Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs (3rd Edition)

The book opens with some hints for porting code from C to C++ and then moves on to the proper use of the new and delete operators in C++ for more robust memory management. The text then proceeds to class design, including the proper use of constructors, destructors, and overloaded operator functions for assignment within classes. (These guidelines ensure that you will create custom C++ classes that are fully functional data types, which can be copied and assigned just like built-in C++ classes.)

The author also provides a handful of suggestions for general class design, including strategies for using different types of inheritance and encapsulation. Never doctrinaire and always intelligent, these guidelines can make your C++ classes more robust and easier to maintain. --Richard Dragan

Product Description

“Every C++ professional needs a copy of Effective C++. It is an absolute must-read for anyone thinking of doing serious C++ development. If you’ve never read Effective C++ and you think you know everything about C++, think again.”
— Steve Schirripa, Software Engineer, Google

“C++ and the C++ community have grown up in the last fifteen years, and the third edition of Effective C++ reflects this. The clear and precise style of the book is evidence of Scott’s deep insight and distinctive ability to impart knowledge.”
— Gerhard Kreuzer, Research and Development Engineer, Siemens AG

The first two editions of Effective C++ were embraced by hundreds of thousands of programmers worldwide. The reason is clear: Scott Meyers’ practical approach to C++ describes the rules of thumb used by the experts — the things they almost always do or almost always avoid doing — to produce clear, correct, efficient code.

The book is organized around 55 specific guidelines, each of which describes a way to write better C++. Each is backed by concrete examples. For this third edition, more than half the content is new, including added chapters on managing resources and using templates. Topics from the second edition have been extensively revised to reflect modern design considerations, including exceptions, design patterns, and multithreading.

Important features of Effective C++ include:

• Expert guidance on the design of effective classes, functions, templates, and inheritance hierarchies.
• Applications of new “TR1” standard library functionality, along with comparisons to existing standard library components.
• Insights into differences between C++ and other languages (e.g., Java, C#, C) that help developers from those languages assimilate “the C++ way” of doing things.

Beyond the wealth of just downright practical information the oragization is fabulous. The only other technical book that has organization as good as this one is "Design Patterns" There are several chapters such as "Memory Management" that have "Items" and each item has a few paragraphs describing the motivation for why you should believe Meyers with examples to prove it. Then there are solid examples that show the implemantation of an example usage.

My company gave this book out with "Design Patterns" to EVERY developer in the company, and it was probably the smartest thing I've ever seen a company do.

Read it and learn a TON.


Third Edition: Improving an already great book   May 27, 2005
ART SEDIGHI (Old Bethpage, NY United States)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

How do you improve a book that has been known as a "bible" in the C++ community for years? As Scott mentions at the beginning of the text, he almost threw everything out, and started from scratch. When I first say the book, I thought that there are five new items that were added to the book, but I couldn't be more wrong. As you might have guessed, C++ has gone thru a number of significant changes over the past decade, and the third edition of this book is updated to take advantage of the new editions to the C++ standard. In reality, almost every item in this book has gone thru a re-write. Many have been consolidated and new chapters, topics and many new items have been added. A few items that did not make sense anymore like items 2, 3 and 4 in the second edition are removed from this third edition.

Scott breaks down the c++ language into 4 subparts:
* The old C subsystem. Before all these advanced programming languages such as Java and .NET came, C was the language of choice. C++ is "translated" to C first, and then complied and linked to an executable.
* OO C++, which is C with Classes. This is where the concept of Object Orientation in C++ started. Even though this concept was very much new a decade ago, it is very much part of a programmer's vocabulary.
* Template C++, which is the newest edition to the C++ standard and it brings with it the concept of Template Metaprogramming. This concept is very much new, and this book has dedicated a whole chapter around templates, and template metaprogramming.
* STL, which is the C++ Standard Template Library. Again, STL was a new concept a few years back, but it is very much an established notion in C++.

