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PHP 7 from Scratch

A Streamlined Approach to Modern PHP Mastery

Thomas Pichler

Time to start from scratch! In this book we skip old, useless or deprecated functions and will ignore jargon. If you ever wanted to learn PHP, then there is no need to search the web for guides and videos divided between countless websites with no thread to follow. Just sit back and relax while I help you along your path to PHP mastery.

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About

About

About the Book

Ever wanted to learn PHP? Then you probably ran into the most common problems along the way. Be it outdated learning resources, half-assed explanations or just simply no clear path to follow. Programming is hard enough on it's own so all of us would do better with a resource that is up to date and sticks to the point. Since we finally get a new major PHP release after a whole decade it is time to review the status quo. A lot has happened in the last 13 years and there was never a better time to write a book about it.

In this book you will learn PHP 7 completely from scratch. There is no PHP knowledge required to start reading. What you do require is a very basic knowledge of HTML (especially Forms) and maybe some CSS. All of PHP7's new features will be naturally included in your learning experience and everything will be done in the way it should be done in 2017. No old stuff, no unneeded fluff, in this book we learn only the important stuff!

Each Chapter in this book comes with a specific set of practical challenges in multiple difficulties and the solutions can be found either at the end of the book or in the included zip file. Some of these challenges will even require you to use Google to find the methods needed to complete them. This has the purpose of preparing you for your own development career after this book. Knowing how to find the answers you need is already half the battle!

The book also includes hands on practical exams between chapters. These practical exams include things like capturing form data or creating a simple shopping cart and they will show you first hand how your knowledge is used in the real world. The best way to learn programming is by doing and not by reading. This book takes good care of that!

A Quick list of what the finished book includes:

  • A complete guide for Mac OSX and Windows on how to start developing in a virtual environment with Homestead.
  • PHP7 from Hello World to OOP. Including all new features and a step by step approach to modern testable and maintainable code.
  • Testing with PHP Unit
  • Modern Design Patterns and how to use them
  • Lot's of hands on challenges and practical examples to deepen your knowledge.
  • My personal contact data in case you got questions or get stuck.
  • And much, much more!

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PHPComputers and Programming

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Author

About the Author

Thomas Pichler

Hi there!

I am a 34 year old PHP Developer living in Los Angeles and I am terrible at marketing myself! I started with PHP when I was 13 years old and I am now looking back on a 16 year long journey of learning and improving my skills. I have worked as a Webdev all over the world including Austria, Canada, USA and Hong Kong. Most of my time these days is spent with Laravel and of course watching Laracasts.

Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

  1. Why Another PHP Book?
  2. Is This Book For Me?
  3. How to Consume This Book
  4. How this book is different
  5. Exercises
  6. Code Files
  7. Errata
  8. How to Get in Touch

Chapter 1: The Setup

  1. The Shortcut Route
  2. Setup for Mac
  3. Step 1: Installing Sublime
  4. Step 2: Installing Composer
  5. Step 3: Installing Laravel Homestead
  6. Installing Virtual Box
  7. Installing Vagrant
  8. Time for Homestead
  9. Step 4: Configuring Laravel Homestead
  10. Setup for Windows
  11. Step 1: Installing the required software
  12. Git
  13. Git Bash
  14. Vagrant
  15. Virtual Box
  16. Bitvise Tunnelier
  17. Step 2: Configuring The Environment
  18. The Vagrant Box
  19. Vagrant Plugins
  20. Installing Homestead
  21. Generating your SSH Keys
  22. Configuring Homestead
  23. Launching Homestead

Chapter 2: Hello World

  1. PHP Tags
  2. Comments
  3. echo
  4. The semicolon
  5. All together
  6. Challenges
  7. Easy
  8. Medium
  9. Hard

Chapter 3: Variables and Data Types

  1. The = Operator
  2. Data Type - String
  3. Data Type - Integer
  4. Data Type - Float
  5. Challenges
  6. Easy
  7. Medium
  8. Hard

Chapter 4: Arrays

  1. Data Type - Array
  2. The var_dump() function
  3. Challenges
  4. Easy
  5. Medium
  6. Hard

Practical Lesson I: Dynamic Content & Navigation

  1. An Overview
  2. The $_GET Array
  3. Chapter 5: How to work with Strings
  4. The . Operator
  5. Using Variables inside Strings
  6. The implode() function
  7. The explode() function
  8. The str_replace() function
  9. Challenges
  10. Easy
  11. Medium
  12. Hard

