SAMS teach yourself (C or C++) in 21 days
 

excellent tutorial introduction to programming in C or C++ (depending on the book you have) for beginners. subjects from primitive data types to control structures (for, while, do, switch, etc) are presented in an easy-to understand manner. pointers, arrays, and a limited amount of library functions for handling these are included. reccomend reading through about the first "14 days" worth of material in each book before moving on to something else, as the more difficult subjects are not covered in enough depth. explanations for the necessity and implementation of friend functions, operator overloading, linked lists, new and delete, may be confusing. C++ has excellent examples of the use of multiple inheritance and polymorphism (as an INTRO ONLY). the example code may be deprecated depending on the version of the book. for someone new to programming, i would highly reccomend this series.

note: the C book (because of the language development) can be relevant back to the first edition, the C++ book i have, on the other hand, includes deprecated code examples even in the 4th edition, but does include examples of the "new" (current) C++ standard.

oh yeahhh!
 

I purchased this book last march, not knowing 1 thing in c++. I learnt so much from this book it surprised me. At first it goes through basic syntax. However, it gets into heap/ stack memory (as the author calls it). At first (chapter 6 or 7), you begin learning about pointers and references, in addition to the positive/ negative aspects about them. This book goes through a lot of topics and I’d have to say that it goes through them well. By re-reading the chapters you begin to get a lot of the programming techniques stuck in your head.

The only thing that I didn’t like about this book was the “linked lists” chapter which I believe is chapter 19. I found it really hard to follow but I guess with enough dedication you’ll figure it out.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Object oriented programming, learning c++ from start to novice level or just interested in the capabilities of c++.

I'm currently awaiting my "Accelerated C++" heard much about it.. Will be commenting it when i get it.
banana:banana:
-thondal-

I brought Sams teach yoursef C++ in 21 days. It quite good. I would not recomend it though.

Bruce Eckel's Thinking in C++ is very good and can be brought as a hard copy and downloaded free from his website here:

http://www.mindviewinc.com/

If your just interested in C i found beginning C by Ivor Horton to be a good read especially if your new to programming or C style syntax languages. He also has written a very good Java book too.

The sams 21 days series books are not that good when compaired to O'Reilly books. They are much more professional, more for the more experienced programmer switching to a new language or technology. There is only so many times you can read a chapter on variables or iteration sturctures. For me i dont need it explained in five different ways, i just want the syntax and the rules.

If you want the more advanced stuff dont buy a sams 21 days book, they spend too many pages talking about simple stuff. This is good only for the complete beginner.

I have the hard copy of it that my Computer Science teacher gave me. It's great!

for me is no.1 C primer by Steven Prata :)

I'm reading SAMS Teach Yourself C in 21 days. It's a great a book.

Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, second edition can be found at
http://cma.zdnet.com/book/c++/

hm.. looks pretty good.. Think i'll do some of the excersises there while waiting for my book...

-thondal-

i bought the 2nd edition off of amazon used for $2.00 a couple years back. worth all 200 pennies.

and yeah, it's for beginners (i usually reference C++ in a nutshell by oreilly these days)