• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:06
CEST 13:06
KST 20:06
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3
Community News
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)8Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over2New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!40Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week6Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles3
StarCraft 2
General
Nexon wins bid to develop StarCraft IP content, distribute Overwatch mobile game SC4ALL II: SC2 Player Announcement 6/8 - Maru Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2?
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) 2026 GSTL Announcement PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome
Brood War
General
ASL22 General Discussion New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! Which box art did your first copy of StarCraft 1 have? [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60 BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues BSL LAN Party - Kraków 29-30 August - OPEN SIGNUPS [ASL22] Ro24 Group F Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Replay Review Process - What do you do? Game Theory for Starcraft Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Stratus: Battle for the sky now on steam Early acc Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Regacy Esports: The Bh…
regacyesports
Violent Games and Crime Rate…
TrAiDoS
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3179 users

Learning C/C++ from beginning?

Blogs > stalife
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
stalife
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
Canada1222 Posts
January 21 2010 09:19 GMT
#1
which books would you guys recommend for picking up C/C++ from the beginning? I started with Java, and I'm not really good at it, but I can write some codes.. I'd like to pick up C/C++ as well to start some basic projects of my own.

Any recommendations?? Thanks!

****
www.memoryexpress.com
keV.
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States3214 Posts
January 21 2010 09:28 GMT
#2
A billion good C and C++ books. IMO, start with C and practice with data structures; linked lists, binary trees, memory managers etc... After that knowing some Java and C you will pick up C++ very fast.
"brevity is the soul of wit" - William Shakesman
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
January 21 2010 09:28 GMT
#3
www.cplusplus.com

Better than any book.

To make it useful

Pick up a book that teaches you frameworks once you are done.

Qt, Visual C++, etc.. and learn libraries such as boost...

Understand the strength of C/C++ versus say Java. Understand the application of such strength where it fits. Understand the downfall and weakness of C/C++.
Rillanon.au
imDerek
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States1944 Posts
January 21 2010 09:41 GMT
#4
c++: the book by bjarne stroustrup the author himself.

go with c first though
Least favorite progamers: Leta, Zero, Mind, Shine, free, really <-- newly added
Marradron
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Netherlands1586 Posts
January 21 2010 10:02 GMT
#5
For what purpose ?

You might as well learn c# or something like that. seems a bit more advanced than c++
Aim Here
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Scotland672 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-21 10:08:35
January 21 2010 10:05 GMT
#6
On January 21 2010 18:41 imDerek wrote:
c++: the book by bjarne stroustrup the author himself.

go with c first though


I disagree. If you're planning on writing C++, then learn it straight off. C++ is superficially a superset of C, but the philosophy and the mindset of writing C++ code is very different from that needed for C code.

Plus, old C hands are likely to get into the bad habit of using C-isms, like malloc/free or pointer manipulation, rather than use the C++ variants.

Not that I'm opposed to learning C - C is a much nicer, cleaner language than C++ and is worth learning as the only low-level language you really need. C++ on the other hand, unless you have a specific need for it, I'd recommend saving all that memory space you'd use for C++ and using Java or Python or C# or something instead...
BlissX1
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States328 Posts
January 21 2010 10:16 GMT
#7
C++ and C and C# are easy TBA. i would suggest you learn java first, then Python. Then see if you still want to learn C++ and what not. if so, it will be easy. Java is already easy, Python is amazing. all the C stuff looks like total uselessness compared to Python cause Python is so efficient. That's why NASA uses it. C is nice though, but i suggest dont learn it for the first time. get some experience first. it will make it much easier.
XtremeOneZ 4 Life Bliss[x.1]
Amnesty
Profile Joined April 2003
United States2054 Posts
January 21 2010 10:56 GMT
#8
Accelerated C++

Pretty good book. Actually uses C++
The sky just is, and goes on and on; and we play all our BW games beneath it.
Aim Here
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Scotland672 Posts
January 21 2010 11:08 GMT
#9
I forgot to recommend a book for the OP, and so I suppose somebody had better recommend K&R as the definitive book on straight C, and unrecommend anything by Herbert Schildt, whose books are both very popular and yet so egregiously wrong that they spawned a jargon file entry.
iaretehnoob
Profile Joined June 2004
Sweden741 Posts
January 21 2010 11:08 GMT
#10
On January 21 2010 19:16 Bl1ss wrote:
Fortran is amazing. all the C stuff looks like total uselessness compared to Fortran cause Fortran is so efficient. That's why NASA uses it.
mptj
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United States485 Posts
January 21 2010 11:31 GMT
#11
I recommend C for the absolute beginner i'm reading it and it comes with the software and its very interactive. It's kind of old, but it works with vista, while you're running a linux shell.
"Only the Good Die Young"
FirstBorn
Profile Blog Joined March 2007
Romania3955 Posts
January 21 2010 11:33 GMT
#12
On January 21 2010 18:28 haduken wrote:
www.cplusplus.com

Better than any book.


I'm going to second this, VERY usefull site. Helped me a ton with getting the hang of C/C++.
SonuvBob: Yes, the majority of TL is college-aged, and thus clearly stupid.
agorist
Profile Joined July 2009
United States115 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-01-21 11:46:01
January 21 2010 11:42 GMT
#13
C first.
C++ second.



