C++ books for Beginners.

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3 comments, last by Matt-D 11 years, 7 months ago
What are good beginner books for c++?

I'm familiar with c++ already but, would like to go back to the basics then slowly take my way up again to advance c++ programming then move to game programming.

Help me up please :). Feel free to post your awesome books that you begin with c++ and your review about the book!
You do what you have to do.
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I recommend C++ Primer, 5th Edition. It's great for learning or use as a reference, and has been updated to cover features from the updated C++11 standard. I read an earlier edition when I was learning, but picked up a copy of the 5th edition on a recommendation recently and found it to be just as good. Thinking in C++ is available for free online and is also an excellent book.

You might also try Effective C++ and Code Complete once you're ready to move on to more advanced topics.

- Jason Astle-Adams

I recommend xoax beginner tutorials. But when you finish those you should probably still read thinking in C++, because he doesn't cover some important features and doesn't go very in depth with more advanced features (std::vector && std::string). After that, you should probably read the official documentation for SFML And then moving on to gamefromscratch tutorials.

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Thanks for the reply guys.

@jbadams : Yes, I'm planning to get that c++ Primer 5th edition but, I don't plan on getting the 6th. I heard it was terrible :3. And also after reading Primer, 5th I'm 100% sure going for the Effective C++ book since I've heard so many great things about this and almost everyone recommends it here on gamedev. Thanks for your suggestion :).

@superman3275 : Hm, that xoax is very interesting :). I'm going to check it out. And thanks for that thinking in C++ recommendation. I'll download it now :).
You do what you have to do.

@jbadams : Yes, I'm planning to get that c++ Primer 5th edition but, I don't plan on getting the 6th. I heard it was terrible :3


I think you're thinking about two different books :-)
To clarify:
- the awesome one: C++ Primer (5th Edition) by Stanley B. Lippman, Josée Lajoie, Barbara E. Moo // Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 5 edition (August 16, 2012)
- the terrible one: C++ Primer Plus (6th Edition) by Stephen Prata // Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 6 edition (October 28, 2011)

They're named confusingly similarly, but they couldn't be more different. For instance, the Prata's book introduces C-style arrays before introducing std::vector and uses C-style raw pointers & manual memory allocation before using smart pointers. This is especially hurtful for beginners, since it can be a source of bad habits and can be understood as (incorrectly) suggesting that STL-based material is somehow "more advanced" (which couldn't be more wrong, it's actually way easier and user-friendlier); beginners shouldn't be using the C-style stuff anyway, definitely not as the first choice. (That's not to say that the C++ Primer doesn't cover those topics -- it does, and the coverage is quite good too (with the important caveats mentioned, etc.), and in does it in the proper order).

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