It hasn’t taken Web developers long to discover that when it comes to creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites, MySQL and PHP provide a winning open source combination. Add this book to the mix, and there’s no limit to the powerful, interactive Web sites that developers can create. With step-by-step instructions, complete scripts, and expert tips to guide readers, veteran author and database designer Larry Ullman gets right down to business: After grounding readers with separate discussions of first the scripting language (PHP) and then the database program (MySQL), he goes on to cover security, sessions and cookies, and using additional Web tools, with several sections devoted to creating sample applications. This guide is indispensable for intermediate- to advanced level Web designers who want to replace their static sites with something dynamic. In this edition, the bulk of the new material covers the latest versions of both technologies: PHP 6 (due out in 2008) and MySQL 5 (available now). The book’s publication date is likely to beat the official release of PHP 6, making it one of the first books available on the subject.

It hasn’t taken Web developers long to discover that when it comes to creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites, MySQL and PHP provide a winning open source combination. Add this book to the mix, and there’s no limit to the powerful, interactive Web sites that users can create. With step-by-step instructions, complete scripts, and expert tips to guide readers, veteran author and database designer Larry Ullman gets right down to business: After grounding readers with separate discussions of first the scripting language (PHP) and then the database program (MySQL), he goes on to cover security, sessions and cookies, and using additional Web tools, with several sections devoted to creating sample applications. This guide is indispensable for Web designers who want to replace their static sites with something more dynamic. The companion Web site includes source code, support forums, and extra tutorials. In addition to being updated for the most recent releases of MySQL and PHP, this new edition offers 25% new material, including updated examples for improved clarity and comprehension and new installation instructions for PHP, MySQL, and other related technologies.

 It hasn’t taken Web developers long to discover that when it comes to creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites, MySQL and PHP provide a winning open source combination. Add this book to the mix, and there’s no limit to the powerful, interactive Web sites that users can create. With step-by-step instructions, complete scripts, and expert tips to guide readers, veteran author and database designer Larry Ullman gets right down to business: After grounding readers with separate discussions of first the scripting language (PHP) and then the database program (MySQL), he goes on  to cover security, sessions and cookies, and using additional Web tools,  with several sections devoted to creating sample applications. This guide is indispensable for Web designers who want to replace their static sites with something more dynamic. The companion Web site includes source code, support forums, and extra tutorials. In addition to being updated for the most recent releases of MySQL and PHP,  this new edition offers 25% new material, including updated examples for improved clarity and comprehension and new installation instructions for PHP, MySQL, and other related technologies. 

It hasn't taken Web developers long to discover that when it comes to
creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites, MySQL and PHP provide a
winning open source combination. Add this book to the mix, and there's no
limit to the powerful, interactive Web sites that users can create. With
step-by-step instructions, complete scripts, and expert tips to guide
readers, veteran author and database designer Larry Ullman gets right down
to business: After grounding readers with separate discussions of first the
scripting language (PHP) and then the database program (MySQL), he goes on
to cover security, sessions and cookies, and using additional Web tools,
with several sections devoted to creating sample applications. This guide
is indispensable for Web designers who want
to replace their static sites with something more dynamic. The companion
Web site includes source code, support forums, and extra tutorials. In
addition to being updated for the most recent releases of MySQL and PHP,
this new edition offers 25% new material, including updated examples for
improved clarity and comprehension and new installation instructions for
PHP, MySQL, and other related technologies. 

Great PHP & MYSQL Book-- Hit the ground running
PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro GuideI have just completed this book and will now be moving on to apply what I learned on my website. If you are familiar with HTML/XHTML then this is the book for you, this book is well written and is good for both beginners and advanced programmers alike. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn PHP6 & MYSQL 5.

