PHP is an extremely flexible scripting language that enables developers to quickly create feature-rich Web applications. The article will help programmers, whether they’re beginners or experts. In general, these books help us learn PHP as they cover everything we need to know. Let’s take a look at the books which will help us to learn PHP.
1. PHP: Learn PHP in One Day and Learn It Well. PHP for Beginners with Hands-on Project by LCF Publishing and Jamie Chan.
The book covers all the major aspects of PHP in an easy-to-understand and concise manner. Moreover, we’ll complete a project at the end of the book that allows you to apply the concepts learned and see how everything ties together. The concepts of PHP are broken down into simple steps so that even beginners can easily learn it.
2. PHP & MySQL: Server-side Web Development by Jon Duckett.
The book contains inspiring code examples, infographics, and photography. These examples teach us not only the PHP language and how to work with databases, but also how to create new applications from scratch. The book uses a highly visual approach, with step-by-step instructions. It’s easy to learn how to develop websites using PHP & MySQL in this book with simple, visual explanations and bite-sized code examples. Visitors can register as members, create and edit articles, upload images, manage profiles, comment on or ‘like’ posts, and so on.
3. Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites by Robin Nixon.
With the latest edition of this book, we’ll tackle dynamic web programming using the most recent versions of today’s core technologies: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, jQuery, and the powerful React library. As a result of using these technologies together, web designers will gain valuable knowledge about web programming practices, including how to optimize websites for mobile devices.
4. Head First PHP & MySQL: A Brain-Friendly Guide by Lynn Beighley and Michael Morrison.
This book contains a lot of helpful information. It explores how to create dynamic, database-driven websites with PHP and MySQL. This book explains all the essentials of server-side programming, from PHP and MySQL coding to advanced topics, with plenty of real-world examples.
5. Programming PHP: Creating Dynamic Web Pages by Kevin Tatroe and Peter MacIntyre.
The updated edition walks us through all the features in PHP 7.4 that we need to create powerful web applications. We will begin with the big picture and then dive into language syntax, programming techniques, and other details, using examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms.
6. PHP & MySQL in easy steps, 2nd Edition: Updated to cover MySQL by Mike McGrath.
This book teaches the user to write PHP server-side scripts and how to make MySQL database queries. Examples provided in the book provide syntax-highlighted code that shows how to selectively insert and extract data from databases for use on a web browser. It explains how to set up a free web server, PHP interpreter, and MySQL database server, to enable you to build your own data-driven server-side web pages. Students will learn how to write PHP server-side scripts and how to query MySQL databases.
7. Murach’s PHP and MySQL by Joel Murach and Ray Harris.
Truly a Beginner to Pro book. This is one of the best books for learning PHP in the shortest amount of time. The excellent organization, ease of learning, and thorough coverage of technologies and programming practices make this book an absolute pleasure to read. The examples and the explanations are clear and understandable.
8. The Art of Modern PHP 8: Learn how to write modern, performant, and enterprise-ready code with the latest PHP features and practices by Joseph Edmonds.
The Art of Modern PHP 8 walks us through the latest PHP features and language concepts. The book helps us to upgrade our knowledge of PHP programming and practices. We’ll learn about the MVC pattern by developing our MVC system and advance to understanding what a DI container does by building a toy DI container. The book gives us an overview of Composer and how to use it to create reusable PHP packages. We’ll also find techniques for deploying these packages to package libraries for other developers to explore.
9. PHP Cookbook: Solutions & Examples for PHP Programmers by David Sklar and Adam Trachtenberg.
A great PHP book for experienced programmers. Each recipe includes code solutions that we can freely use, along with a discussion of how and why they work. Using the Cookbook Method, we build up a collection of small programs that implement specific concepts in a programming language.
10. Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional by W Jason Gilmore.
This book includes complete coverage of PHP 5.3 features, including namespacing, an update of AMP stack installation and configuration, updates to Zend Framework, coverage of MySQL Workbench, and much more. We’ll not only receive extensive introductions to the core features of PHP, MySQL, and related tools but also learn how to effectively integrate them to build robust data-driven applications.
