Hi i am new in php? tel me how to start learning it best?

hello frd,

i am working website recently and new to it.please mail me how to learn best?

reply

I would say that you should start with some tutorials, it is often the best way to learn. I started out by finding a problem that i wanted to solve, then dug through lots of tutorials to find ways of solving my problem. (There are some good tutorials on this site)

Then I moved up to enhancing my problem to make use of more common features of PHP. It was at this point I bought a book (i do not believe in buying a book before you really decide it is what you want to do).

I would suggest you steer clear of these in 24 hours books. I find them to be misleading and do not demonstrate the full potential of the language of your choice.

Also looking at other peoples code can be useful in the learning process, just do not forget to give credit where credit is due if you use someone's code. Its just nice to do so.

Andrew

Yeah, buying. You should check with your local library, though. I'm sure they have at least some books on the subject.



I second that. They are not the greatest books.

Hi I'm also learning php and coding a website using php to manipulate data in a mySQL database.

I know I'm not the best coder, but I find that the way to learn is to start doing something, then you can actually see what is happening...by that rationale I find the tutorials on codewalkers are a good place to start...

I also find keeping things simple helps when you get stuck, I try and change one thing at a time if things don't work out how you want them to.

As far as books go I havn't found one that I can really get into and say it is honestly a good reference tool, I have Kevin Yank's Building a Database Driven Website Using MYSQL 3rd edition but I never find what I want there. The Codewalkers' forum is the best thing I have ever found in relation to php.

If you're new to the web as well as to PHP, then the first to learn is the basics of HTML (or XHTML). Then pick a relatively simple, but challenging, project. A good one is "birthdays" where people enter their name and the date of their birth using a HTML form and using PHP you store this in either a file or a database. Then from a second form you enter a date and using PHP run through all of the previous entries and list the people who were born on that day.

The birthdays project covers the basics of form input, processing user input, accessing files/ databases, condition logic, etc. and will provide a solid basis for moving forwards.

first learn html
then learn echo statements
then learn some looping
then learn fopen
then make a flat (runned on text files) guestbook
then learn some mysql
then make a mysql guestbook
then learn some ajax
then make a php mysql guestbook with ajax

personally - learn some html and then learn how to think like a coder by learning flowcharting/pseudocode. after that it is just learning the syntax (in any language) to match the flowcharting/psuedocode. Learn as you need things and learn as much as you can on the subject at the time you are using it.

Use books, forums, mailing lists, IRC or whatever you want. Using all of them is even better.