How I Learned PHP And Why It Is The Best Way

In my honest opinion, I believe PHP is the best language to start off with if you are just entering the developer world.  It’s easy to learn but at the same time it is very powerful. I know exactly how I learned PHP, and I believe it’s the best darn way you could possibly learn PHP.

The first thing anyone and everyone needs when developing is a language reference. Luckily, PHP has great documentation and an online function reference, so if you ever need to know how to do something, it’s all right at your fingertips. I still do not know every function available in PHP and I do not believe I ever will memorize all of them, so to this day I still refer back to the PHP web site whenever I need to know something.

Learning through example and practice is probably how I learned PHP so quickly. I remember talking with my friend over MSN when I had just met him and he had offered to teach me PHP. I didn’t think I would ever be able to learn it. All he said was to write a program that does [enter pointless function here]. He gave me no hints and no direction, other than the PHP web site. At first I didn’t have a clue how I would learn the language by doing that, but I tried anyways, and look at what that has done for me. Also, do not hesitate to do a web search on what you are trying to accomplish in PHP, for I am sure that someone somewhere has tried the same thing or at least a similar thing and will give you something to work with.

Seriously, these are not well-kept secrets at all. They just seem too obvious and people decide to run out and buy some book instead. I actually tried the book method, it didn’t work out well, I just ended up blowing some money. You have been given the best source of PHP knowledge out there, and it is free.