What is a very practical C++ book?

Question

While I agree reading books is always a learning experience, sometimes you'd like to skip the theory and just jump till you reach the practical aspects. For example, I'd like to see a book that tells me that by writing:

char* a = "a string";

the value of a will (usually) get stored in the readonly portion of an executable, and explain what happens if you try to modify it. I'd like a book that explains why sometimes you need to cast something to a type, then to another, before dereferencing it, or when it all boils down to machine code, what will the difference between references and pointers be.

I'm sure there are other numerous language gotchas and quirks that you only encounter while doing practical stuff, this is why I'd like to find such a book. I hope you can point me towards one.

If it matters, I have previous programming experience, but my area of expertise are higher-level languages.

Answer 1

Effective C++ and More effective C++ by Scott Meyers. Although it's a very enlightening book, it's useful only if you know a little C++. The book explains many special cases, gotchas and coding best practices gained after years of experience. Although, I'm afraid it might not mention things like the one in your example, cause these scenarios are usually known to C++ programmers. Edit: Adding Effective STL on public demand and yes of course C++ FAQ lite.

Answer 2

I think Accelerated C++ has what you're looking for.

Answer 3

If you want to find out about that, you want to start understanding compilers and assembler. Once you look at assembler, many of these details become clear.

In your particular case, the value of a is probably on the stack (or certainly in mutable memory), and it contains a value that points to constant data. This is part of "understanding" pointers -> "a" is a pointer, and it points to data. The characteristics of the pointer are different to the characteristics of the thing it points to.

Answer 4

Code Complete

Answer 5

I believe the C++ faq lite is what you need. If you like it, you can buy a book version.

Answer 6

This question is not programming related. Most of the books provides the concepts and its entirely upto the reader which author or which book he likes and implement the concepts in the real world.

Answer 7

I suggest you find "Exceptional C++" and others Herb Sutter's books very useful in any case. This is why I placed Amazon link (check references). They are written usually in "what is wrong here and why" style, very useful. Mayers' books are even better as for my opinion ("Effective C++" and so on).

But I'm in doubt if they have right the question you posted as example.

Answer 8

I'd go with either Effective C++ by Meyers, or C++ Primer by Addison Wesley. They're both much more about "Here's what the language does" than "Here's how you should design a bank program"

Answer 9

It's been a while since I did anything in C++, but my go-to book on the subject is The C++ Programming Language. I would recommend at least seeing if you can find it in a library (it can be an older version of the book) and checking it out to see if it meets your needs before you buy it, but it's helped me out when I needed it.

Answer 10

Programming -- Principles and Practice Using C++ is without any doubt the best book to learn in a practical way C++. Bjarne who is the creator of this language say that. This book is the book used by himself in his classroom.

I have hundred of C++ books. Without any doubt this is the best one to learn and to get one step beyond.

Answer 11

the value of a will (usually) get stored in the readonly portion of an executable

Wrong. The character array a string\0 will be stored there, but the value of a is just a pointer to that array.

Answer 12

This one

Answer 13

I'd recommend C++ FAQs (also a free Lite version on the web) and C++ Common Knowledge.

Answer 14

Modern C++ Design by Andrei Alexandrescu