PHP is a programming language for servers that create static and dynamic web pages and online applications. If you seek top-notch books to advance your PHP knowledge, you’ve found the right site.
Professionals that work with PHP strongly suggest the ten books mentioned below. They will aid you in developing your career and will be helpful to you in understanding the fundamentals of programming.
1. The Joy of PHP
Specification
- Author: Alan Forbes
- Language: English
- Print length: 228 pages
- Publish date: 2015
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Simple explanation
- Provide lots of code examples
- Provide a fundamental introduction to PHP
Review
The book excels when it comes to providing a fundamental introduction to PHP. The examples are excellent, and Alan Forbes explains each code line by line.
The author describes creating a website in plain terms. He presents the whole code in each chapter before going through each line and explaining it.
You may find numerous small code samples that execute commands throughout the book. I’ve already used some of them again to learn the peculiarities of my surroundings.
I appreciate having functioning code samples that do crucial actions. The book inspired me since I now feel confident to start working on my ideas.
I’ve had a lot of good questions for the author. As a result, he answered swiftly when I encountered problems and guided me through them.
2. PHP & MySQL: Novice to Ninja
Specification
- Author: Kevin Yank
- Language: English
- Print length: 481 pages
- Publish date: 2012
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Using practical examples
- Instructing how to combine PHP and MySQL in use
Review
If you have yet to gain experience with a data-driven website, this book will help you become up to speed with PHP and MySQL.
It doesn’t go into great detail on either MySQL or PHP but instead demonstrates how to combine the two to create a simple, helpful, data-driven website.
The author explained the subject well and gave a great working example. He utilizes this one practical example throughout the book to help you comprehend how to apply a new topic once it is introduced.
However, this is not suitable for a total beginner. It will be ideal if you have prior programming expertise before reading this book.
3. Head First PHP & MySQL
Specification
- Author: Lynn Beighley
- Language: English
- Print length: 814 pages
- Publish date: 2009
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Provide in-depth PHP/MySQL lessons
- Teaching web development
- Various applicable techniques
Review
It is a helpful book about PHP and MySQL. It covers several in-depth, practical PHP/MySQL lessons demonstrating how to use top-to-bottom PHP code.
The attention to detail in this book is what impresses me. So, you may learn dynamic web development with PHP and MySQL rapidly by reading this book.
The book’s examples, tests, and activities are excellent for introducing coding principles. The author presented each topic in an interesting manner that made it easy to absorb and retain the knowledge better.
The book presented ideas from several applicable, right-now techniques. For those who are just learning, this is a terrific resource.
Overall, the Head First book makes an admirable effort to provide a very instructive and entertaining book. The only flaw is that I cannot enlarge photographs on the Kindle version I am using.
4. PHP: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE
Specification
- Author: Vikram Vaswani
- Language: English
- Print length: 478 pages
- Publish date: 2008
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Real-world tasks
- Interesting content
- Explaining arrays, variables, functions, and strings
Review
This book’s format makes it simple to go through the content to investigate certain subjects as needed. Each chapter begins with the fundamentals that you can use in the real world.
The conclusion of every chapter provides more tasks to gauge how successfully you can put what you’ve learned into practice.
The author presented the content in manageable portions while moving quickly enough to keep the book from being a dry textbook. In addition, the support page offers a download for the book’s source code.
The author demonstrates how to use arrays, variables, functions, and strings in practical programming situations through the projects. The book goes into great depth on each PHP function, making it the ideal companion for beginners.
5. PHP in Action
Specification
- Author: Dagfinn Reiersol
- Language: English
- Print length: 552 pages
- Publish date: 2007
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Instructions for using PHP
- Providing advanced theory, real-world examples
- In-depth knowledgeable on design patterns in the web development
Review
The author of this book has been creating websites for years. Therefore, he is well-read and knowledgeable on the most recent ideas, techniques, principles, and design patterns in the development field.
He has discovered the most beneficial ways to incorporate modern design philosophy into instructions for using PHP. Therefore, this book offers a comprehensive approach to the beginning.
There is the ideal ratio of advanced theory, real-world examples, and conversation. This book focuses on object-oriented programming, using Java and PHP as examples.
This book will serve as an inspiration for individuals who wish to go beyond just being a code hacker. But this book is unsuitable for you if what you’re searching for is a guide on the peculiarities of PHP syntax.
6. Murach’s PHP and MySQL
Specification
- Author: Joel Murach
- Language: English
- Print length: 878 pages
- Publish date: 2014
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- An excellent resource for building websites and apps
- Extensive use of syntax examples
Review
This book is an excellent resource for building websites and apps using PHP and MySQL. I like how this book demonstrates PHP and MySQL interaction.
The book’s extensive use of syntax examples impressed me. The multiple sample applications mentioned throughout the book were highly appealing to me.
I love Murach’s writing style, organization, and prose, which is simple to grasp. Novices and experts will find the book’s organization ideal, with informative text on the left side of the seam and code examples on the right side.
It is a helpful book if you are new to MySQL and PHP. However, you’ll also learn something from this book, even if your understanding of MySQL and PHP is intermediate.
7. Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript
Specification
- Author: Robin Nixon
- Language: English
- Print length: 832 pages
- Publish date: 2018
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Examples of backend and front-end programming
- Discussions on MySQL and PHP
- Knowledge on JavaScript and data
Review
Almost everything you need to start designing web pages is covered in the book. Both backend and front-end programming are covered with examples.
Beginning with PHP basics, the book continues to MySQL and discusses how PHP works with databases. The book covers front-end development.
This book gave me the inspiration I needed to start developing a web application that manages databases, handles login information, and outputs data on a webpage. It assisted me in practicing what I had discovered.
You will be familiar with the foundations of handling data, be able to alter web pages with JavaScript and be able to style websites to your preferences. Although quite helpful to me, a programmer would likely find this book not to be the best one.
After reading this book, you won’t be able to develop an application suitable for the web. This book is only ideal for some if used correctly.
8. Programming PHP
Specification
- Author: Kevin Tatroe
- Language: English
- Print length: 540 pages
- Publish date: 2013
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Covering constructs, expressions, flow control, variable types, and how PHP and HTML
- Various web techniques
Review
Kevin Tatroe extensively covered the PHP language foundations at the outset of PHP Programming. It covers constructs, expressions, flow control, variable types, and how PHP and HTML may coexist.
The finest feature of this book is how each chapter will be devoted entirely to a single topic. It gives the reader a full explanation of each topic and how it relates to PHP.
Anyone wanting to build a website fast would undoubtedly find Chapter 7, which deals with web techniques, instantly helpful. Chapter 12 introduces the security issues that developers should consider, such as XSS and session fixation.
Programming PHP gave me new programming techniques and allowed me to brush up on my understanding of PHP. This book is ideal if you’re new to programming.
9. PHP & MySQL
Specification
- Author: Jon Duckett
- Language: English
- Print length: 672 pages
- Publish date: 2022
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Fascinating infographics and extensively detailed charts
- Exceptionally well-written, incredibly straightforward book
- Excellent suggestions and examples
Review
The book includes fascinating infographics and extensively detailed charts. It simply and concisely explores each of the principles.
The book is exceptionally well-written, incredibly straightforward, and well-researched. The code was succinct without being unduly lengthy, making it extremely simple to understand.
The author provides excellent suggestions and examples for loading records out of PDO. I loved how well sessions and bootstrapping run, and I’ve already rewritten my coding to make it easier to maintain and more modular.
I decided to buy the book because of how well Jon produces his layouts and pictures. Several sophisticated javascript component-based systems, such as React and NodeJS. If you want to learn backend coding, start with this book.
10. PHP, MySQL, & JavaScript
Specification
- Author: Richard Blum
- Language: English
- Print length: 800 pages
- Publish date: 2018
Today’s Best Deals: View on Amazon
Reason To Buy
- Well-organized content
- Examples from real-world situations
- An overview of website administration and design
- Introducing JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and MySQL
- Implementing Object-Oriented Programs and expanding WordPress
Review
Richard Blum provides clear, simple instructions with examples from real-world situations. You may find an overview of website administration and design in this book.
This book is organized well. It teaches me how to set up a local host environment to construct websites without uploading them to a web server.
Other parts walk the reader via the construction and structure of code before introducing JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and MySQL. The book also covers designing and implementing Object-Oriented Programs and expanding WordPress.
Chapter 4 covers the installation and administration of WordPress. It will provide you with illustrative codes that you may employ.
Learning a programming language is a challenging undertaking. This book has something for everyone, whether you are a beginning programmer or have expertise with other languages.
Buying Guide
Knowing what to read is one of the most crucial abilities. You will save more money by taking a little time upfront to choose the perfect one.
Recommendations From Friends
Finding books to read based on suggestions from friends is a simple way to get started. Chances are strong that they can provide sound recommendations for readers to read if they have experience with a subject you are interested in.
Search On The Internet
As a result of the popularity of sharing preferred books on the Internet, locating reliable materials online is fortunately relatively easy.
Choosing a book from someone you trust is an excellent approach to locating high-quality books. If you do this, you’ll save time and have a decreased probability of selecting poor text.
FAQs
What does PHP stand for?
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. It’s a popular open-source programming language.
What are the basic requirements to learn PHP?
A fundamental familiarity with computer programming, the Internet, databases, HTML/XHTML, and MySQL are all prerequisites for learning PHP.
It is suitable for individuals unfamiliar with PHP principles but familiar with certain fundamentals of computer programming.
Is PHP easy to learn?
One of the easiest programming languages is PHP since it has built-in functions and allows you to reuse blocks of code.
What is PHP used for?
Many developers use PHP, an open-source server-side programming language, to create websites.
Conclusion
It’s all about the top ten PHP books for each web developer. To remain relevant in the cutthroat IT sector, you should assess your PHP understanding.
If you are new to it, go with the Beginner’s Guide. Besides, the PHP in Action comes with advanced theory, making it ideal for experienced developers.