I kept getting stuck forgetting little things when coding and I like to get away from my desk a lot, so carrying a 500 page all inclusive book didn’t work for me, but this fit the bill. It doesn’t have everything in PHP in it, and that’s a good thing, because it makes it more portable and fits 95% of my needs. Incredibly handy.
Rating: 5 / 5

From the very first page, the author of this book lets us know exactly its purpose – to act as an off-line reference to the hundred or so domestic PHP functions one might use in the course of writing software, and a couple of their lesser-used variants.

One of my favorite parts was the list of related functions below each description: this allows you to hyperlink your way around the book in a more semantic way than simply reading it front-to-back.

This is certainly not a book just for beginners, because I wouldn’t consider output buffer functions to be used by beginners (if you don’t know what I mean when I say ob_start() or ob_flush(), then you should probably pick up a copy).

This is the kind of book you should throw in your laptop bag as you get started on a new project, or keep on the shelf of your cubicle. Think about which is faster – tabbing back and forth between your browser window with the current page you’re testing, and your text editor, AND the php.net site, or just having a small reference book next to your keyboard.

Also consider your ability to make notes next to functions about your own personal tricks and experiences – I always find myself digging back into my own code as a reference, but if you just had this paper version to carry with you everywhere, you could save yourself a lot of time by not having to grep through your code.

Completely worth your time and money.
Rating: 5 / 5

As a casual PHP coder (I pick it back up every few months to add to my websites or tweak something), I have found this book to be a perfect fit.

The author breaks the whole book down into the typical sections: String functions, Array functions, MySQL, etc. Like many other books I’ve purchased, I can always learn more by flipping through a chapter page-by-page, but I pick this book up more often because I can quickly get around to exactly what I need because it is focused around the functions and operators that are key to doing everything in PHP.

I actually keep a bookmark in the RegEx and Date() pages because I refer back to them so frequently to ‘refresh’. It’s an excellent book that hasn’t disappointed me yet when I dust it off and start coding again.
Rating: 5 / 5

The examples are clear for beginners and easy to follow. Even functions I’ve never tried to understand before when looking on php.net. As I’ve started looking into object-orientated programming, I wish this book covered that as well, but I guess that would be more advanced.
Rating: 4 / 5