This has to be the worst teach yourself book I have come across!
There are errors and omissions which will cause the newcomer hours of frustration when the software doesn't do what he expects.
For example in chapter 18, when describing the use of the mysqli_connect() function, the example erroneously gives the code as mysqli().There is no such function!! This is simply shoddy proof reading. Fortunately in this case, the code on the CD is correct. There are other examples which are not so obvious.
Another significant problem is the way the book skips over many details of the set-up of PHP and the way it links to MySQL. For example, there is no mention of tailoring the PHP.INI file to ensure that it loads the appropriate DLL files to run with MySQL. In my case, having set the software up (running under Windows XP) as described in the manual, PHP would not connect to MySQL, and because the book provided no guide as to how to turn on PHP error reporting, I was completely in the dark as to the cause of the problem. It took several hours of searching the web to identify how to turn on error reporting which then enabled me to identify the missing DLL files. Further web searches showed me how to include these PHP components and I now have a working set-up. No thanks to the authors of this book.