How did YOU learn PHP?

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Posted by N|Kitmitto, 12-13-2009, 03:49 AM
Pretty self-explainatory: How did you learn PHP?
Posted by Orien, 12-13-2009, 03:56 AM
Lots of fiddling around trying to customize existing scripts.
Posted by N|Kitmitto, 12-13-2009, 04:13 AM
Has anyone learned it through a PHP?
Posted by bqinternet, 12-13-2009, 04:15 AM
It was over 10 years ago, so my memory is starting to get a bit hazy! I started using it right after PHP3 was released, which was 1998. Back then (and still today), I found the PHP manual quite useful: http://www.php.net/manual/ In my case, I already had experience with C/C++, so I mostly just needed to know which library functions were available. The manual is a great place to look them up.
Posted by N|Kitmitto, 12-13-2009, 04:39 AM
Hmm, I might take a class at my local college.
Posted by Btcc22, 12-13-2009, 07:40 AM
Books and video tutorials! =)
Posted by Harzem, 12-13-2009, 07:46 AM
Messing around with existing scripts, as well as php.net function reference. Never needed a book, class, or video tutorial!
Posted by ThatScriptGuy, 12-13-2009, 10:50 AM
The PHP.net manual, mainly.
Posted by csparks, 12-13-2009, 11:54 AM
I needed a form script, so started learning php. From there, it was playing around, and reading tutorials. PHP was easy to learn as my first programming language, because I had specific needs that I could easily google.
Posted by m_php, 12-13-2009, 12:41 PM
I read a couple of books and as everyone here suggested, the PHP manual is very helpful.
Posted by null, 12-13-2009, 12:53 PM
I learned PHP mainly by reading manual online. It is actually interesting how I found webhostingtalk.com. If anyone remembers, back in August and September 2002 php.net had a banner linking to this forum. That's how I registered here.
Posted by yajur, 12-13-2009, 01:16 PM
can you provide me the site where we can download video tutorials
Posted by TonyB, 12-13-2009, 01:22 PM
I had experience with other languages Java, C++, Pascal ect. from school so picking up PHP was relatively easy. I ended up getting a book at the time although in hindsight probably wasn't worth it. I mostly ended up learning by actually coding something with it. Which was actually the main reason to begin with I wanted to add some features to a site I was working on and needed to use PHP or Perl to do it.
Posted by Shining Star, 12-13-2009, 01:23 PM
PHP manual and learn books.
Posted by HostBill, 12-13-2009, 02:08 PM
By getting thrown on deep water Honesty i dont know better way to learn sth fast than having deadline over you - get involved in some project, even opensource one - you'll google, and read, and google even more. Taking classes is ok, but you'll learn as much as you'll write and find-out by yourself.
Posted by peter_anderson, 12-13-2009, 02:13 PM
I started looking at other scripts, taking them apart, seeing how I could make them better, and stuff I hate some of the tutorial sites that use old style code. Use OOP, ffs!
Posted by roopeshin, 12-13-2009, 02:19 PM
w3schools is the best place to learn php i have learnt php from w3schools
Posted by Matthew_B, 12-13-2009, 05:34 PM
Just editing little bits of this and little bits of other scripts to be honest.
Posted by netfreak, 12-13-2009, 07:24 PM
As many others here, the php.net manual mainly.
Posted by JohnJ, 12-14-2009, 12:04 AM
I need to learn PHP. I'm sure it can't be THAT complicated. Guess it's time to start studying and testing.
Posted by SC-Daniel, 12-14-2009, 12:26 AM
I found the best way to learn PHP was just through experimenting. Decide what it is that you want to achieve in a script and then make it happen. Google + php.net will become your best friends Biggest waste of money ever -- The PHP and MySQL "Bible"... Cost me $50 and I can honestly say that I have looked at it maybe once and it has since been a nice dust collector on my shelf.
Posted by RemyHorton, 12-14-2009, 01:01 AM
I'd go further and say it is the only way to learn it (or any other language). Programming is as much about what doesn't work rather than what does.
Posted by SunShellNET, 12-14-2009, 02:09 AM
PHP is not a complicated language. You can learn it yourself if you are good using C and C++
Posted by JonFatino, 12-14-2009, 06:51 AM
Never Took a class! Never read a book! Never watched a video tutorial! Mostly messing around with existing php scripts making them better/suiting my needs. i did however use php.net reference for its functions.
