Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days (5th Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've always been rather hesitant to read programming books with titles that imply a sacrifice of depth for gained ease in learning, but this book is a very well done and complete treatment of the fundamentals of the C++ language.

It assumes no previous knowledge -- just a willingness to learn. It begins with "Hello, World", the classic example first introduced in the K&R C book, and then continues for the next few "days" to cover the funamental C aspects such as basic I/O, variables, functions, branching, data types, and operators.

After that preliminary information is covered, the authors begin showing basic class useage -- the general form of a class, constructors, destructors, data members, and member functions.

In the final "day" of the "week", control statements (for, do...while, switch, etc.) are given a good, and thorough treatment.

The next "week" moves on to more advanced concepts such as pointers, reference variables, function overloading, inheritance, and polymorphism. By the end of this week, you will be pretty proficient, and probably ready to implement more substantial projects, however, the book still covers more.

In the last week, other, more advanced, concepts are introduced such as friend functions, file manipulation, low level bit manipulation, and a lot more to help you become a master of this beast of a language.

This book also goes through each and every example program and provides a thorough analysis -- so you're never left in the dark as to what a program is doing or how.

This work does have some shortcomings, but they're not that significant. Yes, some of the example programs are extremely boring and you're left thinking whether you should bother entering and compiling them. Sometimes explanations are offered for the most trivial of concepts in programs, but overall, it's a great book at a great price.

In short, if you want to learn C++ and you want to learn it thoroughly, then this is your book!

Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days (Sams) is a quite good candidate for anyone looking for an introductory book on C++. It not only represents a smooth introduction to the language basics, but also offers valuable advice on good programming and design practices. I especially liked the Q&A section at the end of each chapter.
What differentiates it from similar introductory C++ books is the way the material is laid out. After covering the langugage syntax the authors try to put forward what they consider easier to understand. This makes it easier for the reader, although the book cannot be used as a reference.
There are numerous code examples, which are compact, well structured and easy to follow and understand.
However, there are a few things that I believe could definetely be improved. First and foremost templates and the STL are not covered until Day 19, which means that all the code samples until then use the old C libraries. My opinion is that since templates represent a whole new programming paradigm, they have to be introduced much earlier, although they can be a bit difficult to grasp. Not only that, but the code uses deprecated headers mixed with standard library headers (e.g. 13.12 - p.435, 13.7 - p.423); it is more natural to use <cstring> than <string.h> at least.
Also assertions should definetely be introduced earlier and used in the code samples.The custom string class bound checking should report error (assert) when out of bounds and not return the last element! (13.14 - p.437).
Moreover I consider function pointers a not so important topic to be covered on Day 15. I would prefer to see it in an Appendix, near deprecated features really. Chapter titles should probably be revised too. E.g. Day 16 is named "Advanced Inheritance", but aggregation which is covered there is not actually inheritance. The chapter would be better named "Other class relationships", or even better "Aggregation" and cover only aggregation.
I also believe it is important to pair each new() with a delete (e.g. 12.10 - p.398) even though the program ends. This is a very important programming habit that someone should get used to very early.
Overall I believe that this book, although it has some weak points, has much to offer to someone that starts learning C++.

The book deals with C++ and related nuances exhaustively. For a beginner, this book can also make a good reference if all he wishes to read about is specific language related details.

The authors have taken care to be elaborate, and have presented concepts such as pointers, constants, and streams lucidly - to name a few.

I would like to see a re-arrangement of content in the next version. For example: the chapter on OOAD comes too early - even before Inheritance (and Polymorphism) in C++ has been introduced. Similarly, templates are discussed in detail before macros have been introduced. Some exercises that are very lengthy can be broken into smaller /simpler ones.

My advise to a beginner would be to focus on the content he is able to grasp, and keep the rest for another reading. Yes, this is a book that can be read more than once as it deals with topics that are a beginner's level and beyond (which in my opinion is good).

Ok, I don't agree with the 1 star reviews, BUT, i have read better books. This book is meant to be read cover to cover. If you are looking to skim read, and get the bullet points and get going as fast as possible, then this is not your book. This book builds chapter by chapter, a lot of the same code is used across chapters with things being added each time. It's simple in nature and those of you that claim you know how to program and this book was worthless at explaining and left you confussed, I got news for you, you don't know how to program. This books is simple to read if you have ANY previous programming experience. If you have NONE, you are left lost. Go buy a book on just basic programming, i would not recommend c++. I give it 3 stars because all this book does is teach the basics of c++ syntax. It doesn't ever tie it all together and show you how to make a c++ project, which, when i got to the end, was what I wanted. I was left saying to myself, "ok, so show me how to use c++ pratically, in the real world." I never got that, all I could do was punch out meaningless c++ code. It explained every topic brought up very well though, no complaints. Java people will love this novel, they say to know one is to know 90% of the other.

