Rating: 
Summary: A good reference, no more no less.
Review: Honestly if you are looking into buying this book take a look at O'Reilly's "Webmaster in a nutshell" before you buy this. The information in here is pretty much a repeat of everything in there, only the Webmaster book contains a lot more valuable and exstensive knowlege base in regards to not just PHP. If you just want a simple, small reference with information that is readily available for free on the web then you may find this useful, otherwise don't bother. I have to give it some credit because the book dosen't claim to be any more than it is and it is pretty inexpensive.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good book!
Review: I can really recommend this book if you know PHP and need a fast and simple way to look up a function or something else.. Easy to find very thing in the book and i would like to see the next version of this book for PHP 4 when that will be released!
Rating:
Summary: Not a good format for a scripting tool reference.
Review: I disagree with the reviewer who said this book is lacking an index. This book *is* an index, and not a terribly helpful one.A Nutshell-type book makes more sense for a robust scripting tool. PHP is not a trivial or admin-oriented language; if you want to sell *any* reader on its virtues, you have to show what the language can do. As a co-author of the The Java 2 Certification Study Guide, I can tell you exactly what readers think of a list of calls in print -- we used to have 200+ pages of that in the back of our book. Anyone who had anything to say about it called it filler, and they were right. Make a PHP Nutshell book, and get someone like Flanagan to write it. Believe me, we'll buy it. Admittedly,I wasn't expecting a whole lot more than I got for the price of this book. But when an info-holic has a book he won't crack twice on a long plane ride, something's wrong with the book. :-)
Rating: 
Summary: A great disappointment
Review: I have been a fan of O-Reilly Pocket References for some time. My colleagues would say that I am highly vested in them. Sadly, this is the worst one I've seen. The first section is actually laid out very well. The syntax highlighting and language basics are described with succinctness and efficiency. As for the second section, the function reference, it is basically worthless. Taking up a bulk of the text, this 97 page listing is nearly pointless, as so many have said before me. The listing is completely alphabetical, which means you have to know what you are looking for before you look for it. Assuming you know what to look for, then you most likely have some idea what the syntax is, making this, sadly, a waste of effort (although, I can't deny that a syntax reference can be useful, if organized properly). I'd have two suggestions for the next edition. The function reference would be decent if it were categorized. Since this would prevent alphabetical ordering of entries, my second recommendation is an index, which many reviewers have requested before. With this said, don't bother with this product (2nd edition), unless you *KNOW* PHP.
Rating:
Summary: A great disappointment
Review: I have been a fan of O-Reilly Pocket References for some time. My colleagues would say that I am highly vested in them. Sadly, this is the worst one I've seen. The first section is actually laid out very well. The syntax highlighting and language basics are described with succinctness and efficiency. As for the second section, the function reference, it is basically worthless. Taking up a bulk of the text, this 97 page listing is nearly pointless, as so many have said before me. The listing is completely alphabetical, which means you have to know what you are looking for before you look for it. Assuming you know what to look for, then you most likely have some idea what the syntax is, making this, sadly, a waste of effort (although, I can't deny that a syntax reference can be useful, if organized properly). I'd have two suggestions for the next edition. The function reference would be decent if it were categorized. Since this would prevent alphabetical ordering of entries, my second recommendation is an index, which many reviewers have requested before. With this said, don't bother with this product (2nd edition), unless you *KNOW* PHP.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for programmers.
Review: If you can code you already know PHP, you just need to be "reminded" of all the built in functions and a few little details. This book does just that, cheaply. Some CGI background is helpfull if you have never done any web programming, but any intelligent programmer should be coding PHP in half an hour with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother!
Review: If you want to learn PHP, there are other books on Amazon that actually teach it. If you want a good reference, php.net is the best place to go because it's up to date and each function reference includes user/developer comments. PHP changes so often that this book was probably outdated as soon as it was published. On top of that, it's really just a list, with no index. Although I'm a big fan of these O'Reilly pocket books, this one was a waste of my money.
Rating:
Summary: No index! Argh!
Review: It's been said by prior reviewers, but just in case you missed it: This book has no index. ORA should put out PHP In A Nutshell, rather than just PHP Pocket Reference.
Rating:
Summary: Another ORA Ref
Review: Just like many of the other ORA Reference books this one doesnt fail to deliver. No PHP developer should be without it, it's an excellent quick reference, very well set out. You'll soon be using the best PHP commands and functions for the job. Be sure to learn a little PHP before buying this book however, otherwise it will go to waste until you're at least a little comfortable with the language ! It's cheap too ! Go get it !
Rating: 
Summary: List of functions, but wheres the beef?
Review: Like many others are saying about this book it has two major flaws, the first is that it lacks an index, while it does have a table of contents, if you need to look up a specific command you can't. The second, and more important, problem is that this book doesn't describe the functions in a usable fashion. In fact the printing of the function is sometimes longer than the description itself, they rarely go beyond 5 words. While some functions do not need a lengthy explanation, others do. This book isn't all bad, earlier on it does explain (in full sentences/paragraphs, wow!) about form handling, database integration, variables, bolean, and the basics like while/do and if/then. Like every other O'Reilly pocket reference, these mini books are only good as a reference, not as a sole learning tool so if you purchase this book, I sure hope you bought a full sized PHP book.
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