The C Programming Language 2nd Edition

by Brian W. Kernighan (Author), Dennis M. Ritchie (Author)

650 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0131103627

ISBN-10: 0131103628

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The authors present the complete guide to ANSI standard C language programming. Written by the developers of C, this new version helps readers keep up with the finalized ANSI standard for C while showing how to take advantage of C's rich set of operators, economy of expression, improved control flow, and data structures. The 2/E has been completely rewritten with additional examples and problem sets to clarify the implementation of difficult language constructs. For years, C programmers have let K&R guide them to building well-structured and efficient programs. Now this same help is available to those working with ANSI compilers. Includes detailed coverage of the C language plus the official C language reference manual for at-a-glance help with syntax notation, declarations, ANSI changes, scope rules, and the list goes on and on.

The C Programming Language

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Amazon.com Review

Just about every C programmer I respect learned C from this book. Unlike many of the 1,000 page doorstops stuffed with CD-ROMs that have become popular, this volume is concise and powerful (if somewhat dangerous) -- like C itself. And it was written by Kernighan himself. Need we say more?

From the Publisher

This second editon describes C as defined by the ANSI standard. This book is meant to help the reader learn how to program in C. The book assumes some familiarity with basic programming concepts like variables, assignment statements, loops, and functions. A novice programmer should be able to read along and pick up the language.

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Product details

Series: How to Make Fast Money on Amazon (Book 1)
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (April 1, 1988)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0131103628
ISBN-13: 978-0131103627
Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.6 x 9.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (650 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > C & C++ > C
- #18 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Programming Languages
- #29 in Books > Computers & Technology > Software

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It doesn't get much better than this

ByStevenon December 16, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I'm not new to programming; in fact I've been doing it professionally for the past decade. Although I've played around in quite a few different languages, most of my work over the last 6 years has been in .NET (C# mainly). I have always had an interest in C because I love its simplicity. Also, it's a language which brings one closer to the machine, stripping away many of the abstractions that higher level languages provide. Higher level languages (such as Java, C#, Python, etc.) are massive and powerful with HUGE frameworks, but I'm attracted to simple things.

This book is a feisty little devil! I had heard of this book before diving in (it is a classic), but its size and table of contents lead me to believe I would breeze right through it. Wrong! Picking up the syntax wasn't too difficult and I have a fairly good handle on more advanced concepts like pointers already, but this book is absolutely packed with exercises and many of them are quite challenging!

Here's one:
"Write a program to check a C program for syntax errors like unbalanced parenthesis, brackets and braces. Don't forget about quotes, both single and double, escape sequences, and comments."

This is a chapter 1 exercise! Chapter 1 is just a tutorial introduction chapter and this is one 1 of 24 exercises in this chapter! No wonder it takes people years to work through this tiny book. I'm only about halfway through as I write this review.

This book is the perfect blend of reference material, practical knowledge and challenging exercises. There is absolutely no fluff and not a single word is wasted. I grow tired of pouring through 1,000+ page tomes. The appendices are also very well structured and extremely helpful.

Although I do virtually no C coding professionally, I can say for certain that this book has leveled up my skill-set. Working through these exercises has helped me with logical thinking and having a better understanding of coding closer to the machine has improved me as a developer overall. I'm one who believes that this book is great for all programmers, even if you never write a line of C after working through this book. I'm really loving the C language!

Whether you are a beginner or experienced it's worth having this book. Though this will be quite tough for total beginners, I say it's still work picking up and pairing it with a more beginner-friendly book. Unfortunately I cannot recommend such a book at this time because this is the only C book I've worked through.

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Classic

ByNorwin Avilaon October 17, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is certainly not for beginners, though not a requirements but at least the reader should have a background on Data Structure in order to easily follow most of the examples. The book was also structured to re-use the functions built from previous chapters like getline, atof, strcmp, alloc, etc.., though some of these functions have an equivalent in C's standard library, the authors choose to re-use it.

If you pay attention to the details on this book, you will pick-up the most important area of C that will save you from scratching your head while debugging your code like side effects of infix/postfix increments, precedence of statement evaluation etc..

The authors also discussed some of the best practices in order to optimize the use of language such as efficient manipulation of pointers, style on delaring variables and initializations. Some of the coding style of this book was also used by coding guidelines found in official website of linux kernel.

This book is commendable not only because it was written by the Kernihan and the creator of the language itself(Richie) but how the book was organized and well explained. This is a small book with big information.

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The C programming language is such a clean, condense ...

ByAaron Batiloon November 5, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The C programming language is such a clean, condense, and focused book on exactly what you want to learn: the C programming language. In the beginning of the book they even explicitly tell you how they aren't there to try and teach you the fluff, or writing clean code. The book is there to teach you about one of the most important languages of our modern world. This book is a must have for any developer who wants to take their personal advancement seriously. Even if you don't use C in your daily job or life, I personally believe you should still learn it and use this exact book because nobody can explain it more clearly than the creators of the language.

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What to add that hasn't been said?

ByRyan Spenceron May 24, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Like most technical programming literature, there is always a need to supplement, and as others will undoubtedly mention here and elsewhere, the K&R (as the book is called) is no exception to such supplementation, nor is it an 'easy beginners' book. The book is definitely designed to be a crash course into the C language, imposing some antiquated, dubious programming practices that may, if unknowingly followed religiously, may stick on the budding programmer. That said, the book is quick and relatively approachable. Personally, I managed to get through supplementing my reading with general online tutorials, the Stack Overflow database of questions, and The C Primer Plus (6th edition).

It is outside of the scope of this review to point out all the 'bad' things that the K&R illustrates as acceptable, and it's more of the burden on the reader to explore as many technical books on best practices and heuristics to separate out the questionable practices from the definitely positive, strong ones. This said, the book is not a 'best practices' tome in the likes of Code Complete (McConnell). The book is designed to get readers to understanding (actively and passively) the inner workings of the C language. Side note: for most programming texts it is often better to march ahead and keep reading and examining when you don't understand what's going on; don't get held up trying to figure out a section of a section: instead, get to the end of the section and then struggle with wrapping your head around the concepts.

tl;dr: The K&R is rightly a classic for it's 'crash course' approach, but it will not teach you the C language entirely on it's own. You will need to explore the ideas in more than one form (like most programming or mathematical concepts) in order to get a clearer, more succinct view, and although I do not doubt that there are many fantastic and direct technical books that do just this, the K&R is not one of them.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Fantastic book for learning C. A recommend buy

Published 17 days ago by Pooja Karki

Old Fathful

Got to have it.

Published 25 days ago by Amazon Customer

Careful when ordering.

Great book, but be careful when ordering. I specifically ordered a hardcover and got a softcover. What the hell, Amazon?

Published 1 month ago by Carol

Five Stars

Excellent book!

Published 1 month ago by Carl Mannino

Five Stars

The Bible of C programming.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer

I was a bit disappointed in the quality of this printing

I was a bit disappointed in the quality of this printing. The text is a classic, but previous editions have been printed on fine paper. This was not.

Published 1 month ago by nash e. foster

good book for students

Son likes it. Lots of info too

Published 1 month ago by DiVitto Kelly

lean it start coding right awy!

c- well explaned

Published 1 month ago by joecastellanos

It's a Classic.

What can you say, this is the classic. Sure it's a bit dated, but you've got to have it handy when you're programming in C.Read more

Published 2 months ago by tom

Perfect

Very Great. Fast and good quality.

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Customer

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