Elysian Shadows

So I have a $50 gift card for Barnes and Noble. I was wondering if y'all could help me with a book recommendation. I'm looking for a book on C++ that goes beyond the basics.

I'm comfortable with all simple data types, control structures, arrays/vectors, references, pointers and structs

I'm still getting comfortable with Classes, Inheritance, Polymorphism, and OO theory

I have a basic understanding of memory allocation, although I've tried to avoid using it

I don't know the first thing about linked lists


Does anyone know of a good book that would help fill in the gaps in my knowledge?

You can check out the books:
"Exceptional C++", "More exceptional C++."
Those are in-depth challenging books for the already experienced C++ programmer But I don't know about the Linked-lists as you mentioned... So check 'em out.

You'll really want to understand how linked lists work since they are the foundation of lots of other data structures. Queues and stacks can both be implemented with linked lists.

This tutorial has lots of pictures that show what is going on with them and will help you to understand the basics of how they work.
How to create Linked list using C/C++

This one does a really good job of explaining how they work without as nice visual information, but I think you will have a very deep understanding of them by the end of it. Eternally Confuzzled - Linked List Tutorial

Unfortunately I can't think of a book to recommend to you.

I'm looking for a book too that goes into more than the basics and data structures

andrew wrote:You'll really want to understand how linked lists work since they are the foundation of lots of other data structures. Queues and stacks can both be implemented with linked lists.

This tutorial has lots of pictures that show what is going on with them and will help you to understand the basics of how they work.
How to create Linked list using C/C++

This one does a really good job of explaining how they work without as nice visual information, but I think you will have a very deep understanding of them by the end of it. Eternally Confuzzled - Linked List Tutorial

Unfortunately I can't think of a book to recommend to you.

That first link has lots of memory leaks

C++: a beginners guide, by herbert schildt, this book is probably my favourite

I just love how this guy isnt afraid to use C/C++ to it's full potential, and he explains it very well too.

programmerinprogress wrote:C++: a beginners guide, by herbert schildt, this book is probably my favourite

I just love how this guy isnt afraid to use C/C++ to it's full potential, and he explains it very well too.

This.

Although it probably covers most things you already know.
You can look through it's contents in the following link if you click on the 'look inside' picture though, you never know maybe it will have something in there that you want to know more about.
http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-S ... 0072232153

Lucas wrote:
Although it probably covers most things you already know.

while I agree with you for the most part, it does cover quite a lot of things i've never came across in any of my beginners books i've owned.

I mean I was really surprised, it shows you how to do bitwise operations (which really excited me since I just started to learn about AND'ing and OR'ing in college at the time) plus it tries its best to tie in the connection between pointers and arrays, which I think is fantastic, I also like how this guy isn't afraid to use some standard library functions from <cctype>, and others to save time (FYI he also uses bitmasking to create your own ToUpper() and ToLower() functions if you so wish), he also mentions recursion, which honestly is unheard of in any of my other beginner books!

It's definately the little things I like about this book.

Thanks guys! I'll take a look at all of those.

Also, thanks for the linked list link :D

programmerinprogress wrote:It's definately the little things I like about this book.

Totally agree with you there, when I bought this book it covered the majority of what I already knew but like you say there are so many little new bits of information in it that it all adds up in the end.
I for example didn't even know what the ? operator did until I read this book, because I just hadn't really seen it used in any beginner tutorials I found on the web.
I was also quite happy that he made the relationship between pointers and arrays so obvious.

I also haven't found any beginners websites or books that go into exception handling, namespaces and the preprocessor either. (Maybe I'm not looking hard enough?)

It just depends on how much content in the book you want to be new to you really, however out of the books and websites I have found C++ for beginners is the only resource I constantly go back to for reference.
So if you don't mind the majority of content already being known to you it's definitely a worthwhile book to try and get.

The only reason the majority might be known to you though is mainly because of the big chapters on functions and classes etc. but even then I still found new little bits of information.

Do you know if any of Heb Schildt's other books are good because I loved this book and it is by the best C++ book I've read?

I'm comfortable with all simple data types, control structures, arrays/vectors, references, pointers and structs

I'm still getting comfortable with Classes, Inheritance, Polymorphism, and OO theory

I have a basic understanding of memory allocation, although I've tried to avoid using it

I don't know the first thing about linked lists

I'm going to recommend "C+ + for Programmers (Deitel Developer Series)". I was reading through it the other day at Boarders. It's well written and has lots of sample code.

thejahooli wrote:Do you know if any of Heb Schildt's other books are good because I loved this book and it is by the best C++ book I've read?

I have his "Complete Reference" of C++, and I think it's pretty good, it does what it says on the tin really...

I also wanted the Java equivalent of that book, I saw it half price and... didn't buy it, i'm kicking myself now

Ok, so I found C++: a beginners guide for $11 for a "like new" copy of the book. I went ahead and ordered it and I still have most of the gift card to try one of the others if this doesn't do the trick for me. Thanks guys.

programmerinprogress wrote:

thejahooli wrote:Do you know if any of Heb Schildt's other books are good because I loved this book and it is by the best C++ book I've read?

I have his "Complete Reference" of C++, and I think it's pretty good, it does what it says on the tin really...

I also wanted the Java equivalent of that book, I saw it half price and... didn't buy it, i'm kicking myself now

I'll probably order the complete reference and maybe the c++ cookbook by him.