • I prefer php.net and learn directly php fuctions for integrate in my scripts..
    If you want to learn jQuery, the best is jquery.com. Official pages are the best.

    Regards
  • php.net is the best for function sintax and samples. Also I suggest NuSpherePhpEd. My favorite PHP editor
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  • Yaa off-course w3schools would be the best for beginners.
  • tizag,w3schools,freewebmasterhelp, try these some sites for learning PHP alsp you can learn via You tube Videos. There you will find some tutorials from expert members.
  • when i first started php i went to Tizag Tutorials they have some good tutorials
  • Well, there is php.net of course to get a general idea of what the functions do.

    But to really get started you need to set yourself a simple project and think how you would go about solving it.

    Then you can ask question on forums, (here, USENET, and others), slowly you will learn how to use php.
    MySQL will then come naturally.

    There are some books, but php has a great community of people to help you.
    All you need is a project to get yourself started.
  • Start with w3schools and practice a little. Then move on to OOP (object oriented programming) and find a good video teaching program to follow. Then practice again. And finally start reading about CMS-s... first step Wordpress
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    • i post course in php in this week if u want to learn php
  • As many others said, w3schools might be the best start, then practice the things you learned.
  • If you've learned php from w3schools and OOP. A good exercise is to try to make a really basic content management system yourself.

    account system
    public area - see pages
    admin area - edit pages + see admin pages
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  • Use the Google to learn perfect PHP.
  • yes, w3schools is really good too, but I more recommend to read books, they are also useful
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    • Basic PHP Reference is obviously available online through php.net, but if you don't really know php at all, I'd recommend picking up a copy of the PHP & MySQL Bible.. as far as PHP within the Drupal framework goes, once you have a handle on the basics of PHP, it's just a matter of mashing the two together.. Drupal is rather particular about how it expects things to be handled in many cases, and there really is no better book available for learning a large amount of that information than the Pro Drupal Development book.
    • I learned the basics of PHP in w3schools but its only good for knowing the structure of the code and how to use it. If you really want to learn, I suggest you do hands on. Just read through the lessons in w3schools and google yourself some sample programming problems in PHP and do try to do them.

      As for the IDE, I use Notepad++. There's nothing like hard coding to keep your skills sharp.
  • I have learned from w3schools. I think it is the best for beginners.
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  • Yeah man i agree with you. PHP perfect programming language
  • if you want to learn PHP then you have no need to purchase manual book there are many sites which are provides best learning pattern as like "www.w3school.com" and "www.php.com" and if you want to purchase manual book then "PHP programming solutions" is the best..
  • There are so many sources available to learn PHP. There are so many web sites available which provides you step by step tutorials with easily understandable language.
  • w3schools.com is best for begineers.
  • w3school site is best for very beginner learner
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    • Learning PHP is best popular way to create websites, you can easily do codding on. I suggest you to learn it form W3 Schools and WP Study chapters. These two are best ways to learn properly from the root of the particular computer language.
  • w3schools iz best for you,coz you are newbie...
  • Hi me also learn it form W3Schools Online Web Tutorials Its simple and good.

    Thanks
  • learning php with w3schools is the best book for absolute beginners
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  • Don't feel hesitate just go to youtube and search there what do you want.
    you'll get every types of tutorial you want. I think this is the best way to get it .
    Hope you got the point and I'm sure you'll go ahead.
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    Without any doubt the best location to teach yourself PHP is W3SCHOOLS. Good luck!
  • Beginners PHP Tutorials is really detailed and a good source for php learning.
  • Learnable.com is great, i've been learning Javascript there and they have some PHP courses too. It's $17 a month, but like I said - it's great.
  • W3schools.com is the best for web programming language tutorials. They even have their own certification programme.
  • Stackoverflow and php.net Great to see aspiring php programmers, reminded me when i first started.
  • If You are Beginning PHP.Here is a Good Book for You "PHP: A Beginners Guide" TMH.
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    • Hello everyone,
      If you want to learn php as a beginner than you can follow some good books that provide you best knowledge of php.Another way is if you want to learn php online than i give best site which provide you best basic information "learnphp.org ".
  • PHP is a step too far, for me outsource it, freelance or odesk, some thing just use up too much time to try to learn, sounds a bit negative but what they hell

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