This book is a ripoff
This author is trying to make money off of by selling a misrepresentation that PHP 6 was due out soon. It claims that PHP 6 was due out in 2008 but there was never a set release date or even target for PHP 6. In fact most of the features for PHP 6 has been ported to a version of PHP 5. This book is going to be a complete misrepresentation of the final product that PHP 6 will be. In fact there are more features in the upcoming php 5.3 that are hugely important (namespaces and closures) that were implemented in php 5.3 before they were even a twinkle in this books’ eyes. I think I’ll write a PHP 7 book full of bs and sell it for more money.

Excelent Purchase
Hi there,

this was one of the great online purchase, i am looking forward to buy new books fromk amazon. they have a perfect customer assistance.

5 stars for newbies
I have been trying to implement a simple to moderately complex PHP/mysql/website for some time and have searched all over the ’net’ looking for simple practical ways to implement such a web site with PHP and mysql. I have purchased several books, and have tried demo versions of software that ’build’ sites for you, but my lack of expertise in PHP makes it impossible to edit or customize the generated sites for my purpose. For newbies (and not OOP geeks) looking to learn PHP, this book is excellent and well written and will probably be my last ’shot’ at building the site that currently exists only in my mind. But as the 1 to 3 star reviews point out, it is definitely a learning tool, not a reference book. Also, it does take time to get used to the two column format and the small print - but the effort is well worth it. (You can download all the scripts and view them in a ’php text editor’ of your choice - that definitely helps when reading the book). And the scripts have lots of comments so reading and comprehending what they are doing and how they do it is fairly easy to accomplish. To conclude, if you cannot learn the basics of PHP and MYSQL from this book, and put together a simple web site, then you (and I) should probably find another hobby!

excellent centric book around php and Mysql
The book is very good for novices and intermediate PHP WEB developers who want to master the advanced skills of PHP and mysql , the book contains alot of scripts and figures illustrating each concept in the language in 620 pages by larry ullman a very expreienced programmer, the book devote the first three chapters for PHP fundamentals for creating dynamic web site including : PHP syntax , Handling user supplied data , validation , Templating system , Sticky forms and more ...
The second part of the book which begin with chapter 5 introduce Mysql database assuming that you never heared about it , then chapter 5 learn you the SQL syntax that you will need in any application you write like creating databses , retrieve, update, delete, using conditionals and functions also assuming that you don’t know anything about SQL , then Chapter 5 for advanced SQL and mysql , this chapter rocks cover advanced database design concepts with figures, normalization, Full text searches and transactions for e-commerce web apps .
The third part of the book rollback the wheel again to Common programming techniques illustrate using hidden form fields, paginating query results and making sortable displays, sending mails, file uploads, PHP interaction with HTTP through PHP headers, cookies and sessions , then chapter 12 dive into security methods like preventing spam, improving seesion security, SQL injection attacks and database encryption .
The fourth part of the book illustrate Perl compatible regular expressoins, and Making universal websites through Unicode for non english programmers and translitration, and discuss language and timezone with Mysql and working with locales .
The last three chapters (120 pages) for three real world application Message board, user registeration and e-commerce website that will wrap your mind around all the concepts for best programming practices of php .

Incredibly disappointing. Weak in content and direction.
And the overwhelming positive reviews found here only add to the disappointment.

I will admit that the book gives a very good first impression. Sadly, after the initial reading and usage, it quickly becomes obvious that the book falls short in most critical areas.

Each and every line of code is repeated (and explained) over and over again, very redundant and annoying. Not only that, but the layout is very hard to read or follow.

Unfortunately, the book’s contents do NOT make up for its weak presentation. For a 600+ page book, surprisingly little content (to accommodate all the repeated code) , making this book absolutely useless as a reference.

The worst part of this book is just how impractical it is. It teaches you the VERY basics of web programming as a concept (it doesn’t even touch on the subject of OOP). Otherwise, just think of it as a detailed PHP lexicon. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, and most certainly not to someone who’s at all serious about web programming.

I give this book 2/5 because I did end up learning something from it. The author is obviously knowledgeable and writes beautifully, I will not shy away from his other books, just proceed with caution.

