If you were traveling in Spain, but couldn't speak Spanish very well, you'd probably carry a Spanish dictionary with you. If you are a PHP developer who needs a portable reference guide for frequent use in your job, the PHP Phrasebook is perfect for you. The PHP Phrasebook is actually a pocket guide that is jam-packed with useful and essential PHP code "phrases" for the PHP developer's everyday use. The code is flexible, so it can be easily adapted to your needs and mulitple situations, and your time isn't wasted wading through chapters of tutorial lessons and extraneous information. The phrasebook covers PHP 5 and is relevant for PHP 4.

Table of Contents:
    Introduction 1. Manipulating Strings.     Comparing Strings     Checking Usernames and Passwords     Converting Strings into Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)     Using Line Breaks     Encrypting Strings     Checksumming Strings     Extracting Substrings     Protecting Email Addresses Using ASCII Codes     Scanning Formatted Strings     Getting Detailed Information About Variables     Searching in Strings     Using POSIX Regular Expressions     Using Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions     Finding Tags with Regular Expressions     Validating Mandatory Input     Validating Numbers (and Other Data Types)     Validating Email Addresses     Search and Replace 2. Working with Arrays.     Accessing All Elements of Numerical Arrays     Accessing All Elements of Associative Arrays     Accessing All Array Elements in Nested Arrays     Turning an Array into Variables     Converting Strings to Arrays     Converting Arrays to Strings     Sorting Arrays Alphabetically     Sorting Associative Arrays Alphabetically     Sorting Nested Arrays     Sorting Nested Associative Arrays     Sorting IP Addresses (as a Human Would)     Sorting Anything     Sorting with Foreign Languages     Applying an Effect to All Array Elements     Filtering Arrays     Getting Random Elements Out of Arrays 3. Date and Time.     Using Text Within date()     Automatically Localizing Dates     Manually Localizing Dates     Using the Current Date the U.S./U.K./European Way     Formatting a Specific Date     Validating a Date     Calculating a Relative Date     Creating a Sortable Time Stamp     Converting a String into a Date     Determining Sunrise and Sunset     Using Date and Time for Benchmarks     Using Form Fields for Date Selection     Create Self-updating Form Fields for Date Selection     Calculating the Difference Between Two Dates     Using GMT Date/Time Information 4. Interacting with Web Forms.     Sending Form Data Back to the Current Script     Reading Out Form Data     Coping with "Magic Quotes"     Checking Whether a Form Has Been Submitted     Saving Form Data into a Cookie     Prefilling Text Fields and Password Fields     Prefilling Multiline Text Fields     Preselecting Radio Buttons     Preselecting Check Boxes     Preselecting Selection Lists     Preselecting Multiple Selection Lists     Processing Graphical Submit Buttons     Checking Mandatory Fields     Checking Selection Lists     Writing All Form Data into a File     Sending All Form Data Via Email     Getting Information About File Uploads     Moving Uploaded Files to a Safe Location 5. Remembering Users (Cookies and Sessions).     Understanding Cookies     Creating a Cookie     Reading Out Cookies     Getting Rid of "Magic Quotes" in Cookies     Setting a (Reasonable) Expiry Date     Setting a Client-Specific Expiry Date     Deleting a Cookie     Making Cookies Accessible for Several Domains     Checking Whether the Client Supports Cookies     Saving Multiple Data in One Cookie     Saving the User's Language Preference     Understanding Sessions     Where to Store the Sessions     How to Maintain the Session State     Activating Sessions     Reading and Writing Sessions     Closing Sessions     Changing the Session ID     Creating Dynamic, Session-Aware Links     Implementing a Custom Session Management     Creating a Secured Area with Sessions     Creating a Secured Area Without Sessions 6. Using Files on the Server File System.     Opening and Closing Files     Reading from Files     Writing to Files     Locking Files     Using Relative Paths for File Access     Avoiding Security Traps with File Access     Working with CSV Data     Parsing INI Files     Retrieving File Information     Copying, Moving, and Deleting Files     Browsing the File System     Using PHP Streams     Using Bzip2 Archives     Returning Files with an HTTP Request 7. Making Data Dynamic.     Connecting to MySQL     Connecting to MySQLi     Sending SQL to MySQL     Prepared Statements with MySQL     Retrieving Results of a Query to MySQL     Connecting to SQLite     Sending SQL to SQLite     Retrieving Results of a Query to SQLite     Connecting to PostgreSQL     Sending SQL to PostgreSQL     Updating Data in PostgreSQL     Retrieving Results of a Query to PostgreSQL     Connecting to Oracle     Sending SQL to Oracle     Retrieving Results of a Query to Oracle     Connecting to MSSQL     Sending SQL to MSSQL     Retrieving Results of a Query to MSSQL     Connecting to Firebird     Sending SQL to Firebird     Retrieving Results of a Query to Firebird     Connecting Via PDO     Sending SQL Via PDO     Retrieving Results of a Query Via PDO 8. Using XML.     Parsing XML with SAX     Using DOM in PHP 4 to Read XML     Using DOM in PHP 5 to Read XML     Using DOM in PHP 4 to Write XML     Using DOM in PHP 5 to Write XML     Using SimpleXML     Transforming XML with XSL and PHP 4     Transforming XML with XSL and PHP 5     Validating XML 9. Communicating with Others.     Connecting with HTTP Servers     Connecting with FTP Servers     Checking Whether a Server Is Still Reacting     Creating a Web Service with PEAR::XML-RPC     Consuming a Web Service with PEAR::XML-RPC     Creating a Web Service with NuSOAP     Automatically Generating WSDL with NuSOAP     Consuming a Web Service with NuSOAP     Creating a Web Service with PEAR::SOAP     Automatically Generating WSDL with PEAR::SOAP     Consuming a Web Service with PEAR::SOAP     Creating a Web Service with PHP 5's SOAP Extension     Consuming a Web Service with PHP 5's SOAP Extension Index.