Best PHP Books for Beginners [Updated] [2019]

In this article, we would be having a look at a very comprehensive list of best PHP books for beginners, including detailed descriptions and purchase links.

Table of Contents

• List of Best PHP Books For Beginners
  • Head First PHP & MySQL – by Lynn Beighley & Michael Morrison
  • The Joy of PHP Programming: A Beginner’s Guide to Programming Interactive Web Applications with PHP and MySQL
  • Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript with jQuery, CSS & HTML5
  • Apache, MySQL, and PHP Web Development
• Recommended Articles

List of Best PHP Books For Beginners:

Here we go, following is the curated list of hand-picked books which are must have for beginners.

Head First PHP & MySQL – by Lynn Beighley & Michael Morrison:

This book allows you to create web pages more complex than those you can build with HTML and CSS. As you can expect from a Head First book, this book works as a learning guide to building dynamic, database-driven websites using PHP and MySQL. It covers all the essentials of server-side programming, from the fundamentals of PHP and MySQL coding to advanced topics such as form validation, session IDs, cookies, database queries and joins, file I/O operations, content management and more.

Throughout the book, you'll build sophisticated examples -- including a mailing list, a job board and an online dating site -- to help you learn how to harness the power of PHP and MySQL in a variety of contexts. If you're ready to build a truly dynamic website, Head First PHP and amp; MySQL is the ideal way to get going.

Purchase Here from Amazon: Head First PHP & MySQL

The Joy of PHP: A Beginner’s Guide

Have you ever wanted to design your own website or browser application but thought it would be too difficult or just didn't know where to start? Have you found the amount of information on the Internet either too daunting or not geared for your skill set or worse-- just plain boring? Are you interested in learning to program PHP and have some fun along the way? If so, then The Joy of PHP by Alan Forbes is the book for you!!

Alan starts with some basic HTML so the absolute beginner can catch up quickly and then goes step by step on how PHP works. You start with the easy stuff--like how to create and run simple PHP scripts that modify web pages-- and then build on what you've learned through a series of cohesive (and fun) exercises that carry over from lesson to lesson. As the chapters progress you begin to build a web site for a growing used car dealership business.


This approach keeps the material fun and challenging-- and gives what you've learned a context to be relevant. A car dealership needs a constantly changing web site because the inventory of cars is always changing.

Purchase Here from Amazon: The Joy of PHP: A Beginner’s Guide

Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript with jQuery, CSS & HTML5

Build interactive, data-driven websites with the potent combination of open-source technologies and web standards, even if you have only basic HTML knowledge. With this popular hands-on guide, you'll tackle dynamic web programming with the help of today's core technologies: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS and HTML5.

Explore each technology separately, learn how to use them together and pick up valuable web programming practices along the way. At the end of the book, you'll put everything together to build a fully functional social networking site, using XAMPP or any development stack you choose.

• Learn PHP in-depth, along with the basics of object-oriented programming
• Explore MySQL, from database structure to complex queries
• Use the MySQLi Extension, PHP's improved MySQL interface
• Create dynamic PHP web pages that tailor themselves to the user
• Manage cookies and sessions and maintain a high level of security
• Master the JavaScript language-and enhance it with jQuery
• Use Ajax calls for background browser/server communication
• Acquire CSS2 and CSS3 skills for professionally styling your web pages
• Implement all of the new HTML5 features, including geolocation, audio, video and the canvas

Purchase Here from Amazon: Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript with j Query, CSS & HTML5

Apache, MySQL, and PHP Web Development

This title covers the entire open source Web platform known as LAMP, which includes Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, the basis for many dynamic data-driven Web sites. Seven convenient minibooks provide easy reference on open source and team development, working with Linux and Apache, automating Web sites with Perl, developing front-end applications with Tcl/TK, creating dynamic Web pages with PHP, accessing Web databases with MySQL, and processing Web files with regular expressions.

This title includes valuable, hard-to-find coverage of collaboration, file sharing, and version control with CVS. PHP is running on over nine million sites, with an average increase of 6.5 percent monthly over the past two years; Apache Web servers handle seventy percent of Web content.







Purchase Here from Amazon: Apache, MySQL, and PHP Web Development

Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One

In just a short time, you can learn how to use PHP, MySQL, and Apache together to create dynamic, interactive websites and applications using the three leading open-source web development technologies. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson in this book builds on the previous ones, enabling you to learn the essentials of PHP scripting, MySQL databases, and the Apache web server from the ground up.



Regardless of whether you run Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X, the enclosed CD includes a complete starter kit that lets you install all the software you need to set up a stable environment for learning, testing, and production.



Julie C. Meloni is a technical consultant who has been developing web-based applications since the Web first saw the light of day. She has authored numerous books and articles on web application development and HTML/CSS, and you can find translations of her work in 18 different languages.

Learn how to…

• Install, configure, and set up the PHP scripting language, the MySQL database system, and the Apache Web server
• Get these technologies to work together to create a dynamic, database-backed website
• Interact with MySQL using PHP
• Work with forms and files
• Create a web-based discussion forum or mailing list
• Add a storefront and shopping cart to your site
• Optimize your MySQL databases
• Fine-tune the Apache server’s performance
• Restrict access to your applications
• Set up a secure web server

Purchase Here from Amazon: Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One

Recommended Articles:

If your learning appetite is still left, you are suggested to read below articles:

• InnoDB vs MyISAM | Storage Engines | Tabular Differences
• What should I learn after PHP | Roadmap 2019
• Asynchronous JavaScript
• How to modify “remember me” expired time in Laravel?

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