I can't learn PHP

Hey guys,

No matter what, i just can't learn php, which sucks because I can't develop for Wordpress. No matter what tutorials I go through, I just can't learn it. Its like a foreign language for me. Its ridicolous.

Should I just stop trying and just pay a freelancer to convert all my PSD files into wordpress themes.

Only reason I want to learn php is because I want to get into Wordpress Themes, Wordpress Admin Backend Theme options and Wordpress Plugins.

I <3 wordpress

Where is it not making sense?

Errr... WordPress theming is a piece of cake. Srsly. :S

The documentation makes it even easier.

Don't give up.

I agree to Dan, you should not give up!

Don't give up mate, it was the same way for me, and not I am one of the best a t it. Take some time to yourself, and visit w3schools, and read the tutorials slowly, and whenever you get bored give YouTube a little visit for about 5 minutes, and then go back to learning.

Also take your time, do not rush through it, thing of it as a very important state test you need to pass.

That is how I did it, and it worked out fine for me.

I've done a few Wordpress themes and I wouldn't exactly call it a piece of cake - not for someone who's unfamiliar with PHP. That being said, it's definitely do-able and I agree with the others: Don't give up.

I learn better by working on an actual project rather than working on lessons or tutorials that might not directly relate to a task I'm trying to do. Start small - use an existing theme and try making modifications to it. Then modify something else on it. Google info on the specific things you're trying to modify. As you get more and more of those small tasks under your belt things will start to click.

I had the hardest time learning PHP as well. I soon found out that you don't learn everything all at once. It's handy to have php.net, the WordPress Codex, and pretty much anything else that's relevant for WordPress designing bookmaked. You learn as you go, and you'll start seeing yourself thinking out of the box and trying to accomplish something. It takes baby steps, but you just need to find out how to make programming work for you, and your client. Loops, functions for quick, repetitive tasks, and other things.

A quick lesson with PHP: It's a scripting language, which means with each request (yoursite.com/example.php...) it loads everything that was included in the PHP files. PHP bounces around from file to file, but understanding that it's simply just a script you're running could make everything a bunch easier. There's no magic happening with a scripting language :P

I'd also recommend just trying out a few exercises for yourself:

1. Create a loop in WordPress, make sure it grabs the post's title, date, author and content.
2. Create a post page (permalink) in WordPress, and then link the loop page (post listing) to the post page.

After you've done those things, get curious and figure out how it's happening. Click around the files and read the code. It probably won't make sense to you at first, but over time you will start to understand what is going on. Also make sure you look around the database. Most popular *AMP clients offer PHPMyAdmin to browse around the database. If you'd like a better database client and if you have a Mac, I'd definitely look into Sequel Pro.

These are some of the most helpful pages in the WordPress Codex, I'd recommend bookmarking them:

• Template Tags
• Function Reference

If you're looking for a place to start, I'd highly recommend reading the Theme Development article in the WordPress Codex.

You can do it! I come from a design background too, and now I actually enjoy programming more than designing PSDs...

You are likely making it more complicated than it really is.

Jake, mate, excellent post! In addition I highly recommend purchasing some beginner PHP books. O'Reilly makes a terrific book, and I believe they have one out for PHP 5.x.

Once you learn the basics of PHP and MySQL, the rest of it comes naturally. Referring to the documentation at php.net is also another great way of learning tricks and what things do and what they process and much more.

http://php.net/

I have also struggled with php, but thanks to this post I am encouraged to persevere with it.

What I have been doing is trying to read everything, learn everything, before putting into practice. It makes sense taking baby steps. Thanks everyone.