Teach Yourself C in 21 Days - SAMS Publishing > Reviews (3)

Although I had previously done some programming in C, I bought this book mainly as a refresher, but also to learn some of the other functions the language has to offer.

Overall, the layout of the lessons is very good - the first week showing the basic skills needed to create a useful working program, and the other two weeks introducing more advanced programming techniques to supplement what had been learn previously. The CD that came with the book is also very good, with easy to follow instructions to set up the compiler.

I found the practical nature of the book most helpful - every time a new element was introduced, it was explained in text with some examples, then used within a program to show exactly how it is used within the language. In my mind, this made it much easier for me to understand new concepts.

The only real drawback of the book are the frequent errors that appear - mostly only superficial and kept out of the programming code (spelling mistakes or random syntax in places it should not be), but occasionally they do creep into the code examples. For an inexperienced programmer, this could cause a lot of distress.

I did also find that certain new concepts were introduced within the early program examples with very little explanation, or with a small note to say it would be covered in a later lesson - again to an inexperienced programmer, this could be very confusing.

However, these are only small drawbacks, and would not stop me from recommending the book as a solid reference tool for anyone wanting to learn C.