Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day

by Jesse Liberty

Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day is the latest edition of the bestselling Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days. Updated and reworked to trim down the material into shorter, more focused one-hour lessons, this book is still one of the best hands-on tutorials for the C++ programming language. The book's numerous examples of syntax and detailed analysis of code provide solid instruction for beginning programmers. Even new to programming, you will learn about such fundamentals as managing I/O, loops and arrays, object-orient programming, templates, and creating C++ applications -- all in well-structured and easy-to-follow lessons. Each lesson provides numerous code listings, complete with sample output and an analysis of the code, to illustrate the topics covered in the lesson. This new edition is non-compiler specific and is up to date with the latest ANSI/ISO C++ Standard, and includes coverage of namespaces, the Standard Template Library, and distributed computing.

Genres: Programming, Computer Science, Software, Computers, Reference, Nonfiction

888 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 8, 2008

About the author

Jesse Liberty has three decades of experience writing and delivering software projects and is the author of 2 dozen books and a couple dozen Pluralsight & LinkedIn Learning courses.

He currently works for CNH writing APIs.
He was a Senior Technical Evangelist for Microsoft, a Distinguished Software Engineer for AT&T, a VP for Information Services for Citibank and a Software Architect for PBS.

He has been a Microsoft MVP for 13 years.

His most recent book is Writing APIs with .NET (Packt 2024)

You can find him at https://jesseliberty.com/find-me

Reviews

[Zahra Dashti · Rating 4 out of 5]

برای کسی که برنامه نویسی به یک زبان شیئ گرای دیگه رو بلده، کتاب خوب و مختصر مفیدی برای یادگرفتن c++ هست که بیشتر موارد لازم برای کار رو پوشش می ده، ولی قطعا کاملترین کتاب در این زمینه نیست.
بیانش خوب و قابل فهم بود، مثال ها هم کاملا واضح بودن.

[Ockert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. All the terminology is very well explained so that a layman can understand. The book gives a very friendly atmosphere, which makes it easier to learn. The examples used in this book is not over the top like most books. It sticks to the basics and do not try to make the exercises too complicated. I wish I had a book like this when I started my programming journey a long time ago. Why do I say this? Well, with the right book, written the right way, by an author that is humble and knows what it is like to "work his way to the top", it makes understanding complicated things easy!

Thank you very much for this very useful book!

[Brian Salehi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book twice (two times complete) and I think that it's the best book for starters or professionals.
The book is highly structured and topics are perfectly ordered.
The practices at the end of each chapter makes sure no one will ever leave that chapter with any doubts.
Almost everything was covered in this book

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am reviewing the C++11/C++14 update.

Well, if you want to learn C++, this is the book you need. I taught myself C++ back in 2003 from "C++ How to Program", which is a good book but extremely large and prolix. "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day" however teaches c++ in details, clearly and objectively. The book has around 800 pages and it is still easy to read and learn. The other great book I recommend should you wish to delve into the world of C++ is "C++ The Practice Of Programming" co-authored by the legend himself, maybe one of the greatest living minds, the C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup,

If you know C++ before its multiple newer versions ( c++ now follows Java and releases new versions every 3 years maybe to bring youngsters to C++ ), this is a highly recommended book as well which was the use I made of the previous edition which focused on C++11 and now has been updated to C++14.

Siddhartha Rao is a very good technical author and knows C++ very well so he conveys things like polymorphism or operator overloading clearly enough to get you started.

This books covers the language aspects and has a real good dose of STL, which makes it worth the price.

[Andre Garrigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did a crap load of research and ended up settling on Sam's Teach Yourself C++

The research paid off. Before completing this textbook I would have labeled myself a complete beginner. Sam's Teach Yourself C++ quickly brought me up to speed. I would now label myself an intermediate C++ programmer who is ready to pick up a book labeled as "advanced."

One last thing. The "one hour a day" shpeel is utter bullshit. On average, each chapter takes 3-4 hrs to complete. However, I would still recommend this book over any other text. A++

[Muhammad al-Khwarizmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good place to start, but don't finish here. Author does things like using "size_t" without explaining it and writing templates with "typename" and "class" without ever mentioning that they are the same. Of course this cannot be a complete guide anyway: Bjarne Stroustrup himself has said that he only understands part of the C++ standard. Other than that this can get you pretty far in short order. I read it to understand OpenCV guides and of course this has already become a lot easier.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to get (re) acquainted with the language. Nice emphasis on c++11 puts you ahead of the curve. Would have enjoyed a bit more interesting examples and deeper coverage in the later chapters. But then again, that would make it harder to breeze through. Bottom line : a worthy addition to the Sams teach yourself series and recommended for (re) learners.

[Sardar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit easier to read than A tour of C++ by Bjarne with the same goal - providing you with a good introduction to C++ language.

I gave it 4 stars because of a few errors and some ill advice. But in general, the book is a good read for a beginner who already knows some other programming language.

Pro's: examples, summaries, language
Con's: C++20 update is a joke. Concepts, threads and modules are barely touched as if the book needed a new cover without much effort.

If you already have spent 10-30 hours on cppreference.com reading about C++ syntax, STL containers/iterators/algorithms, templates, objects & value categories, then you will find little new in this book. Of course, this book is much more accessible than cppreference.

[Kiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've used this book to accompany an Introduction to Computer Science class I teach. In this first class, we only used content from the first half of the book (prior to object-oriented subjects). In general I found the coverage adequate but not outstanding. Some of the ordering of subjects is a bit odd (like introducing variables and then jumping to scope and illustrating it with functions in Lesson 3, without explaining functions because that subject comes much later). I also would have liked more exercises (we always want more exercises!). However, the language is generally clear and students seem to understand it as well.

[Geoffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the Sam's Teach Yourself series. I read this after reading Sam's Teach Yourself C in One Hour a Day. The book does a great job explaining how C/C++ works, and then transitions over to Object Oriented programming in C++. From the intro to the advanced topics, this book does a great job introducing all the concepts that are used in C++ programming.

[Chris Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good rough introduction to C++, but I'll certainly need more reading and practice to feel like I could program in C++ adequately. This is a good introduction to the landscape of C++ and its concepts, though.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great C++ book.

I have been tinkering with C, and although I know it well, I still like to keep sharp and this book was a good help.

Would recommend to get up-to-speed on C++

4.3/5

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot imagine that anyone would ever learn C++ in one hour a day, however the book is wonderfully structured, and a great reference book once you've finished reading it.

[Wallace Obey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always read this book at least once when I’m getting ready for interviews before moving onto advance topics. It’s a great entry level resource! 5/5 ⭐️

[Duip]

2021, 9th Edition.
Incomprehensive.

[Viet Dinh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative Book!