Php String Handling Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Handy intro to the power of PHP with text (strings)
Review: If you are just getting into PHP and do a lot of work with text formatting in web sites, this book is a very comfortable way to develop an understanding of the potential of PHP for altering, displaying, and receiving input with different types of text issues: forms; guarding against HTML/script/other tags being inserted by your users; searching and organizing in text fields and databases,

There's good explanations of the conceptual whys/hows of work with MySQL database, a gentle introduction to the use of "Regular Expresssions" within PHP for even more powerful text modifications, good examples of developing a full application for moderately sophisticated searches, and a good introduction to the use of forms in PHP and how to validate a user's input from a web page.

If you've mastered a major tome on PHP you may not need this book at all. Sure - all the information is available elsewhere, but the authors have helpfully collected all this information in a very clear, thorough and beginner-friendly manner. It's getting difficult to find a new copy of this Wrox title, but it's sure worth snatching up one of the great buys on a used copy.