I have programmed for years but never in a modern object-oriented language and I wish to maintain a C++ project. So I purchased this book. I also searched online for "C++ tutorials". In general, I think this book is OK.

Compared to online resources, this book provides a fuller and often deeper explanation of the basics of C++. Sometimes it was too much depth (e.g., showing a picture of a fence to explain the fence-post error was not particularly needed), but you can always skip the rest of the page. I think I gained a better understanding of the use inheritance, virtual methods, and polymorphism through Liberty's examples.

I can definitively deny other reviews of this book that suggest that Liberty uses older POD arrays of pchar/char... he uses strings except late in the course where he shows an implementation of a string class. One of the things I learned from the additional material in Liberty's book is why this is controversial and why "#include <string.h>" and "#include <string>" are different. (Liberty's is a modern, "#include <string>" book.)

The book is also full of code examples which are explained concisely (which is nice, after the first introduction of "#include <string>" you don't need the author to explain it each time). There is a degree of review and each chapter ends with "Q&A" (kind of a short FAQ for that chapter), a quiz and some exercises. The exercises are generally split between "do this" and "debug this" items. There are answers at the back of the book.

Finally, I think OOP requires new analysis and object design skills and on-line tutorials are mostly silent about this critical issue. Liberty provides one full chapter that is quite good at providing an overview (IMHO).

My main criticism is a matter of expectations; this book teaches you A LITTLE C++. The back of the book says "you'll have all the skills you need to BEGIN programming C++" (my emphasis). You still have a considerable learning curve as you master even intermediate aspects. A good example is implementing "one class per file". In passing on day 6 Liberty explains that he is NOT showing you the way professional C++ programmers write code and he provides a single and very incomplete example of splitting your work into multiple files. Working from this, I find that I do not understand namespaces well enough from the discussion on day 18 to work with multiple files.

Also, I noticed a few errors in the book. Unless I very misunderstand, inline class methods were mislabeled in Day 6 and the default value example was so unrealistic as to denigrate the topic (although Liberty nicely covers the debate over whether to use default values or simply overload a method/function).

And finally, I thought that almost no instruction on the toolsets (compiler, make, etc.) was limiting. Ultimately, this omission shows you how basic this book is but given the fundamental nature and the intended audience, I think it's really a glaring omission. That said, the bit of advice he does give is confined to Microsoft's Visual product which was completely unhelpful to me using g++.

So, I can recommend the book with these caveats. This book would be a great way to prepare for additional training or to equip you to ask slightly less ignorant questions in online forums.

This book covers the fundamentals of standard c++ for the beginner very well and also provides a good guide for the more experienced programmer coming from another language who is wanting to learn c++.Well written in plain english and the example code is very clear and easy to follow.I would complement this text with another C++ book like Stephen Prata's C++ Primer Plus 5th Edition or Ivor Horton's Beginning Ansi C++ The Complete language to get a complete picture of the standard language.

The book does not utilize the standard <string> class in most cases, instead it uses the "C" style <Cstring> class or creates it's own "String" class. This book is an incomplete upgrade from previous editions, old coding techniques are updated without bringing the examples fully up to the latest standards for C++. It does a good job of explaining inheritance and polymorphism, however.

If you are new to C++, then a book that shows the industries preferred techniques (also safest) should be used. The Standard <sting> class, which is now preferred over creating your own "String" class or using "C" style "Cstring" in C++ programs, is fully illustrated in Stephen Prata's "C++ Primer Plus (5th edition)".

I guess you can never get it all in one book!

Not sure about 21 days, but I started with C++ Primer Plus. I would now recommend starting with C++ In 21 Days and then moving to the forementioned.

A friendly easy to read book that makes the intimidating task of learning how to program a lot less daunting.

With over 10 years experience in C++, I found this book to be an excellent review of the core language. I used the book to help my 15 year old get a solid start in C++ and in just over a month she is very comfortable with the language.