Java: How to Program, 8th Edition [Paperback]

Harvey M. Deitel (Author), Paul J. Deitel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0136053068 | ISBN-13: 978-0136053064 | Edition: 8

"The [arrays] exercises are quite sophisticated and interesting. Provides the best combination of conceptual discussion and implementation examples of dynamic binding that I have encountered in a text. Excellent overview of basic networking via Java. Provides the perfect breadth and depth for generics in an entry-level Java class. Provides a good segue into a data structures course – the exercises are excellent." – Ric Heishman, George Mason University

"Beautiful collections of exercises–a nice illustration of how to use Java libraries to generate impressive and stimulating graphics with minimal code and effort. I found the “Making a Difference” exercises to be very nice and tactfully presented." – Amr Sabry, Indiana University

"A comprehensive introduction to programming in Java that covers all major areas of the platform. To me, the best way to understand programming is by example, and this book contains copious, well-described sample code." – Simon Ritter, Sun Microsystems

"Great example of polymorphism and interfaces. Great comparison of recursion and iteration. I found the [Searching and Sorting] chapter to be just right. A very understandable, simplified explanation of Big O–the best I have ever read! A great synthesis of details to help someone create generic data structures. I appreciate the addition of the GUI-based threading issues. Great approach to Java web technologies." – Sue McFarland Metzger, Villanova University

"I’m sure this [ATM] case study will be of immense value to practitioners and students of the object-oriented approach. Demystifies inheritance and polymorphism, and illustrates their use in getting elegant, simple and maintainable code." – Vinod Varma, Astra Infotech Private Limited

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"The [arrays] exercises are quite sophisticated and interesting. Provides the best combination of conceptual discussion and implementation examples of dynamic binding that I have encountered in a text. Excellent overview of basic networking via Java. Provides the perfect breadth and depth for generics in an entry-level Java class. Provides a good segue into a data structures course – the exercises are excellent." – Ric Heishman, George Mason University

"Beautiful collections of exercises–a nice illustration of how to use Java libraries to generate impressive and stimulating graphics with minimal code and effort. I found the “Making a Difference” exercises to be very nice and tactfully presented." – Amr Sabry, Indiana University

"A comprehensive introduction to programming in Java that covers all major areas of the platform. To me, the best way to understand programming is by example, and this book contains copious, well-described sample code." – Simon Ritter, Sun Microsystems

"Great example of polymorphism and interfaces. Great comparison of recursion and iteration. I found the [Searching and Sorting] chapter to be just right. A very understandable, simplified explanation of Big O–the best I have ever read! A great synthesis of details to help someone create generic data structures. I appreciate the addition of the GUI-based threading issues. Great approach to Java web technologies." – Sue McFarland Metzger, Villanova University

"I’m sure this [ATM] case study will be of immense value to practitioners and students of the object-oriented approach. Demystifies inheritance and polymorphism, and illustrates their use in getting elegant, simple and maintainable code." – Vinod Varma, Astra Infotech Private Limited

About the Author

Paul J. Deitel, CEO and Chief Technical Officer of Deitel & Associates, Inc., is a graduate of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he studied Information Technology. He holds the Java Certified Programmer and Java Certified Developer certifications, and has been designated by Sun Microsystems as a Java Champion. Through Deitel & Associates, Inc., he has delivered Java, C, C++, C# and Visual Basic courses to industry clients, including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Lucent Technologies, Fidelity, NASA at the Kennedy Space Center, the National Severe Storm Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range, Rogue Wave Software, Boeing, Stratus, Cambridge Technology Partners, Open Environment Corporation, One Wave, Hyperion Software, Adra Systems, Entergy, CableData Systems, Nortel Networks, Puma, iRobot, Invensys and many more. He has also lectured on Java and C++ for the Boston Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. He and his father, Dr. Harvey M. Deitel, are the world’s best-selling programming language textbook authors.

Dr. Harvey M. Deitel, Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of Deitel & Associates, Inc., has 45 years of academic and industry experience in the computer field. Dr. Deitel earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. from Boston University. He has 20 years of college teaching experience, including earning tenure and serving as the Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Boston College before founding Deitel & Associates, Inc., with his son, Paul J. Deitel. He and Paul are the co-authors of several dozen books and multimedia packages and they are writing many more. With translations published in Japanese, German, Russian, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Urdu and Turkish, the Deitels’ texts have earned international recognition. Dr. Deitel has delivered hundreds of professional seminars to major corporations, academic institutions, government organizations and the military.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1560 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 8 edition (March 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0136053068
• ISBN-13: 978-0136053064
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning Java on your own? Get this book, June 17, 2009

By 

William Springer (Aurora, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Java: How to Program, 8th Edition (Paperback)

Background: I am a PhD student in computer science, but I do theoretical research that rarely requires coding, so I haven't programmed in years. Recently I decided to pick up java, which I last used in 2000; rather than taking a class, I decided to spend some time this summer working through this book. I have programmed in several languages in the past (most notably C++) so I am familiar with the basics of programming (OOP, control structures, etc) but as I have not used java in close to a decade, much of the language is totally new to me.