Hands On Step by Step Analysis of PHP and MySQL in Action
If you want to know how to set up an interactive web site where you want to set up a MySQL database and have internet users interact with that database through PHP code, and also learn how to implement security measures, and learn all of this in a step-by-step build up fashion from the first to the last chapter, then this is the book for you. You learn because you are literally forced to try out the code, FTP it to your site, and try it out.

If you don’t have a domain name, along with the domain services offered by domain server entities, you will need to do that first before giving this book a try. I know that you can install Apache and MySQL on your local machine, but it’s just not the same. There are certain things that this book will not tell you, simply because of the different ways that technical issues and procedures are set up in the different domain services out there.

Perfect!
Extremely well written, good learning curve, the author knows and explains the problems that you’ll encounter in real life, rather to babble about some useless theory.

Highly recommended!

Wasted Space
I don’t understand why the same exact code needs to be repeated twice on the same page, every page. It’s not only a waste of space, it’s distracting and difficult.

The whole book could have been printed with less than half this number of pages. I’ll work through it when I get the time and PATIENCE.

Shees.

Best book i’ve ever read in php
PHP 6 and MySQL 5 by larry ullman is one of the best book I’ve read in my life , the book contain 17 chapters , covering topics for beginners to advanced topics and it is explain the most common web application examples like (develop user registration , build message board , e-commerce website) .

the book covers the fundamental details in very quick way and specific which is makes the reader build the web application in very short time .

the great thing about this book , it discuss the new improvement mySQL and unicode which is help non-English developers.

This Book Worked for me!
Although I have some background with programming (Basic, Pascal, COBAL) and desktop db business applications, I had been somewhat intimidated by the idea of server-side programming.

I can only tell you that I did in fact take this book one chapter at a time, sometimes re-reading some sections several times, and marking-up certain parts with a hi-liter and a red pen. I followed the tutorials, downloaded the scripts from the book’s associated website, and even got help directly from the author at his website’s forum.

Don’t misunderstand me, that I marked-up the book, did homework, and asked questions was a reflection of how the book did engage me - AND TAUGHT ME. The book is well written, methodical, detailed, and its intended audience seemed to be someone with my background (pretty fluent in HTML, handy with CSS, has a basic understanding of databases and programming concepts, and who enjoys the learning process under a good professor).

This book will get you started and on your way - correctly. It was the perfect launch site for me (once you get through this book you will be in a good position to evaluate what you need to learn next). As for me, this book (alone) taught me to write programs/scripts to login users, develop MySQL databases, write database reports, do user input forms and process them at the back-end updating the database tables, sessions, cookies, etc. etc.

Select this book. Your php output will be, primarily, html markup. So if you don’t know HTML - spend some time with that first -- along with CSS (I recommend CSS The Missing Manual by David S. McFarland).

Best for getting up to speed fast using PHP 6 and MySQL 5
I’ll keep it brief since "Customer" nailed it with their review already, but wanted to say with this book and the free manuals on PHP and MySQL I was up to speed and developed my first dynamic web site in a matter of weeks, reading and learning part-time at night.

I wanted to go a bit further than just basic PHP and MySQL as part of a current personal project; researching and learning about open source CMS, web applications and web application frameworks, and how it all fits together.

What a waste
This book is a complete waste of money. You can find all the material covered here for free online. The book is difficult to read because of all the author’s tips, the small size of the letters in the text, and because the text in each page is divided in two columns wich is absurd. buy something else instead.

Extraordinary style, extraordinary book
Larry Ullman’s extensive experience as a developer and writer shows. This book is very well structured and builds upon itself intuitively to the reader. The exercises are pragmatic. The only thing that he might have touched upon in this book is OOP--fortunately his PHP 5 Advanced book covers the subject extensively.

I noticed that Larry’s next book is on AIR (has his enthusiasm shifted, or perhaps it’s just that he’s covered PHP from every conceivable angle at this point??). While I’m sure he’ll shed valuable light on AIR, I look forward to his return to PHP prose.

