C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide 3rd Edition

This book is absolutely phenomenal. The authors do an amazing job explaining programming concepts clearly and concisely, step-by-step and without rushing. I don't understand all the negative reviews about the 'code samples' links because you don't need to use them anyway, all the samples are clearly printed in the book and you'll be doing yourself a favor if you re-type them in your code editor and learn from your own errors vs. copy and pasting them. I struggled to learn programming before and went through half a dozen 'beginner's' books, none of which took the time to explain things clearly. C is a great place to start because of its stricter syntax, it will force you to understand the concepts of programming which you can then use to learn higher level languages. I can't thank the authors enough, except to say, please write more books - I'll buy them!Note: if Code::Blocks doesn't work for you, make sure there aren't any spaces in any of the file path folders, the compiler can't see the spaces and breaks. Other than that, Code::Blocks is a great free IDE for learning. Thank you Mr. Perry and Mr. Miller for writing a true beginner's book that is designed to foster conceptual understanding, practical knowledge and will increase the learner's confidence level with each chapter.

TL;DR- This book is amazing and is perfect for anyone who has no experience, or does and wants to learn a new language.As i was trying to learn C as my first program, I thought it was going to be very hard because I've heard online that C is the not the ideal choice for getting started in programming as there are easier options like Python. But this book made learning C very easy, and had perfect explanations and examples. The way the authors relay the information is not hard to understand if you have absolutely no programming experience. The coding examples they have you copy from the book into an IDE are great ALTHOUGH I do wish that they gave some problems that we are supposed to try on our own so that all of the coding done through the book wasn't copied from it..One of the problems with this book is the ending- because it kind of just leaves you with no idea of what to do next, and how to keep furthering your knowledge of C... After I read this book I had no idea what to do next and had a hard time trying to find resources for "intermediate" C.Still, I would recommend this book to anyone who has no programming experience at all and would like to learn C as their first language.This book is also good for people who have prior programming experience and want to learn C, although you will have to read through what is an int, str, etc..

I plan on updating this review as I go. This book was specifically recommended for those less familiar with programming for a class I'm taking.The introductory information, vernacular, tips, and warnings are very helpful.However, for someone with absolutely no programming experience (but) with otherwise fair computer skills, this book left me pestering my programmer friends for guidance by the 2ND CHAPTER. I used the C compiler recommended by the book, as it only recommends one by name noting it's the one the book will be referencing. It notes there are hundreds of free compilers out there, but I want to follow the book in hopes of grasping the information better. Fine. And I get that some features are going to be different with updates, but I wasn't able to even start putting in code for practice because the book fails to explain how to go about creating a new project in code blocks. I looked under the (new) project option which had a dozen different types of project models. None of which is mentioned. Then I went to file, which lead me to believe I had to have pre-installed .c files on my computer. Instead, I'm creating the name of my project here. The book fails to elucidate how to go about starting a new project. Again, this is a book for beginners with no experience whatsoever necessary. That means you have to spell things out step-by-step.****UpdateAfter reviewing the material, I find the author's style of the aforementioned setting up and using the c-compiler to simply be a matter of poor layering or structuring on his part. In this case, he put the cart before the horse, detailing what I needed to know after showing and suggesting I test out the code on the page before me. I think I will be better off reading this after my coursework is up to date, and only sticking with my coursework compiler, as the code blocks is still a little confusing to me. While this book will certainly be more helpful down the line, he almost needs to postpone the user getting onto code blocks or another c compiler a few chapters later, after they've become familiar with a few aspects and rules of the language.Further Update:Ultimately, setting aside setting up the code blocks compiler, the information the author provides in this book is extremely helpful. I'm still rather green (new) around the edges but I'm finding the examples very helpful. Knowing what I do, I would have skipped the 2nd chapter on set up and moved forward with learning the basic principles and rules of programming before trying to build anything on code blocks.