Customer Reviews

C++ Primer (4th Edition)

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

It's too bad that Amazon has listed reviews here which apply to earlier editions of the book. This 4th edition is a very different book than the 3rd or previous editions. (Any review you see here prior to February 2005, when this edition was printed, doesn't apply to this book.) The front cover of this book says that more than 450,000 programmers have learned C++ from previous editions. I wasn't one of them, though I bought and started to read 2 previous editions in the attempt to be. I already new C very well and the approach taken in those editions bogged me down in too much detail that I already knew.

This 4th edition is a tremendous improvement over the others. The material has been completely reorganized and updated and is much more effectively presented. The text is sprinkled with highlighted tips, notes, warnings, and best practices that not only helpful in learning the material but in applying it well. Each chapter is summarized at the end and has a glossary of important terms and concepts. Exercises at the end of each section make this book a good candidate for classroom use as well as individual study. They even knocked 300 pages off the length of the 3rd edition!

If you want to learn C++ thoroughly and well using just one book, this is the book to buy.

Let me state up-front that this is an indispensable book for me, and, as a reference, or as a source for expanding a basic C++ capability, it's easily worth 5 stars, not 4. In fact, as an intermediate-level C++ user, this is the most indispensable book that I have. I have 15 C++ books on my shelf, and this one (the fourth edition) is the most comprehensive, even surpassing Stroustrup's tome in most areas. (Stroustrup's influence on Primer is pretty obvious in spots.) The book's depth and its style of presentation, however, will mean that it's not the best primer for newcomers, and that's why I only gave it a 4-star rating. Look at the painting metaphor expressed on the front cover of the book. This book is more than a primer: it's a full pallet of colors, and as such is more than a beginner "painter" will be able to put to use quickly. I need to clarify what I'm saying here.

You might ask how a book can be the most comprehensive available without being longer in page count. The answer comes down to style. This book rarely expends space on full-length, executable code examples. The treatment of nine out of ten subjects offers only snippets of code - not complete executable examples. Many books offer examples that take up multiple pages for the code and multiple pages for the line-by-line explanations of the code. This difference in presentation is the single biggest reason why C++ Primer can offer so much more thorough coverage of C++ language features in fewer than 900 pages. The downside is, if you intend to learn C++, you absolutely must experiment with working code - there is no other way. The fact that this book does not offer much complete working code means that you will have to spend more time getting yourself set up to experiment. This will be especially true if you are a beginner, just because it will be harder to get things working.

The conciseness of code examples is matched by conciseness of explanations. In this regard, however, I have found no downside: the vast majority of explanations are extremely clear to the point of elegance. I've found only a few flaws in clarity, which are probably left over from earlier editions.

The tremendous depth of this book will be another weakness for newcomers to C++ who need to get started quickly. In my opinion, you just can't get started quickly when every treatment of every subject has to cover all of the ins and outs of that subject. There are too many subjects and too many ins and outs. If you try to go straight through the book, you'd better be prepared to work lots and lots of problems along the way: it will take so long to get through it that if you don't practice as you go, you may find yourself forgetting almost as fast as you're learning.

The other side of the coin is this: if you really do take this book, work through it from start to finish, and really master the material, you'll have a fantastic knowledge of C++. I seriously doubt that three good college courses in C++ - assuming no prior programming experience - would teach as much. The fact that you'll have to develop your own working code to demonstrate each feature will, like the depth of treatment, make you a better programmer, even though it seriously slows you down in the process.

You can conclude, then that if you are a newcomer to C++, and especially if you are inexperienced with programming in general, this book will be a long, hard climb. I'd be willing to bet that fewer than 5 percent of purchasers of this book start at the beginning and work straight through. Even so, if you are a newcomer taking a C++ programming class or just using another book to get started, it will be valuable for parallel reading and will come in very handy when you want to do a deep dive. Finally, don't forget that if you have a basic grounding in C++ fundamentals and you want to grow from there, this is a dynamite, five-star opportunity.

