Ebook: PHP Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for PHP Programmers

This review is for the second edition.

In all, this is a good book. The book is organized by "problems". For example, one problem is "You want to return more than one value from a function." The book provides a solution, followed by a lengthier discussion of why this is a good solution, and in what circumstances it might not be.

The problems run from relatively simple to somewhat complex and cover a wide variety of things. I think it would be rare to have a problem that couldn't be found in here, so it's definitely a helpful reference.

One flaw with the book is that a number of the problems are probably best solved by making use of a PHP framework (e.g. Zend Framework). For example, it's probably better to use a framework that provides various form validation functions, rather than rewriting and coding all the different validations you need from this book. But, maybe in some cases it will help you get by if the particular thing you want to do isn't covered by your current framework.

The book isn't perfect, but ultimately deserves a place on your bookshelf if, like most of us, you often find yourself wondering "What's the best way to do this?"