Reddit reviews Java: A Beginner's Guide, Sixth Edition

The best way I would suggest is buying a starters Java book online. I'm taking my AP Computer Science class as well and my teacher is also pretty difficult. He goes quick so I definitely recommend trying this. Also, try Khan Academy, PracticeIT, and CodingBat.

Ninja Edit: Grammar.

Ok, first step; recognize you have no idea what you're doing.

Next, do something about that. ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071809252/ )

Then try again when you've acquired java grok.

profit.

Java: A Beginner's Guide by Herbert Schildt: https://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Guide-Herbert-Schildt/dp/0071809252

I found this to be a great first Java book.

Java: A Beginner's Guide by Herbert Schildt (Author)
www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Guide-Herbert-Schildt/dp/0071809252/

Well, it's one year since I started my Java programmer career and I think you should start with basic and then decide what you want to do in future (there is lots of path to take).This worked for me:

1. Get fammiliar with concepts in this book Java: A Beginner's Guide, Sixth Edition. There are basic which u will need everywhere and for me a form was really easy to follow.
   
2. Try to create some basic game in console. For example I did some basic "Fallout style" adventure. Important is to try coding yourself and not copy/paste and try to finnish a project.
   
3. Choose a path you wanna take. Do you want desctop app, android app or you want to work in a enterprise. Find a technologie which suit your purpose and focus on it. Don't try to learn everything, because then u will know nothing properly.
   
4. Try to do something like DVD rental or anything where you will have to implement CRUD operations, use REST API and get your hands dirty with some MVC concepts.

Someone already suggested codeacademy, another one to check out is https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/.

Note: If you are looking for a teaching tool for people who have never coded before, always check to see if one of the first programs (if not the first) it has you code is a "Hello World" program (or equivalent). It is a simple program that just prints "Hello World" on the screen that is the first program most people learn to code. If the guide is starting with something more complex than "Hello World" it may not be for absolute beginners. Just something to look out for.

If you are OK paying for a book, a good book in the beginners section would be Java: A beginner's Guide from Oracle. Start with the two free sources mentioned first as the book jumps into more advance topics more quickly.

Java: A Beginner's Guide

For someone who does not know much about computers at ALL, this may be a bit challenging at first, as it doesn't go into much detail about downloading the JDK (if you wish to use it and not an IDE) and some issues about javac and java not working (again, this is only an issue in cmd/powershell if you're not using an IDE).

I would also recommend this html, css, javascript, and jquery bundle

The two books can also be bought individually


EDIT: Specified the downsides of the Java book a little more

I read a beginners book on Java. Now working my way through a more detailed C# book.

Java Book

C# Book

Hi, I am learning Java at the moment and found the following book quite useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Guide-Herbert-Schildt/dp/0071809252/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Since you're starting a Java programming course in two weeks, I'd recommend this one.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071809252/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's one of the books I own. Admittedly this is not the book I would normally give to a complete novice in programming, but I think it's the best for the situation. It's a pretty fat book and full of knowledge, but it assumes the reader has some sort of technical background. It doesn't do much to help you visualize it in other ways. However it gets straight to the point, is fairly clear, and is ordered well. If you can understand the material in the first 3 chapters before the start of your class I think you will be very well off.

Java, A Beginner's Guide. is a well-paced book that's not huge (about 700 pages).

Java, The Complete Reference. by the same author of the above book is, as the name suggests, a huge comprehensive reference (about 1500 pages). I wouldn't use it to learn the basics, but would use it later as a reference.

Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive Version. is a slow-paced huge book (more than 1500 pages) that will benefit a beginner a lot.

Now if you are in a hurry and you need to go through the basic s quickly and possibly miss some details, I would recommend Think Java. It's a small (about 300 pages) free fast-paced book that will get you hooked quickly.

Iskreno, poceo sam da je citam i po meni je previse neozbiljna. Moze li ova? Cini mi se da je dobra.

Hvala.