I feel like I have to elaborate here a bit as well. Time after time after time, when I've wanted a better understanding of a really fine point on the language, I've turned to this book and been rewarded for doing so. Every single subject is explained fully and, in most cases, eloquently. You can learn to do a lot quickly in C++ using other resources, but C++ offers the ability to fine tune and get close to the hardware. This book will make you better understand what the compiler is doing. The authors took the time to make extensive use of cross-references, which are invaluable in a subject this complex. The explanations, bolstered by cross-references, tend to leave me more than satisfied that I've gotten a grip. When I finish a section and have some example code executing, I feel like I have a complete understanding: I rarely find myself asking, "... but what about ...." I could go on and on, but you get the message. (One reason I'm taking the time to write this is that I feel indebted to the authors!)

The book builds up a consistent set of semantics - more so than any other book I've read. One example is their thorough explanation and consistent use of the terms "declare" and "define." Another is example is "argument" and "parameter list." Unambiguous semantics are essential to unambiguous communication, and, as you know, programming is one of the most unforgiving disciplines there is; ambiguity is intolerable. This attention to detail pervades the entire book, beyond just semantics.

Also, like with Stroustrup's book, I don't have to worry about whether the authors got it right or wrong or only half-right. This is an authoritative work: these guys know their subject as well as they know how to communicate it.

I especially like the dark page summaries and glossaries that act as chapter boundaries. I like the highlighted notes, tips, "bewares," and best practices. I like the blocks of text that address "cautions." These features are value-multipliers for me.

I also appreciate that there is absolutely no subconscious assumption that you already know C. That assumption seems to creep into so many other books, even though the authors deny it.

I agree with other reviewers that this edition is a huge improvement over previous editions. (I have the second edition beside me as I write this.) Frankly, I don't like the earlier editions. My guess is that the new authors, who came on board for this edition, should get a lot of credit. (I know an absolutely brilliant guy who has done some real innovation with C++. For example, he wrote a C++ library that allows you to write C++ in Python style, while getting C++ performance. This same guy was so intimidated by an earlier edition of Primer that he put off trying to learn C++ for several years! I'm still trying to convince him to get the fourth edition!)

So the fourth edition is a vast improvement, but, assuming that we don't try to make it all things to all readers and stick with the objective of compact comprehensiveness, how could we improve it further? The code examples could be simpler. I think Schildt is the master of communicating through code examples, just because his examples do the best job of isolating on the subject at hand. C++ is an extremely broad language, and when I read about a concept, I don't want to be expected to know everything, especially code examples, that preceded it in the book. Primer could do a better job - at least for me - in that respect. Examples should not be codependent: each example should lean only on the preceding material as much as is necessary to get the point across. Stated another way, OO programmers are big on encapsulation; OO tutorial writers should use the same rigor in encapsulating modules of tutorial text. All experts agree that the best code is code that is easily readable. In a tutorial, the meaning of the code examples should jump off the page. Primer is not bad in this regard, but it could be better. Some will argue that leaning on previous material reinforces the learning of the material, and they will be right. In my opinion, however, that argument applies mostly to course textbooks where the learning of diverse features can be forced into a tightly channeled sequence. I often use Schildt and Holtzner for reference when I need a quick answer. (As an aside, Stroustrup's book is the worst, for me, in terms of code examples being unnecessarily complex and codependent, even though I consider his book second only to this one as an indispensable reference.)

Bottom line: C++ Primer is an amazing accomplishment. The authors have done the best job to date of sorting out and presenting in lucid fashion a vast and complex network of features. I speak from experience as a technical writer as well as a student of C++. I feel guilty for assigning only four stars, but I'm concerned about the newbie who sees a 5-star rating on a "primer," and rushes to spend his limited budget on this book as a sole reference. C++ Primer is a very wise investment if you are really serious about C++, whether newbie or expert, but most newbies will also need a primary resource that is more beginner-oriented. Other books I recommend, in addition to the ones mentioned previously, include Prata (a good tutorial and a good resource for complete code examples, although there is significant codependence of examples); Lafore; Josuttis' classic STL book (definitely not for beginners); Schildt's STL book, also for its code examples; Keough and Gray (for quick reference only); and Safir and Brown (which does assume that you know C).

