Java: A Beginner's Guide

Great book for leaning Java. This book backs up concepts introduced with clear and logical examples. Then it takes those examples and expands on them with new concepts and makes the program more and more complicated over time. This approach really works well for learning. Some lazy learners may complain about its aggressiveness in the early chapters because some of the sample programs can hurt your brain if you're new to programming. For example there was a program that output "2 to the power of n is ____". This program consisted of a decrementing while loop nested within an incriminating for loop. The while loop acted as a counter for each iteration of each iteration. (no I didn't just typo, I meant to repeat myself) and to be honest, it took a while to sink in. I even had to resort to writing out the program on paper and marking exactly how each variable changed with each iteration of each loop. That was a tough one for chapter 2 but this made me think like a computer... or should I say, like a programmer. This book is excellent! Bottom line is this, you can't puree every concept into baby food for easy consumption but this book does it's best and handles the challenging material better than most. I don't think you could get an "easier" book that actually taught you everything.

This is a fine book. It is useful both for programmers who are learning Java or even for non-programmers starting with their first language. The object-oriented elements of Java, general OO concepts are explained exceptionally well. I read this book from cover to cover to brush up on my rusty Java. Java, I learned, is very close to C++ (which is mostly what I have been familiar with) but designed for a different platform (the web, or other devices) and for portability. If the reader can make it through the excellent examples on threading, inheritance and variables he/she will have made an important step towards being a programmer. I found almost no\ typos, always a good sign. The book has expansions of code snippets into full program listings which makes the book rather thick but I find this approach better than leaving a bunch of chopped up code fragments by themselves. I'm looking forward to purchasing, reading & referencing the companion Java book by the same author.

Pros: Clear explanations Small examples of (nearly) everything Good chapter progression Self-test Code examples available for download Examples build upon themselves Canonical and practical ways of doing things explained How things changed explained Copiously commented code Code is made to run in a simple editor (like Notepad) and from the command line. Cons Samples code is presented as images, at times too tiny too read Downloaded code samples lump all samples together by chapter Graphics are touched upon, and explained at a blistering speed. Herb Schildt is an excellent author, who explains code well, in a few languages. He shows no bias, but uses c++ here for comparison at the beginning, and through touts java's advantages. This book is not for beginner's to programming, as programming concepts are not explained. Though, to someone who understands the concepts (or can figure them out easily, by example) this is a great book. Almost everything has a short, complete, working sample, and the all but a few advanced keywords are explained in detail. By the time you're done with the book, you;re likely to be able to code in java (albeit simple stuff) if you typed in all the samples. and worked through the self-tests. The code samples are a major part of the book. I took advantage of dual screen to review the e-book on one screen and type and rest in the other. This also brought a problem to the fore, and that is the code examples are embedded as images! As you may know, Kindle does not scale images with the text, so tiny is tiny. I'm using a 20" screen @1600x1900 and could not read a lot of the text without squinting or moving closer than usual. Using the web kindle helped in some cases but no much. The on screen magnifier can help a lot. Perhaps turning the screen itself would have helped, but that's lot of work! Ultimately, that's why i rated this as 4 stars instead of 5. Chapter 16, Swing has a slightly different style than the other chapters, most notably, the examples show results before the code samples. It's probably due to being added in a later edition of the book. It and Chapter 17, JavaFX are rushed, but it isn't really the main part of the book. As he points out, they really need a book of their own, but he touched upon them here. Nice. From the editing, i get the feeling this book was meant for print and simply ebook-ified with little effort. That's explain the code images, the odd placement of some of the "Ask the Experts" sections, and weird spacing here and there. This doesn't really affect the quality of the work, but a shoddy job from Oracle Press. I looked at 2 other book on Java. Head First Java, 2nd Edition and Learning Java . The former's sign to noise ration is too low and is way out of date. The latter does not have complete samples, has an odd ordering of chapters, and gets too complex too quickly. Seems better for a review. I got got this one next and loved it. Third one's a charm, eh?

Im not sure why everyone is saying this is a bad beginners book. I read this book from cover to cover and found this book to be very easy to follow for an actual beginner. It covers all the basics plus more and it's more than enough to mold you into a Java developer. The writing is very technical and VERY well written. There are the occasional typos, but it is expected in every book. To the reviewer that said the book "smelled bad." The book doesn't smell bad, but it doesn't have the "new book smell" and that's why im giving 4 out of 5 stars(jk). Excellent but could use more new book smell.

I ordered this book as well as the reference manual by the same author. I used java in college, but I haven't touched it since 2009. I wanted to relearn/refresh myself in java fundamentals. The book is set up very well and introduces topics in good order. It doesn't introduce strings until you understand objects, etc. It has been fantastic so far in getting me up to speed. I like to know why something works, not just "Here, do this" with a light explanation and this book does a decent job of that. The reference manual I purchased (same author) as well as web searches helped for a deeper understanding of topics I feel I didn't fully grasp in this book. If you are a beginner, this is a fantastic book for you. If you work through it, you will have a good understanding of java to build on. I know countless hours of console programming can make you want to roll your face on the keyboard, but don't try to build a house from the roof down. Get a strong foundation and build up.

