Rating: 
Summary: He may have written PHP, but...
Review: ...if this is the best technical writing he can do, I understand why people complain of a lack of PHP documentation. This book is 90-some percent a list of PHP functions and their input and output types. However, it fails to give indication of what any function does, what the input means to the function, or what the output means to you. The rest of the book is a very basic PHP overview which states about twice a page that if you want any real information you need to visit the Web site. I can still see a use for this book, despite its utter lack of information: if you already use PHP and you know programming in general and you have a good idea of what kind of function you need but have no idea what it's named in PHP and don't want to spend hours on end trudging through the online manual, you can use the book to flip through function names 'til you find one that looks like it may be what you want, then search for that function online and see if it is.
Rating: 
Summary: MUCH less helpful than the 1st Edition !!
Review: .My 1st Edition copy of this book is so well-loved that there is a dirt stripe down the edge of the pages from my flipping through it so often. I bought the 2nd Edition thinking it would be just as good as the first, with the new PHP-4 functions added. The 2nd Edition is just an alphabetical list of functions, while the 1st Edition was categorized by usage-type (string functions, database functions, math functions, etc.). If I needed to find a function that did {foo} to a string, I'd look in the strings section until I found a description for an appropriate function. I can't do this with the 2nd Edition and am seriously considering returning it! If you just need a reference to remind you of parameter order and return-type, get the 2nd Edition. But if you're like me and want to find the correct function to do what you are looking to accomplish, save your money and buy a used copy of the 1st Edition PHP Pocket Reference.
Rating:
Summary: MUCH less helpful than the 1st Edition !!
Review: . My 1st Edition copy of this book is so well-loved that there is a dirt stripe down the edge of the pages from my flipping through it so often. I bought the 2nd Edition thinking it would be just as good as the first, with the new PHP-4 functions added. The 2nd Edition is just an alphabetical list of functions, while the 1st Edition was categorized by usage-type (string functions, database functions, math functions, etc.). If I needed to find a function that did {foo} to a string, I'd look in the strings section until I found a description for an appropriate function. I can't do this with the 2nd Edition and am seriously considering returning it! If you just need a reference to remind you of parameter order and return-type, get the 2nd Edition. But if you're like me and want to find the correct function to do what you are looking to accomplish, save your money and buy a used copy of the 1st Edition PHP Pocket Reference.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly complete pocket reference
Review: A really complete pocket tutorial. A good way to quickly lookup syntax, functions and the operation of PHP itself. The book starts with an introduction/reminder to PHP and actually very useable examples that you can put to use right away. An excellent book by Rasmus Lerdorf, one of the key developers of PHP.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Learning Basics
Review: Aside from the fact that this book is now outdated I must disagree with the Editorial Review that says "This small book acts as a perfect tutorial for learning the basics of developing Web applications with PHP." For someone who has never used PHP before (unless perhaps they are an experienced programmer) this would not be a good starting point. It is strictly a reference for those who already have some knowledge and experience with PHP and for that it is very good. Anyone who has O'Reilly's "Webmaster in a Nutshell", 2nd Edition does not need this book as it is the same as Nutshell's section on PHP.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: Don't buy this book; you won't use it. The function explanations are rarely more than a sentence, and worst of all they are many times self-referential. "string urlencode(string str) - URL-ecodes a string." The function name makes that clear, but what does that mean, if you don't already know? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of referring to a book for clarification? "array pathinfo(string path) - Returns information about a certain string." Does that description clarify anything beyond the function name? They should have trimmed out more functions and included more information about the most important ones. Sadly, this is also the book used in Dreamweaver MX 2004 for online help, which is frustrating.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: Don't buy this book; you won't use it. The function explanations are rarely more than a sentence, and worst of all they are many times self-referential. "string urlencode(string str) - URL-ecodes a string." The function name makes that clear, but what does that mean, if you don't already know? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of referring to a book for clarification? "array pathinfo(string path) - Returns information about a certain string." Does that description clarify anything beyond the function name? They should have trimmed out more functions and included more information about the most important ones. Sadly, this is also the book used in Dreamweaver MX 2004 for online help, which is frustrating.
Rating:
Summary: Outdated
Review: Don't buy this unless you need filler for your bookshelf or for some reason can't access an online version of the manual at php.net or a mirror. With the introduction of PHP4 especially, the online manual is far superior to this book since the book is an exact copy of the PHP3 manual.
Rating:
Summary: Only useful if you don't have internet access
Review: Everythig in this book can be found at PHP.net
Rating: 
Summary: Needs a bit more...
Review: Good quick reference, but could use a little more. It'd be nice if they had a quick example of each function and it'd be nice if they had a quick section on classes, but other than that its a useful and inexpensive book. And it is small enough to fit in your pocket. (Still, I'd probably rather have a reference card and you could fit almost as much info on one.)
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