This is a great book for anyone who want to enhance his/her knowledge
on C++, but this is by no means a primer book. If you are new to C++,
read the book "C++ primer plus" first. It is so funny that the book
"C++ primer plus" (which is also a great book) is really an introductory
book. The names of these two books should be swapped because this book
introduces more advanced topics and the topics that an experience programmer should know but a student does not need to. From my teaching experience in a state university, I would suggest students to read C++ books in the following order:

C++ primer Plus
C++ Primer
Thinking in C++ (great book, free on the internet)
The C++ Programming Language (by Stroustrup)

Then you may want to read some books on special topics such as Visual C++, Database, etc.

This book is NOT for the beginner!!! In that respect, its title is misleading to intimate that it should be a "first time" type book. IT IS NOT!!

This book is for the intermediate to advanced C++ application developer. To really get the maximum benefit from reading it, will first require that you have a good basic knowledge of the language under your belt. With that, you are then poised to reap the best this book has to offer, and it DOES offer a LOT. It delves deeper into the syntactical construct and nuances of the language (which is why it's not for beginners), technically explaining (and demonstrating) a wider aspect of the language's purpose and implementation. This means (for example), even though you might have known what the use of the "const" keyword is for, Lippman makes sure the reader understands that it's not just to prevent an object or a function it qualifies, from getting modified, but that ANY ATTEMPT to have even a pointer to a non-constant object, address a constant object, will result in a compile-time error. This is just an example of where he takes you behind the scene. In other words, he realizes you already know what's happening up front, and now he's revealing additional refinements of the language regarding that specific part of it.

Sure, there are some errors in the book, both typographical and technical, but Lippman is not spoon-feeding anybody, and it's precisely because you're not a beginner why you'll most likely discover the errors if not just by reading, then certainly by experimenting with the many examples he has given. If you are a serious developer, then you'll certainly want to put what he's saying to the test, which is how your knowledge will grow and expand. By all means, this does not excuse him from such errors, but taken in context, they are NOT a reflection of any limitation on his part to the language, but more due to other constraining details that goes into writing a book of this magnitude.

Repeatedly, one can observe the author was trying to cover as much ground about the language (in depth) without leaving any stone unturned, which sometimes makes what he's saying, totally incoherent. It is only when you stop to digest, or slow down your intake of what you're reading, that upon analysis you are forced to parse his statements in order to assimilate the meaning. Take this as an example. In Section 7.9 where he's explaining "Pointers to Functions" (clearly this is NOT something for beginners), he breaks down the entire concept into several subsections (just to give you an example of how much ground there is to cover on this topic) beginning with "The 'type' of a Pointer to Function," then on to "Initialization and Assignment," followed by "Arrays of Pointers to Functions", until he reaches "Parameters and Return Types" where (by this time) the reader will have either grasped the gist of the subject matter, or will have to reread the foregoing sections, because now Lippman is taking the reader to a higher level. He's telling the reader that "Because a function parameter can be a 'pointer to function', we can pass a 'pointer to function' as an argument." BUT, he cautions, "A function parameter never has a function type. Instead, a parameter of function type is automatically converted to the type, 'pointer to function'."

Clearly, these are NOT concepts meant to be served to the beginner.

Personally, I have read this book so thoroughly, I can say there is hardly anything in the Language Standards that Lippman did not try to cover (perhaps some more than others), and nowhere is this more obvious than in the sheer size of the book; over 1200 pages. Where else can you find a source pertaining to the rules, syntax, constructs and explanation of the language, other than the actual Standard itself, and to read that (even for an advanced practitioner like myself) would be a torture of unimaginable proportion.

If you are at the point in your understanding of the language where you are ready to advance to the next higher level, you will need to read (and reference) this book in order to pack down more solidly your knowledge of C++. After you've done that, then you're ready for those other books that will sharpen your skills and expertise (even more), like "Effective C++" and "More Effective C++" by Scott Meyers.

