How many of PHP functions & operators should one remember to code?

Mr. Alex · 06-07-2011, 01:00 PM

Hello!
So if you are a PHP-programmer (average one) and code for money, how many of funtions and operators of PHP should you remember by heart (in real life)? I was looking through php.net and man there are millions of tonns of them!

Guttorm · 06-07-2011, 02:34 PM

I code PHP for money, but by heart and in real life? I hope none. Learn how to search. Make something with passion and you're good. People don't want to see your code.

sundialsvcs · 06-07-2011, 03:00 PM

I would simply expect you to be competent with the language, and able to deliver on your promises. However, I would also expect you to know how to properly avail yourself of reference materials and the possibly-greater expertise of your co-workers. No one knows it all. No one needs to.

"I'm hiring a workman, not an encyclopedia."

dugan · 06-07-2011, 03:48 PM

Never memorize what you can look up.

Mr. Alex · 06-08-2011, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guttorm

I code PHP for money, but by heart and in real life? I hope none. Learn how to search. Make something with passion and you're good.

So everytime you need to perform something particular in your PHP script you just search for a function in Google?

bigearsbilly · 06-08-2011, 06:04 AM

yep that's it.

if there is a well developed library use it.

for instance, recently I needed to convert between timezones.
I used standard time library functions to do the job.

If I was to write my own, I'd need to take into a account
country and time zones, the calendar, daylight saving time and who knows what else.

To do it myself would take weeks of work to research/test/debug
before I could be 99% sure it works ok.

So I use a library.

graemef · 06-08-2011, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Alex

So everytime you need to perform something particular in your PHP script you just search for a function in Google?

A better starting point for PHP would be it's own documentation rather than Google. You can download the whole documentation in either html or in help file format and do you searching from there. If you don't find the function that you are after then check out Pear. If you are still out of luck then google.

bigearsbilly · 06-08-2011, 08:41 AM

agreed graemef.

I usually download it and install it on my internal web server.

sundialsvcs · 06-09-2011, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

Never memorize what you can look up.

To that end, whenever I'm teaching at the community college, you can bring a one-page "cheat sheet" to every test including the final exam. As long as you prepared it, and staple it to the test when you turn it in, "everyone has reference materials available to them, and refers to those materials constantly on the job, and so any situation that demands rote memorization is both unfair and useless." (Preparing such a sheet is also the best study-method that I know.)

frieza · 06-09-2011, 11:21 AM

yep, i myself usually have an idea of what php function is necessary for the task at hand but not always the exact syntax, so i'm always frequenting php.net
if you use firefox, there is a search addon for php.net documentation so you can search php.net from firefox's search bar, i would recommend you add that.

another useful tool for the HTML end of your php scripts would be firebug.