C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide

TL;DR- This book is amazing and is perfect for anyone who has no experience, or does and wants to learn a new language. As i was trying to learn C as my first program, I thought it was going to be very hard because I've heard online that C is the not the ideal choice for getting started in programming as there are easier options like Python. But this book made learning C very easy, and had perfect explanations and examples. The way the authors relay the information is not hard to understand if you have absolutely no programming experience. The coding examples they have you copy from the book into an IDE are great ALTHOUGH I do wish that they gave some problems that we are supposed to try on our own so that all of the coding done through the book wasn't copied from it.. One of the problems with this book is the ending- because it kind of just leaves you with no idea of what to do next, and how to keep furthering your knowledge of C... After I read this book I had no idea what to do next and had a hard time trying to find resources for "intermediate" C. Still, I would recommend this book to anyone who has no programming experience at all and would like to learn C as their first language.This book is also good for people who have prior programming experience and want to learn C, although you will have to read through what is an int, str, etc..

So a disclaimer. If you ever want to learn something or research something, go old school and buy the book. I love my kindle and use it frequently. For novels. Otherwise I like a physical book I can leaf through the pages with. This book probably needs to be read physically. The larger pages have more real estate, and it is easier to grab information that way. Anyway, the book is excellent. It really is a step by step approach building a solid foundation of C, and you don't need prior programming experience. Take your time. Make sure you do it consistently, however. Like foreign languages, coding needs to be practiced daily for it to sink it. If you do it once a week, or even every few days, it likely will be not enough for you to really burn the language into your head. You have to be consistent and frequent with your practice. If you are, this book is top notch for learning. The only downside is that there are quite a few little errors in the sample code. If you are careful, it is good. You copy down a program, it doesn't work, and then you need to spend the time and effort to track through everything to find the "gotcha". That is probably great for practicing and learning C. At the same time, it is a little less than professional because it wasn't done on purpose. Despite that little downside, I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn C. Cheers!

I plan on updating this review as I go. This book was specifically recommended for those less familiar with programming for a class I'm taking. The introductory information, vernacular, tips, and warnings are very helpful. However, for someone with absolutely no programming experience (but) with otherwise fair computer skills, this book left me pestering my programmer friends for guidance by the 2ND CHAPTER. I used the C compiler recommended by the book, as it only recommends one by name noting it's the one the book will be referencing. It notes there are hundreds of free compilers out there, but I want to follow the book in hopes of grasping the information better. Fine. And I get that some features are going to be different with updates, but I wasn't able to even start putting in code for practice because the book fails to explain how to go about creating a new project in code blocks. I looked under the (new) project option which had a dozen different types of project models. None of which is mentioned. Then I went to file, which lead me to believe I had to have pre-installed .c files on my computer. Instead, I'm creating the name of my project here. The book fails to elucidate how to go about starting a new project. Again, this is a book for beginners with no experience whatsoever necessary. That means you have to spell things out step-by-step. **** Update After reviewing the material, I find the author's style of the aforementioned setting up and using the c-compiler to simply be a matter of poor layering or structuring on his part. In this case, he put the cart before the horse, detailing what I needed to know after showing and suggesting I test out the code on the page before me. I think I will be better off reading this after my coursework is up to date, and only sticking with my coursework compiler, as the code blocks is still a little confusing to me. While this book will certainly be more helpful down the line, he almost needs to postpone the user getting onto code blocks or another c compiler a few chapters later, after they've become familiar with a few aspects and rules of the language. Further Update: Ultimately, setting aside setting up the code blocks compiler, the information the author provides in this book is extremely helpful. I'm still rather green (new) around the edges but I'm finding the examples very helpful. Knowing what I do, I would have skipped the 2nd chapter on set up and moved forward with learning the basic principles and rules of programming before trying to build anything on code blocks.

For years, I have been avoiding C, opting for the .Net languages. However, because I use SQL and PL/SQL in my job daily, I am constantly interacting with Oracle databases. Once I discovered that the most powerful RDBMS in the world was written in C and many DBAs have suggested it as the language all DBAs and PL/SQL Developers should know, I decided to take the plunge. This book is Excellent! It introduces the concept of Arrays very early and with simple examples. The genius is that by the end 300-page book you are working with and understanding pointers and heap memory seamlessly. The chapters only average about 10 pages each, so you get it in small, digestible chunks, which most educators agree is the best way to learn fairly complex topics (by the way, Oracle and Microsoft could learn from this method). Unlike some "programmers", I am a Consultant who has done some programming, DBA work, System Analysis , SQL reporting and PL/SQL development. I have not had the privilege of doing one thing for 20 years. When I need to learn a new language, it is normally associated with a project, so I need to get up and running fairly quickly and don't have the time for mental "jousting" with the programming elite. -- Thanks to Greg Perry and Dean Miller for making this language accessible for the masses!

