Early Objects (11th Edition) (Deitel - Java How to Program

I have been using the various editions of this book to teach Java programming for a number of years. In terms of content the previous editions of this book have been very solid and I would them a 5 star rating. Although this 10th edition continues the tradition of solid content, I cannot rate it above 4 stars because eight chapters (that used to be part of the printed book in the previous edition) are now only accessible online. This is both inconvenient and expensive.

The online material requires an access code that is valid for only a year. This code comes as part of a new copy of the book. If you buy a used copy(for which the code has already been used), or if your code expires you will need to buy another one year code to access those eight chapters.

This book is inundated with too much fluff and not enough substance. It has now turned into a door stop instead of a textbook. Don't know why they offer online materials for this book, they stink! Don't help at all and is probably a ploy by the publisher to collect data. The professor for my java class regrets asking us to buy this expensive pile of crap...the least the lazy publisher could have done, was apply a spell checker on the text...the book is embarrassingly riddled with typos and improper use of the English language...don't buy.

Sadly I must report two criticisms.
First, my book had an invalid access code for the online supplemental chapters. When I contacted Pearson directly for assistance in resolving this, they refused to give me an access code that actually worked. I showed the rep pics of my book(showing the access code) and offered to provide them a receipt (They weren't interested.) An issue that should have been really easy to resolve, and instead they choose to refuse me access. For a new, $130 book...
Second, I was somewhat new to programming, and found the language of this book to be somewhere in between deathly boring and confusing. Granted it's not exactly the most sexy topic, but the opaque nature of many explanations reduce the value of the book.

Honestly, I learned much more from videos online anyway. If required for a course, check with your professor or library to see if you can borrow it or otherwise access the material without buying.

Code samples are rife with mistakes. This is a disaster for newbies who get frustrated with code that won't compile rather than focusing on the various aspects of the language. I question universities that choose Java for an intro to program course. That of course isn't the authors fault, but if the book is being sold and used in an intro course, it should be an introductory text. I argue that teaching object orientation before teaching basic decision trees, looping, etc... is NOT introductory. Lastly, the "Making a Difference" section at the end of every chapter is the worst I've seen in an introductory text. It borders on propaganda. Why not have Intro to Programming students do something like build a calculator and with every chapter incorporate additional functionality covered in each subsequent chapter, or something along those lines????

It's shameful universities force kids to shell out $135.00 for this (fill in your own adjectives)..... A $35.00 O'Reilly text would have been a 10x better choice for a fraction of the cost.

This book might work for you. Maybe. It doesn't work for me. (The only reason I have a copy is that my employer bought it for me, based on the recommendation of our internal "experts".)

I am an experienced professional programmer learning Java. I find that this book is too "threaded" along a path the authors want to take you. If you find that the path that they have mapped fits your needs and learning style, this might work. It doesn't work for me because I just want to learn the language. For example, I don't have to learn Swing for the work I do in Java, and a lot of the book consists of Swing examples.

Some important topics are given very short shrift. For example, inner classes, which are a pretty important feature of the language. In this book, there is no instruction directly on the topic of inner classes. The topic is touched on briefly in a few "here's how to use them" pages -- in the midst of a chapter that is trying to teach GUI programming.

Also, there's probably just too much info in the book. There are lots of subjects included in the book which should only be mentioned, with a "here's where to find more info" link to a webpage...e.g. UML, JDBC, JSF/Swing, Google Maps. Including topics like this, which I consider extraneous to the task of learning Java, mostly serves to make the language harder to grasp.

"Head First Java" is your best bet if you're new to Java and fairly new to programming as a whole. If you've got some years of programming under your belt, I'd suggest you start with Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in Java".

What a rollercoaster. After the first five chapters are relatively clear and understand, the quality of the book takes a nosedive from chapter 6 on. And it’s not subtle, either — it’s remarkably worse and just spirals out of control. By the time the Generic Collecitons chapter comes around (16), the book devolves more or less into nonsense. Explanations become poor, examples are disjointed, and there is no merit in attempting to learn from this book. Free online programs I’ve done in Java have helped me substantially more with the advanced topics. What a mess.