A little background: Started programming as a child on my family's Mac IIGS. I enjoyed freaking my mom out when I would make the computer count forever via an infinate loop. I self taught myself to program on my TI 83 in middle school, html and adobe photoshop in highschool, css in college, Perl for bioinformatics perposes. Skip to now... realizing that somewhere along the line I forgot about my love to program so I self taught myself begginers C++ using TheNewBoston's Youtube tutorial videos. To sum it all up, I've a sporadic programming background... but nothing substantial in terms of profession/life goals.. Until this book. This book teaches at the perfect speed, and provides examples in a logical "here is the newbie way that works... but here is a better way...and yet here is an even BETTER way!". So you learn in a very easy step by step way. Treat this book as you would any math book, and work out EVERY SINGLE example, as well as try to work out what the console output would look like in your head or on paper and check it against the System.out provided (in the text) And then, after a few chapters, go back and try to do the 'Try This' programs and retake the quizes to keep the info fresh, and see where your streths and weeknesses lie. Other notes: I use JavaFX (IntelliJ IDEA) because I plan to eventually make a GUI program. I believe having a beginners knowledge in c++ has made me understand Java on a deeper level than those without. And this background has enabled me to learn Java faster and more efficiently. If you have 2 weeks free, I suggest you look up TheNewBoston on youtube and watch his c++ videos at least up until #35 while you wait for this book to arrive, and you will have a better understanding when you start to read this book. I am also following along with a free "First Course in Java" that is availble online from Berkley College. It's excellent & I highly recomend it! Where I go from here: 1. Finish the book & Berkley Course homework/quizes Study for OCA Java SE 7 Programmer I (Exam 1Z0-803) with: 2. (Liguori, Finegan) Oca Java Se 7 Programmer I Study Guide 3. (Sierra, Bates) OCA/OCP Java SE 7 Programmer I & II (Study vol 1 OCA of 2) 4. Take Exam 1Z0-803 to be Certified OCAJP 7 5.? Maybe...(Ganesh, Sharma) Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 7 Programmer Exams 1Z0-804 and 1Z0-805: A Comprehensive OCPJP 7 Certification Guide 6. (Sierra, Bates) OCA/OCP Java SE 7 Programmer I & II (Study vol 2 OCP of 2) 7. Take Exam 1Z0-804 to be Certified OCPJP 7 Hope this helps someone in finding their way, and good luck!

Believe me, 20 years ago I learned to program in C & Pascal (Borland C or Turbo C). His books, were the best books that I have read. Now it's easy for me to learn quickly a new language due to I know advanced topics like recursion, sort methods, stacks, BIOS functions, interruptions, index of files, pointers, memory addresses, search methods, file handlers, procesor records, etc and believe me all these topics were good described on those old books in a few pages. I know how computers really work, how runs, how it boots, etc. When I was looking for Java Books to learn it from the ground I saw that Herbert had wrote some Java Books, the I bougth 2 books: this and the Java Reference. His style to teach is the same as 20 years ago, simple and directly, no much words, easy samples that from first chapter I started to programm in Java. I recommend Herbert.

Firstly, I believe that this book is not suited towards beginners. If you are a beginner to programming, you will most likely struggle with some of the concepts that are presented within the first couple chapters of the book (it goes very deeply into types and covers loops as well as conditional statements, things that are traditionally tricky for beginner's to grasp, all in the first chapter). That said, if you are coming from previous programming knowledge, this book is incredibly useful. The writing is very clear, albeit a little wordy at times, and does a great job explaining core concepts of the Java language. The examples are good as they clearly demonstrate the concepts discussed within the chapter without providing too much fluff. For programmers who want a good grasp on the Java language, I feel like this is a great book to start with. However, the exercises at the end of each chapter are very lacking, so you may want to turn to another book if you feel like you learn strongest through answering exercises.

Read it in two days. Awesome book. A must for beginners.

Good book for beginners in Java. Highly recommended.

Possedevo già la Beginner's Guide di Schildt su C++, e, dopo avere letto questo libro, mi sono convinto che Schildt spiega molto bene. Fornisce i concetti importanti senza perdersi in dettagli che verranno appresi dal lettore in un secondo tempo. Ci sono un sacco di esempi che fanno capire come funzionano le cose. Questo è sì un libro per principianti, ma principianti di Java. Credo che per trarre profitto di questo libro sia meglio conoscere già un po' di programmazione in qualche altro linguaggio, o almeno avere presente i concetti generali e le logiche di programmazione.

Having absolutely no knowledge of Java before I started this book (although I do have some knowledge of Visual Basic) I am finding this book an excellent introduction. Some of the structures in Java are quite similar to those in VB while others are completely different, so I am grateful that the book introduces ideas gradually and develops them slowly and clearly with plenty of example coding to follow. If you are wondering what Java is all about (as I was) this is a great way to get your teeth into a fascinating and versatile language.

Excellent book for learning Java. Concepts are explained in a very clear and concise manner, with lots of relevant examples. Prior to this I was learning Java through some Udemy courses. While they weren't too bad, this book way surpasses them.