i want to learn php

Nah, you want to learn a *real* programming language like Ruby or Python:

Code School - TryRuby

And here's why:

Coding Horror: PHP Sucks, But It Doesn't Matter
http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09...of-bad-design/

These sites will greatly help on your programming journey (as a beginner):

http://www.codecademy.com/
http://www.codeschool.com/

And you should meet your expert peers here:

http://stackoverflow.com

Best way is just to be in an active webmaster forum where the focus is on conding. Besides that you could read some tutorials on the internet or buy a book like we got in the Netherlands: PHP & MySQL for dummies (There is a English version too).

If you want to know PHP you have to learn HTML. Do you know HTML and CSS?

Start out by learning HTML and then expand onto PHP

Hi

My Suggession is to start with w3schools.com

But if you are getting clear idea easily on php.net ( PHP base site ) document, you will be a PHP genius


Thanks
genuinetemplates.com

Similar Free Online University Courses are available on Coursera

Tizag Tutorials

PHP tutorials are all available in the internet. What you'll need is just to configure your machine accordingly to set up php. Follow guidelines given out there.

*EDITED BY AUTHOR

Be a student of lynda ,
collect tutorial from here ,
and collect the book beginning PHP by wrox,
I think it is enough for you.

visit and register www(dot)w3schools.invisionzone(dot)com/index.php? a very good site for beginners and professionals. Many active members which can guide you through your journey.

Best way to learn php is developing a sample web site with your own hand. Book and Internet will be your best friend.

Do you have advanced lever understanding of How computer/servers/ internet works?

You cannot just start learning PHP without getting ideas of these things

W3 Schools online website. For beginner W3 School is best to learn PHP. Go and start, you will enjoy this website.

Codeacademy and Codeschool are comprehensive learning tools so I recommend them.
The PHP documentation will help you with syntax on specific functions.
Stackoverflow will come in handy for whatever problems you may encounter.

If you want to learn another language such as python, be sure that your hosting service supports it.

You can also go to coursera.com, enroll in a class called programming fundamentals... It's a good way to learn programming

there are a lot of books, code, sites for php documentation just google it

let me know if you are interested in attending an online course of PHP.

in my experience,
first you must very like programming, and you choose PHP to develop
second you must hardworking, it mean you do many example to increase skill
third you build a simple CMS by your selft with the structure MVC, you can try to build a simple forum to training.

Coursera is the best since their classrooms requires you to submit projects every week which even assess your learning. It is currently having a good Python course by Rice University.

There are lots of free online tutorial available to learn PHP, just use it. I suggest you to start with w3schools.com

This helped me a lot when I was starting. Best resource I can think of

PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition): Luke...

learning from w3schools, stackoverflow is NOT for beginers

w3schools is the best place to start

Sorry guys...

this guy just want to spread some signature links!

CodeCademy have recently just released their new series on PHP. I gave it a shot and it was really good. The course is actually quite good and intuitive, worth a go if you want to go down that route. Otherwise I've only ever heard good things about teamtreehouse.org

I have an on going subscription at Lynda.com.

I've taken in quite a few video courses that immensely helped sharpen my programming skills.

They show you step-by-step...plus give you the source code for that hands on approach.

However, it's not free.

I was a little surprised to hear so many suggesting that the OP simply overlook PHP in favor of Ruby or Python or, even, server-side JavaScript (presumably via Node/Express). There's certainly a trend towards other languages in app development, but...

For an internet marketer, PHP can be a great asset. Don't forget that Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Concrete5, Pligg, ModX and every CMS you might sell a plugin or theme for is coded with PHP. Sure, there are frameworks for other languages like Rails and Django and you've heard of them, too. But, what's the market there? Be honest with yourselves. The other out-of-the-box open source CMS packages with any notable user base is often PHP-based, as well. Magento, OpenCart, Prestashop, etc., etc.

If you wish to create something from scratch or based on a framework, Ruby or Python might be better solutions. I find the languages more readable by quite a bit. But, PHP-based Laravel is also an elegant framework.

When everything from Facebook to Wordpress is run on PHP, you have reason to think that just maybe, full-stack JavaScript, Rails, and Django won't take over the universe tomorrow... no matter how devoted their communities are.

[/rant]

I agree about codecademy.com, but I think it should be coupled with tutorials and the PHP/MySQL for Web Development book suggested, above. Make the book your best friend, install Wamp/Mamp/Xampp, play, fiddle, and try to build things with the knowledge as you gain it. Return to the book when you need questions answered first. Only if you can't find the answers in the book, Google for them.

Have fun!

You will need to learn html and CSS first before learning PHP. If you have no problems with html and css, then I can suggest hopping on to W3Schools Online Web Tutorials to start learning PHP. One of the greatest tutorial sites.

You don't NEED to learn CSS. What you need to know to be successful is....

1. PHP
2. Computer theory, for want of another term.
3. A database. MySQL is currently the most popular. The likely one to be next in line happens to be a FORK of MYSQL and compatible. Luckily, this allows you to ignore SOME computer theory as it is built into any decent database. Of course, if you wanted to, and knew enough, you could dispense with the database. Of course databases are more scalable, and network friendly.
4. HTML. There ARE templating products that allow you to ignore some of this, but it is still a good idea to know it.
5. CSS really doesn't much enter the picture. Even the idea of moving some adhoc stuff to CSS, which is just DUMB BTW, doesn't really force you to learn it.

BTW Python isn't for the webserver, ruby seemed to be dead on arrival! People took rails(for ruby), converted it, and that was IT! They did the same thing with a language called smalltalk DECADES ago, and how popular is IT? javascript is a special purpose HTTP BROWSER CLIENT language!

Steve