Scott has taken a new approach to this book and has covered all four of these subparts. He has a book dedicated to STL, but he is using STL notions and "language" throughout this book. The chances are that the reader is already familiar with other languages such as Java and .Net, so the text covers area where these two languages differ with C++, especially in the area of inheritance and polymorphism. But not everything has changed. Topics such as,"Explicitly disallow the use of Compiler Generated functions you do not want," will never get old or outdated.

New chapters cover topics such as C++ Template and Generic Programming, Resource Allocation and topics that cover the latest C++ standard and additions, including the TR1 (Technical Report 1). "new and delete" have been separated into their own chapter, and the author goes into great depth demonstrating to the reader the various ways that these two operators can be modified, and why.

Exceptions and programming in light of exceptions is also a very new concept in C++. The previous versions on this text did not touch on exceptions all that much, but the author has spread the use of exceptions throughout the text, with a number of items dedicated explicitly to exceptions and exceptions handling.

The updated items, new topics and chapters and a new look and feel of the text with color coded examples make this book a joy to for C++ programmer to read.






Great   January 7, 2001
Stephen Daly (Rehoboth Beach, De)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

There seems to be a whole slew of books out titled " C++" and I suspect this was the first. If not, it should at least be the model.

The book is set up as 50 small chapters describing particular principles. Each is useful and clearly-presented in a manner that is not daunting.

I've read many C++ books, including many of the books and I have no problem proclaiming this as simply the best. Other books may cover more ground (Stroustrup's books, for example), others may be more current and others may be more advanced (I've recently been humbled by "Exceptional C++") but I think "Effective C++" is the most useful.

If you're looking for a book to teach you the language, or if you're just learning the language, I'd say wait a little while before reading this book. If you've been writing code and haven't read this book, go for it. Although it's dated (pre-standard library) the concepts it covers are important ones that have not disappeared after standardization.

I hope that when I write my book, "Extraterrestrial C++," I can do half as good a job.


Don't write C++ without it!   December 28, 2000
Abby Fichtner (Moultonborough, NH USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

After having spent several years programming in C and dabbling in C++ here and there, I felt I had a pretty good grasp of C++. However, after finishing this book, I found myself boldly corrected.

The book covers answers to questions that I hadn't even realized that I should be asking. Reading C++ reference books teach you the syntax but completely hide the level of complexity as to what's really going on behind the scenes. To use a quote from the book "Saying what you mean is only half the battle. The flip side of the coin is understanding what you're saying, and it's just as important."

What happens if you override a non-virtual function? What does private inheritance do and why would you want to use it? What code will the compiler automatically generate for you if you fail to do so yourself? When should you use references to objects versus the objects themselves? The list goes on and on. It covers the topics of Memory Management, Constructors & Destructors, Operator Overloading, Design & Decleration of Classes and Functions, Implementation, Inheritance and Object Oriented Design. But, most importantly, for every answer - there is a logical explanation of *why* things are the way that they are.

Reading this book gave me a new appreciation for the complexity behind C++. It is not a book on syntax, so this should not be the 1st C++ book that you read -- but it should *definitely* be the 2nd!

Meyers has an excellent, and amusing(!) writing style which makes the book much easier to read then you'd expect from a technical book. The concepts might still make your brain hurt if you're new to C++, but keep at it -- before you write any C++ code you need to understand what's going on behind the scenes and this book will show it to you.


A great collection of tips   October 18, 2002
Jacob Marner (Denmark)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book contains a list of no less that 50 pratical tips for the C++ programmer. These tips are basically just common sense, and the advanced C++ will already know the vast majority of them (he should buy the book anyway just for the ones he doesn't know). The beginning C++ programmer will feel overwhelmed by this book so for those it cannot be recommended. It is mainly targeted the intermediate C++ programmer that have learned the language but have not found experience in using it.

My favorite one is the one that tell how to reduce dependencies among files. It is common sense, but I just hadn't thought about it until I read this book. As a result the build time for our company project went down significantly. That was literally *very* valuable advice.

The book is extremely well written (even somewhat entertaining!) and both short and consise. I really liked this book, and I recommend any serious C++ programmer to buy it....