On a side note, Larry makes himself tirelessly available to his readers on his forum and via email. That’s pretty extraordinary, too, I think, yet I’m bewildered how he finds the time.

Applicable to real world sites
Larry Ullman’s "PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide" is great because it can be applied to real world websites. Mr. Ullman does a fine job in conveying the finer points of PHP.

Fast Paced
This is definitely not for someone new to programming or relational databases. The pace is fast which works well if you already know those things but need to know how to do them in PHP and mySQL. Those new to either of those two concepts should probably look for something more basic

PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide (Paperback)
This is an excellent book. All the codes works! I recommend to buy it. It is worth for the money.

Great Author(I am not related to the author at all)
One of the best and easy to understand book. The author is very helpful as well. He is a serious author, who wants to please the readers. So for those who might not like his present books, be sure to check his future books. :)

New to PHP
I am about half way through the book, and as the title says - very new to PHP. So far I have found the book very useful and easy to understand, 80% of the time. The other 20% is just my ignorance to the subject matter. The author suggests that if you feel a slower pace might help, to try his other book "PHP for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide," which goes at a more "tempered pace." I felt this might behoove me but when I found the book at Borders Books they only had the second addition which was copyrighted for 2004, the book before us is copy 2008, and I believe the easier version Mr. Ullman referred to only went to PHP 4. Perhaps that is the latest version of that book, and maybe it would not make that much difference about the versions. I did read them side by side and I believe he is right if you are a total beginner, as it seemed to be a little more hand-holding and pedantic with the details. I did not buy it however, as I feared there might be a newer model. Back to PHP 6 and MySQL 5, I will add that I am the type that does a lot of reviewing and checking up on these purchases, especially since I am having to self-teach on every subject from Dreamweaver and Photoshop to CSS and PHP, so I think it’s accurate to say that I found this book always the top rated, and thus purchased it. I tend to lean toward the Head First series on the programming subjects, because they are perfect for the "real" beginner, but there was not an offering exactly like PHP & SQL from Head-First, , and as I say the Larry Ullman book always popped up as the book of choice in this subject. So far, it has been very helpful and I have no real complaints. Good job Mr. Ullman.
Richard Seymour
Boston, MA

Good Book to get started with PHP
I liked this book as an entrance to PHP and to lessen the somewhat steep learning curve of web site scripting. This book does that great! However, I don’t like that the author seems to get lazy and doesn’t fully explain an admin page that a user will get automatically redirected to when they log in with the correct username and password. "For the sake of brevity" is used too much. While sometimes this is fine and it can be figured out, the author really needs to elaborate on some permission and security issues with password authorization in PHP. There is really no mention on whether it can even be done with PHP and MySQL alone. Overall good book but I really wish Larry included at least one fully functional example.

I love it.
I used to have the old version of this book as well as PHP4 & MySQL 4.1. I was in limbo, at the time I upgrade my version of MySQL 4.1 to MySQL 5.0. The current and stable version of MySQL has a lot of changes and added new features. It is not easy to just move to this new version without good knowledge of the old version and a good reference
to the new/current one. Currently, I am in chapter 8, enjoying it and learning it the right way. Thanks Larry great job!
John Anthony
Web Designer & Applications Programmer

Good Stuff
I like this book. The postage packaging was good. That was good business.

Thanks a lot

Franklin

Great for Beginners
When I started trying to learn PHP on my own via web tutorials a few months ago, I almost gave up. Actually, I DID give up. But then I saw this book and decided to give PHP one more shot...

Larry Ullman does a fantastic job of explaining things as basic as what PHP is and why you would use it, to more intermediate-level things like login scripts, etc.

There are plenty of examples in the book, and the last few chapters basically walk you through the creation of a dynamic website. I have also found it to be a useful reference guide for quick look-ups.

