Product Description

You have a choice: you can wade your way through lengthy Java tutorials and figure things out by trial and error, or you can pick up Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition and get to the heart of what you need to know when you need to know it.

With the completely revised and thoroughly updated Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition, Java developers like you will learn by example, try out new features, and use sample code to understand how new additions to the language and platform work--and how to put them to work for you.

This comprehensive collection of problems, solutions, and practical examples will satisfy Java developers at all levels of expertise. Whether you're new to Java programming and need something to bridge the gap between theory-laden reference manuals and real-world programs or you're a seasoned Java programmer looking for a new perspective or a different problem-solving context, this book will help you make the most of your Java knowledge.

Packed with hundreds of tried-and-true Java recipes covering all of the major APIs from the 1.4 version of Java, this book also offers significant first-look recipes for the most important features of the new 1.5 version, which is in beta release. You get practical solutions to everyday problems, and each is followed by a detailed, ultimately useful explanation of how and why the technology works.

Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition includes code segments covering many specialized APIs--like those for working with Struts, Ant and other new popular Open Source tools. It also includes expanded Mac OS X Panther coverage and serves as a great launching point for Java developers who want to get started in areas outside of their specialization.

In this major revision, you'll find succinct pieces of code that can be easily incorporated into other programs. Focusing on what's useful or tricky--or what's useful and tricky--Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition is the most practical Java programming book on the market.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150831 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 862 pages

Review
"If you like cookbooks and program in Java then this is one of the best available." - Mike James, VSJ, November 2004

About the Author
Ian F. Darwin has worked in the computer industry for three decades: with Unix since 1980, Java since 1995, and OpenBSD since 1998. He wrote the freeware file(1) command used on Linux and BSD and is the author of Checking C Programs with Lint, Java Cookbook, and over seventy articles and several courses (both university and commercial) on C and Unix. In addition to programming and consulting, Ian teaches Unix, C, and Java for Learning Tree International, one of the world's largest technical training companies. He runs OpenBSD on most of his computers, and he runs a mirror of The Unix History Society archive.

Customer Reviews

Practical Examples Beyond Basics
OK, you've learned the basics. You know 'public static void main string args' from a hole in th ground. What now? I teach Java at a college. Only a small percentage of my students are CS majors. Most introductory java books lack good practical problems to solve. The Java Cookbook is a list of common problems and code examples on how to solve them. I learned more in two days with this book than I did with several very good java books because I need to see examples and how things work in context. If you're like that too, you'll love this book. I pack it with my laptop so I'm never without it when I need it -- it's that useful to me!

Much better than the first version
I'm blown away by how much better the second version has improved from the first. I was so disappointed by the first edition that I swore off O'Reilly for a little while. One of my major gripes, the rampant use of classes provided by the author in libraries has all but vanished. In addition the anti-patterns of bad SQL use that are so rampant in other Java books are nowhere to be found, and in their place are recipes that show sane and proper use of JDBC.

I heartily recommend this practical work for Java engineers. For those not familiar with the first edition this is a solid practical work that covers a wide range of Java programming challenges. For those turned off by the first edition, you should take a look at the second, the improvement is profound.

Code To Go
If I'd had this book two years ago, I would have saved myself weeks of work. As a software developer of some twenty years, I find that the ever-present problem of `looking things up' is the major factor that impedes progress. I've spent hours trying to track down `how-to' solutions only to find in the end all that's required is a few elusive lines of code. Well, the Java Cookbook is filled with such code along with insightful explanations.

I'm impressed by how comprehensive the coverage is: 26 chapters covering such things as file i/o, Swing, RMI, applets, Java Servlets, JSP, e-mail, JDBC, XML, multi-threading... At 48 pages, the index is HUGE, just what you need to look things up!

The author assumes you know Java but not as well as you ought to! He explains all those things that I really should know but I never get around to figuring out properly: the correct handling of dates/times, internationalization, floating point numbers, etc. Thankfully, the book is concise and easy to read so you can quickly plug a bunch of gaps in your knowledge by browsing over chapters.

This book will quickly pay for itself. Enjoy.