Learn by example with this short book (great for reference too)
It's a very short book, and it teaches you by example. If you have previous programming experience with something that uses a similar syntax (C++, for example), you can learn the basics of PHP/MySQL in a casual week with this book, after which you can use it for a very useful reference. It doesn't delve into classes much, nor into security, but it serves as a great quick-start into PHP/MySQL regardless and will have you writing your first useful PHP-enhanced websites within a week or two.
There is a newer version of this book now, updated for PHP 5, so you will likely want to buy that instead of this one.
Useful book for beginner and beyond
This book is just great. Unlike previous books I have looked at it offeres really useful, easy to understand and practical guides for working with PHP. Great for someone like me who just wants to start with the basics. The topics covered are very usful and easily applied to real projects.
The only PHP reference and start-up book you need
This book is simply marvelous. It is straight forward and deals with all essential topics on PHP. This book begins with installation, configuration and testing of Apache and MySQL for the purpose of PHP. The rest of the book deals with basic PHP programming to advanced topics such as PHP & MySQL together. Every chapter of the book comes with tutorial and working code examples. Other topics includes 'Sending Email with PHP', 'File Handling with PHP' and 'User Authentication'. Mike McGrath did a good job by making this book concise, practical and handy. As an experience programmer, I find it the only book I need to get started with PHP. It gets you to understand how PHP works conceptually through the examples given. Highly recommended.