Posted by Amitz, 12-14-2009, 07:28 AM
And because nobody REALLY learned PHP properly, there are so many scripts with security flaws out there..
Posted by JonFatino, 12-14-2009, 07:31 AM
lol... every lang has its flaws. Ever herd of the term No one is perfect?
Posted by Amitz, 12-14-2009, 08:17 AM
Are you joking or do you really mean that seriously? Of course, every language has flaws, but it makes a huge difference whether a script is written by an educated coder or some amateur. I am very sure that we can easily agree on that. The less profund knowledge you have, the more flaws you produce. Or would you also go to a doctor that learned everything from experimenting? How would you look in your wheelchair after an unsucessfull operation when he says that nobody is perfect? Anyway, no offence taken. Have a nice day. -Amitz
Posted by Muttek, 12-14-2009, 10:27 AM
I learned PHP by reading books and such.
Posted by Doh004, 12-14-2009, 08:50 PM
Agreed 110%. I learned PHP back in 2003 when my download website was starting to grow, and I needed more features/security for my downloads. From there, I started building my download manager. It was extremely basic, but it provided me an excellent way to learn PHP. I was fortunate enough to be able to talk to friends online who were more knowledgeable about PHP while I was doing the coding. When I'd run into a syntax error or a question about how to accomplish something, they were more than willing to help me out. If they weren't online, I asked on multiple forums that I belonged to (here, SimpleMachines etc).
Posted by AWH - Kalpesh, 12-14-2009, 10:03 PM
I learned PHP/MySQL about 8 or 9 years ago. At that time, I self taught myself HTML. Actually, I just remembered my sister actually attended an HTML course and bought home a book. I took that and learnt HTML from that. From here, I was wanting to learn more and more so I discovered PHP and with PHP I could build Registration / Login systems. In short, I found tutorials, studied it, and built a robust Login system. Two years later, I was doing a C++ course and everything fell into place. Now OOP is the standard and I'm finding the transition from Procedural to OO hard. Dawh! BUT!! It is coming together.. slowly.. Just got to break old habits!
Posted by everactive, 12-14-2009, 11:33 PM
Kevin Yank's articles (now a book) at Sitepoint.
Posted by Jerail, 12-15-2009, 08:08 PM
I started by learning the syntax from a tutorial on w3schools.com, but after that I pretty much just learned as I went along. Inevitably when developing a website I would run into something I didn't know how to accomplish and I'd just look it up on php.net or google. Sorry, I should have said that my first experience with PHP was as a forum administrator. I was invited to become an admin at a major forum that used IPB and another that used phpBB. I had to learn a fair bit about PHP from working with the forum software.
Posted by AtomicPages-Jackson, 12-15-2009, 08:15 PM
I read the PHP/MySQL Bible
Posted by Cmafai, 12-15-2009, 08:18 PM
Same here. I was made an admin on a IPB forum, and reading through that code (especially in IPBs earlier days) taught me a bunch of tricks. I am a big fan of the "getting thrown in the deep end" technique as someone else referred to it... it really forces you to learn
Posted by host plugin, 12-15-2009, 08:21 PM
php.net
Posted by HostEvolved, 12-15-2009, 10:12 PM
Mostly that ^^ Also by reading various guides & tutorials
Posted by Top-Line, 12-15-2009, 10:20 PM
I also learned from w3schools.com. Its a great website and why not learn it from the organization that approves the standards? plus its free!
Posted by Hosting24, 12-16-2009, 10:25 AM
I was in search of some software (script) which wasn't available on the Internet, so I asked for some programmers to code it for me. Price was higher than expected, and I decided to learn coding myself. 6 months later I was successfully selling my own software to other webmasters
Posted by losangelescarrental, 12-16-2009, 12:54 PM
I learn PHP by practice, with php.net as well
Posted by Jamie Edwards, 12-16-2009, 01:00 PM
As has been said by others, just http://www.php.net really
Posted by cselzer, 12-16-2009, 06:30 PM
I learned from php.net and when I came across an issue I asked a few people on the old codewalkers.com, a helpful member named Postalcow helped me quite a lot. And that is how I learned PHP.
