Ways to learn PHP?

[Jason_Martin]

phpbuddy.com is a best website to learn PHP and you can also clear your doubts from w3schools.com i also have good experience in it.

[Wuai Bel Ree]

Alright, I've narrowed down what I'm searching for a tiny bit, and that birthday is 3 days away. Anyone know any resource that has exercises, complemented with an answer key, that make me apply what I've learned? You know, the exercises start out easy, then slowly get harder. I think part of the problem I'm having with learning PHP is that I have no idea where to start practicing it, so it'd be helpful to have something telling me what to do. I didn't see anything indicating exercises in any of the resources posted on this thread so far.

And am I going to need to buy anything outside of a possible book to learn PHP?

[bobsklarservices]

am I going to need to buy anything outside of a possible book to learn PHP?

I should think not, there's plenty of free PHP hosting out there. Although for testing, I have IIS 7.5 with PHP 5.3 and MySQL 5.5 on my laptop to help me out with all that. Sorry if I'm too late

[papercupmachine]

I'm thinking of getting these three books. Does anyone have good/bad experiences with any of 'em? Are they good for a beginner?

PHP 5  for the Absolute Beginner
http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Programming-Absolute-Beginner/dp/1592004946/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_2/102-7421431-9620950

PHP For Dummies
http://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Dummies-Computer-Tech/dp/0470096004/sr=8-1/qid=1170178118/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7421431-9620950?ie=UTF8&s=books

Web Database Applications with PHP
http://www.amazon.com/Web-Database-Applications-PHP-MySQL/dp/0596005431/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_3/102-7421431-9620950

[TheWaffle]

I have bought and read this book and I found it very helpfull.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1449325572/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1358101239&sr=8-2&pi=SL75
Only downside I found was it didn't cover Ajax.