The book is easy to read and has been well-proofed. The topics are covered in depth without assuming that the reader is either an expert or stupid: everything that you need to know is covered, but not repeated over and over. A summary and quiz at the end of each chapter makes it simple to check that you understood all of the important points, and the optional GUI case studies allow the reader to immediately jump in to graphical programming, which is often much more interesting than just causing words to appear on the screen! Chapters are a reasonable length as well; time to complete will vary depending on whether you're typing out and compiling the listed programs (you should) and doing the sample problems at the back of each chapter, but I've been spending 1-3 hours on each. Having just finished Chapter 10, I've learned quite a bit, particularly about features of the language which hadn't yet been added the last time I used the language; the enhanced for loop, for example, is pretty cool! The book comes with a companion website that offers downloads of every program in the book, as well as an additional ten appendices that didn't fit into this approximately 1500-page book.

This is actually a 4.5 star review, as there is one editing error that annoys me and makes the book a little harder to use. As each chapter involves writing a program and then modifying it, code is necessarily repeated; changes are highlighted in yellow to make it easier to find the places that need to be changed in your code. However, there are several places where the highlighting is incorrect (code that has changed is not highlighted, or code is highlighted without having been changed). It's a minor issue and only takes a few minutes to figure out, so I've gone ahead and rounded my rating up to a five. The book is definitely not perfect, but it's the best programming book I've read so far.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Awesome Learning Tool, January 19, 2010

By 

Jorge Kirk Gonzalez "Hope this helps" (Irving, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Java: How to Program, 8th Edition (Paperback)

I love this book, actually more of a system since it comes with additional appendix, video, ebook format and additional resources.

At first I did not want to buy this book. I had bought other books that were pretty good and I thought that was enough. But I wanted to take a class in Java and the book was required by the school. It cost me more to buy it at the campus bookstore but I needed within two days so I paid the extra to have it now.

Then the day the class was to start it got canceled. So here I was with this $100.00 book that I didn't want. The bookstore wouldn't take it back because I had already registered the book. (There is a scratch-off access code that lets you access the website for the code files and other resources I mentioned earlier.)

Because I paid for it and I had no class, I started working through it on my own.

It is just such a wonderful book. I'm a technical writer and I have also been a trainer so I really noticed the care and attention given to the book's structure. It has advanced organizers, objective previews, sub TOCs and indexes and lots and lots of exercises. The paper is very good quality and the book has lots of color and white space so your eyes don't get tired as quickly. This is the book/manual structure I would love to write myself if the company I'm working with had the staff and time resources to make a near perfect product.

Then online it has an ebook format that I particularly like using. I can increase and decrease the text size at will and it's a lot lighter to have my laptop in bed than the book. There are also video indicators on some of the code examples that explain what is going on even better than the text (or maybe it's just the way I learn best).

This was a book that I didn't want to have to buy and now I think it's the best investment I could have made for learning Java. I'd still like to take a class but as I work my way through the book, I wonder if I will need to.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you're not familiar with object-oriented programming, start somewhere else, September 23, 2010

By 

A Wuulf (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Java: How to Program, 8th Edition (Paperback)

Seasoned object-oriented programmers looking for a comprehensive Java manual should be satisfied with this selection.

I was COMPLETELY NEW to object-oriented programming, however, and this book hindered my initial progress more than it helped. This book was required for an Intro to Object-Oriented Programming course. Unfortunately for the professor, the entire class was horribly confused by Chapter 3. The only students who had any clue were a few, experienced C++ programmers.

To borrow a well-coined phrase, this book "reads like stereo instructions."

Deitel & Deitel try to do too much with such a complex topic. They spend a couple of chapters laying a great introductory background by explaining the history of programming and the internet, but then proceed with cramped, dictionary-like pages filled with non-intuitive code examples. Definitions are delivered in a "drive-by" manner: bolded terms with only a few words or context as an explanation. EACH of the first several chapters has in excess of SEVENTY (70) highlighted definitions, so this quickly becomes VERY cumbersome. The chapter introducing objects and their components left me more confused than before I read the text. Finally, and my biggest beef: error-trapping techniques and debugger use is sequestered in the appendices and not taught as a routine part of programming.

If you are new to object-oriented programming, my recommendation to you is: "Objects First with Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ" by Barnes and Kolling (Pearson: Prentice Hall), 3rd or 4th edition. Definitions are spare and well-highlighted, examples begin visually and simply, and exercises use code on the included CD Rom. You will be building simple programs immediately and debugging by Chapter 6. You should be able to pick it up used for a song, and BlueJ -- a simple, fairly typical code-editing application -- is free for download on-line.

Once you have a command of the basics, THEN go get the Deitel book. It's a great reference for users with background. Good luck.