C++ How to Program (4th Edition) (Paperback)

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

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
With nearly 250,000 sold, Harvey and Paul Deitel'sC++ How to Programis the world's best-selling introduction to C++ programming. Now, this classic has been thoroughly updated! The authors have given this edition a general tune-up of object-oriented programming presentation. The new Fourth Edition has a new code-highlighting style that uses an alternate background color to focus the reader on new code elements in a program. The Deitels' C++ How to Program is the most comprehensive, practical introduction to C++ ever published -- with hundreds of hands-on exercises, roughly 250 complete programs written and documented for easy learning, and exceptional insight into good programming practices, maximizing performance, avoiding errors, debugging, and testing. This new Fourth Edition has an upgraded OOD/UML case to latest UML standard, as well as significant improvements to exception handling and operator overloading chapters. Features enhanced treatment of strings and arrays as objects earlier in the book using standard C++ classes, string and vector. The Fourth Edition retains every key concept and technique ANSI C++ developers need to master: control structures, functions, arrays, pointers and strings, classes and data abstraction, operator overloading, inheritance, virtual functions, polymorphism, I/O, templates, exception handling, file processing, data structures, and more. It also includes a detailed introduction to Standard Template Library (STL) containers, container adapters, algorithms, and iterators. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the code from the book as well as essential software for learning C++. For anyone who wants to learn C++, improve their existing C++ skills, and master object-oriented development with C++.

From the Back Cover
With nearly 250,000 sold, Harvey and Paul Deitel'sC++ How to Programis the world's best-selling introduction to C++ programming. Now, this classic has been thoroughly updated! The authors have given this edition a general tune-up of object-oriented programming presentation. The new Fourth Edition has a new code-highlighting style that uses an alternate background color to focus the reader on new code elements in a program. The Deitels' C++ How to Program is the most comprehensive, practical introduction to C++ ever published -- with hundreds of hands-on exercises, roughly 250 complete programs written and documented for easy learning, and exceptional insight into good programming practices, maximizing performance, avoiding errors, debugging, and testing. This new Fourth Edition has an upgraded OOD/UML case to latest UML standard, as well as significant improvements to exception handling and operator overloading chapters. Features enhanced treatment of strings and arrays as objects earlier in the book using standard C++ classes, string and vector. The Fourth Edition retains every key concept and technique ANSI C++ developers need to master: control structures, functions, arrays, pointers and strings, classes and data abstraction, operator overloading, inheritance, virtual functions, polymorphism, I/O, templates, exception handling, file processing, data structures, and more. It also includes a detailed introduction to Standard Template Library (STL) containers, container adapters, algorithms, and iterators. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the code from the book as well as essential software for learning C++. For anyone who wants to learn C++, improve their existing C++ skills, and master object-oriented development with C++.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1408 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 4 edition (August 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130384747
• ISBN-13: 978-0130384744
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #254,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best C++ Book Yet, September 29, 2002

By A Customer

I am currently a Computer Science major. Until now I couldnt find a C++ book that I felt was better than our text book. Browsing through C++ book after C++ book has led only to dissappointment. I have spent the last year looking for a great C++ reference book that also explains things in a straightforward non-egotistical way.
I hit the jackpot when I went to Amazon and went for the best reviewed book.
'C++ How To Program' explains the most important aspects of programming in a straightforward manner. The example codes are reader friendly due to the color highlighting and all work.
This covers everything from variables to data structures! The book has the added bonus of CGI implementation. Preprocessor is covered as well as an intense explanation of classes, which make C++ the great object oriented language it is.
I recommend this book to any Computer Science major or aspiring computer programmer

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite possibly the best C++ book ever written!, July 9, 2003

By	Rick Pierson (Dothan, AL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Quite possibly the absolute best C++ book ever!

The book covers everything from the very simplest concepts (starting off with the standard "Hello World"-type program that explains that statements must end with semicolons, the use of curly braces, that every program starts execution at the main function, and so on) up to topics such as templates, pure virtual functions, polymorphism via base class pointers to derived classes, structured exception handling, and more.

One of the best things about this book is that it EXPLICITLY teaches you good programming practices, all the way through. Some C++ books meant for beginners try to teach you the language and don't even bother to try to teach you how to write programs correctly. Not this book. Time after time they tell you the proper method of writing code, as well as explaining why it should be done that way.

Also, the authors practice what they teach (and preach). For example, chapter "X" explains how to create templates, then when chapter "Y" creates a generic data structure, like a stack or queue, the authors do so using templates. Some other books teach you something in one chapter and then seem to forget it even exists.

Also, at least the version I have, comes with a Visual C++ 6.0 compiler (its a learning edition or something, not the full version. But who would expect that anyway?).

It's a pretty hefty price compared to many other C++ books. But, not trying to sound too much like an "infomercial", this is probably the only text you will ever need for C++ programming. So you save money by buying this one text instead of buying two or three that each does only a part of what this book does.

Oh, let me clarify something. This book does a pretty comprehensive coverage of ANSI/ISO Standard C++, the subject of the book. It does not teach C++ .NET (but, the same authors do have another book for that!).

Finally, I ran across this book when tutoring someone in a college C++ programming course. So even university professors recognize the worth of the text.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable text book, December 26, 2003

By	Dylan v.d Merwe (South Africa) - See all my reviews

At first I considered C++ How to Program a text book. The thing is, it's not like any text book I've ever seen! It's written in language that's easy to understand, has many diagrams that helps your knowledge and is of a very high quality.

As a gift to anyone who has the slightest interest in programming this would be the book to give. It may come with a hefty price tag, but this is money that's not going to waste.

The book comes with exercises (very good idea!) although most of them don't have the answers. This comes in a separate book. The thing is, if you've taken your time and worked through the chapter then you will be able to solve the exercises. It's such a great feeling when you work out something challenging without referring to any answers. Doing things your OWN way in programming is something that many programmers should adopt.

I was reading C++ From The Ground Up (3rd Ed) by Herbert Schildt and I thought that it was a good book. The thing was that he really made topics like pointers immensely hard! I started getting frustrated and felt as though I needed a break from C++, which I took and moved to other languages. I was then given Deitel's C++ How to Program and it made C++ fun. Not many books, or even people, can do that. I am enjoying working through this book!

Overall this book is for the beginner to intermediate programmer looking to dip into the C++ pool. It's bloody good and I'd recommend it to anyone. I even sent the authors an email asking a question to which I received a timely response. Impressive stuff that was! The colors used makes life easy and the way the authors describe topics will suit even the dimmest of people.

This book ideal if you're bored and want to acquire a new skill, struggling with a C++ subject at school and need some help, taking a course at university and find their textbooks bland or even if you're in a work environment. This book will serve you well.