We’ve arranged the material in this book so that you can either read it from start to finish or jump around to hit just the topics that interest you. The book is divided into 17 chapters and 1 appendix, as follows:
- Chapter 1, Introduction to PHP
Talks about the history of PHP and gives a lightning-fast overview of what is possible with PHP programs.
- Chapter 2, Language Basics
Is a concise guide to PHP program elements such as identifiers, data types, operators, and flow-control statements.
- Chapter 3, Functions
Discusses user-defined functions, including scope, variable-length parameter lists, and variable and anonymous functions.
- Chapter 4, Strings
Covers the functions you’ll use when building, dissecting, searching, and modifying strings in your PHP code.
- Chapter 5, Arrays
Details the notation and functions for constructing, processing, and sorting arrays in your PHP code.
- Chapter 6, Objects
Covers PHP’s updated object-oriented features. In this chapter, you’ll learn about classes, objects, inheritance, and introspection.
- Chapter 7, Web Techniques
Discusses web basics such as form parameters and validation, cookies, and sessions.
- Chapter 8, Databases
Discusses PHP’s modules and functions for working with databases, using the PEAR database library and the MySQL database as examples. Also, the new SQLite database engine and the new PDO database interface are covered.
- Chapter 9, Graphics
Demonstrates how to create and modify image files in a variety of formats from within PHP.
- Chapter 10, PDF
Explains how to create dynamic PDF files from a PHP application.
- Chapter 11, XML
Introduces PHP’s updated extensions for generating and parsing XML data.
- Chapter 12, Security
Provides valuable advice and guidance for programmers creating secure scripts. You’ll learn best practices programming techniques here that will help you avoid mistakes that can lead to disaster.
- Chapter 13, Application Techniques
Talks about advanced techniques most PHP programmers eventually want to use, including error handling and performance tuning.
- Chapter 14, PHP on Disparate Platforms
Discusses the tricks and traps of the Windows port of PHP. It also discusses some of the features unique to Windows such as COM.
- Chapter 15, Web Services
Provides techniques for creating a modern web services API via PHP, and for connecting with web services APIs on other systems.
- Chapter 16, Debugging PHP
Discusses techniques for debugging PHP code and for writing debuggable PHP code.
- Chapter 17, Dates and Times
Talks about PHP’s built-in classes for dealing with dates and times.
- Appendix A
A handy quick reference to all core functions in PHP.
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