Without that SOLID grasp from reading and understanding Lippman, other books like those from Meyers' will be less "Effective."

I am in the beginner to intermetiate level in C++. This book is very challenging; I am able to keep up with it, but it takes some concentration and work.

I bought this book about a year ago and find that I use it more than any of the other C++ books I own (5 others). I use it so much because it goes into great detail in explaining the theories behind the code. On the down side, there are very few complete programs listed (if any) and the subjects jump around the book a lot (e.g., STL string). However, I find this helps in my understanding by forcing me to completely digest the subject before being able to make the code work in my programs.

If you are looking for code snippets, this is not for you. If you are looking for explanations, buy it!

There is also an Answer Book available ("C++ Primer Answer Book" by Clovis L. Tondo and Bruce P. Leung) that answers all the exercises in the book. Together, the two books are unbeatable for understanding this complex subject.

This book covers the newest and advanced features in standard C++. It has good chapters on function and class templates, overload resolution, generic algorithms and multiple/virtual inheritance. But the long text search program used to illustrate object-oriented programming is a total disaster: it forces the reader into the mundane nusances of the example and obscures the real objective, i.e. teaching objects, their inheritance and use. To make things even more obscure, the entire book is full of errors, some at critical places, and especially in the Appendix that covers the generic algorithms. I did not count them but they are not too far from 100. Another aspect that I did not like is the lack of comments on the program code. I read the book cover to cover 3 times and believe me I did waste weeks on those obscure code lines and did figure out over 99% of them. Sure,ommitting comments is a sure way to make the code appear deep and awesome. But if the author respects the reader's time and really cares more about teaching the reader than about showing his/her knowledge, he/she should include a generous amount of comment. My recommendation is: Buy it if you are determined to learn the advanced features of C++ and are sure you have the time and patience to struggle with the obscuring examples and the numerous misleading errors.

I've been using this book to teach a course in C++ and OOP, and my students have almost unanimously panned it -- poorly organized, hard to follow examples, topics spread out over many different parts of the book. I myself found it to be not a bad reference, particularly if you're already somewhat familiar with the language and/or concepts, but it's definitely NOT a book one could use to learn the language themselves (see SAM's C++ in 21 days or the Waite Group Primer instead!)

Lippman's primer is the first book on C++ programming that I read. It happends to remain one of my favorites. The first part of the book is devoted to the "basic" syntax of the language. The differences with C are pointed out and for those unfamiliar with C programming this material is essential. The second half of the book coveres C++ specific topics like templates and object-oriented constructs. I find Lippman's examples superb.

I would rate the book a 9 out of 10 for technical content, but unfortunately C++ has changed appreciably in the 6 years since it's publication. Overall I'd have to give it a 7 since it does not cover the recent changes to the language, for example the Standard Library (STL). Of course, only one introductory text does cover STL anyway, so I have high standards.

Conversly, since the book was written about the time of the Annotated Reference Manual (ARM) it is a great introduction for experienced programmers who don't already know C++ and who might not want to know right away about the latest and esoteric features of the language. Persons entirely new to programming might not want to start with this book.

I teach C++ programming courses to part-time graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University and of the 20 or 30 C++ texts on my shelf I consider C++ Primer one of the top 2-3.

Paul McNamee

I've been programming in C for 25 years. In the last 15 years, I've read a number of C++ books (I even read the first half of Stroustrup's 3rd edition. This was the first treatment I've read which I really absorbed (part of the fact is I had to learn c++).

While the treatment is thorough, I found far too many typos in a 4th edition. I really abhor typos in a technical book where the characters in an example MUST be right for it to work.

Barbara Moo gave me a copy of the errata (I submitted a number of errors I found). But one of the MAJOR shortcomings is why do I have to look up the author's to get an errata? Shouldn't the errata be on Addison's web site? (I just looked -- its not there -- I sent them a message). Also, be able to find the answers would be valuable (For a reader, examples without answers don't
necessarily help much).

