Best PHP Books for Learning PHP Development and Programming (with MySQL)

by Yang Yang on June 17, 2009

PHP is by far the most popular and easiest to use web programming language in the world. If your goal is to enter PHP programming and development as a novice beginner and start from the very basics, these books are reviewed the best by actual readers. Some of the books contain chapters dealing with MySQL, the most popular database system in the world that is usually combined with PHP to create websites or web applications.

Update: I have also hand picked a few PHP security books for people who develop web applications.

Author - Yang Yang

Hello, I'm Yang. I build online businesses that please people. Find me in Kavoir Backyard, a premium forum for webmasters. Want to get in and post some articles? Shoot me a message.

Roman June 21, 2009 at 10:47 pm: You presented here a list of very good books for PHP.
For implementation you can use online IDE – CodeRun.
You can have IDE like Visual Studio running in second.
Also you can share your work with others.
http://www.coderun.com
Yang Yang March 10, 2010 at 4:42 pm: Add 3 more books that are release in the recent 3 years with great reader reviews:

1. PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice, Second Edition – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590599098?ie=UTF8&tag=maawe-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1590599098
2. PHP Object-Oriented Solutions – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1430210117?ie=UTF8&tag=maawe-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1430210117
3. Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596157134?ie=UTF8&tag=maawe-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0596157134
easwee August 5, 2010 at 10:17 pm: Which book about PHP would you recommend for a begginer? I did few small sites in php (custom blog, simple forms), but I would like to expand my PHP knowledge – specially I’d like to learn more about concepts when building bigger portal sites (optimization, best practices).

First title from list sounds like what I need, but don’t want to spend money on books without hearing feedback from someone who read it first.