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Java Cookbook, 3rd Edition by Ian F. Darwin

October 8th, 2014

Anybody learning Java should have or should read at least one of these few introductory books to Java
1. Head First Java, 2nd Edition
2. Learning Java
3. Java in a Nutshell

Subsequently, if one still decides that polishing their skills in Java is needed and to learn more about this programming language, then Java Cookbook
is definitely the next book one should cover.

Java Cookbook, already the 3rd edition, published in July 2014 covers all the basic features and API any programmers needed to know about Java up until Java 8.

The author, Ian F. Darwin has worked in the computer industry for three decades. 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 courses 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.

Have a quick look on the Table of Contents:
1. Getting Started: Compiling, Running, and Debugging
2. Interacting with the Environment
3. Strings and Things
4. Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions
5. Numbers
6. Dates and Times – New API
7. Structuring Data with Java
8. Object-Oriented Techniques
9. Functional Programming Techniques: Functional Interfaces, Streams, Spliterators, Parallel Collections
10. Input and Output
11. Directory and Filesystem Operations
12. Media: Graphics, Audio, Video
13. Graphical User Interfaces
14. Internationalization and Localization
15. Network Clients
16. Server-Side Java
17. Java and Electronic Mail
18. Database Access
19. Processing JSON Data
20. Processing XML
21. Packages and Packaging
22. Threaded Java
23. Reflection, or “A Class Named Class”
24. Using Java with Other Languages
Afterword
A. Java Then and Now
Introduction: Always In Motion The Java Is
Java Preview: HotJava
Java Arrives: 1.0
What Was New In Java 1.1
What Was New In Java 2 (Java SDK 1.2)
What Was New In Java 1.3
What Was New In Java 1.4
What Was New In Java 5
What Was New In Java 6
What Was New In Java 7
What Is New In Java 8
Look Away Beyond the Blue Horizon…

Conclusion
For the first eight chapters, I have found the book to be pretty boring and basic for a start. I almost gave up on completing it but I was thoroughly surprised with Chapter 9 onwards.
Thirty percent or so of the earlier chapters are good for Java programmers who needed to know the very basic of Strings and Numbers. The rest of the chapters are very comprehensive for a programmer to know the advance stuff or the common enterprise usage of Java in server-side web applications.
In every chapters and sub topics, example source codes are given so the reader can basically use the code and run them to get a hands-on experience. Let me tell you that the examples are not that basic and they are practical and useful examples.
I also particularly liked the final afterword section of the book that briefly tells the history of Java so if a graduate jumped directly into Java 7 or 8, they should know the evolution of Java and how it started.
With such comprehensive coverage on the topics, it seems to me that this Java Cookbook is even better than the topics required for Oracle Certified Professional, Java Programmer certification.
A definite must-read for any Java programmers!

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