What are the Best Books for Learning C++ on Your Own?

[Jow]

I am currently in high school and doing a lot of self study. I plan on going into physics in university and I was thinking about learning code, or at least becoming familiar with it. I have decided on C++ and I was wondering what are the best books for learning it on one's own. I don't know if this will make a difference at all to my learning process or what book I should get, but I currently use a mac. As I said I am doing a lot of self study (right now I am studying Linear Algebra) and I do have school work so my ideal textbook wouldn't be too rigorous. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you.

 

[Ramanujan1729]

I completed my C++ course by Herbert Schildt's books. book is fat but its good.

P.S. if you have time then learn C firstly.

 

[steveh721]

My work experience includes 20+ years of software development in C++ and 5+ years in Ruby.

Imo, to start, study "Accelerated C++, Practical Programming by Example", by Koenig and Moo
http://amzn.to/12qgjKr

After you've mastered that, get "C++ Programming Language" by Bjarne Stroustrup
http://amzn.to/ZcpSFn

Other books to consider:
"Clean Code, A Handbook of Agile Software Craftmanship", by Robert C. Martin

"Framework-Based Software Development in C++", by Gregory Rogers

"Expert C Programming, Deep C Secrets"

And O'Reilly books for STL and Pthreads
http://oreil.ly/YS8BCD

Depending on what you want to do, I'd also encourage you to learn Ruby. Imo, Ruby and C++ is a super-hot combo :-))

And keep in mind, in only a few years hence, parallel computing (algorithms & development) will be more common. We already have 5 cores on a chip... in the foreseeable future, we can realistically anticipate 16 or more cores. So, I'm also suggesting that you add perhaps Clojure to your self-study http://clojure.org/ If you do that, then I suggest you use JRuby rather than Ruby, as both Clojure and JRuby use the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) with associated binding capabilities with Java

 

[bossman27]

steveh721, a professor of mine (for a C and Fortran "scientific programming" class) recommended "Thinking in C++" by Bruce Eckel. https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Introduction-Standard-One-2nd/dp/0139798099

Seeing as you have a lot of experience with C++, I'm just wondering what your thoughts on that particular book are, if you're familiar with it. Thanks a lot!

 

[TomServo]

"Engineering Problem Solving in C++"

I forget the author.

 

[xepma]

Here's a list:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/388242/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list

Is this your first programming language? Then please do not start with C++. Start with something like Python or Ruby -- it is far more accessible. You can move on to C++ at a later stage.

 

[Huqinpku]

Is this your first programming language? Then please do not start with C++. Start with something like Python or Ruby -- it is far more accessible. You can move on to C++ at a later stage.

I second xepma's suggestion. If this is your first programming language, start with python.

btw, why do you decide that you need to learn c++?

 

[Jow]

Through research and a friend's suggestion I settled on C++. I don't know much about the various types of programming languages so I thought it would be best to pick a language and stick with it. However, I think I might reconsider. In that case any suggestions on books for C++ or Python would be helpful.

 

[DrummingAtom]

Absolute C++ by Savitch. I have the 2nd edition. I love this book because it gives a lot of details of what's going on and also warns you about common errors.

 

[Daverz]

I would also encourage you to learn something like Python (together with numpy) instead of C++. You will find it a lot more useful for Physics.

 

[thegreenlaser]

The most important thing is just to learn *a* programming language. If you're fluent with C++, Python will be easy to learn, and vice-versa. Your first programming language is by far the hardest to learn because you're learning how to think like a programmer. After that it's just a matter of learning syntax.

Personally, I would start with Python because it's an easier language. C and C++ give you more control over the computer, but unfortunately that means there are a lot more ways that you can screw up and spend a lot of time hunting down bugs in your code. With Python, there's a lot less to worry about and you can focus on learning to program rather than learning to deal with the nit-picky aspects of the language. You'll probably find that for your purposes Python can all of the same things C++ can, so I don't see any real advantage to learning C++ first. Also, like I said earlier, if you want to learn C++ later you probably won't have much trouble doing it once you know Python.

As far as books go, I'm not sure, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents about Python vs C++.

 

[Daverz]

One more thing I'd like to emphasize is that Python has become very popular for scientific computing, with a large and vibrant community.

Some links:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/NumericAndScientific
http://www.sagemath.org/

Python integrates easily with C, C++, and Fortran. My own Python code integrates with several C DLLs without my having to write a single line of C code.

 

[OscarJ]

I really Love Professional C++ By Marc Gregoire. He is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his knowledge in C++ visual. He really manages to explain comlex topics in an easy way. It is new as well, the last version from 2014. A must read if you ask me!

I write a little bit about it here discussing what I think is the best C++ book.

Good Luck!