I have been dabbling around for about a year learning php and mysqli snippet by snippet here and there as I go about trying to build something that I can sink my teeth in. I picked up a few technical books but it’s pretty much the same crap in every book I get. There are no real practical examples or techniques on how to use what you learn in the real world. would be nice to find a book that walks you through a wide variety of techniques on how to manipulate data. I fell asleep I don’t know how many time trying to follow O’reilly line of technical books. I tried their head first mysql and php too which was much better but hate how they teach you all the wrong things first to then tell you, forget about all we said so far, this is how you should do it from now on lol. what would you guy recommend? I am particularly interested in anything that deal with php and mysqli procedural, I have no interest in learning PDO.
Like Bruno (aka swader), the Sitepoint lead PHP editor, said, the best way to learn PHP is to just “jump into the fire and try to put it out”. In other words, try to accomplish some problem you or someone you may know will have. When you come up to a problem solving the problem, then start looking for answers. (in books, on the Internet, etc.) 
Scott
Thanks Scott,
The thing I find with this method though is there are literally “fires” every step of the way. There is never any end to it. I might as well ask someone else to write codes in my stead since only veterans seem know what code to use in real life applications. But then getting codes from Vets also create problems since most will use their own code writing style and makes it really hard for a noob like me to follow when you don’t understand what a line of code does.
Has Anyone ever heard of a book, lets say: Build yourself a database apt online with these basic methods? type of thing?
??
And they are having a great deal right now; 1 dollar for a full month access 
.
thank you for the tip, but unfortunately this is not what I am looking for.
I am building a front end to a database. Not a website that use a database. The database “is” the application. I am trying to build a straight forward front end for a database to replace the one I built in MS Access. the application consist of about 120 tables, about 150 forms and a few dozens of reports. That’s about it as far as the website will be. it is just a database environment. it’s really simple when you think about it. There is only about a dozen or so thing I must know how to do in php in order to work with my data. The rest is pure sql language and css layout. Once I will know how to CRUD data, pass data to another form, and link here and there is pretty much all I need to build the application.
Problem is most book will teach you how to write “hello world” or build an address book. what I am looking for is a bit more advanced: validating, passing data from one form to another, extract data in various fashion and so forth in normal 1-2-3 form.
There are also a few “pre-developed” database abstraction layers you could use for your application. Why not just use one of them and go from there?
Scott
This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.