This book is absolutely phenomenal. The authors do an amazing job explaining programming concepts clearly and concisely, step-by-step and without rushing. I don't understand all the negative reviews about the 'code samples' links because you don't need to use them anyway, all the samples are clearly printed in the book and you'll be doing yourself a favor if you re-type them in your code editor and learn from your own errors vs. copy and pasting them. I struggled to learn programming before and went through half a dozen 'beginner's' books, none of which took the time to explain things clearly. C is a great place to start because of its stricter syntax, it will force you to understand the concepts of programming which you can then use to learn higher level languages. I can't thank the authors enough, except to say, please write more books - I'll buy them! Note: if Code::Blocks doesn't work for you, make sure there aren't any spaces in any of the file path folders, the compiler can't see the spaces and breaks. Other than that, Code::Blocks is a great free IDE for learning. Thank you Mr. Perry and Mr. Miller for writing a true beginner's book that is designed to foster conceptual understanding, practical knowledge and will increase the learner's confidence level with each chapter.

This is by far the cleanest, and smoothest, introduction to C programming I've ever seen. Easy to learn, but touches important concepts. This could be partly due to C's lack of bells and whistles. This book is the best selected, and organized, materials that I would use to teach my own kids as their first programming language. Compared to Python, Go, and Java, C gets chosen to be the first computer language for kids, mostly because I finally run into a book that can help me with this very important purpose.

I have been having difficulty learning C since I started developing. Most languages have excellent online resources which are generally more helpful than books when it comes to learning. I used Codecademy for Javascript, Python, Ruby, etc. However there really wasn't anything out there for C. I finally broke down and ordered this book because of the amazing reviews. This book is exactly what it says it is. You do not need to know anything about programming and you can follow the directions step by step and complete every exercise in the book and will finish with a solid foundation in the C language. It took me about a week or two to work through all the exercises, as well as modifying some of the programs to get a better idea of how they worked. After that for the first time I finally felt like I understood C well enough to start working some more advanced programs on my own. If you are going to be doing any type of work with C and want something to prepare I highly recommend this book.

I'm a little puzzled how there's so many glowing reviews and no one is talking about how the book is absolutely full of typos. So many in fact, that I started losing confidence in what they were showing me half-way through the book. The book is good overall. A nice pace and lots of useful information. The "difficult" topics (e.g. pointers) aren't explained as well though. For some reason they are giving about as much time as the simple topics. However I liked the path they took when explaining things, and they are definitely trying hard to make the book enjoyable to read (it's a enjoyable, light read) while passing on a lot of information. I give it 3.5 stars because of the typos, and 4 without.

In comparison to other books, this book is easy to understand, the content is organised ie from easy to hard, touch all the aspects and doesn't confuse. Easily take you to the next level.

Great start for learning C. There could be some adjustments made, like a better overview, a better higlighting of exemptions; espec. at the beginning. Also, maybe a bit less text, therefore more code examples, maybe even a few exercises. But overall, a great book!

Brand new condition

This book is structured better than most other programming books I've approached. It teaches you enough to wwrite simple programs then adds complexity and explains what you've been doing the whole time without realizing it. You get to the section on functions for example and it explains how they work in terms of printf() which is the first thing you learned. This shows the logical side of C instead of the complex side. Admittedly it won't make you a pro, but it doesn't make the language seem trivial either.

I bought this book to better understand C language for programs I am creating for the Arduino. This book was absolutely brilliant, it helped teach me the basics of C as well as how to structure it. It doesn't teach you everything, (as that would be impossible!) but it will give you a good base knowledge. It has really helped when I have been looking at other peoples code for Arduino online and understanding what they are doing. Just an FYI - there are some differences between C and C for Arduino, so i would also recommend getting the beginners guide to Arduino as well (if thats what you are going to use). Would highly recommend this book to anyone.