Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days Complete Compiler Edition (4th Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 21 Days) (Paperback)

by Jesse Liberty (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
With Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, author Jesse Liberty presents a rapid and well-organized program for getting up to speed in C++ programming. By making the seemingly complex world of C++ digestible in daily doses, Liberty delivers a tutorial that keeps you motivated and yields serious results.

This book uses a chapter-a-day approach, with the course outline clearly presented inside the front cover so you'll know exactly where you're headed. Unlike many C++ tutorials, this book doesn't put you to sleep early on with object-oriented programming (OOP) theory. Instead, it quickly makes you productive with the basics of the C++ language and then reinforces your new knowledge with OOP as you move through the teaching program.

The first week introduces you to the fundamentals: the anatomy of a C++ program, variables, expressions, functions, program flow, and the basics of classes. Week two introduces some of the more sophisticated elements of the language such as pointers, arrays, and function overloading in a clear and effective manner. The final week concludes your crash course with advanced topics: streams, advanced inheritance, the C++ pre-processor, templates, and error handling. One day is also devoted strictly to object-oriented analysis and design. Each chapter finishes with a daily summary, a Q&A section, a quiz, and a series of excellent coding exercises.

This tutorial, which is designed to teach you to write industry standard ANSI C++ code, requires no previous programming expertise. If you want to get serious with C++ in a hurry, this book is an excellent way to go. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
This book is a timesaving guide to learning C++. Using the proven techniques of the Teach Yourself series, this essential guide teaches users how to write programs in a matter of days. Covers all the key topics and commands of C++. Teaches the basics of object-oriented programming. Teaches C++ without the need to know C or any other programming language. Covers C++ Programming. -- Sams Pub. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 4 edition (April 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672322072
• ISBN-13: 978-0672322075
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8 x 3.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (231 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,468,141 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great combination of teaching and reference, March 20, 2003

By	Dave (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days (4th Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 21 Days) (Paperback)

Coming from a primarily VB/VBA background into the world of C++, I needed something that would help be get up to speed on the syntax and concepts of C++. Because I had a programming background, I found myself using this book as more of a spot reference on how to do specific things in C++. However, there were many sorts of items that I was NOT used to using in programming at all that this book did an admirable job of helping me out with. Among those were the chapters on templates and specifically the STL. After moving through that chapter, I am now comfortable with actively using list, vector and queue containers.

My wife, on the other hand, has had zero programming experience or training. She has worked more than half way through the book (often covering 2 "days" in a few hours) and now has a decent knowledge of the contents of those chapters. Certainly, no book will ever replace actually DOING stuff over and over... but you can't know what to do until you have seen it in action. This book provides that.

The examples they use are simple when possible and complex when necessary. There is a nice format to this book in that there is a review section at the end of each chapter ("day") and then questions allowing you to actually create/debug code - with the answers in the back. Most of the time... if not close to all of the time... she was able to get those answers right on the first attempt.

I believe that, between the two of us with our vastly different experience and knowledge levels, we have found a book that covered both of our needs very well. Will it cover everything? No book can. Will it solve every little quirk you could ever have as a programmer? If you expect a book to do that, you shouldn't be a programmer in the first place. Will this book give you many tools - ranging from basic to advanced - with which you can become a serious C++ programmer? I believe it will.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Wright brothers to rocket science!, June 11, 2000

By	Jim Frerichs (Brookings, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, Third Edition (Paperback)

My boss gave me the assignment to learn C++. He gave me a couple of books that he though were good. I banged my head against the keyboard many a night in pure frustration trying to absorb the material and searching the Web for additional help. I next tried an on line computer course by a noted and popular school. Everything was geared to people who already knew C. The material was dated. It was like trying to learn rocket science by studying the notes the Wright brothers wrote when they were trying to figure out which way a propeller should turn.

I finally came across Jesse's 3rd edition of "Leaning C++ in 21 Days" and life if beautiful again. His examples and easily read text gave me the knowledge to read code, and more important to understand it. The book takes the time to explain terms, definitions and the why's and wherefores of the C++ language. Particularly interesting to me was memory management and why I should be concerned about it. I no longer bang out code that "just" works. I assimilate the books ideas into programs that one may call an art form.

You will never know how grateful I am to have this book as a resource. I have scribbled in the margins, highlighted, dog-eared, paper clipped important pages, made a file of example programs and on long study nights used it as a pillow. I can't wait to get "C++ Unleashed" and abuse it in the same loving way!

If you don't have prior programming experience this book is a must. If you are a C programmer you need this book to get with the new way of doing programming!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great intro to OOP and pointers, but take your time, January 5, 2000

By	Melissa (Ames, IA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, Third Edition (Paperback)

Any review is only useful to people with similar backgrounds, so here is where I came from: 1 semester of a beginning (non-comp sci major) university C++ course, a lot of (gasp) FORTRAN, a little PASCAL, and some BASIC.

I used the 2nd edition of this book which had a lot of code errors, although I found that finding the errors was also an excellent (unintended) learning experience, even if it did take me longer to get through the book and cause some undo frustration.

Pretty much every topic is backed up with code examples, which really helps me - a hands on type of person. I took extra time and went over some sections more than once to get a good hold on the info, especially pointers and the object oriented sections like inheritance and polymorphism. These topics can be confusing for people without experience in C++, so I wouldn't expect to get it the first time -- expect to spend extra time on some subjects, especially the traditional killer of C/C++: pointers! I know feel like I have a very good understanding of how they work.

After reading this book, I went on to do a lot of WindowsAPI and XWindows programming and found the foundation I gained from this book invaluable.