Books

Book cover for Zend Certification Study Guide

Zend Certification Study Guide

Now in its third edition, the popular Zend PHP Certification Study Guide, edited and produced by php[architect], provides the most comprehensive and thorough preparation tool for developers who wish to take the Zend PHP Certification exam.

If you are planning to take the PHP certification exam, you need to read this book. I passed the test on my first attempt and feel that I owe it to Ramsey and Shafik. The authors are active in the community, highly responsive, and genuinely helpful. I regularly recommend the Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide to developers in my coaching program. Bottom line? If you code PHP, buy this book. Full stop.

This edition, revised by Davey Shafik, adds three new chapters and over 80 pages of new content, and covers new features added in PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6, including namespaces, traits, variadics, generators, closures, and callbacks.

PHP 5 Unleashed

Now over ten years old, this massive 800-page tome was the definitive guide in PHP programming. It was published shortly after the release of PHP 5.0.0 and covered all the new features of the programming language. I was honored to contribute the chapter on PEAR to the book.

This is your basic huge book of PHP concepts from the basics to the advanced. It reads more like a manual than a demonstration or tutorial. I would recommend it to anyone looking to get a good overview of PHP 5.
Book cover for PHP 5 Unleashed