Practical Lesson II: Capturing Form Data

  1. The Project Details
  2. Setting up the structure
  3. Some Boilerplate
  4. Our Form
  5. The method Attribute
  6. The action Attribute
  7. The name Attribute
  8. Our Capture Script
  9. The most important Superglobals
  10. How it looks
  11. Time to wrap up

Chapter 6: Arithmetic Operators

  1. The + Operator
  2. The - Operator
  3. The * Operator
  4. The / Operator
  5. The % Operator
  6. The ** Operator
  7. Assignment Operators
  8. Quick Increments and Decrements
  9. Math and PHP
  10. Challenges
  11. Easy
  12. Medium
  13. Hard

Chapter 7 - Methods and Functions I

  1. What is a function
  2. The syntax of a function
  3. Is that all?
  4. Challenges
  5. Easy
  6. Medium
  7. Hard

Chapter 8: Control Structures & Comparison Operators I

  1. Data Type - Boolean
  2. if & else
  3. The == Operator (Equal)
  4. The != Operator (Not Equal)
  5. The > Operator (Greater than)
  6. The < Operator (Less than)
  7. The >= Operator (Greater than or equal to)
  8. The <= Operator (Less than or equal to)
  9. Challenges
  10. Easy
  11. Medium
  12. Hard
  13. Diabolic

Chapter 9: Control Structures & Comparison Operators II

  1. The difference between equal and identical
  2. The === Operator (Identical)
  3. The !== (Not Identical)
  4. The ! Operator (Negation)
  5. The && Operator (And)
  6. The || Operator (Or)
  7. The <=> Operator (Spaceship)
  8. The ?? Operator (Null Coalesce)
  9. elseif()
  10. Challenges
  11. Easy
  12. Medium
  13. Hard

Practical Lesson III: A simple Calculator

  1. The Project Details
  2. Setting up the structure
  3. Boilerplate as usual
  4. Our Form
  5. The Calculations
  6. Some simple validations
  7. is_numeric()
  8. Includes
  9. include();
  10. require();
  11. require_once();
  12. Time to put everything together
  13. Chapter 10: Sessions and Cookies
  14. session_start();
  15. The $_SESSION Superglobal
  16. session_unset();
  17. session_destroy();
  18. What are Cookies?
  19. Setting a Cookie
  20. The setcookie(); function
  21. The time(); function
  22. How to calculate seconds
  23. Creating a Cookie
  24. Using a Cookie
  25. Deleting a Cookie
  26. Challenges
  27. Easy
  28. Medium
  29. Hard
  30. login.php
  31. user.php
  32. logout.php

Chapter 11: Loops

  1. The foreach() loop
  2. The while() loop
  3. The do while() loop
  4. The for() loop
  5. The continue; command
  6. The break; command
  7. Challenges
  8. Easy
  9. Medium
  10. Hard
  11. Diabolic

Practical Lesson IV: Shopping Cart

  1. The Project Details
  2. Setting up the structure
  3. Starting with the Products
  4. Implementing the Session
  5. Creating our Functions
  6. addItem($id, $name, $price, $quantity)
  7. editItem($id, $quantity)
  8. removeItem($id);
  9. destroyCart();
  10. More Boilerplate
  11. Adding an Item to the Cart

Chapter 12 - Methods and Functions II

  1. Strict Arguments
  2. Return Type Declaration
  3. Optional Parameters
  4. Variable Arguments
  5. Variable Functions
  6. Closures
  7. Challenges
  8. Easy
  9. Medium
  10. Hard
  11. Diabolical

Solutions

  1. Chapter 2
  2. Easy
  3. Medium
  4. Hard
  5. Chapter 3
  6. Easy
  7. Medium
  8. Hard
  9. Chapter 4
  10. Easy
  11. Medium
  12. Hard
  13. Chapter 5
  14. Easy
  15. Medium
  16. Hard
  17. Chapter 6
  18. Easy
  19. Medium
  20. Hard
  21. Chapter 7
  22. Easy
  23. Medium
  24. Hard
  25. Chapter 8
  26. Easy
  27. Medium
  28. Hard
  29. Diabolic
  30. Chapter 9
  31. Easy
  32. Medium
  33. Hard
  34. Chapter 10
  35. Easy
  36. Medium
  37. Hard
  38. login.php
  39. user.php
  40. logout.php
  41. Chapter 11
  42. Easy
  43. Medium
  44. Hard
  45. With continue use
  46. Without continue use
  47. Diabolical
  48. Chapter 12

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