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C in a Nutshell
Learning a language--any language--involves a process wherein you learn to rely less and less on instruction and more increasingly on the aspects of the language you've mastered. Whether you're learning French, Java, or C, at some point you'll set aside the tutorial and attempt to converse on your own. It's not necessary to know every subtle facet of French in order to speak it well, especially if there's a good dictionary available. Likewise, C programmers don't need to memorize every detail of C in order to write good programs. What they need instead is a reliable, comprehensive reference that they can keep nearby. C in a Nutshell is that reference.
This long-awaited book is a complete reference to the C programming language and C runtime library. Its purpose is to serve as a convenient, reliable companion in your day-to-day work as a C programmer. C in a Nutshell covers virtually everything you need to program in C, describing all the elements of the language and illustrating their use with numerous examples.
The book is divided into three distinct parts. The first part is a fast-paced description, reminiscent of the classic Kernighan & Ritchie text on which many C programmers cut their teeth. It focuses specifically on the C language and preprocessor directives, including extensions introduced to the ANSI standard in 1999. These topics and others are covered:
Numeric constants
Implicit and explicit type conversions
Expressions and operators
Functions
Fixed-length and variable-length arrays
Pointers
Dynamic memory management
Input and output
The second part of the book is a comprehensive reference to the C runtime library; it includes an overview of the contents of the standard headers and a description of each standard library function. Part III provides the necessary knowledge of the C programmer's basic tools: the compiler, the make utility, and the debugger. The tools described here are those in the GNU software collection.
C in a Nutshell is the perfect companion to K&R, and destined to be the most reached-for reference on your desk.
This long-awaited book is a complete reference to the C programming language and C runtime library. Its purpose is to serve as a convenient, reliable companion in your day-to-day work as a C programmer. C in a Nutshell covers virtually everything you need to program in C, describing all the elements of the language and illustrating their use with numerous examples.
The book is divided into three distinct parts. The first part is a fast-paced description, reminiscent of the classic Kernighan & Ritchie text on which many C programmers cut their teeth. It focuses specifically on the C language and preprocessor directives, including extensions introduced to the ANSI standard in 1999. These topics and others are covered:
Numeric constants
Implicit and explicit type conversions
Expressions and operators
Functions
Fixed-length and variable-length arrays
Pointers
Dynamic memory management
Input and output
The second part of the book is a comprehensive reference to the C runtime library; it includes an overview of the contents of the standard headers and a description of each standard library function. Part III provides the necessary knowledge of the C programmer's basic tools: the compiler, the make utility, and the debugger. The tools described here are those in the GNU software collection.
C in a Nutshell is the perfect companion to K&R, and destined to be the most reached-for reference on your desk.
618 pages, Paperback
First published December 16, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 24, 2019
This book is written in detail and is great for intermediate C programmers.
I suggest you to read another easier book before this one if you're an absolute beginner. C Primer Plus is a great start point, but don't forget to read this book afterwards.
this book contains a lot of standard C functions and explains then clearly in detail which makes the readers get familiar with the standard library and not to afraid to take a look at library files.
I suggest you to read another easier book before this one if you're an absolute beginner. C Primer Plus is a great start point, but don't forget to read this book afterwards.
this book contains a lot of standard C functions and explains then clearly in detail which makes the readers get familiar with the standard library and not to afraid to take a look at library files.
December 7, 2012
Who am I kidding? I will never "finish" this book. It will sit on my shelf and be abused as reference material until the pages fall out.
Or until O'Reilly releases the C11 version and I buy a new copy ...
Or until O'Reilly releases the C11 version and I buy a new copy ...
July 14, 2016
Read 2016 version of the book for the C tools chapter which is mostly ignored with other C books. Quality is good especially if you not into reading ~200 page manuals for each tools like gcc, make and gdb...
December 3, 2022
Look for a cow on the cover
Look for a cow on the cover of this book. I bought this book for a C in my UNIX class. The C part is great.
There is hardly a page that does not have an example or enlightening diagram. However, the only reference to applying this to UNIX is in the back where it "Practically" says that there are different versions of UNIX. It never really claimed to be a UNIX book on C. The section on unbuffered I/O has a little more on the UNIX handling of files. Overall, until something better comes along, I am still using this book.
Look for a cow on the cover of this book. I bought this book for a C in my UNIX class. The C part is great.
There is hardly a page that does not have an example or enlightening diagram. However, the only reference to applying this to UNIX is in the back where it "Practically" says that there are different versions of UNIX. It never really claimed to be a UNIX book on C. The section on unbuffered I/O has a little more on the UNIX handling of files. Overall, until something better comes along, I am still using this book.
January 14, 2023
A must read for more advanced topics
December 3, 2008
Excellent reference book on the C language and standard library. Also has good coverage on popular tools related to C such as GCC, GNU make, and debugging with GDB.
April 10, 2007
Great reference book
Currently reading
October 12, 2009A LIFESAVER.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews