Publication Date: 2005
So what makes this book different from the others? In a word - simplicity.
This book, more than any other I’ve read on PHP, is geared toward the total beginner. All you need to know is HTML and you should be comfortable.

The book opens up with a good chapter on installing PHP and MySQL [...]

PHP Hacks is essentially a collection of ‘bite-size’ PHP scripts that you can easily drop into your websites.
Besides being able to use the hacks straight away in your projects, the PHP code/hacks are clearly explained making them good tutorials for learning how you might do something in PHP.

SOME TOPICS/HACKS THAT STAND OUT:

Creating a shopping [...]

Co-written by the guy who invented PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf,) this is a must-buy book for anyone getting into PHP or web programming in general.

What can I say; this book is so well written and to the point, that I found that the information seemed to just flow from the pages.
Who is this book for?
This is [...]

Another great book from O’Reilly.
This book targets beginners to PHP but NOT total beginners to code and programming - I think that certain explanations of the basic programming concepts, may confuse a some people.

Doesn’t matter though, once you’ve done my free video tutorials (found on this site,) you will be able to breeze through [...]