PHP for Newbies

I knew my husband really understood me when he came home one day with a present for me: the book PHP for the World Wide Web. At the time, online tutorials- especially for PHP- were few and far between, so I relied on that massive book, balancing it on the edge of my desk as I typed in my first PHP code (“Hello, world” of course) on an even more massive computer.

Today, we have a variety of PHP tutorials online- from well-written text guides, to free courses, to video tutorials. Say what you will about the boom of the Internet, the fact is that it’s made learning so much easier.

If you’re looking to learn the basics of PHP- or if, like me, you know a little bit and want to further develop your skills (I never did finish that book!), here are some good ones to check out:

PHP: A Simple Tutorial. This one, from php.net, is wonderful because it really is simple. They even include comments from users, which I found very useful.

KillerPHP’s PHP Tutorials. Oh, how I wish this was around back in the day! KillerPHP serves up video tutorials on everything from What is a Programming Language to Object-Oriented PHP.

PHP Video Tutorials. The tutorials here are well-presented, and the site is nicely designed. They offer both free and paid video tutorials- the former covering the basics of PHP, and the latter really getting into the “meat” of things (e.g. creating a shopping cart or job website from scratch).

w3schools’ PHP tutorials. I never tire of recommending w3schools- I’m always grateful, and a little overwhelmed, by the sheer volume of the information they provide. Things around here aren’t very sexy, but they’re well written and to the point.

Where did you learn PHP?