Reddit reviews C++ Primer (4th Edition)

Before teaching myself C++, I was terrified of the language too. Everyone said it's such a big language with many dark corners, and for the most part they're right. Then I /had/ to learn it for some coursework. I found the book C++ Primer to be very good. I abused all sorts of features of the language at the start, wrote tens of thousands of lines of code, and now I actually enjoy using the language for some tasks.

By analogy, cars and driving are scary too, but a healthy respect for the rules and best practices will usually get you to your destination safely.

Basic:

C++ Primer

Effective C++

Effective STL





Advanced:

More Effective C++

C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules

C++ Templates The Complete Guide

Large Scale C++ Design

It's good to hear you didn't pay money for this book. If you take a look on Amazon, you can see that the book has 2.5 star rating from 14 reviews. Not a good rating, and not a well known book at all from the very small number of reviews.

Books like this are aimed at the "passerby" market. By this I mean that they're for people who see a catchy title (for dummies!) or an impressive claim (learn C++ in 24 hours!) and think "Oh, I could do that! Programmers make a lot of money, right?" But these books tend to be so terribly written and/or cover material in such a glossy manner that, by the end, the reader has actually learned very little, if anything at all.

An example of a good book for new C++ programmers is C++ Primer. As you can see it is a much better selling book, and the reviews are much better overall. More importantly, the authors are experts in their field, having either been involved in the development of the original C++ language, C++ standardization, C++ compilers, or some combination of these.

Stephen R. Davis' claim to fame seems to be writing these crappy "For Dummies" books along with that "Learn C++ in a Weekend" book.

All this said, while C++ Primer and others are certainly good books for C++ beginners, C++ itself is not considered to be a very beginner friendly language. You can certainly do it, lot's of people start with C++, however if you find that you're struggling or having trouble with seemingly simple things, you may want to head over to the FAQ and read about the different ways people start programming.

C++ Primer is excellent.

(NOT C++ PRIMER PLUS OH DEAR GOD STAY AWAY)

I think you'll get more feedback if you ask your questions as precise as you can. The term "to show" for example doesn't make it clear if it's related to printing a number or if it's more related to manipulating strings. There are many Websites about learning C++, but also many good books. (I like C++ Primer.)

The consensus here is that you can't, as internet C++ tutorials are all basically crap. If you want to learn the language properly, you will need a good textbook, such as C++ Primer.

I bought the C++ Primer, 4th edition a week ago on advice from this subreddit, and I can't recommend it more. It goes into the perfect amount of detail and uses the right amount of jargon. It's chapters are distinguished very well from one another, and there are full glossaries of all the key words met at the end of each of them. Those along with relevant exercises (some that can be done in your head, others that need to be coded) throughout help you learn much more effectively.

http://www.amazon.com/Primer-4th-Edition-Stanley-Lippman/dp/0201721481

I heard this one is good.

Lippman's C++ Primer (4th ed) won't disappoint.

Ah. This is the explanation I was looking for. Thank you.

I understand your lack of confidence in the book. The other book I was using is Lippman's C++ Primer. The actual code presentation in the Primer was simple and beautiful, but Stroustrup's book seems to follow a more logical sequence of topics. I'm a math major and BS's text reads like a good math book.

The 5th edition isn't out yet (http://www.amazon.com/Primer-5th-Edition-Stanley-Lippman/dp/0321714113/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) and the 4th was released in 2005 (http://www.amazon.com/Primer-4th-Stanley-B-Lippman/dp/0201721481/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343148370&sr=1-4&keywords=C%2B%2B+Primer+%285th+Edition%29) So i guess it's better to wait for the 2012 edition.