Although it says on the back to be from beginner to advanced, I would just say beginner to intermediate. It gives the reader a great starting point in PHP and makes it easy to continue learning more advanced topics, but does not cover them.

Overall, it is a great book and I would not be creating dynamic web simulations today if it weren’t for this book. I would definitely suggest this book to anyone interested in learning PHP and MySQL.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
I purchased this book having absolutely zero PHP or MySQL experience. I had just finished reading a book on HTML and CSS (my only coding experience by the way) with the intention of creating a dynamic web site but first needed to learn how to do it.

Larry’s book was EXTREMELY HELPFUL in teaching a total beginner such as myself how to read, write and understand PHP and MySQL scripts. Not only are the scripts and exercises in the book easy to learn, they are also incredibly practical and transferable in terms of customizing for use on personal projects. There are all kinds of wonderful scripts that can be reused hundreds of times once they have been written.

By far, one of the greatest things about this book, is that the author, Larry Ullman has an online forum which he moderates and personally answers questions from all the people who have purchased one of his many books.

I have not read any of Larry’s other books yet, but I can honestly say that his teaching style in this one is absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone with a desire to learn PHP and MySQL!!!

I give this book 100 stars!!!

Great chapters on MySQL
I have had this book lying around the office for about a year, but never opened it because I program with Coldfusion, not php. But recently I have been working with a MySQL database and needed to read up on it. I had already read "Teach yourself MySQL in 10 minutes a day" and found that to be a bit confusing. I don’t think it lays enough groundwork. So I thought, what the heck I’ll read the chapters on MySQL in this book. They were excellent! The author lays the groundwork and gets you up to speed in just two chapters. The book is worth the price for just the sections on MySQL.

Lots of pages, low on advanced content.
This is a huge book, approximately 665 pages, however it is quite hard to find anything of help in it. It’s great if you are going to go through and do all of the examples, I’m sure you would learn something from it, but it’s terrible when you want a quick answer, or you really need to know the details on something. I frequently find myself searching the net instead of this book because it is huge and there is no good way to find the answers. Additionally, when you do find the answers it is just a continuation of a previous example and does not explain in depth on how to use the various functions and such.

In conclusion, it’s probably just fine if you are a student and want to go page by page and read the book and learn by examples. But it’s terrible as a quick reference, and for more advanced users needing in-depth information you should look elsewhere.

Excellent starter
We had to hire a programmer to construct a MySql database and construct the PHP code to complete the site project. Time was critical.
After the job was done, however, I had the time to teach myself the basics of MySql, especially, and enough PHP to modify the new code, or at least understand what was done.
I am still going through the book as time permits, but the book is an excellent starter, and gets you through the basics with excellent examples, well-written explanations and plenty of screen prints to show you what you should see onscreen. I really like the MySql section. I would highly recommend this book to anyone anxious to get up to speed on MySql and PHP.

Practical, project-oriented approach
This book was an excellent introduction for someone like me, a professional programmer with no web programming experience, to get started. The project being carried through the book was broad enough to cover a diverse set of topics, and the code examples permitted exploration and experimentation. It doesn’t cover object-oriented PHP, but that can be picked up later. I don’t think the book will serve as a reference later, but it provides a lot of pointers to other reference information, including the web site associated with the book.

Great book, easy to understand
This is a great book, easy to understand and use as a reference guide through my first PHP/MYSQL creations. The supporting website is informative and the supporting forums are very helpful, Larry (the author) has replied to my posts a few times which led to fixing my problems quite easily. Well done Larry and thanks for your support!

An all time favourite
If other tech book writers could learn to write like Larry Ullman does, we’d all be a hell of a lot smarter. I picked this up as a complete newbie to php, with some sql experience and found it very easy to use, but also very informative. I have used it as both a learning php guide, and also as a quick reference to re-check my syntaxes and code use. The book contains useful and intelligent examples, backed up with great support from the publisher and the author. I count this as one of the best investments in a book I have ever made.