Posted by Matt R, 12-22-2009, 05:57 AM
I've come to find that's the case for 99% of the programming books I've ever used. Except a VB.Net 3.5 one I bought -- that one had a LOT of very good resources. I wish I could remember the name of it, but I don't feel like getting up at the moment When it came to learning PHP, I like fiddled around with it until I became highly fluent with the language. Now I'm stuck developing enterprise-class software. I must say, the learning was more fun than the professional programming stuff, but it's still a lot of fun. Especially since I've been using the new cPanel JSON API for the past few months. It's absolutely amazing and extremely simple to work with -- kicks the hell out of simpleXML.
Posted by Matt R, 12-22-2009, 06:00 AM
Maybe w3schools can also learn him English Really, though, w3schools is an amazing resource. I use it quite frequently to look up dom object compatibilities (such as what options are available for what HTML/XHTML set). They are extremely useful and resourceful. I had a chat with one of the owners (I believe?) a very long time ago and they were extremely wonderful people to deal with. I highly recommend w3 schools for quick and dirty lessons for most things, although the PHP Manual is definitely the best resource for PHP.
Posted by bhavicp, 12-26-2009, 08:16 AM
When i first got interested, through tizag.net (Although prior scripting in several other languages did help); Nowa days just php.net when i need any additional help
Posted by addcomex, 12-30-2009, 05:40 AM
I learned by reading some books. I find it hard to learn things off the interent. I'd much rather read from a book then a screen When I first started, I knew the basic concepts (like what if/else, while, functions were etc - from learning Javascript beforehand) but I had the same problem as you, I didn't know where to start. So I bought a book showing how some common applications were made. I found it REALLY helpful. I picked them apart until I fully understood how everything was done and with that I was able to figure out how to apply or use a new strategy with a different script. I also bought a book that is really close to the PHP manual, but offers very good descriptions and examples, that also helped me out a great deal too Here are the 2 books I've purchased if you're interested. PHP and MySQL Every Day Apps for Dummies - Janet Valade PHP 5 & MySQL - Jason W.Gilmore If you look around you can probably find a good deal. I got the second book for $35 with tax & shipping. And if you'd like you could add me to help you out. In fact, it'd probably help me out too. I'm far from the best but I'd say I'm pretty decent with PHP. If you're interested I'll PM you my email. Hope this helped <> Last edited by bear; 12-30-2009 at 09:42 AM.
Posted by Chris-QuadHost, 01-01-2010, 08:14 PM
Simply by using my existing knowledge of C style syntax and a new function set, really. Also looking through other (clean - NOT something like PHPBB) PHP projects/simple classes and learning how they work.
Posted by TailoredVPS, 01-01-2010, 10:14 PM
I learned it through Trial and Error by coding simple scripts.
Posted by jmhost, 01-02-2010, 05:38 AM
I learned it by jumping head first into existing scripts (vbulletin namely) and just reading the code and looking up functions and figuring out how particular thing's were done. I knew HTML before attempting that. I find books don't really work for me, I need the trial and error approach.
Posted by hostizzy, 01-04-2010, 10:50 PM
Just got thrown straight into the deep end with scripting. Started my own site and had people scripting for me and just learnt from their coding! Fantastic way to learn I think.
Posted by Jatinder, 01-05-2010, 01:19 AM
I used to work as Java programmer and got assigned a PHP project by the boss. Bought "PHP Bible" and got the project done. Been working in PHP ever since.
Posted by tickedon, 01-05-2010, 05:20 AM
Mainly messing around with existing scripts when I was younger, had a couple of books as a reference guide - Sitepoint did/do a good book on PHP and MySQL. Google is also a great resource, and it always helps to have a PHP expert as a friend who you can ask when you are stuck
Posted by Jamza, 01-05-2010, 05:52 AM
I had already been using C++ for a while. So I was able to transfer most of what I knew to PHP. The rest I learned from reading the function documentation on php.net and from reading the source of other scripts.
Posted by media-hosts_com, 01-05-2010, 03:58 PM
In high school I bought a book called "Apache, PHP, MySQL" From there I just kept reading and creating on my own. Now I do it for a living... It's crazy how that happens eh?
Posted by oliviakitty, 01-05-2010, 07:13 PM
I learned it through online tutorials.
Posted by addaminsane, 01-05-2010, 07:33 PM
first youtube videos, then w3, then some books which i didn't buy, ...just hung out in barns and noble with my laptop and read away.
