C Primer Plus (5th Edition) [Paperback]

Stephen Prata (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0672326965 | ISBN-13: 978-0672326967 | Publication Date: December 3, 2004 | Edition: 5

The new classic! C Primer Plus, now in its 5th edition, has been revised to include over 20 new programming exercises, newly improved examples and the new ANSI/ISO standard, C99. Task-oriented examples will teach you the fundamentals of C programming. From extended integer types and compound literals to Boolean support and variable-length arrays, you will learn to create practical and real-world applications with C programming. Review questions and programming exercises at the end of each chapter will reinforce what you have learned. This friendly and easy-to-use self-study guide will help you understand the fundamentals of this core programming language.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Prata teaches astronomy, physics, and programming at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California. He received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His association with computers began with the computer modeling of star clusters. Stephen has authored or coauthored over a dozen books, including C++ Primer Plus and Unix Primer Plus.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

C Primer Plus

Preface

C was a relatively little-known language when the first edition of C Primer Plus was written in 1984. Since then, the language has boomed, and many people have learned C with the help of this book. In fact, over 500,000 people have purchased C Primer Plus throughout its various editions.

As the language has grown from the early informal K&R standard through the 1990 ISO/ANSI standard to the 1999 ISO/ANSI standard, so has this book matured through this, the fifth edition. As with all the editions, my aim has been to create an introduction to C that is instructive, clear, and helpful.

Approach and Goals

My goal is for this book to serve as a friendly, easy-to-use, self-study guide. To accomplish that objective, C Primer Plus employs the following strategies:

• Programming concepts are explained, along with details of the C language; the book does not assume that you are a professional programmer.

• Many short, easily typed examples illustrate just one or two concepts at a time, because learning by doing is one of the most effective ways to master new information.

• Figures and illustrations clarify concepts that are difficult to grasp in words alone.

• Highlight boxes summarize the main features of C for easy reference and review.

• Review questions and programming exercises at the end of each chapter allow you to test and improve your understanding of C.

To gain the greatest benefit, you should take as active a role as possible in studying the topics in this book. Don't just read the examples, enter them into your system, and try them. C is a very portable language, but you may find differences between how a program works on your system and how it works on ours. Experiment—change part of a program to see what the effect is. Modify a program to do something slightly different. Ignore the occasional warnings and see what happens when you do the wrong thing. Try the questions and exercises. The more you do yourself, the more you will learn and remember.

I hope that you'll find this newest edition an enjoyable and effective introduction to the C language.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 984 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 5 edition (December 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672326965
• ISBN-13: 978-0672326967
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > C & C++ Windows Programming
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for learning C, October 26, 2006

By 

Tyler Milam - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: C Primer Plus (5th Edition) (Paperback)

I looked very hard to find the best possible book for learning C. It would be nice if you could absorb new programming languages through osmosis, but it doesn't work that way. Some people will tell you to buy the K&R book, but that's pretty old! This book covers the C99 standard, which is the latest. I've read my share of awful programming books and can tell the difference.

C Primer Plus, 5th edition provides clear and detailed explanations of all concepts covered, as well as review questions and programming excercises at the end of each chapter. As any serious programmer knows, you can't learn just by reading. You have to DO the excercises. I regard the excercises a book has to offer as just as important as the material covered. The excercises in the Big Blue Book are varied and just challenging enough to really get you to remember what you read in each chapter. If you follow through with this book you WILL have a solid foundation in the C programming language.

45 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A for content, F for the lack of differences from the 4th, January 4, 2005

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: C Primer Plus (5th Edition) (Paperback)

In the fall of 2004, I used the fourth edition of "C Primer Plus" as the text for my class in introductory programming in C. Although I was not part of the decision to use it, I found it to be more than satisfactory. The explanations are detailed and the order of the coverage is appropriate, although like almost everyone else, I altered the order of presentation a bit. It covers what we commonly refer to as "plain vanilla C"; in other words programs run from a command line interface. The coverage is complete, everything that one would cover in any beginning course in C is present. The exercises and programming examples are generally well done, and the answers to the review questions are included.
In looking through the fifth edition, I found very little that was different from the fourth edition. The order of the material and the explanations are almost identical. Therefore, my evaluation of the book is a bit different. I give it poor marks as a new edition, as I did not see anything that justified publishing a new edition. However, since the fourth edition worked so well, this one is also a good choice for learning C. Therefore, my rating of this book is simultaneously an A for content and an F in terms of being justified.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many years but still going strong!, December 16, 2004

By 

Roberto Pippalada "Imastun" (La Crescenta, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: C Primer Plus (5th Edition) (Paperback)

Excellent book that withstood the test of the time. Incidentally it has also sentimental value for me because many years ago, when I started my journey into progamming and had my first programming course in C itself, this book came to the rescue.

The course textbook was a different one, which after the first couple of introductury chapters became vague. Especially on pointers it lost me.

Then... I got this book. It started to read like an obsessive page turner. Once I reached the chapter on pointers I was amazed more-the topic in fact was extremly simple. I got very curious of the guys background. When I looked up that he was a physicist by upbringing, the great quality of the book made sence right away.


In one word, this book is THE BOOK as a first book in C, especially for new programmers.

After that ancient times, I red many C books of different complexity and scope, but this book still remains among few of my favorits for its lucid and extremly understandable coverage.

As you can guess, the book has a sentimental value for me.

In fact, if you have older version, especially last two, then there is no compelling reason to upgrade to this version.

Have you finished the book?
Now you are ready to enjoy the succinct C Programming Language, by Brian W. Kernighan, the author of C