What is your current skillset? Know the difference between the heap and stack? Can you wield pointers?
CTStalker
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Canada9720 Posts
January 21 2010 11:47 GMT
#14
as has been said, learn C first (and then never learn C++: learn Lisp instead)

this is the book you'll use to learn C
By the way, my name is Funk. I am not of your world
araav
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
Armenia1590 Posts
January 21 2010 11:59 GMT
#15
don't go for C first, don't go for C at all if you are not planning to be a system programmer.

C++ is a moderate OO language and I would recommend doing it this way -
first pick an easy book, not a fancy one, like any book for dummies, get the grasp of pointers, templates, classes, encapsulation, polymorphism, etc

then go for more master series, like take Effective/More Effective C++ books.
then go for expert series, like Alexandresku
then take up the C++ standard and make it your bible

this is your true path of a C++ guru
The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.
Neshapotamus
Profile Blog Joined May 2006
United States163 Posts
January 21 2010 13:18 GMT
#16
http://www.learncpp.com/
Amnesty
Profile Joined April 2003
United States2054 Posts
January 21 2010 13:19 GMT
#17
Disagree with the C first approach. Strongly strongly disagree.
The problem is you don't end up learning C++ next. You learn a bastard child mish mash of both next. Its like you are learning C but with some cool classes thrown in. And its just bad.
It's not that the C language is horrible, its not. The problem is coding C++ in a C POV that is horrific.

The main problem with that is you won't even realize you are writing bad C++ code so you wont even try and fix it. It takes a lot more effort to unlearn C to learn C++
God have mercy if you read a whole chapter on macros in C and then crack open a different C++ book. And a lot of C++ books are really C books in disguise beware.

Start with the book I recomended. I really wished that book came out a lot earlier.

You didnt say why you wanted to learn C++. There might be a better option for you. Right now, im using C#/WPF for my project. It would be a nightmare to do using other options.
The sky just is, and goes on and on; and we play all our BW games beneath it.
Marradron
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Netherlands1586 Posts
January 21 2010 14:04 GMT
#18
for online c instructions http://www.iu.hio.no/~mark/CTutorial/CTutorial.html#
Flaccid
Profile Blog Joined August 2006
8921 Posts
January 21 2010 14:12 GMT
#19
I don't understand the 'learn C first' idea. Sounds like a waste of time.

What type of projects are you looking to do? I ask because you might want to consider spending that time learning C# (as others have said) instead. The thing about C++ is that it can be tough to jump into because it can be so convoluted. It's just been built upon and built upon until there are 100 different ways to do any one thing and you end up agonizing over which is the 'best' way.

C#, on the other hand is much more intuitive (C++ is only intuitive to those that have coded C++ for the majority of their lives) and you will climb the learning curve much more quickly. Microsoft is pushing it hard too so each update to the framework brings more and more useful goodies. I coded C++ and C for years and have switched almost entirely to C#. Another nice thing about C# is that you can jump right into coding web-applications and ASP for web junk, if that's an ambition of yours.

Anywho, if you do decide to go that route, these guys have a nice series of books for each step of the learning curve: link
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
ProoM
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Lithuania1741 Posts
January 21 2010 14:19 GMT
#20
On January 21 2010 18:28 haduken wrote:
www.cplusplus.com

Better than any book.

To make it useful

Pick up a book that teaches you frameworks once you are done.

Qt, Visual C++, etc.. and learn libraries such as boost...

Understand the strength of C/C++ versus say Java. Understand the application of such strength where it fits. Understand the downfall and weakness of C/C++.

Knock knock. Whos there? -After very long pause- Java.
IMBA - International Mountain Bicycling Association.
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
2026 Week 21
IntoTheiNu 404
Rex21
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech131
EnDerr 32
Rex 21
Lowko16
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 1520
Shuttle 1117
Hyuk 1008
Horang2 690
Jaedong 448
Stork 180
Zeus 168
Rush 155
Pusan 132
EffOrt 114
[ Show more ]
Shinee 95
Dewaltoss 93
ZerO 82
Noble 77
910 33
ToSsGirL 28
soO 27
Snow 25
NaDa 20
sSak 20
Sexy 19
sorry 12
Sacsri 12
ajuk12(nOOB) 12
SilentControl 11
Terrorterran 8
firebathero 1
Barracks 0
League of Legends
JimRising 388
Counter-Strike
olofmeister750
zeus134
Other Games
singsing1087
DeMusliM190
Pyrionflax149
Livibee143
B2W.Neo94
KnowMe46
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH397
• StrangeGG 52
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 17
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos1645
Other Games
• WagamamaTV4
Upcoming Events
RotterdaM Event
5h 9m
Replay Cast
12h 54m
The PondCast
22h 54m
IntoTheTV X SOOP
1d 23h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
OSC
4 days
Shopify Rebellion Sundays
4 days
Mixu vs TBD
Spirit vs TBD
Clem vs TBD
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Soma vs Shuttle
BeSt vs Rush
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
[ Show More ]
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Leta vs ggaemo
Jaedong vs Queen
GSL
5 days
PiGosaur Cup
6 days
Kung Fu Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

KCM Special KOR vs CHN
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Light Tournament 2026

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
RSL Revival: Season 6
Calamity Invitational
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Disclosure: This page contains affiliate marketing links that support TLnet.

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.