Java: A Beginner's Guide

by Herbert Schildt

Learn the fundamentals of Java 2 programming from renowned Java genius Herb Schildt. Discover why Java is the preeminent language of the Internet, how to use object-oriented programming, and how to write programs with the general form of Java. Coverage includes advanced topics such as inheritance, exception handling, the I/O system, applets, and much more.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Computer Science, Technology, Nonfiction, Education, Technical

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Best-selling author Herbert Schildt has written extensively about the Java, C++, C, and C# programming languages. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been widely translated. Herb's books have been used in education, corporate training, and individual study.
Although he is interested in all facets of computing, Herb's primary focus is computer languages, especially the standardization of languages. He was a member of the original ANSI committee that standardized the C language in 1989, and he was a member of the ANSI/ISO committee that updated that standard in 1999. He was a member of the original ANSI/ISO committee that standardized C++ in 1998 and he was a member of the ANSI/ISO committee that updated the standard for C++ in 2011.

Herb holds both graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall I wasn't pleased. There are some great things here, but too many important topics are glossed over or missing from this to be a good beginner's book. As a person who has known Java since it's first days, I too overlooked much of this on my first read as I chose this for my beginning Java book at a tech college. However the confusion from my students quickly made me aware of all of the book's short comings. The examples were not clear or focused enough and the explanations assumed background knowledge that they didn't have. And note that they already know programming basics, just not Java, so anyone also new to programming would likely struggle more.

Going past the basics, there are key things that are not covered here. The most egregious omission is an introduction to and discussion of Collections. While I understand that a beginning book cannot cover everything, this is so integral to doing so many things that it is ridiculous not to include. Even if this had just been enough to introduce lists and the ArrayList class, with a pointer out to the other classes, that would be sufficient. There are so many other topics that are crammed in here in such a way that I really question the author's choices to leave that out entirely.

I could go on and on about our issues with this book, but I think I'll just leave it with this... Anyone authoring a Beginner's Guide, really needs to take some steps back to what it is truly like to be a beginner. And anyone publishing one should really get some beginners to read it. My choice for a book in this space is still Head First Java, which does go back to that beginner level and also does a great job reinforcing concepts through repetition and detailed examples with discussion. Honestly a true beginner really isn't concerned yet with the new and different from Java 8, so even though that book is now quite old, I would still recommend it.

[Mikhail GEYER · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very interesting, expected better.
Do not give good introduction to real needs to start programming Java. No words about Lists, Collections, streams, maps etc and other useful things. Though quite simple but not very efficient/laconic book.

[IceMajor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a beginner so my opinion is biased. Be advised.

Along reading this book and learning from it, I've taken MOOC University of Helsinki Java Course. Comparing these two... there's no contest.

The Finnish source provided a lot of inspired examples, used clear naming convention, dived deeper into some interesting stuff, whereas HS decided to explain some of the fundamentals in a boring and very "academic" manner. There was a lot of theory and little practice. I think the language was also too "rough" for a beginner. UoH explained concepts with analogies, Schildt explained concepts like writing a poor research paper. Lots of details, probably accurate descriptions, but no clarity and passion.

It's a decent book if used as an addendum, additional reading, but if it is to be the main learning material, then consider better options.

[Sergey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book to start learning Java. The author iteratively walks you through the language-specific concepts and explains the object-oriented philosophy behind Java. This is the only book about Java I've read so far and I'm glad I chose it over other beginner-level books. I was able to apply the knowledge and already got my first (however small) application running in production.

[Alina Zavrazhina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book for begginers or in case you want to refresh your knowledge in short time. Just one serious flaw is a lack Collections Framework chapter.

[Saad Almalki · Rating 3 out of 5]

ليس من نوعية الكتب التي تقرأها لكي تستمتع أو تقضي وقتك , فهو ليس برواية أو كتاب تاريخي أو كتاب يحكي عن شيء معين . بل الكتاب لايقل عن كونه دليل تعليمي لتعلم لغة جافا .

لغة جافا هي لغة برمجية تم إصدارها بشكل رسمي في 1995 من قبل شركة سن مايكروسيستمز , الشيء المميز باللغة أنها كانت تدعم البرمجة الشيئية/البرمجة
. بالكائنات ,مثلها مثل سي بلس بلس . وسبب إنشاء هذه اللغة هو مشاكل إدارة الذاكرة في لغة سي بلس بلس .
في 2009 أشترت أوراكل حقوق شركة سن مايكروسيستمز بما فيها لغة جافا ومنصة ماي اس كيو ال .

