PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition

Decent book. Not as easy to use as I had hoped, but does work.

I just bought this and I guess I should have been more diligent at looking at the description. Seeing 2nd edition I was thinking this covered PHP 5, but it was last released in 2002 and it now covers PHP 4. Book is somewhat useful I guess but why are they still asking $10 for such an out dated book, especially a tech book whose active shelf lives rarely last more than three or four years.Publisher really needs to get this updated to at least cover PHP 5. Of course by the time they release it PHP 6 will probably be the norm.

Good guidance for the beginner or the more experienced programmer. I keep this one on my desk in easy reach in case I need to look up a less frequently used expression.

it seems like a handy thing and all but if you have an internet connection open when you code (presumably, since you're doing web development), the php.net documentation is much more helpful... not sure why anybody would use this. not even sure why i really bought this. i guess it looks good with all of the other little o'reilly guides that i own but it really was a waste of 5 dollars...

item sent as described

This book is a rip-off. Only 35 pages of actual writing which are more of an introuduction to PHP rather than a dense, terse reference to aid the memory. In other words, it's equivalent value of Chapter One of any beginner's PHP book. The rest of it is just an alphabetical listing of the PHP functions with a 5-10 word description that doesn't add much to the function name. So disappointing especially since other items in the series like the Python one and the SQL one. Also, it does not covers PHP 4, but PHP 5 has been the standard for several years.

No Index.I have 9 O'Reilly Pocket References, ranging from JavaScript to Bash to SQL... they all have an indexes, which is about the most useful mechanism that each of them provides... look in the index, find a topic, turn to the page, become illuminated.No INDEX in THIS PHP Pocket Reference.This book is practically worthless. If you're very new to PHP, the first 30 pages might be helpful in generally describing the syntax (which is like a pathetic Perl clown, robbed of all meaningful structure, but I digress).However, in terms of being a useful reference for looking up anything up...TERRIBLE.NO INDEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! enough?NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can you not put an INDEX in a REFERENCE book?!NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Outdated, only good for the basics. It only covers version 4 of Php. While I was able to use for common functions their is very little on classes and objects.

I'm more than disappointed both with O'reilly and Rasmus who both would usually have my full respect . The 34 page basic introduction is good but the one hundred other pages are almost useless. They are filled with an API style function reference with a very brief decryption of purpose. Normally that would be all well and good if your not a beginner but here is the problem, It is A single list, supposedly in alphabetical order, however all lines start with variable type, string, void, bool etc. . So its really difficult to to look up something. On some pages every line starts with the same word and on others one of two or three. In the introduction to this reference Rasmus lists the groups of functions documented but there is no heading or group anywhere to divide the 100 pages which would help. Just page after page of filler like the index of a book but with no chapters, titles or page numbers. Sorry I am not usually one to complain but its a shoddy pocket reference that you can't actually find anything in. I cant believe this is actually second edition. Also the look inside on amazon just shows some of the first chapter so doesn't expose the problem, I won't be so trusting next time.

Quite why this book is still in print is something of a mystery. As the blurb proclaims, it's "thoroughly updated to include the specifics of PHP 4, the latest version of the language". PHP 5 has now been around for around a decade, with many significant new features having been added in point releases, so this book isn't likely to be of much use to you if you're dealing with modern PHP code.Even if you were hypothetically maintaining some ancient code written in PHP 4 I wouldn't recommend this; we have just over thirty pages of text explaining some of the basic features of the language, followed by 100 pages of function references, listed alphabetically by function name. If you know the exact name of the function that you're looking for this might be fine, but if you're looking for a function to accomplish a particular task then you'll probably have better luck on the PHP official website or Stack Overflow.

As someone new to using PHP, I've found this pocket reference to be an essential tool. For people that can't quite remember the syntax for a function, or which function they're after, it's fantastic for quickly checking you're on the right track and fixing minor things you may have overlooked, as well as checking functions that may already exist in the script you're editing.

I was fed up with having to dig out my monster PHP book, just to lookup something simple that only took up a paragraph of space to explain.This book is ideal for php user that wants/needs a quick ref now and again. It has nearly pages at the end of the page covering core PHP functions, although not all are listed there, the main continually used ones are.If you are getting in to PHP, I'd advise getting a bigger book with alots of examples and maybe turn to this one at the alter date, but for the intermediate user this book makes light work of finding information fast.

Pretty poor reference as stated by others, and out of date.But I wanted a small reference book so was willing to accept its flaws.