Rating: 
Summary: Title Says it ALL!
Review: Essential Reference is EXACTLY what this book DELIVERS!
For the person working with PHP, this book lives up to its promise. The examples that are included with each functions description make putting this resource to work quick and painless. That allows time to get back to the task at hand instead of wasting time trying to figure out where you need to look next just to figure out how to use the information presented. In only minutes you can find the info you need - (they used that ALPHABETICAL style of organization that most everyone understands)-- and toss the book back onto the shelf where it will be handy for your next question, when you need it!
Great Resource for the busy professional!
Rating: 
Summary: Encyclopedic, but no longer online
Review: Fantastic reference book with code snippets for every function.My only complaint is that although the book was released under the Open Publication license (allowing it to be freely distributed), the book's website (www.php-er.com) no longer contains the book contents. Let's hope that this great book becomes available online once more, preferably as a PDF file. I'd love to have it on my computer as well as in paper format. An update to the new PHP 5 release would also be great.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Reference for PHP Developers
Review: I do a lot of PHP web development. The books that use the most are "MySQL by Paul DuBois", and this one. I hear a lot of comments stating, "you can find it online". Yes, its true, you can. But, when you are writing code the last thing you want is another window open or spend valuable time trying to find an answer. The authors have done a great job laying this book out. The information is catagorized and aphabetized. There are short examples that do a good job of explaining how each function works. And what really sets it apart from others, is it tells you if the function has been deprecated and/or what version of PHP and OS supports it, it has a "see also" for each pertinent function, and a great layout(check out the sample pages). If you program using PHP, get this book. The time it saves is well worth the price. This book is for all levels of PHP programmers, novice to experts. Don't be fooled into thinking all you need is the downloadable manual from php.net. The manual is useful, but it doesn't work as well as this book. This book is always within arms reach when I'm programming and I'm sure it will be the same for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Reference for PHP Developers
Review: I do a lot of PHP web development. The books that use the most are "MySQL by Paul DuBois", and this one. I hear a lot of comments stating, "you can find it online". Yes, its true, you can. But, when you are writing code the last thing you want is another window open or spend valuable time trying to find an answer. The authors have done a great job laying this book out. The information is catagorized and aphabetized. There are short examples that do a good job of explaining how each function works. And what really sets it apart from others, is it tells you if the function has been deprecated and/or what version of PHP and OS supports it, it has a "see also" for each pertinent function, and a great layout(check out the sample pages). If you program using PHP, get this book. The time it saves is well worth the price. This book is for all levels of PHP programmers, novice to experts. Don't be fooled into thinking all you need is the downloadable manual from php.net. The manual is useful, but it doesn't work as well as this book. This book is always within arms reach when I'm programming and I'm sure it will be the same for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great time-saver
Review: I found this book surprisingly useful as an ordinary PHP user. I thought it might be only for gurus, but when I picked up the book it fell open to a function that could have saved me hours of programming on a previous project. I built it from scratch when I didn't know the function already existed.
That's the value in this book. There are hundreds of PHP functions, the vast majority of which are unknown to the casual user. If you're on deadline there isn't time to learn them all, or even to wander the PHP sites until you hit paydirt.
This book simply lays them out, with a clear description and example attached to each. It's a huge time-saver.
My one suggestion is that the book would benefit from having a usage index. Right now, functions are grouped by type (say, time & date functions), then listed alphabetically. But often users don't know what a function is called. They only know what they want it to do.
It would save even more time if there was an extra index where you might look things up by use, say, "Create random password." That would make this time-saver even faster.
Rating:
Summary: A goldmine of easy to find information.
Review: I own a number of so-called 'essential' references for many languages, and over a dozen PHP books that claim to be the end all of PHP documentation. If you have already learned PHP but are human and cannot remember every function's name or syntax, this book is for you. It is organized in clear and concise format, you can find your needle in a haystack either by looking in the grouped chapters, or if you know the name of the function, just not the details (which in reality happens more often than not ) the well stocked index will get you going.This ...I prefer having the hardcopy in my hands when coding so that I can quickly jog my memory without having to navigate through the web for the info. This book, along with the PHP Developer's Cookbook by SANS should be on *every* PHP Developer's desk... not the bookshelf!
Rating:
Summary: The ideal desktop reference
Review: It's more then the usual printed version of php.net manuals, this book actually give you usable examples along with clear function explanations. The ideal desktop reference for the serious PHP programmer; just not for people that need to learn PHP
Rating:
Summary: corrected URL for online book
Review: Reviewer Kevin Carlson noted that the book was not available online at the web address that it mentions. It turns out that there is an errata at www.sams.com giving the correct URL: http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/
Rating:
Summary: corrected URL for online book
Review: Reviewer Kevin Carlson noted that the book was not available online at the web address that it mentions. It turns out that there is an errata at www.sams.com giving the correct URL: http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference Book
Review: This book has an excellent easy to use layout and contains just about every PHP function you can imagine. Each function includes a description of the values the function requires and returns along with some sample code showing its usage. It's not for beginners trying to grasp the initial concepts of PHP, for that I'd suggest the PHP Visual Quickstart Guide by Larry Ullman. For anyone else, this is an indispensable reference! It's worth every penny!
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