Amazingly I've been waiting for the 4th Edition since 07/2007 - then 11/2007 then summer 2008 finally it arrived fall 2008!

When it arrived I bought it quickly. A great book that perhaps is a bit advanced for beginners - be careful if you are just starting out with MySQL and PHP - this book may not be quite for you.

I bought the 4th Edition, and it was exactly what I expected for a PHP & Mysql book. It comes separated in 5 parts: PHP course, Mysql course, E-Commerce & Security, Advanced Techniques, Building Practical Projetcs.

The First two parts are a simple "crash course" for each technology. So you can step in the next chapters with the base.

What I liked most is that it comes with very practical examples, and also the source code comes in the CD. This way you do not need to type everything. Also it comes with the software needed to install on your PC and start learning PHP =).

The book is excellent, but the only problem is that when I ordered, the description read "Hardcover," but I got "Paperback" instead . . . disappointing. . . .

Excellently written. If you know basic programming and have an idea to create a website with reasonable complexity free of cost with many of the free hosting solutions using PHP and MySQL this is the best book available.

I find this book very easy to understand and follow. The code is well explained except in some cases. For example the Page Class in Listing 6.1 uses the function htmlentities() but this function was not defined anywhere so it is left up to the reader to guess its implementation. I find this very frustrating. Also in the section on regular expressions on page 126 it is said "Note that when a dot is used at the beginning or en of a character class, it loses its special wildcard meaning and becomes just a literal dot". But just below this sentence we find that the dot is escaped with a backslash when validating the email so a very frustrating contradiction. Also in the listing 19.1 when it gets the stock quote using a regular expression. This stock quote is retrieved from the second element of the array $quote as $quote[1]. Why not the first element of this array as $quote[0]? I'm confused here!. I haven't finished the book yet but I found these errors very frustrating. That's why I give this book 4 stars and not 5. I'll keep reading and hopefully I won't find more inconsistencies and contradictions.

I order this book and been waiting and waiting. The date came for the book to arrvie and no book. So, a few days went on and still no book. I call the 1 800 number to see whats the problem and they change the date. So now i have to wait another 2-3 weeks for this book. We will see what happens when 2-3 week comes...

This book was ordered for an evening class at a local college. I was able to easily locate the book using the ISBN and placed the order, which included free shipping. The book arrived on schedule and in excellent condition. I definitely would order through Amazon.com again. Thanks

I bought this book after reading all the rave reviews. At the time I was a beginner PHP programmer with very little programming experience. When I got my hands on this book I was very excited, until I got past the crash course.

For a beginner, this book has too many pages without examples. It just goes too deep. For me, I need a page of description and then an exercise to see how things work. There are sections of this book which go on forever without examples, and the writers say you can do things this way, or that way etc etc. This is just confusing and too dry to hold my attention.

I have quite a few PHP books, 90% of which I have regretted buying. Online tutorials are much better of you want to learn from scratch, you'll pick up more techniques and develop a lot faster by doing these tutorials, most of which are free. One book that does stand out as being an excellent PHP book is 'PHP Solutions' by David Powers. From start to finish this is just a great book. Clear, concise and just a few paragraphs of text before you start exercises. In the space of a couple of weeks I really felt like I had improved, and it reinforced much of what I had learnt from doing online tutorials. 'PHP Solutions' is the best out there for PHP Development... Welling & Thompsons book falls way short in my opinion.

I am new to PHP and happy to that now I've finally found a book that 'teaches'! I've tried other books on PHP and even looked at web sites that tried to teach it with no success. This book does not leave you confused. If you need a book that starts at the beginning, this is the one.

This is one of the best overall software books I have ever read. It is the best PHP and MySQL book I have read so far. The structure of the book, the sequence of the material, and the technical explanations are excellent. It is not overly descriptive of details yet it defines the complex subject material very well. I maintain accounts on 1and1.com and all of the code examples from the book that I have tried so far worked with no problem after I changed file names to .php5. I was able to get the web forum application and the user authentication application up and running within 2 days of getting the book. I have experience in C, C++, and assembly programming but no real web development stuff. Also, I had bought (and returned!) three other books on PHP and MySQL before getting to this one. I am definitley keeping this book. 5 stars all the way!

A good comprehensive review. Starts with the basic syntax and then brings you to full applications. Can be used by a novice or an experienced programmer expanding to a new language

I don't have a real reason for not using it other than everything I've wanted to do I could find decent examples on the web. So to be fair, I don't know if it's a good book or not. Thus the middle of the road 3 star rating.