Rating: 
Summary: Order
Review: My biggest complaint with this book is that functions are listed in categories instead of alphabetical. The one thing I love about the Programming Perl book is I can flip right to the page I want and see the syntax, examples, etc. of a function. With this book here I am spending 5 minutes trying to find the entry for the function. By that time I could have gone to php.net and found the info there.
Rating:
Summary: Order
Review: My biggest complaint with this book is that functions are listed in categories instead of alphabetical. The one thing I love about the Programming Perl book is I can flip right to the page I want and see the syntax, examples, etc. of a function. With this book here I am spending 5 minutes trying to find the entry for the function. By that time I could have gone to php.net and found the info there.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible Don't Buy
Review: No index, and the functions are in a type face that makes it impossible to quickly scan the book. What it explains is not detailed enough to do you much good. Just say no to this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good *reference*.. not a learning book.
Review: PHP pocket reference is just that, a language reference. It lists all the functions with a short reminder of its purpose. It is an indispensable tool for any serious PHP coder, and an inexpensive one at that. It must not be mistaken for a comprehensive index of all commands and objects as that is not its intended purpose. For details, check php.net for the full annotated manual. When you just need to look up command syntax or port that antique DBase code to SQL Server 7, you'll save loads of time with this handy accessory.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent fly swatter or pocket strecher!!
Review: The binding of this book really is thin and tight enough to easily swat a fly--for those of you who have already bought this book, give it a try! But really, the content of this book is hardly what one would call a reference; it's no more than a categorized list of functions with extremely short descriptions of each one. If you've ever seen or read O'Reilly's Java in a nutshell book, then you know what a reference should be like; this is not like it. I probably looked at this book a couple times only, realizing both times it could not help me. You really can't use this book to learn PHP, and it's reference is not descriptive enough, so it's a lose-lose situation. At first I was disappointed when I ordered it online thinking I wasting away... perfectly good [money], especially since I can find all and more I need of reference at PHP.net, but then I realized this book is perfect for your bookshelf when you need a really thin book to fit in between other books to preven them from wobbling or swaying, giving a perfect snug fit. Don't buy it if you don't need it. But buy it if you don't care about wasting [money].
Rating:
Summary: Not even helpful as a reference
Review: The book is simply a listing of commands, organised by the same categories as the on-line manual, but missing an index and also missing the explanations and exmaples of the on-line manual. So unless you know in which category to find a command, you might spend ages to find its reference. Even if you do find the reference, the information is so brief that it is useless. If you've used the command a few times before, you'll know already (even if you have a lousy memory) the things described. If you haven't used it before, what you find is not enough to know how to use it. Rasmus, I thank you for inventing PHP, but I consider this book [not worth the money].
Rating:
Summary: Worthless
Review: The book needs an index... also, the function list.. (very lengthy) is very poorly organized and layed out..
each line starts with the output type of the function.. (int,string,bool) etc. consequently scanning the index for the function you're looking for is extreemely difficult. You cant even easily find where you are in the alphabetized list without sifting through a buncha lines starting with 'string','int','bool' it's a worthless pocket reference.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless
Review: The book needs an index... also, the function list.. (very lengthy) is very poorly organized and layed out..
each line starts with the output type of the function.. (int,string,bool) etc. consequently scanning the index for the function you're looking for is extreemely difficult. You cant even easily find where you are in the alphabetized list without sifting through a buncha lines starting with 'string','int','bool' it's a worthless pocket reference.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The most serious problem with this book is that there's no index. If you want to remind yourself of what arguments a particular function needs, you have to work out which category the function falls in and hunt through the appropriate chapter. It's useful as a reference if you can't get at the online PHP manual, but I've found that I rarely use it now. Maybe it's simply that the annotated online manual is so good, the book is redundant. Having said that, some of the example code provided is extremely useful, though the code layout suffers from the small size of the pages.
Rating:
Summary: Good reference for experienced programmer
Review: This book is really nothing but the online PHP manual in book form without the code snippet examples for each function. You would get more info by just printing out the online manual, but if you use an inkjet printer that might be more expensive than the book!
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