This new book is targeted for PHP developers already familiar with PHP 4. Rather than functioning as a definitive guide to whole language, zero books in the new features in PHP 5, and includes these features definitively. You'll find a concise assessment of the differences between PHP 4 and PHP 5, see details of what's new in this latest version, and you'll see how PHP 5 improves on PHP 4 code. See PHP 4 and PHP 5 code side-by-side, to learn how the new features make it easier to solve common problems of PHP. Topics covered in Upgrading to PHP 5 include: Powerful new set of object-oriented programming features An improved MySQL extension, supporting MySQL 4.1, prepared statements and bound parameters Completely rewritten support for XML: DOM, XSLT, SAX, and SimpleXML Easy web services with SOAP SQLite, an embedded database library bundled with PHP 5 Cleaner error handling with exceptions Other new language features such as iterators, streams, and more. Written by Adam Trachtenberg, coauthor of the popular PHP Cookbook, this book will take you directly to the heart of everything new in PHP 5.