11. The Joy of PHP: A Beginner’s Guide to Programming Interactive Web Applications with PHP and MySQL by Alan Forbes.
If we want to learn the PHP language in an easy, enjoyable, well laid out manner and to learn why PHP and MySQL are so powerful and fun to use then we should read this book. Throughout the book, we will be working with the website for the car dealership and adding features, and modifying it as the needs of the business grow.
12. Modern PHP: New Features and Good Practices by Josh Lockhart.
We’ll learn best practices for application architecture and planning, databases, security, testing, debugging, and deployment. If we have a basic understanding of PHP and want to bolster our skills, then this book is for us. The book reveals new language features in action. Also, we can learn modern PHP features, such as namespaces, traits, generators, and closures.
13. Php & Mysql: Novice To Ninja: Get Up To Speed With Php The Easy Way by Tom Butler.
The book is targeted at intermediate and advanced web designers looking to make the transition to server-side programming. Novice to Ninja is a hands-on guide to learning all the tools, principles, and techniques needed to build a fully functional application using PHP & MySQL. The book has been comprehensively updated to include PHP 7 and modern best practices, covering everything from installing PHP and MySQL to creating a complete online content management system. By the end of this book, we can expect to have a grasp of what’s involved in building a modern PHP website, and the basics of PHP.
14. PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson.
This practical, hands-on book presents real-world applications throughout, even in the introductory chapters. In this book, the authors cover security and authentication as they relate to the development of real-world websites and demonstrate how to implement them in PHP and MySQL. They also introduce you to the integration of front-end and back-end technologies by using JavaScript in our application development.
15. PHP: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE by Vikram Vaswani.
The book follows a logical progression that is helpful to novice PHP developers.rs. Build dynamic, data-driven Web applications with PHP. It introduces the latest features of this cross-platform, open-source scripting language and shows you how to integrate MySQL and SQLite databases, use XML input, and use third-party extensions. A fast-paced introduction to software installation, language syntax, data structures, flow control routines, built-in functions, and best practices.
16. PHP in Action: Objects, Design, Agility by Marcus Baker, Chris Shiflett, and Dagfinn Reiersol.
A helpful book for intermediate PHP programmers. State-of-the-art practices and principles are essential to keeping programming productive and enjoyable. Object-oriented programming and design help manage complexity by separating components. Refactoring keeps code supple and readable.
17. PHP Advanced and Object-Oriented Programming: Visual QuickPro Guide by Larry Ullman.
The updated and revised PHP Advanced: Visual QuickPro Guide helps readers develop their PHP skills. It teaches advanced PHP techniques and advanced database concepts and includes new chapters on object-oriented programming and on debugging, testing, and performance.
18. Mastering PHP 7: Design, configure, build, and test professional web applications by Branko Ajzele.
The book is for developers at the intermediate level who wish to master PHP. PHP knowledge is required across areas such as basic syntax, types, variables, constants, expressions, operators, control structures, and functions. The book discusses the new features of PHP 7 and several key standards set by the PHP Framework Interop Group (PHP-FIG). By the end of the book, we will create readable, reliable, and robust PHP applications that meet the requirements of modern software development.
19. PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide by Larry Ullman.
The PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide lets readers start at the beginning to get a tour of the programming language, or they can look up specific tasks to learn just what they need to know. Using step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots, this visual reference guide teaches beginning and intermediate users about this popular open-source scripting language.
20. Learning PHP Design Patterns by William Sanders.
The book shows us how to apply several object-oriented patterns through simple examples, and then shows many of them in full-featured working applications. Object-oriented patterns help you to solve complex problems, organize code, and change small parts of a large project without having to rewrite the whole. Learn PHP Design Patterns to adopt a more sophisticated programming style and significantly reduce development time.
Conclusion
Every developer needs to start somewhere. Read all the above PHP books that suit your learning style and you can master PHP without having to pay for expensive college courses at all.