This book would make a perfect door stop. There is a LOT of information in this book. Maybe too much.

This book was used as a text for a class that I took at a local community college. To be honest, it's a tough read. It has lots of small print and repeats itself over and over. It takes forever to get through a chapter. And it's very dry too.

On the plus side it's very complete. There are lots of non-trivial exercises at the end of each chapter. Too many to do them all. That's bad if you like the satisfaction of completing everything. If you were to try and complete every exercise and question they would have a new version of Java out by the time you are done.

While Java is a very detailed and complex language this book tries to do too much, at least as a learning device. It's probably better suited as reference material. It will not get you up to spead quickly which can be a turn-off for some people. Plus, the price is rediculous!

I can't speak for many other Java books other than Thinking in Java, which is very good, athough I can't say it's the best. I've heard very good things about Head First Java. Maybe I will try it out.

Save your money on this book unless you need a reference or a door stop. Buy something that will get you going quickly. This is not it. The only thing keeping me from giving this less than 3 stars is that it is so complete. Even so, it's hard to learn from this book.

This book provides plenty of detail and a multifaceted look at many concepts for someone new to Java. Many programming books are either too elementary to provide useful information or they skip over too much to provide an understanding of concepts. I could find it necessary to use several books to get a complete picture of the information I sought. If I find portions of this book to be repetitive with some concept, I could skip it, but the multiple examples were very good to have when I needed a different explanation. This is a great basic reference book from which to build an understanding of Java. I e-mailed a question to the address suggested by the book and Paul Deitel quickly answered it for me. That alone was worth quite a bit. I recommend it as part of a library for anyone wanting to learn Java.

This book is not a good tutorial to explain Java, nor does it give you an understanding of what the language can do for you. It has examples in the book, but when it comes to the homework in the end of the chapter, these examples do not explain how to do them at all because the examples are too specific. They do not give generalized cases of how things can be used in this book.

For example, in chapter 29 on Strings, they give an example of how to use the String Tokenizer. Below the example, they say:

"If you would like to change the delimiter string while tokenizing a string, you may do so by specifying a new delimiter string in the nextToken call as follows.

tokens.nextToken(newDelimiterString);

This feature is not demonstrated in Fig. 29.18."

There are a few homework questions in the end of the chapter that require you change the tokenizer while the program is running. It is not very helpful to not demonstrate how this is used correctly in code. Also, they do not tell the user that you cannot have two tokens listed in a row (there is a homework assignment that is hinting they want two tokens in a row), Java does not know how to handle this without some extensive programming on your part, and for a beginner they would not know how to ask the question in order to find the answer.

The Deitels approach the subject of learning to program in the Java language with all the joy of learning typewriter repair and maintenance. The book reads like a volume on appliance repair with tiny font and cookbook instructions. It is unfortunate that because of its title "How to Program" that instructors choose this thing as a textbook for their courses. If you have to use this book as a textbook for a class, the instructions will correctly tell you how to write programs, but you will get no feel for the language or its possibilities. In the end, this book will turn you into someone who programs by rote memory versus someone who programs with any insight into what you are doing. Might I suggest you supplement this book with the Core Java books by Horstmann and Cornell. Their books are far more readable and instructive, and might I add far cheaper. "Head First Java" is another excellent choice, especially for absolute beginners. I fear that some books by the Deitels, and this one in particular, remind me of an old saying "You might not get what you pay for but you will never get what you don't pay for." This book is an illustration of the first part of that old saying.

