While there is much good information in this book just look at the publication date ***2001*** Enough said... almost. I'm in the 6th week of a PHP/mySQL course and the main thing that is clearly missing are the mysqli functions. The book may still be useful but it is a disappointment :-(

While there is much good information in this book just look at the publication date ***2001*** Enough said... almost. I'm in the 6th week of a PHP/mySQL course and the main thing that is clearly missing are the mysqli functions. The book may still be useful but it is a disappointment :-(

4 stars because of the horrible (non-existent) support of the promised online version.



I have scoured the Web and have found these two sites that still have the online version ("http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/" says the server is down!). It was a LOT of work to find these, and I'm working on downloading the whole thing to put in a ZIP file and host, some time in the future, but in the mean time I thought I'd save everyone a LOT of work! Here you go:



http://web.archive.org/web/20040227150743/http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/

http://www.phpdig.net/ref/

4 stars because of the horrible (non-existent) support of the promised online version.

I have scoured the Web and have found these two sites that still have the online version ("http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/" says the server is down!). It was a LOT of work to find these, and I'm working on downloading the whole thing to put in a ZIP file and host, some time in the future, but in the mean time I thought I'd save everyone a LOT of work! Here you go:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040227150743/http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/
http://www.phpdig.net/ref/

This is without a doubt, a brilliant PHP reference book.

The PHP functions are grouped in chapters based on their relevance. E.G. String functions are in one chapter, Session functions are in another etc. So even if you don't know the name of the function you're looking for, you'll most likely find what you need in the relevant section.

The book is very well laid out, there are nice descriptions (not too long and not too short) of the function and its use. There is example code showing how to use the function and the functions have a 'related functions' part as well which in my case encourages further reading and thus expanding your knowledge of all things PHP.

Unfortunately though I've found that not all functions are covered in this book. I agree you can't cover them all, but surely a string length function would be covered? Don't let that discourage you though because I've only found a couple of functions that I've needed that weren't covered in this book. Apart from that, I wholeheartly recommend getting a copy. One of the best reference books I've ever purchased.

Reviewer Kevin Carlson noted that the book was not available online at the web address that it mentions. It turns out that there is an errata at www.sams.com giving the correct URL: http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/

Reviewer Kevin Carlson noted that the book was not available online at the web address that it mentions. It turns out that there is an errata at www.sams.com giving the correct URL: http://fooassociates.com/phpfer/

This book is a must have for any PHP wed developer. I find myself referencing this book quite often. It's logically laid out and makes finding just the right function a lot easier then php.net.

This book is a must have for any PHP wed developer. I find myself referencing this book quite often. It's logically laid out and makes finding just the right function a lot easier then php.net.

Fantastic reference book with code snippets for every function.

My only complaint is that although the book was released under the Open Publication license (allowing it to be freely distributed), the book's website (www.php-er.com) no longer contains the book contents.

Let's hope that this great book becomes available online once more, preferably as a PDF file. I'd love to have it on my computer as well as in paper format.

An update to the new PHP 5 release would also be great.

Fantastic reference book with code snippets for every function.

My only complaint is that although the book was released under the Open Publication license (allowing it to be freely distributed), the book's website (www.php-er.com) no longer contains the book contents.

Let's hope that this great book becomes available online once more, preferably as a PDF file. I'd love to have it on my computer as well as in paper format.

An update to the new PHP 5 release would also be great.

It's more then the usual printed version of php.net manuals, this book actually give you usable examples along with clear function explanations. The ideal desktop reference for the serious PHP programmer; just not for people that need to learn PHP

It's more then the usual printed version of php.net manuals, this book actually give you usable examples along with clear function explanations. The ideal desktop reference for the serious PHP programmer; just not for people that need to learn PHP

You'll have this book within an arm's reach at all times. It's packed with every PHP function and has excellent examples for each one.

This book is absolutely ESSENTIAL for anyone diving into PHP/MySQL. Don't start PHP without it.

This book has an excellent easy to use layout and contains just about every PHP function you can imagine. Each function includes a description of the values the function requires and returns along with some sample code showing its usage. It's not for beginners trying to grasp the initial concepts of PHP, for that I'd suggest the PHP Visual Quickstart Guide by Larry Ullman. For anyone else, this is an indispensable reference! It's worth every penny!

I own a number of so-called 'essential' references for many languages, and over a dozen PHP books that claim to be the end all of PHP documentation.

If you have already learned PHP but are human and cannot remember every function's name or syntax, this book is for you.

It is organized in clear and concise format, you can find your needle in a haystack either by looking in the grouped chapters, or if you know the name of the function, just not the details (which in reality happens more often than not ) the well stocked index will get you going.

This ...I prefer having the hardcopy in my hands when coding so that I can quickly jog my memory without having to navigate through the web for the info.

This book, along with the PHP Developer's Cookbook by SANS should be on *every* PHP Developer's desk... not the bookshelf!

I do a lot of PHP web development. The books that use the most are "MySQL by Paul DuBois", and this one.

I hear a lot of comments stating, "you can find it online". Yes, its true, you can. But, when you are writing code the last thing you want is another window open or spend valuable time trying to find an answer.

The authors have done a great job laying this book out. The information is catagorized and aphabetized. There are short examples that do a good job of explaining how each function works. And what really sets it apart from others, is it tells you if the function has been deprecated and/or what version of PHP and OS supports it, it has a "see also" for each pertinent function, and a great layout(check out the sample pages).

If you program using PHP, get this book. The time it saves is well worth the price. This book is for all levels of PHP programmers, novice to experts. Don't be fooled into thinking all you need is the downloadable manual from php.net. The manual is useful, but it doesn't work as well as this book.

This book is always within arms reach when I'm programming and I'm sure it will be the same for you.