I don't think its an introductory programming book. I just looked up the word "primer" -- this book goes far beyond what a
"primer" would contain. It covers C++ in depth. A number of subjects are covered in a way so a range of solutions ot problems
are presented from bad to good to introduce new features.

One thing I missed was full examples of working programs, being dissected. There are a lot of snippets. not whole programs. I find larger examples would be a good teaching tool.

Overall, this is a very positive review -- the best, most thorough treatment I've read -- with some caveats.

As pointed out in other reviews: compared to previous editions, the 4th edition of the "C++ Primer" is considerably different (and shorter). For this edition, Barbara E. Moo (co-author of "Accelerated C++"), a long-time programmer and writer, vastly revamped and enhanced Stan Lippman's (and Josee Lajoie's) classic.

The Good: This book is over 800 pages long, and it is quite complete in its coverage, but it is highly readable. The "C++ Primer" can be used as an introductory text: the authors have interspersed a myriad of code snippets throughout the text (which they also integrated into complete working programs; these are provided on the publisher's website, packaged for different platforms). Similarly, there are exercises at the end of most sections; these are well thought out, and greatly facilitate the reader's learning (unauthorized solutions exist on the web in the form of a wiki). Furthermore, throughout the book parts of the text have been highlighted to call attention to common pitfalls, good programming practices, and important concepts. Finally, each chapter concludes with a summary and a glossary of defined terms. In contradistinction to many other popular volumes, this book teaches real C++, not "C with classes", i.e., it contains extensive treatments of the standard library containers and algorithms, of object-oriented programming, and of generic programming. For example, the coverage of the standard library in this book is much more extensive than in "C++ Primer Plus" by Stephen Prata, a book that is often compared with (or confused with) the "C++ Primer". Even so, the "C++ Primer" also covers a number of older topics such as C-style character strings, lower-level bit manipulation of integral values, and old-style casts. The material in this book is thematically organized (pointers, expressions, functions, classes, constructors, object-oriented programming, template programming, etc.). This, along with the many forward and backward cross-references, makes it a great reference both for people who have never read it, and for those who read it a while back.

The Bad: Object-oriented programming is covered in approximately 60 pages. The coverage is solid, just like in the rest of the book, but it is condensed. For the sake of comparison: Josuttis's book "Object-Oriented Programming in C++" devotes 170 pages on more or less the same topics. In other words, an object-oriented design background, while not strictly necessary, would make reading this book easier. This aspect of "condensedness" is a more general feature of reading the "C++ Primer": even though the book is quite long, there is no filler material. This slows the reader down, so it might interfere with one's progress when using this as a first C++ book. For example, the first 300 pages (perhaps mention but) do not discuss in detail the standard library algorithms, smart pointers, object-oriented or generic programming, and other aspects of professional C++ development. A related point: I mentioned above that the book works as a reference since it is complete and contains many cross-references. A side-effect of this is that some of the earlier chapters make repeated mention of topics that have not yet been covered; that's great if this is your second C++ book (since it means every chapter is complete), but is potentially too much information for a total newbie. Finally, this book was intentionally limited to Standard C++. As a result, it doesn't talk about TR1 (a specification for functionality being added to C++'s standard library) or boost (a collection of libraries offering TR1 implementations and much more), or threading in C++. A 5th edition of the "C++ Primer" will probably appear after the new standard (still known as C++0x) comes out.

Despite the few drawbacks that I have noted above, I believe that this is a wonderful book which deserves 5 stars.

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Here are my suggestions on related reading.

Recommended prequel:

* Accelerated C++, by Andrew Koenig and Barbara E. Moo

An excellent first book on C++. Goes through many topics quite fast, but is highly readable. Covers essentially all of standard C++ in under 300 pages (see also my review of it on amazon).

Recommended follow-up:

* Effective C++, 3rd edition, by Scott Meyers

This assumes you have already come across all of the material contained in the "C++ Primer". It offers solid advice on numerous aspects of effective C++ development. Meyers also describes a few design patterns as well as more modern topics like TR1.

Alexandros Gezerlis