OK, you could start with a book like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Guide-Herbert-Schildt/dp/0071809252/

I'd highly encourage you to actually do the exercises, though. Programming is all about doing, not reading. You should spend roughly 10 hours programming for every 1 hour of reading.

Even if you only make it through one chapter, it will get you in the right mindset.

Alternatively, if you haven't already learned HTML and you want to learn something different, but super useful, try learning HTML (and CSS) to make a simple website. Note that HTML is not programming, but it does get you used to the idea of writing syntax for a computer to parse, and trying to figure out what went wrong when it doesn't do what you intended. Plus, HTML is used all over the place so it's incredibly useful to know. If you know a little bit, learn more - try some more advanced CSS.

Tried the Google one and couldn't stop cringing. Felt like I was in kindergarten watching the videos...

You need to know basic java programming to learn Android, but that should be easy if you already know some language.

Also didn't like that book, personally. It doesn't explain things really well. Currently reading The busy coders guide for Android programming and it seems really good.

I learned Java reading Java: A beginner's guide sixth edition and its a good beginner book, it's also serious unlike the "heads first java" which was full of lame jokes and I don't personally like that.

Should point out I'm a beginner myself so take this with a grain of salt.

Edit: Formating

Java: A Beginner's Guide, Sixth Edition

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm currently working through a book called Java: A Beginner's Guide Sixth Edition. I chose this book because it uses the latest version of Java, which I think is important in some respects. Older books may have the same information initially (loops, datatypes, etc. rarely change), but as you delve deeper there are certain aspects of the language that improves over time and makes your life easier as a developer.

Choosing the right author is essential because they're basically your professor throughout the learning process. Someone suggested www.thenewboston.com and the vast majority of developers on this site laugh at even the mention of this resource. In other words, do your homework and ensure you're learning from a respected individual.

After having a basic understanding of a programming language your next step should be to choose a personal project slightly beyond the skill level you currently have. Doing research, solving problems/bugs and finishing something enhances your learning like you wouldn't believe. I've been reading programming books for many years and the times when I'd simply read a book in its entirety and then try to build something always showed me that my retention wasn't very strong. When I took the time to pause and use what I had learned throughout segments of the book I learned a lot more and my retention was extremely high.

Using what I've said above, you can pick pretty much any programming language and apply this learning style. I have tried both online classes and books and have found books to be the best method for myself. With online classes I've found myself spending time watching way too many videos than actually writing code.

1. I use IntelliJ at work and home, not just for Java but for a lot of other things, it has the fastest and best intelligent auto complete I have seen in an IDE and supports a whole tonne of frameworks and programming languages, it's also got some kickass keyboard shortcuts and a nice dark skin.
   However all the main IDEs are good, those are Eclipse, Netbeans and IntelliJ (as far as I am aware). At university you will probably be learning with Eclipse, BlueJ (which I have never used, but is supposed to be educational) or maybe even notepad. If they give you a choice I'd use Eclipse to learn with since it is used by a lot of companies and open source projects.
   
   
2. One thing to watch out for is String comparison using the == operator. The == operator in Java compares memory address and not content of the strings, a quick google search turns up this blog post with some details on Strings in Java. Basically you should use string1.equals(string2) when comparing strings in Java.
   
   
3. Nab a book from your university library or buy one on Amazon/The Book Depository.
   I taught myself it following various tutorials online but the books teach you better practices than those most of the time and are more in depth. Java a Beginners Guide seems highly rated on Amazon and has been kept up to date. When I was at university I saw a few copies of Thinking in Java around but it's a tad out of date now, Head First Java might also be worth a look.
   The videos I used to learn Java were a combination of thenewboston videos (these don't encourage good practices but show a basic way of getting started) and some Java games programming related videos by thecodinguniverse.
   Once you have the basics of Java down, might I also suggest completing the challenges on /r/dailyprogrammer to help get you more comfortable with it.

This is wonderful, thank you. There are some lines that I haven't learned yet and so I'll make sure to research on them. I'm currently using this book as a teaching guide, do you have any other suggestions for books I can use?