Great introduction to PHP and MySQL
this book was great. the author explained everything very clearly and was easy to follow. I read and understood everything the first time through. I now use the book as a reference and it also does the job there for basic to moderate PHP.

if you hate reading boring technical text you’d love this...
Don’t know about you out there, but I hate reading boring long theoretical technical texts. i also didn’t come from programming background, but IT networking/security. This book was absolutely great for these reasons:

1. no long page upon page babbling by author
2. real hands on action oriented tasks with quick exciting results
3. minimal text, maximum practice with excellent explanations
4. integration of PHP with MySQL for optimal value and practical world
5. Downloadable scripts to validate against your work for accuracy
6. All chapters and hands-on work are aligned to the most frequently
encountered practical real world needs, to plug-n-play for your web
site [...]

Helpful...
The book itself is very helpful. I wish that tutorial books such as this would present the bottom line code first and then go back and explain. This one presents several different versions of a certain script, then improves on them in future chapters. I would have preferred doing it the best way the first time.

Also, another reviewer mentioned that the binding was faulty. Mine was as well. The very first time I opened it, the back of the pages tore from the spine. It’s been a pain to use, but I really needed the information and didn’t have time to send it back. Since I used it extensively and highlighted important info, I’m probably pretty much stuck with it now.

Excellent start to PHP and MySQL
After reading this book, I can very quickly set up dynamic web sites built upon a MySQL database. In one weekend I created a new website that displays information from a database. The next weekend I built in a content management system so my client could update it on their own. I’m very impressed with the quality of this book series and the author, so much so, that I will likely purchase the other books by Ullman as reference. Well done.

PHP and MYSQL
This book helped me a lot with the basics. And it freshens up your html-knowledge. Well written and easy enough to follow. Still it left some unanswered questions.

Excellent PHP & MYSQL
Very good starter book on PHP and MYSQL. It really explains the interaction of PHP with the MYSQL database. I already have my website in progress.

Not really for a beginner
But not for a seasoned programmer either. Luckily I fit that description! I found the book useful and the examples were easy to follow. Can’t say I always understood but it has given me a better understanding of PHP and how it works with MySQL. I was able to adapt the code in most instances for a project I am working on. Although I would of loved to have seen more in the ecommerce example, such as how to add custom options to products (i.e. size/color/qty) as well as adding coupon codes to the checkout. I still am clueless as to how to do this and will need to outsource this portion :(.

Excellent Writing!!
I’ve bought and begun so many technical books that just had me bored or baffled in a few pages. This book is a refreshing change! Larry Ullman is a very talented writer/teacher who not only has a thorough knowledge of his subject, but also has the skill to communicate that knowledge in such a way that he doesn’t talk down to you or leave you in the dust. Although I’m not too far along in the book, I can tell that this is going to give me a good grasp of PHP and MySQL, something I haven’t found in a lot of online resources I’ve tried. It’s rare that I feel this way about a technical book, but every time I pick this book up and read a bit more, I am more and more glad I chose this book over some of the others. Another excellent part of this purchase is that the author has made himself available to answer questions. How great is that? It’s like getting access to a professor for a fraction of the cost of taking a class. I plan on buying other books from this author as needed.

Great Book!!!
Excellent Book. It’s not to slow yet it never assumes that you know how to do something. It goes step by step through every php and sql command, explaining how it works and when to use it and then it gives simple examples to follow up to see how it commands works.
I hightly recommend this book.

The Best
I’m a professional programmer but was new to Php and MySql. This book answered all my questions and allowed me to create a sophisticated php page with a database backend in just a couple weeks. I designed my page layout and then just worked on it as I read the book learning the needed techniques. He covers everything I needed. You can’t go wrong with this book.

