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I'm starting a new project next week and my only real world experience is in Objective-C (with very basic classroom knowledge of other languages.)

I want to spend my free time this week learning PHP/MySQL together for my next project and I figured I'd ask you all here - what are the best tutorials?

I am aware this question has been asked here before, but of course new tutorials come up AND I'm not sure if there is any way to transition knowledge from the languages I already know to PHP, MySQL, etc.

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Avoid anything on w3fools and any tutorials for obsolete PHP versions (<=5.2 for the most part). –  Marc B Oct 3 '11 at 15:51
 
What you've already learned is not wasted. Think about the programs you write as ordering questions and actions logically. The language you're using is simply the syntax around that logical ordering. The language may also have more or less common tasks already completed for you in the form of built in functions. PHP has tons of these while C/C++ (just an example) has very few. –  evan Oct 3 '11 at 16:34
 
Just as a comment, unless you have a specific reason to use PHP, I personally would recommend learning Rails instead. Some reasons: (1) do lots of things faster (e.g., input verification), (2) integrated testing, (3) enforced structure, (4) logic/presentation separation by default, (5) I just learned it and now prefer it to PHP. (It should be noted that the last point should not be viewed as making the points that precede it any weaker.) –  eykanal Oct 3 '11 at 17:31
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Reasking the same question when you know there are earlier versions is one of the reasons we don't allow open-ended lists of recommendations: they rarely ever help people in the future because they don't trust the lists to be accurate or definitive. –  user8 Oct 3 '11 at 17:40

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2 Answers

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IMO, online tutorials will not be comprehensive enough for you to do good project work. Tutorials are usually an introduction at best and rarely go into much nitty-gritty detail, nor stress good or current practices.*

Look into purchasing a book. There are many that teach both PHP and MySQL. There are also online libraries where you pay a monthly fee and have access to a vast library of programming books.

* One of the most important things to do is to ensure you are using PDO for database operations. Many tutorials (and books) still use the antiquated mysql_* functions for this.

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Good answer, and I second his recommendation to use a good book. I used the visual quickstart series books (mine was php4, but whatever), and I was very pleased. –  eykanal Oct 3 '11 at 17:06
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You might try downloading Netbeans and going through the "Air Alliance" sample PHP application. It's pretty bare-bones, so it won't be overwhelming. Spend some time with that in conjunction with the php.net documentation and that would be a good start for someone who already has experience with object-oriented programming.

Then I would recommend getting a book or a 10-slot subscription to Safaribooksonline.com if you plan to make a habit of reading computer books. They have videos there as well.

Things to think about/study:

  1. Database normalization (esp. 1st through 3rd normal form), and SQL in general.
  2. Frameworks (Zend Framework is popular--and loosely coupled so you can learn a component at a time and/or learn their MVC implementation--but you don't have to use their MVC).
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