I wish I had started Java programming with this book. It's written for those who prefer a thorough and methodical learning approach (less "whimiscal" than "Head First Java" and less "philosophical" than "Thinking In Java". The book covers general programming and basic Java language concepts. It is long but not lengthy. The book teaches practical programming skills in a no-nonsense fashion. You can learn Java from the ground up with this book and the free Java tutorials and JDK/API from the Sun website. I already work with Java for some time, so I did not learn anything new from this book, but I still appreciate the didactic approach. The only thing I found annoying is that each and every code example (which are excellent by the way) is explained tediously in natural language. This adds bulk to the book and is IMO unnecessary, because the code is self-explanatory. Hence, four stars instead of five.

I have been programming for about a year now, and found that despite being relatively relaxed with it - because my own laziness I missed out on some of the fundamentals of programming. All in all I thought I needed more practice, to read more code and thoroughly test my abilities and intuition on even the most basic of problem sets.

This book has thus far, done it all for me. It's incredibly well done, very in depth without going into talkative detail - yet has all you need for Java. The exercises are by far the most enjoyable aspect, they test everything - rigorously and 70% of them have the answers in the book as well. The coding problems are inventive and test all you've learned throughout the chapter as well. There are about 10-20 of those at the end of each chapter.

All in all, this is the best Java book out there.

Java is a BIG subject and there are few shortcuts to learning it. Having said that, I did try try diving into Java a few times but drowned each time, so to speak. Hey I can program ! I have been programming for some 35 years and cut my teeth on various assemblers, C, PL/I, COBOL etc. After a number of false starts, attempting to write code without enough understanding of the language, I went back to D&D. I had the fifth edition already but then acquired the latest and worked through the chapters.
The coding syntax of Java is much like C. Add to that object-orientation, classes and the vast class libraries, it becomes a completely different, more complex language. You just have to understand the basics; and there are a lot more "basics" in Java than in C.
The book itself is some 1500 pages spread over 31 chapters. Once you get into the book, you can see the logic in its presentation. If you have had a C programming background, you can skip over some of the pages but read them anyway as Java does have some subtle differences. D&D present information in layers of complexity, explaining as much as is needed for now and delivering more detail in later chapters. There are many examples, each introducing a few new concepts until each topic has been covered.
As a long time programmer, I find this book just the perfect way to learn. Its easy to read, the information is presented in a way I can understand and at a pace and level of depth that is consistent throughout the book.
The Deitel's Ninth is an excellent study guide.

Im a tutor of Java students and a Java instructor at a community college (tutoring on this edition, instructed 3 courses using 3rd edition) with a Sun Java certification and Computer Engineering degree. With all the introductory Java books available, this book (and preceeding edition(s)) is garbage. Im truly surprised that it hasn't improved in any of the newer editions.

My consistent complaint is the meaning or point the author(s) are trying to present in the paragraphs throughout the books. The author(s) make valient attempts to cover the language in detail by drowning the reader in examples and stories. Examples are good (how, what), but you have to explain why (where and when can be inferred if not explained). On numerous occassions, the author(s) dives into the architecture of the computer to explain how the data bits work together in the CPU to try to relate it to Java. Huh??? Java is a high level language! Keep computer architecture with low-level assembly languages, guys. This may be the author(s) way of explaining why. This absolutely doesn't work with people who are expected to learn Java as their first programming language.

It seems this book tries to make this introduction to Java more than just an introduction to Java. Many important concepts are presented in the Table of Contents - kudos! But the read is frightful and endured. The beginner reader essentially walks away exposed to Java, without ever understanding it. For introducing Java, it is way too much to read for the average student!!

For example, 6th edition Deitel, take the Java reserved word "return". Covered in roughly 5 pages without ever explaining what it is for, how it works, and usages that vary. The book index references several different sections where it is used, but none of these sections actually explain what it does. "Head First Java": 1 page and very clear what 'return' does; 2-3 pages if you want to explore more complex situations (various data types, overriding methods, etc) that use "return" in the language.

The 3rd edition was horrendously difficult to teach from, it hasn't changed much in the 6th.

If your instructor has issued you this book or a previous edition for an introductory course on programming using Java, save your GPA and grade and go pick up "Head First Java" - Head First Java, 2nd Edition. You'll spend weeks reading the Deitel book on this page to gain the same knowledge you could achieve through any other introductory Java book but in a vastly shorter amount of time.

