PHP: The Good Parts

Description

Get past all the hype about PHP and dig into the real power of this language. This book explores the most useful features of PHP and how they can speed up the web development process, and explains why the most commonly used PHP elements are often misused or misapplied. You'll learn which parts add strength to object-oriented programming, and how to use certain features to integrate your application with databases.

 Written by a longtime member of the PHP community, PHP: The Good Parts is ideal for new PHP programmers, as well as web developers switching from other languages.

* Become familiar with PHP's basic syntax, variables, and datatypes
* Learn how to integrate the language with web pages
* Understand how to use strings, arrays, and PHP's built-in functions
* Discover the advantages of using PHP as an object-oriented language
* Explore how PHP interacts with databases, such as SQLite and MySQL
* Learn input- and output-handling best practices to prevent security breaches

CONTENTS:

Dedication; Foreword; Preface; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; How to Contact Us; Safari(R) Books Online; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: The Good Parts; 1.1 Why PHP?; 1.2 Basic PHP Setup; Chapter 2: Casing the Joint; 2.1 Whitespace, Comments, and Basic Syntax; 2.2 Variables: Data Types, Loose Typing, and Scope; 2.3 Defined Constants; 2.4 Expressions; 2.5 Decisions, Decisions (Flow Control); 2.6 Integration with Web Pages; Chapter 3: Functions (Doing It Once); 3.1 Parameter Passing; 3.2 Default Parameters; 3.3 Passing by Value Versus Passing by Reference; 3.4 Include and Require; 3.5 Built-In Functions Versus UDFs; Chapter 4: Strings; 4.1 What Is a String?; 4.2 You Can Quote Me; 4.3 String Functions (Best of); Chapter 5: Arrays; 5.1 Indexed Arrays; 5.2 Associative Arrays; 5.3 Arrays from Another Dimension; 5.4 Arrays Can Be Dynamic; 5.5 Traversing Arrays; 5.6 Array Functions (Best of); Chapter 6: Objects; 6.1 Putting It into Practice; 6.2 Magic Methods; 6.3 $this; 6.4 Objects in Action; 6.5 Public, Protected, and Private; 6.6 Getters and Setters; Chapter 7: Database Interaction; 7.1 MySQLi Object Interface; 7.2 Retrieving Data for Display; 7.3 PHP Data Objects; 7.4 PDO Prepared Statements; 7.5 Data Management on the Cheap; 7.6 File Management As a Database Alternative; Chapter 8: PHP and Friends; 8.1 Email/SMS Generation; 8.2 PDF Generation; 8.3 Graphical Reports Generation; Chapter 9: PHP Security; 9.1 Data Validation; 9.2 Escape Output; 9.3 Cross-Site Scripting (XXS) and SQL Injection; 9.4 Password Encryption Security; 9.5 Security Tips; Chapter 10: PHP 5.3 Good Parts; 10.1 Namespaces; 10.2 Closures (Anonymous Functions); 10.3 NOWDOC; 10.4 goto Operator; 10.5 DateTime and DateTimeZone Classes; 10.6 Additional 5.3 Features; Chapter 11: Advanced Goodness; 11.1 Regular Expressions; 11.2 SimpleXML; 11.3 Integrated Development Environments; 11.4 Primary Websites; The Bad Parts; goto; Function Naming and Parameter Order; Loose Typing; Register Globals; Is That All?; Colophon;