How did you learn php, how long did it take?

[gaogier]

Hello

 

I started to learn php, but then never picked up on it.

 

My question, how did you learn php? How long till you was good?

[andrewgauger]

It took me 4 days to get good at PHP.  I started by reading:

 

Professional PHP 5 from Wrox.

 

But..... PHP was not my first language.

 

Then again, there are those who would say that I'm not good at php *snarf*

[Andy-H]

I started when I got some poorly written mafia game scripts about age 14 (I'm 19 now), I didn't know what the manual was for around 2 years and had no concept of 'good practice' or 'versions' of PHP lol

 

I learned by editing the scripts, reading the errors, counting the lines in notepad (lol) and trying to fix them, after around 2 years of this I had gotten pretty good and was writing my own scripts. Then I found PHP Freaks and read 'Programming PHP' by (Co-written by Rasmus himself), I also learned about how to use the manual and good practice from many talented programmers around here. I read posts that didn't apply to any of my problems or interests and looked at how people went about solving them. I still wouldn't say I'm good with PHP but I'm comfortable with the language.

[.Stealth]

I started back in 2007, wanted to add abit of functionality to my sites. Bought the Sitepoint book; Build your own database driven website.

 

That book gave me a good base to expand on, the rest I learnt from practice and picking other peoples codes apart. Although after all this time i still consider myself new to PHP as i haven't touched it in a year and a half due to having no projects. I'm just getting back into and learning what's good and bad again. The way to code hasn't left me but the bad habbits have found their way back into my code.

New circumstances mean I'll be doing a lot of it in the future.

 

How long has it taken me? I'm still learning now.

[Tazerenix]

I started when i was 13, about 5 months ago now (im 14 now).

Like most PHP newbies i went onto w3schools to learn PHP. It kinda helped but didnt give much of a clear outline of how to actually code applications. The first thing i did was make a comments form using mail() (for people interested: http://files.tazerenix-productions.com/comments_form/).

After that i started learning how to use databases (by myself) mainly just navigating my way around the PHP Reference and w3schools reference. From then on i just kept making new projects, some of which i finished, some i didnt, and thats what i'm doing now.

[Lamez]

I started when I was about 15, creating my own website in PHP, for no reason really. I would download code of the internet and take a look at it, and try to reproduce it. I then eventually became to the point where I could write code on my own without looking. I am now to the point where I can write clean, efficient code, I am now learning OOP. I figured it was time. I am 19 now. Oh, and this forum helped me out tons with my problems, I mean tons! PHP was my first language,  I now C, C++,  and Java. I do think learning a different language does help you grasp the concept in beginner programmers.

[CodeMaster]

I started to learn PHP when I was 17. Now I'm 23 I know multiple programming languages like Java, C#, Python. I worked 4 years as a proffesional. After 2 years (when I was 19) I was able to make something serious with PHP, MySQL and CSS, HTML etc.

 

I think it is great to learn PHP, I am happy I did it long time ago. PHP programmer is a good paid job these days. I make much more money than other people of my age. If you consider going further with PHP, I would like to say: Just go for it

[Mchl]

My first contact was some 6 years ago, and I've been working half/full time with PHP for three years now. I still don't know it.