Rating: 
Summary: Not Impressed
Review: I've been a programmer for a years. This book is geared towards a beginner. Not just at PHP or mySQL. A beginner. Period.If you know programming and wanted to bone up on PHP and mySQL, look elsewhere. I am. I wouldn't know how to rate a beginner book, so if you are a beginner, read the other reviews. As a beginner book, I guess it's ok. For veterans, it's not going to get you going fast in PHP. Your eyeballs will strain moving back and forth and your brain won't get fat with knowledge. I wish books were forced to be rated. Even a ratio of eyeball movement / information would be helpful. Next time, I'm going to go down (like drive) to a bookstore and check it out before I buy online.
Rating: 
Summary: well planned and executed book
Review: this is a great book to use as a resource for php. it is complete and much better than others i have looked at.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This book is large and comprehensive, but assumes that the reader has some previous knowledge or can learn really quickly. I would definitely recommend it. It has good useful examples of realistic work situations. It has source code in the book and on the CD which works without errors. It is a big book, with lots of stuff in it. Previously, I recommended everybody to buy Professional PHP, which is a really good book, but this one is better. I gave Professional 5 stars, which means I should give this one 6 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware the typos...
Review: While I agree with all the glowing reviews (I was doing object oriented code within a week thanks to this book!), I must qualify it by saying that the first edition of this book has lots of typos. Some are obvious (and glaring) some subtle (and annoying). A great book, yes, but hopefully the second edition will be better edited.
Rating:
Summary: If you have a job to get done - Buy this book
Review: This book has been a life saver. Although its a big book, it doesn't contain fluff like some its size. With a variety of sample code to use as a base you will be up and running your site in no time. The index is complete, too.
Rating:
Summary: At last an excellent allround PHP book
Review: When I ordered this book (for work, but soon I'll have my own J) I didn't know what to expect, but I must say that I'm impressed. I feel that it is a mix between "PHP Developers cookbook" and "Professional PHP Programming". On top of that you get a basic introduction to the general programming theories. That alone is very positive!! Many other books give you just a simple example or two and you have to put that in to a greater context yourself. My hat off for this great book.
Rating:
Summary: Want to learn PHP? Buy this book!!
Review: This is the best book covering this subject I've read. It's really, really well written by people who knows what use to be the most difficult parts. They must be teachers and experts - at the top of both lists! It gave me understanding of this subject and helped me a lot in my own teaching.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book -- Must Have!
Review: This was the first book I ever bought on PHP/mySQL. Usally you can find a good book on PHP or mySQL, but never both. Well, this is great AND it has both. I don't think I would be where I am today programming PHP if it wasnt for this book. Easy to follow and with great examples. I keep it by my side all the time!
Rating:
Summary: The most thorough coding book I've read.
Review: I thought this book was comprehensive and well paced. It starts basic and continues at a steady ramp through advanced site programming methods. I had very little coding background and set up many of my web tools using the database and php fundamentals included in this manual.
I still find it a great reference resource and continually return to its information for refreshers on concepts. I have occasionally searched online for solutions and then think to check my copy of the manual only to find exactly what I needed.
It is one of the heaviest books I've ever bought, but I still took it on flights with me! =)
Rating:
Summary: Great learning tool
Review: This book ranks amongst the best on the subject. I spent nearly three months reading every page and duplicating examples on the CD. The book is remarkable in the way it manages to avoid coding errors which plague many computer books. Actually, there is only a very small number of typographical errors. The book is easy to understand, even though at times one gets the impression the description is concise. It is to be appreciated how the authors covered the subject in about 800 pages. The PHP and the MySQL manuals each exceed 1000 pages. At times I found it helpful to read an independent description on the the subject, even though the manuals often lack the clarity of the authors' book. The command mode approach is covered in the beginning of the book, while most of us have abandoned it, and it was a minor effort with some of the examples. However, the examples work, unlike some reviewers suggested. One has to be careful about case sensitivity of variables, which may be problematic with Linux servers. Chapter 24 was a challenge to follow, considering the large number of functions employed by the example. However, patience prevailed, and was able to get it working after appropriate changes in parameters, such as user, password, and database names. Having the right to use only one database does not help my case. What can be confusing to a student is having different entities with the same name, such as database name, table name, and column name all being called user. While this book avoided such an issue, my specific selection of variable names presented a problem. Overall, I find it difficult to generate comments detracting from the excellent rating of this book. It was a great benefit to have a pdf version of the book on my hard disk. I could locate specific subject matters a lot quicker than I could by turning pages.
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