Posted by Jrich54, 01-05-2010, 07:36 PM
Hey guys, I'm looking for a managed hosting provider, has anyone out there heard of StrataScale??? Are they legit?? Their link is StrataScale.com I appreciate any feedback
Posted by warddr, 01-05-2010, 07:39 PM
It's a couple of years ago now, I knew python and vp.net befor I started using php, I saw some really good basic php vidio tutorials, unfortunately for who is new to php; I don't remember where to find them. After that I read a litle bit in the book 'php for dummys', but that was really to easy for someone with some php-experience. After that I started debugging a very buggy criminal script and basicly I just googled the things I didn't understand.
Posted by oliviakitty, 01-05-2010, 08:03 PM
Wow... This must be your first forum experience ever.
Posted by swebz, 01-06-2010, 09:07 AM
PHP manual and google
Posted by mattle, 01-06-2010, 09:23 AM
1. Got hired to do a site in PHP. Learned what I needed as I went. Of course, I came from a background of C++, Java and Perl, so that's not how I learned programming. Personally, I think that PHP is a little too forgiving for people new to programming. I think it makes transitioning to stricter languages more difficult. Now, if you start with C, or Perl (with strict/warnings/taint)....
Posted by larwilliams, 01-06-2010, 09:59 AM
Same here. I have seen way too many poorly coded PHP scripts (even some big name ones) and half the mistakes wouldn't be made if the coder had previously worked with a stricter language.
Posted by Krupux, 01-06-2010, 10:09 AM
I think it was from one of the article from Sitepoint.com by a guy named Kevin Yank. Ah yes, "Building a Database-Driven Web Site Using PHP and MySQL"
Posted by Harzem, 01-06-2010, 10:17 AM
Agreed. I worked with C for 5 years, developed several DOS applications and games, as well as scientific simulators, before working with PHP. And I find PHP a lot more easier on the coder. If I were to start with PHP, I would never be able to imagine how difficult it is to code in C or Java (compared to PHP)
Posted by muhlba91, 01-06-2010, 01:34 PM
I learned it through practice. Firstly I made some simple scripts, tried them out and so on. (I was 12-13 years-old) Very usefull for me were: * http://www.php.net/manual/en/ * http://www.selfphp.de/ (german site) After some days/weeks I could already made a guestbook with MySQL. (Just because of the fact that I learned using MySQL at the same time, because for me it was very nasty to have static pages. ) Since 3-4 years (two years after I've started with learning PHP and MySQL) I helped out in my school with some scripts and programs for the intranet and there I learned a lot more (classes, ...).
Posted by larwilliams, 01-06-2010, 02:31 PM
accidental double post.
Posted by MrSaints, 01-06-2010, 02:40 PM
I have no objections there. I have been programming PHP for quite some time now, and my sudden shift to new programming languages such as Python has been made very complex. But it was only thanks to Django, I was able to grasps it properly. I'm not the type that enjoys reading tons and tons of ebooks or go through web tutorials. My advice would be, get coding. You learn a lot more doing the coding itself than just reading. Frameworks help a lot too for elementary levels.
Posted by james121, 01-07-2010, 06:21 AM
I am not too good in PHP. I am still learning it from w3school.com. Is there any other way for it.
Posted by salafihome, 01-07-2010, 07:47 AM
PHP is easier comparing to those Other Development Languages, though it may take a while to master you can still accomplish it by starting off with the smallest of stuff ( example; Login Script, Register script etc ) after a while you'll find your self loving it.
Posted by A J C, 01-07-2010, 08:05 AM
I learned PHP about 7 years ago, after teaching myself HTML. I was working on a project when I was a kid and I thought to myself that I'd like my visitors to be able to sign up and log in. Years later, here I am. I've read countless books, watched videos, taken classes and written probably hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Even to this day I'm still learning more and more... I'd say the best way of learning PHP code is actually writing it. Think of all the things you want your finished project to do, and Google! That's how I did it.
Posted by inspiron, 01-07-2010, 09:09 AM
By doing some local class and after then read the tutorials on the internet like w3schools is good option for practice.
Posted by userkiller, 01-07-2010, 05:31 PM
My 3 year in college
Posted by userkiller, 01-07-2010, 05:43 PM
My 3rd year in college
Posted by skullbox, 01-07-2010, 06:31 PM
phpvideotutorials.com
Posted by devita, 01-07-2010, 08:32 PM
Digging in existing stuff combined with the php.net reference guide.

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