Beginning PHP 5.3

by Matt Doyle

Overview

This book is intended for anyone starting out with PHP programming. If you’ve previously worked in another programming language such as Java, C#, or Perl, you’ll probably pick up the concepts in the earlier chapters quickly; however, the book assumes no prior experience of programming or of building Web applications.

That said, because PHP is primarily a Web technology, it will help if you have at least some knowledge of other Web technologies, particularly HTML and CSS.

Many Web applications make use of a database to store data, and this book contains three chapters on working with MySQL databases. Once again, if you’re already familiar with databases in general — and MySQL in particular — you’ll be able to fly through these chapters. However, even if you’ve never touched a database before in your life, you should still be able to pick up a working knowledge by reading through these chapters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470413968
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/26/2009
Series:	Wrox Programmer to Programmer
Pages:	840
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Matt Doyle has worn many hats in his professional career, including working in the fields of system administration, computer training, software development, graphic design, and website creation.

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Table of Contents

Introduction xxvii

Part I: Getting Up and Running with PHP

Chapter 1: Introducing PHP 3

Chapter 2: Your First PHP Script 11

Part II: Learning the Language

Chapter 3: PHP Language Basics 33

Chapter 4: Decisions and Loops 51

Chapter 5: Strings 73

Chapter 6: Arrays 101

Chapter 7: Functions 141

Chapter 8: Objects 165

Part III: Using PHP in Practice

Chapter 9: Handling HTML Forms with PHP 221

Chapter 10: Preserving State With Query Strings, Cookies, and Sessions 267

Chapter 11: Working with Files and Directories 297

Chapter 12: Introducing Databases and SQL 337

Chapter 13: Retrieving Data from MySQL with PHP 367

Chapter 14: Manipulating MySQL Data with PHP 403

Chapter 15: Making Your Job Easier with PEAR 441

Chapter 16: PHP and the Outside World 471

Chapter 17: Generating Images with PHP 507

Chapter 18: String Matching with Regular Expressions 539

Chapter 19: Working with XML 573

Chapter 20: Writing High-Quality Code 619

Appendix A: Solutions to Exercises 673

Appendix B: Configuring PHP 719

Appendix C: Alternatives to MySQL 757

Appendix D: Using PHP from the Command Line 765

Index 775