Rating: 
Summary: Excellent - but you should know PERL or C first
Review: This book was good for a complete neophyte such as myself. One caveat, I had help with the configuration of Apache, MySQL, and PHP on my Linux box. Getting past that hurdle I was ready to roll on many of the examples in this book. Its not really possible to give this book a five star rating because it really isn't geared to the total beginner as it indicates - but its close. I would highly recommend anyone coming right out of HTML and such to become familiar with PERL (if not C) I have found that having now learned PERL syntax (quoting rules and such) is allowing me to understand PHP much better. To conclude - this it the best of three popular PHP books that I have from a "get up an go" perspective - the second best is the PHP pocket reference - at least for now until I am ready to move into more intermidiate to advance scripts.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for anyone who wants to learn PHP
Review: I never heard of PHP before I was assigned a project for a class that required the use of MySQL and PHP. My project was done in three days after recieving this book. The best thing about Professional Php Programming is the great examples and a no-nosense get the job done approach.
Rating:
Summary: Informational, yet not:
Review: I feel the book is great for anyone with an advanced knowledge into the workings of PHP and database functions. Although it has plenty of code samples scattered throughout the book, it does not cover some of the important functions, but, rather, covers more lessly used functions from PHP. I can't be biased, as any book is help, but this one is exceptional, thus my rating.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, best book on php so far ...
Review: I would recommend to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Quick Spin Up
Review: This book taught me how to program in PHP in just one day. However, I don't think the beginner will spin up that quickly but I do recommend it for someone with some experience in programming that wants to learn what PHP is all about. This book actually had me writing code that would connect and use a MySQL database with ease. To be fair, sometimes the book didn't do a good job explaining some of the concepts but overall it was sufficient. I dont recommend this book to experienced PHP users. But it is great for beginners to intermediate.
Rating: 
Summary: Convoluted althougth helpful
Review: At times this book tends to go a little to in depth. Although theory is very interesting it is not the reason I bought this book. The setup chapter for Windows is lacking in detail and leaves parts out. The authors should have assumed that the reader knows nothing @ all. But when it comes down to the syntax this book is quite good.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to PHP
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn PHP. This book is well written and most of the examples are practical. This book assumes you have some familarity with programming, although not much. The book is easy to read. The authors have done a good job of making the content interesting and fresh. This book is especially helpful if you are interested in doing e-commerce since one of the main case studies in this book shows you how to construct a shopping cart. There is a handy HTML tag reference in the back of the book. This book is not perfect, few are. Advanced users, as you can see from some of the other reviews, may find it lacking. For beginners and intermediate programmers like myself, it is terrific. It is the best book available on PHP and well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: glad
Review: This book's good, but only for learning PHP properly in your own time. Its not that great as an on-the-job reference book since it does not cover everything from all angles(few books do or should). The authors all help out at phpbuilder.com and I find the search facility there more helpful for day to day programming needs. So with the book and the free, searchable, online help these guys deserve every penny they get from sales of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Source not tested from the book
Review: The database examples where typed in by a non programmer (probably from the layout department). The php code did not match the sql given previously. So if you want to debug the examples that are supposed to teach you stuff, then have fun and spend some EXTRA TIME with this book. That time multiplied by the number of readers could have been SAVED by a better editor.
Rating:
Summary: Gets you up to speed on PHP very quickly
Review: I needed to learn PHP for an assignment quickly and this book was highly recommended. After reading it, I know why. It does an excellent job of explaining PHP in a logical order with very useful examples. It also manages to keep some of the drier topics like regular expressions entertaining while doing a great job of explaining them. If you need to learn PHP, this is The Book to buy.
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