Looking for an advanced Java book? Read Sun's Java Language Specification and Java Virtual Machine Specification instead. For a moderate skill book and starting to get serious on Java? Hands down, Oreilly is the book publisher you need. To start, pick up "Java in a Nutshell," - Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition a summary of most of the essential language information that will impact your moderate (how to write a 'for' loop, etc.) and advanced programming (e.g. performance and optimization) are in the first 8 chapters (depending on your skill, you may be able to skip the first few of these chapters). Heck, I'd even use the Nutshell book to get through an Introduction to Java college course (depending on skill).

This book is good for recycling only.

I think I have bought just about every 'learning Java' book out there, with limited exuberunce, until this book. The advantage this text has over others is to successfully 'weave' the learning of Java as the chapters progress. Other texts do accomplish this to some extent, but I've never seen this achieved to this degree of balance. This book is a heads down, hands on learning device.

Many books provide a single example that gets more and more complex as the chapters, and (hopefully) your skills, progress. Deitel certainly does this (via an Elevator simulation), but also accomplishes this on many different levels with plenty of smaller programs. Each example is explained *line by line* without exception. Additionally, you are provided with example program output right on the page.

I've noticed many 'learning Java' books show you code snippets and little output if any (e.g. Eckel's book, which I love for other reasons), leaving it up to your imagination to put it all together in the context of a complete program.

This text appears to be prepared for the classroom, from its thorough content (25 chapters, 7 appendices, 1400+ pages, cdrom) and available lab and instructor companion books. There is a nice, effective use of color without being distractive like some other texts I've seen.

The negatives are the length, cost and (ouch) the weight. It is one of the heavier books in my collection, for sure!

To summarize, if you are a C programmer looking to quickly jump into Java, or perhaps a genius with a photographic memory, this may not be your first purchase. If you are a newbie, have limited experience with Java, or have been disappointed with other texts, I think you may find this to be the most complete book out there.

JAVA HOW TO PROGRAM 6TH EDITION
If you are serious about learning Java, then you must have this book.
This book is a comprehensive study of Java.
You have to read each line carefully and do the exercises. You will have to go back to many sectioins that you studied already in this book and read it again. At some points, I decided to go to other books that might make it easier for me to learn Java, but I always go back to this book.
The book has a large variety of examples and exercises. When you finish
this book, don't get rid of it. You will need it when you are writing
Java Code.

I'm delighted with the Deitel "Java - How to Program, 6th Edition" book, as well as its companion version "Small Java - How to Program". In searching for a textbook to help incorporate introductory Java-based programming material into math courses that I teach, I obtained an earlier edition of the Deitel book (along with several others) from the local library. I was somewhat skeptical at first regarding how appropriate this book would be for my purpose, just judging from its large size and ambitious content outline. In inspecting the book, though, I happily discovered that the clarity, structure, and style of the text, which I would describe as "conversational" and "user-friendly", make it highly effective and a pleasure to read (not an exaggeration!). The clear line-by-line explanations of the numerous programming examples, which are color-coded for ease of reading, along with attractive graphics depicting program behaviors, add to the enjoyment of working with this book. The text also does an admirable job of introducing Object-Oriented concepts ("object think", "object-speak") in the context of the Java language programming. Someone new to programming would probably want to study supplementary material from other sources on Object Oriented analysis and design, but the Deitel Java book gives a fine introduction to the "OO" culture. I highly recommend this book and I feel fortunate to have encountered it.

While I found this book informative and detailed, I think that may be the main problem with it. It is written in a confused manner that gives the reader too much information on each page. I was constantly feeling bombarded. The information is presented in several different ways on each page and it can get disorienting while reading. That said, the book is very thorough and well researched. I am not sure that it is anywhere worth the price, however. For a third of the money you might consider Java: A Beginner's Guide by Schildt, or one of the O'Reilly books.

