I have read many PHP books some I liked, some I feel that I should have been paid just to take the book.
By : postalcow
I'll start off with "I Liked This Book". This book reminds me of having the codewalkers forum in book form. One big book of question and (great) answer. Once you understand PHP you don't need a book that reiterates everything you already know, then makes you search for your answer hidden in an example that no real world usage.
As I read through this book, I kept thinking "YUP, I saw that question inthe forum." This book is by no means the last book you'll buy, But, Iguarantee it will be right beside your computer and full of thumb prints.
I felt obligated to list a few of the things that are covered and answeredin this book.
Working with time stamps, and using epoch. When I work with date I havefound it easier and less painful to use epoch. For those of you that don'tknow what epoch is, epoch is seconds that have elapsed since Midnight, 1January, 1970 (UTC, of course). Date validation, and dealing with timezones.
Arrays, Examples in stepping through arrays, checking keys, sorting,deleting, pushing, pulling. The array section is vast and very complete.
Functions, A fairly good function section with examples
Classes and Objects
Web Basics, Cookies, redirection, sessions, Authentication, GET, POST,error handling and a nice example of a web account (De)activator
Forms Processing and validating inputs, multiage forms, file uploads.
Database access. Forget this section, buy a book dedicated to the databaseof your choosing and PHP.
XML This has a fair section on XML once again I recommend a book dedicatedto this topic.
Encryption & Security, A must read section if you ever plan on dealingwith passwords, encryption and decryption, and SSL.
Plus many other topics too numerous to mention.
Who is this book for? If you're a newbie to PHP this should be your secondor third book. If you have a good understanding of PHP and have questions -"This is your book".
On a scale of 1 to 10.
Completeness -7 Content -9 Price -7 Overall -8
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