I learning by reading a book and doing the exercise in the book. it is more like c.

I learned it on my own, reference book on the desk and a link to the PHP website at the ready (they have great documentation and references there). I was very experienced in Perl, so for me it was just learning how the different things were done.

i don’t think it’s as hard. It’s a high-level language, so you don’t need to get into nuts-and-bolts low-level stuff like you do with C++.

Unlike Java, everything in PHP isn’t an object. But their object models have some similarity (in syntax, especially), so if you’ve worked with Java, the transition should be pretty straightforward.

Most of the other stuff (loops, conditionals, operators, etc) should be familiar. The language isn’t as strongly typed as C++ or Java, so you may need to adjust to variable creation a little, but it’s simple.

Learned by 2 books:
Learning PHP5 by David Sklar
Programming PHP by Rasmus Lerdorf & Kevin Tatroe

Not hard at all

If you know computer programming, php syntax is trivial. You can do pretty well by keeping the help file open (and not “learning” anything first). If you don’t know computer programming, you’re not going to learn it by learning a programming language - any programming language. (Learning French won’t teach you how to replace a Frenchman’s heart - you need to learn coronary surgery first.)

(If you don’t know programming, try It’s the best book to learn programming that I’ve ever found.)

PHP would be much easier than Java and certainly a breeze compared to C++ . There are numerous resources for PHP ; get a good book , like :
1.PHP in Easy Steps

2.A dummies series book for PHP

Good luck!

I use books, tutorials, here etc to learn.

I don’t like just reading things and “learning”, I have found that making little scripts and snippets from scratch andthen getting them to work is the best learning curve for me. Now I have made:

news publishers
shopping cart
comparison scripts (shopping)
small cms’s
and everything in between

Now I have all the little scripts, I can make a full site in no time at all and because I started small, I know how it all works.

This may not work for you though

I use a book called “how to do everything with php and mysql”

its on ebay / amazon and it is a fantastic book for beginners and there are plenty of examples and projects.

All the best

PHP is really very easy once you get the hang of it. It is a language that you van master very quickly, so if you have learned Java and C++ I would imagine you would not have a problem with PHP.

Try the tutorials here:
Also, it is helpful to watch PHP tutorials on YouTube.

To learn how to create your own PHP forum, try the HD tutorials at.

PHP is much easier than C++ but hardly worth learning to just build your site.
Get it done for under $300 at