I think some of the negative reviews for this book can be attributed to a person's preferrerd way of learning.

Those who like the whimsical and scatter-brained approach from a book like Head First Java probably hate this book. Those who thrive on a detailed, structured, no-nonsense approach to learning will love this book.

The content is very thorough. If you take the time to work through this book cover to cover (it may take me 6 months) you will come away a proficient programmer with a solid background for future learning.

Excellent job Deitel.

Brian Albin

I normally do not write reviews on tech books but found this one so obnoxious that am forced to do so. This book was prescribed by my prof in school and I really regret that he did.

First of all, the material is organized poorly (cannot believe that applets are introduced in the 2nd chapter) and there is no clarity and sense of purpose in the way the chapters are laid out. To explain small concepts, the authors throw out humungous examples in which the real gist is hidden in 2 lines somewhere in the middle. The book is very dense and intimidating (I seriously doubt if any beginner would ever finish it). Not to mention, it is priced highly and weighs a ton.

If you are a beginner/student and are serious about learning Java, do yourself a favor and get the 'Head First Java' book by Kathy Sierra/Bert Bates. You don't have to take my word for it, check out the reviews yourself. I've known people who never programmed in Java but could clear the Sun certification after reading it. With lucid, small examples, it is hands down the best beginner book for Java.

Am an experienced programmer (have worked on C/C++, COBOL, Perl, RPG and of course Java) and strongly dissaude you from using this tome and wasting your time. The authors obviously followed the same forumula as they did for other language books of the Dietel series (i.e., just detail the language features). Java is different; most people understand the 'what' of object-oriented concepts but the key is understanding the 'why' part.

I respect the views of other members who support this book but as they themselves wrote, it may take months to read it end-to-end. My point is it can be done in a fraction of that time using the Head First book and you would emerge with stronger fundamentals while having fun along the way.

I think some of the negative reviews for this book can be attributed to a person's preferrerd way of learning.

Those who like the whimsical and scatter-brained approach from a book like Head First Java probably hate this book. Those who thrive on a detailed, structured, no-nonsense approach to learning will love this book.

The content is very thorough. If you take the time to work through this book cover to cover (it may take me 6 months) you will come away a proficient programmer with a solid background for future learning.

Excellent job Deitel.

Brian Albin

I normally do not write reviews on tech books but found this one so obnoxious that am forced to do so. This book was prescribed by my prof in school and I really regret that he did.

First of all, the material is organized poorly (cannot believe that applets are introduced in the 2nd chapter) and there is no clarity and sense of purpose in the way the chapters are laid out. To explain small concepts, the authors throw out humungous examples in which the real gist is hidden in 2 lines somewhere in the middle. The book is very dense and intimidating (I seriously doubt if any beginner would ever finish it). Not to mention, it is priced highly and weighs a ton.

If you are a beginner/student and are serious about learning Java, do yourself a favor and get the 'Head First Java' book by Kathy Sierra/Bert Bates. You don't have to take my word for it, check out the reviews yourself. I've known people who never programmed in Java but could clear the Sun certification after reading it. With lucid, small examples, it is hands down the best beginner book for Java.

Am an experienced programmer (have worked on C/C++, COBOL, Perl, RPG and of course Java) and strongly dissaude you from using this tome and wasting your time. The authors obviously followed the same forumula as they did for other language books of the Dietel series (i.e., just detail the language features). Java is different; most people understand the 'what' of object-oriented concepts but the key is understanding the 'why' part.

I respect the views of other members who support this book but as they themselves wrote, it may take months to read it end-to-end. My point is it can be done in a fraction of that time using the Head First book and you would emerge with stronger fundamentals while having fun along the way.

This book is unnecessarily bloated (lots of fluff) and very expensive, but just passes as a reasonable book. Use this book only if you have never programmed before. If you can already program in C or C++ for example, then look elsewhere. Unfortunately I am yet to find a decent Java book for experienced programmers.