بحكم دراستي الجامعية التي أمضيت فيها سنين عديدة في تخصص علم الحاسب الآلي , فلم أكن سأتعلم إلا من الملفات التي هي محددة لنا من قبل الجامعة , ولكن هذا الكتاب كسر هذه القاعدة وأدركت أنه الكتب التعليمية للغة برمجية معينة أو أداة قد تكون أفضل كونها أشمل وأوسع . لدي النسخة التاسعة والمستغرب منها أنها لاتحمل شعار "أوراكل" كما في بعض النسخ السابقة من نفس الكتاب , وكذلك الكتاب مع أنه شامل إلا أنه لم يتطرق للكثير من النقاط المهمة في لغة جافا بشكل رئيسي مثل :
الـgetter
الـsetter
الـUML Class
الـCopy Constructor
وغيرها الكثير .

[Omar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me get a start with Java right from scratch. With or without programming knowledge, if you want to learn Java, this book is just for you. If you already know the basics of Java, you might want to skip ahead into the book. The only problem with this book is it often repeats parts over to make sure you understand it perfectly. That didn't stop me from reading the book, though!
5/5

[Dmytro Turskyi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring and dry information.
List of answers in the end might be interesting. I would use this book only as a manual.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beginner's guide to Java. I especially like the "Ask the Expert" part which answers the questions the beginners might have but do not know where to start.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read through most of this book to help with a Coursera course on Java I am taking. Overall, a good starting place for understanding the functionality of Java.

[Narender]

helpful notes

[Mauricio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good introduction to Java and its newest features. This is not a book for learning how to program or learning about the object oriented paradigm. It covers a wide range of basic topics from fundamentals, data types, control statements, abstract data types and exceptions. It also covers some more advanced topics as I/O, multithreading, generics, lambda expressions and modules. For the most of it, the book is very clear and uses small code examples to illustrate. Unfortunately, most advanced topics show impractical or just dumb examples that 'work' but don't really show how to take advantage of the features. Read it if you need to catch up with the newest Java features. Keep in mind Java will continue updating every six months, so this book is already outdated.

[Em Salam · Rating 4 out of 5]

came across an old folder of class assignments and remembered how well-written and edited this book is. great resource filled with numerous easy-to-understand working examples of every concept the author wishes to teach. ... this text was used in UC Berkeley Extension's beginning Java course, equally as thorough and appropriate for the absolute newb.

[Nimrod Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished the book a long time ago (Except for a chapter that doesn't deal with core Java). I've some background in programming, but not OOP, so the first parts were somewhat boring. But still, I learned a lot. The book is quite good as an introduction book with helpful code examples, though sometimes it feels somewhat repetitive.

4-4.25/5

[Mik Vargas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly I skipped three chapters, but I consider this book is a good reference. However, the examples are really simple, so it would be great to add some explanations when to use or not to use the concepts explained. Sincerely I have to admit that Java Head First is a much better book and also more entertaining.

[Shane Vanhull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of Java. Very general coverage of everything. Gives you just enough knowledge to write basic programs and the ability to know where to look in the API for the more complex classes and methods you need as you advance.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years after reading this book, I have to say - author explained all the OOP concepts very well. I learned my OOP foundation in this book and after several classes I realized how many good habits I picked up without even thinking about it!

[Ferry]

start for learning java language

[Alex Murygin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thing it's a good book for beginner.

[Khalil · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible book , read it with JAVA the complete reference

[Dmytro Chaban · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sixth edition of this book is awesom. I've started reading this and was excited how awesome this book is. There's a lot of information that newbie needs, really.

[zijie ku · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s interesting to read. This book covers details and design principles for the Java language.

[Lana T · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a helpful resource while I was taking Computer Science 1 and starting out with Java.

[Jorge DeFlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buena introducción al lenguaje java, incluyendo Aldo de las nuevas versiones 8 (Lamdas, Streams) 9 ( módulos ) y 11.

La tipografía y la redacción son Excelentes.