Excellent Book
If you want to write PHP coded webpages...this is the book for you. SQL is a pretty common backend for the data that PHP sites use, so having both in one book is ideal. I have a PHP book and an SQL book, but I use this combined book MUCH more frequently than either of those. It is a great resource for learning from the ground up, or for a more advanced programmer it is a good reference guide. It has many full examples that are explained throughout, so it is easy to see EXACTLY what they are talking about.

solid context but cheap binding
Despite treating this book with care, the binding began seperating from sections of the book after a few months, and now, after only five months or so, whole sections of the book are falling out. I basically agree with the concensus as far as the content goes, but what is the good of it if the book is falling apart, and so soon after I bought it. I expect a book to stay in one piece for years, not a few months. Another case of a business which cuts corners to make more money at the expense of their integrity.

I’ll give it 51 Stars
One of the other readers provided a glowing review of this book. I can only second those thoughts.

Having spent 2 years working on learning PHP and MySQL and having purchased 5 other books on PHP-MySQL, I can say without a doubt that Larry Ullman’s book is a gem, well worth buying. It may take a beginner awhile to complete the entire book, but there is no doubt that anyone with beginning to intermediate computer skills can learn PHP-MySQL from this book if you take the time.

Without listing the other books that I no longer even open, I would suggest that you put this book at the top of your choices if you are hoping to learn PHP-MySQL. It will take you well into intermediate to advanced skill levels in short order. Congratulations to Mr. Ullman. (P.S., I have no conflict of interest and decided to write this review because I was so impressed with the book).

Not as good as the Rave reviews...
I will admit that I don’t know either PHP or MYSQL, however I do have a lot of experience with a number of other 4th generation Database Query languages and know a few other programming languages. I picked up this book mostly to get a feel for the syntax of PHP an MYSQL rather than to actually learn something.

My initial opinion through the first 75 pages or so was that it was well written if a bit verbose. But as I kept going I noticed that the author would spend an innordinate amount of time discussing fairly trivial points. As I got further and further into the book I came to the realization that if I hadn’t already known pretty much what the author was talking about, I still wouldn’t have a clue after reading this book.

I don’t know what the problem is. Like I mentioned before the writing is decent. There is just some sort of disconnect somewhere. I wish I had less programming experience because then I would maybe be able to put my finger on the problem a little better. It doesn’t help that the way that the formating of the book was done ensures that all the sample code has been put into the most assinine tiny little margins.

Frankly if you want a good PHP/SQL text you could do worse than this book, but somewhere out there you must be able to do better.

Wow
When I first started reading this book, I thought that it was going to be another one of these things that I get through the first 40 or so pages, try a couple of the examples and throw it on the pile of worthless computer books I’ve tried to this point.
How mistaken I was. After getting a thrd of the way through this book, I realized the attention to detail the author has put into it. I love it and would recommend it along with any of the "Head First" series of books.
One thing I am impressed with is the errata section on the companion wesite which is an indication to me that the authors and editors take into consideration the users experience once the book is purchased.
So many times I’ve been to an errata guide on a publishers website only to find 10 or 11 listings in regards a 700+ page book.
I realize that in technical books such as these, there are going to be editing errors. However it is also true that with technical books such as these, even the smallest editing error can make a huge difference. It seems that other books don’t include extensive errata guides in fear that their books will be percieved by the buyer to be improperly edited or else that the errors are to frivolous to point out.
The problem however is when I follow along with the code and the code doesn’t work as expected, I question whether it was my fault, or the fault of the code presented to me. With the marvelous job done by the authors on editors on this book, I know exactly when the problem is with me or the sample code. Too many other books overlook this issue.
I highly suggest this book.

Still Relevant
I got this book because I was taking a course in LAMP development and couldn’t find a copy of the textbook. I figured this book would be a nice temporary reference, until someone got the textbook (the WROX book, "Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development") in stock. It turns out that even after I got the class text, I almost exclusively used this book. It has a nice index and a lot of tabular references which make finding information quite easy. It’s perfect for my style of learning, where I like to experiment and just turn to the text when I need to look something up. In my opinion, it’s much better than the WROX title. It *was* written for PHP 3 & 4, and MySQL 3 & 4, but virtually all of the material is still accurate and relevant.