Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive Problem Solver
Review: "Comprehensive Problem Solver." That's the subtitle on the cover and I think it just about covers my thoughts. The information within is presented in a very understandable fashion and with excelent cross references to other related sections making it an outstanding book for reference. I am an advanced programmer, not a beginner or expert so many of the early topics were very understandable to me while still being advanced enough to be of use to me and not so advanced that I got lost. One caveat however, someone with zero knowledge of basic programming (functions, variables, operators, etc.) might have a little trouble at first until they read on further. The book gets up to speed fast and that might throw some of the brand new programmers for a few chapters.For those programmers transitioning from C to C++ (myself included) this is a wonderful reference since the author illustrates some of the basic differences between C and C++ even from the first chapter. The author uses only C++ code so you won't get confused by what is old C style code and what is the new (or even old) C++ way. Each time I thought this book wouldn't get better, it did. I highly recommend this book to programmers moving from C to C++ or to beginning/advanced programmers looking for more depth than a "Teach yourself" book.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: Being one of the best ANSI / ISO C++ books I have ever read, Holzner will cover everything about C++ with great detail. The format of this book is smooth to follow, showing you how to code efficiently and properly. The author describes the examples in the book line by line, explaining every section of the code. Beginning programmers, even with little or no experience, will be amazed at how effortlessly they can learn from this Black Book. As for any serious programmer, I would describe Holzner's work as the perfect reference for C++. Each topic presented will gradually help you to become closer to a programming expert.
Rating: 
Summary: Redundant and Not Sufficiently In-Depth
Review: I did a lot of research before buying this, and a lot of it was based on Amazon customer reviews. Unfortunately, buying this book was a mistake! I can't say it is a bad book, because it isn't BAD... But I was thoroughly disappointed with it. It has an unusual structure where it first introduces the concepts of the chapter, and then it has an 'immediate solutions' section at the end of each chapter where the author demonstrates what you've already learned. This book could be half as thick! Also, I found it to be frustrating as a reference book. Very few books can be a good reference as well as teach, though, so I didn't take away many points for that shortcoming. The other problem, is that many techniques are really glossed over. I found myself having to re-read the passages over and over trying to figure out for myself how something worked. I enjoy in-depth technical explanations for the things that I learn, and they were hard to find in this book. Many things should have been explained more instead of simply REPEATED! In summary, I would not recommend this book to ANYONE. I am a fairly advanced programmer, but somehow never learned C or C++ before I got this book. I felt that the book did a decent job at teaching me the concepts and syntax, but overall I did not feel confident with what I learned in this book. I wish I could recommend an alternative, but unfortunately I don't know of any good C++ books!
Rating:
Summary: Repeatedly Unhelpful
Review: I was very disappointed with this book because of the severe lack of actual information. Each chapter is divided into an two sections. I think one is supposedly to give an overview and the other to discuss the topic. Unfortunately, the second section does little more that repeat the cursory and unclear contents of the first section, without adding any real information. Everything seems to be covered, but even after actually reading it page by page, I gained only questions. The data structures and different objects are "discussed" but that discussion consists of "you can <insert some mysterious task> in C++" without telling you why you might want to do so or giving helpful examples. Then, forty pages later, the same "discussion" is presented, as if only to frustrate the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Student
Review: In simple words,This book rocks ....
It Covers everything including STL.The concept of Classes is clearly explained through appropriate examples.
Though one may feel the editing is bad,it actually gives you the chance to revise the concepts you already studied, while going through the chapter.
so i think the editor did a good job.
It's certainly one of the best books i've read on C++.
Rating: 
Summary: could try harder
Review: in some parts this book is very good, but is let down with some poor examples. When describing structures the author uses a definition, names the call and the instance all the same: struct structure {...}structure1; but in others he does it well struct person {} ralph much easier to follow why not do that throughout Steven (if you are reading this) you can waste a lot of time just figuring out what is going on. It's thick because very exmaple is repeated 20 times. I agree with another review also, the depth is sometime lacking in places but in others it just uses concepts not explained at all. if he cleans up the examples the book is ok, I am learning and it is difficult to know how it compares as it cost me 80 bucks and I can't afford another book so I guess I'll continue.
Rating:
Summary: The ONLY C++ Book
Review: No matter how you want to use it: Reference - It has a very descriptive and useful index to find exactly what you are looking for. Detailed, yet simple examples to demonstrate workings of the C++ Language without clutting you with nonsense. (Like C+++ Program Design by Cahoon-Davidson). Learning - Guides you through the book in such a way that you know exactly whats going up upto that point in the book. I also believe it is so ingeniously written that it helps you learn the language and not just put code into situations. For Beginners to Advanced Users - Contains just about anything you would possibly need to learn the C++ Language.
Rating:
Summary: The ONLY C++ Book
Review: No matter how you want to use it: Reference - It has a very descriptive and useful index to find exactly what you are looking for. Detailed, yet simple examples to demonstrate workings of the C++ Language without clutting you with nonsense. (Like C+++ Program Design by Cahoon-Davidson). Learning - Guides you through the book in such a way that you know exactly whats going up upto that point in the book. I also believe it is so ingeniously written that it helps you learn the language and not just put code into situations. For Beginners to Advanced Users - Contains just about anything you would possibly need to learn the C++ Language.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book for Intermediate C++
Review: Started out with this book to improve my BrainBench score beyond 3. It really helped to improve my fundamentals which you may not get in the classroom.
The introductory explanation of STL and templates also helped in improving my template coding abilities. For more advance programming, Exceptional C++ by Sutter and C++ Programming by Bjarne Stroustrup are recommended. You can also throw in Scott Meyers book for support. Good references and code are also got from CUJ.
Rating:
Summary: Glorifying C++
Review: Steven Holzner has done it again! Not only does this book teach you by example how to code in C++ but it teaches you how to be poetic in your code... This book is one of the better books I have read on C++ to give me a 'foundation' for the language. If you want to be a great, then read this book as it is like gaining experience in the field... Visit my website at parahost.com, thanks!
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