How did everyone learn php?

Im new to web programming in php, my experience lies mostly in flash websites. How did everyone learn php the easiest? On the web? Book? Class at the college? Im interested to know

 

I learned what I know by consistently screwing up my wordpress blogs, then moving on to more advanced apps like Joomla and SMF to screw them up too. LOL

That's how I learned CSS and HTML too. I learn better by doing. WP code is fairly simple, so playing around with it is not too scary. The W3C Schools' php tutorials are good too. (as are their HTML and CSS)

 

I learnt most from modifying/customizing existing scripts. I just started looking at the code and tried to understand it. It would probably be good to read a book or something that explains the basics. I can't recommend any really cause I didn't read any.

A good startpoint might be this.
http:// w3schools.com/php/php_intro.asp
(Remove the space after the http:// I'm not allowed to post links)

Also, if you see a function and you don't know what it does, search www. php.net for it. This website will help you a LOT.

 

its just very simple.. if you know html basics, you can easily understand php.
go for w3schools, they have very basic tutorial on php...
you can also go with zend.com 's tutorials as they are also quit easy..

 

al the things above plus: donwload from php.net the .chm manual. that will help you too.
Good luck

 

I bought a php book, skimmed it to get the basics, looked at existing scripts to try to dissect them, then made my own large scale applications and consulted php.net as I needed.

having a friend who's learning / has learned the same language helps a ton too, when you get stuck.

 

Your subject line is in the past tense: when DID you learn PHP. Can't say that I'm done yet! Books, php|architect magazine, forums, and plain old hacking around.

ps. Keep some sort of anti-hair loss formula handy!

 

1. From web search from Google.com, phpbuilder.com, php.net
2. From many e-books.
3. From php zealot blogs.

 

I learned from php.net and from a book about PHP 5, ActionScript, and MySQL that I bought.

 

For html I use Frontpage, which makes life very easy.

And how I learned PHP, I first started out with a phpbb forum while installing mods on it, I had to look through the code, find a line, and insert a portion of code into the area specified with many files. After doing this for a while, I learned the basics of php, and deal with it almost every day now, having to modify the way things looks, creating small scripts, etc.

But I still only know basics of php

 

A mix of the following have helped me a lot

* Books (beginner to advanced).
* Forum/s.
* PHP manual (I'm reading it daily). It's an excellent resource.
* I've also found it a lot easier to learn something when I have defined/set goal.

Happy coding!

 

Yeah, you should also give yourself some kind of homework. Say, okay, I want to do this or that, and start working on it. If you need help, ask someone. In a forum or a friend.

 

i found a great book about php, there are many examples

http://hudzilla.org/phpwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

i started with asp 1999, its not that hard to switch to php if you already know the basics. think a very good way to improve your skill is to read other peoples source code, compare with your own code, what you would have done instead and whos code does this given task better and why.

 

The best way I find to learn a new language is to build an application that takes advantage of the language's ability. That way the excitement of discovering all it can do will keep you motivated. Like for instance, PHP is great at working with databases such as MySQL. Figure out a database driven site you'd like to build for yourself. With all the lessons you'll learn by the end of your project (some the hard way ), you'll be up to speed in no time at all.

 

thanks for the input everyone, im bought the book "php for teens" lol i figured a teens book is about as basic as it gets. I will also try and get my hands on some code and work around with it.

 

That book will be fine to intoduce you into the basic. But with every new chapter try it on examples. That's the only way!

 

I don't know everything about PHP, but I do know a lot I think. I've learned from modifying scripts and such.

I recently stumbled on a great programming publishing company and read some of one of their books and felt was very good at explaining everything.

You might like these from the Wrox publishing company:
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-PHP..._bbs_sr_1/102-2356964-4450537?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Apa..._bbs_sr_2/102-2356964-4450537?ie=UTF8&s=books

When you get a little better:
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-...ef=sr_1_4/102-2356964-4450537?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Aja..._bbs_sr_3/102-2356964-4450537?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-...ef=sr_1_5/102-2356964-4450537?ie=UTF8&s=books

 

yes, thats how i learned html so easily some 10 years ago haha

 

I downloaded php into a pill and ate it