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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 About the Author Peter MacIntyre lives and works in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. He has over 20 years of experience in the information technology industry, primarily in the area of software development. Peter's technical skill set includes several client/server tools and relational database systems such as PHP, PowerBuilder, Visual Basic, Active Server Pages, and CA-Visual Objects. Peter is certified by ZEND Corporation on PHP 4.x and has contributed writing material for Using Visual Objects (Que Corp.), Using PowerBuilder 5 (Que Corp.), ASP.NET Bible (Wiley Pub.), and Web Warrior Survey on Web Development Languages (Course Technology). Most recently he has co-authored the Zend Studio for Eclipse Developer's Guide - Addison-Wesley. Peter is a former contributing editor and author to the on-line and in-print magazine called php|architect (www.phparch.com). He has also spoken several times at North American and International computer conferences including CA-World in New Orleans, USA; CA-TechniCon in Cologne, Germany; and CA-Expo in Melbourne, Australia. Table of Contents Chapter 1 The Good Parts Why PHP? Basic PHP Setup Chapter 2 Casing the Joint Whitespace, Comments, and Basic Syntax Variables: Data Types, Loose Typing, and Scope Defined Constants Expressions Decisions, Decisions (Flow Control) Integration with Web Pages Chapter 3 Functions (Doing It Once) Parameter Passing Default Parameters Passing by Value Versus Passing by Reference Include and Require Built-In Functions Versus UDFs Chapter 4 Strings What Is a String? You Can Quote Me String Functions (Best of) Chapter 5 Arrays Indexed Arrays Associative Arrays Arrays from Another Dimension Arrays Can Be Dynamic Traversing Arrays Array Functions (Best of) Chapter 6 Objects Putting It into Practice Magic Methods $this Objects in Action Public, Protected, and Private Getters and Setters Chapter 7 Database Interaction MySQLi Object Interface Retrieving Data for Display PHP Data Objects PDO Prepared Statements Data Management on the Cheap File Management As a Database Alternative Chapter 8 PHP and Friends Email/SMS Generation PDF Generation Graphical Reports Generation Chapter 9 PHP Security Data Validation Escape Output Cross-Site Scripting (XXS) and SQL Injection Password Encryption Security Security Tips Chapter 10 PHP 5.3 Good Parts Namespaces Closures (Anonymous Functions) NOWDOC goto Operator DateTime and DateTimeZone Classes Additional 5.3 Features Chapter 11 Advanced Goodness Regular Expressions SimpleXML Integrated Development Environments Primary Websites Appendix The Bad Parts goto Function Naming and Parameter Order Loose Typing Register Globals Is That All? Colophon