This book does have some good exercises, such as the development of a simple ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) or virtual machine. The UML exercises are awful and boring. Who wants to study elevators? Alright, perhaps it is a reasonable exercise dealing with trade-offs and other real world stuff, but it IS boring. The inclusion of "classic" (read: boring) exercises is one of my pet hates with college textbooks. Another anaesthetic example often seen is the Towers of Hanoi, used to illustrate recursion.

But, anyway, back to the book's substance. It dwells on primitives and control and decision structures, instead of integrating them into the big picture of programming, for instance in the context of more interesting programming examples. The toy programs used to illustrate the very simple stuff like "if statements" have a peculiar coma-inducing quality like the "classic" exercises.

This book is passable for newbies. Don't bother with all the UML stuff or other page-adding and price-adding distractions.

Well,

I was actually astonished with the possibility of a negative review of this book.

This book is written with the aim that Java is your first programming language. It is the first one to cover 1.5. But, remember, if you want to really learn using this book, work through most of the programs in this book. Have patience, this book gets you right into the applet mode for your betterment. Writing with graphical objects is much better than console messages. This book is much better than the books which tease your intelligence by working with examples as silly as 3-D box inherits from 2-d Box.

This is an amazing book. Read and work through it with patience.

I had programming experience in python, C, and some other languges and needed to learn Java.

I found this book very helpful to bring me up to speed within one week. It is a detailed course that contains a lot of information to satisfy any need. If you have limited time, selective reading is a must to master these 1,500 pages. The books also serves well as a reference once you start writing your code.

Due to its volume, you should mark your notes with page numbers, otherwise, it will be difficult to find the places of interest quickly, despite the good table of contents and a detailed keyword index.

This book saved me a lot of time and fully satisfied my expectations.

Hi folks,

Excellent source for a beginner and intermediate java programmer with excellent UML examples.

I recommend this to anybody who is from a non-programming background so you to may begin to understand
and appreciate the maginifence of OOP.

My first deitel experience that has lead me to purchase the seventh edn and their advanced java 2!

Thank you to all the Deital team!

Thanks :):):)

I bought this book after my teacher recommended it. I found this book wonderful. It has pratical excersises and uses real world coding standards. This book will definatly help you understand the mechanics of the language and get you to where you want to go oin the java world. I also just bought 7/e

I highly recommend this book!!! It has a great lot of explanations and source code, and it treats Graphical User Interfaces and many other advanced features of Java. It also works great as a reference book. And the full color illustrations just make it perfect.

For advanced programmers who wish to tackle the Java programming, as well as students looking for a nice way to learn the basics (in this regards, their "early classes" approach is just awsome).

This is an awful, poorly written book. There is a lot of repetition and just one fact after another fact. I started reading it because I want to pass out of some requirements, and the university that I will attend uses the book. I do not know why. There are clearer, more concise and more intuitive explanations elsewhere.

Last semester, I used this book for a Java Programming class. I commend the Deitel and Deitel to be one of the first authors to cover the many features of Java 1.5. And, believe me there are numerous enhancements that were added to Java 1.5.

You do want a book that starts off with the enhancements as opposed to one that mentions them in an appendix as an afterthought.

The students seem to like the fact that the authors thoroughly explain every line of every example.

The "How to Program Java, Sixth Edition" provides a comprehensive package of the Java Language environment. The examples, exercises and case studies are a complete challenge to new or experienced developers with a need to learn Java and the Java development environment. The book provides you with a supermarket of challenges and learning opportunities to develop your skills and knowledge with this very powerfull language, tool set and platforms. I have 25 plus years of development experience and once again find the Deitel book on my library shelf ready to assist me in my work.

I'm trying to teach myself Java and was recommended that I try using this book. With no solutions and no way to get them I find it frustrating. Some people may argue that students will cheat but students will find a way to do that no matter what. What are the people who arent in school but want to see the programs in the correct format supposed to do? If anyone has suggestions please let me know.