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The C++ Answer Book by Tony L Hansen Recommended with Reservations

ISBN: 0-201-11497-6       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 577pp       Price: £25-95.

Categories:   reference     advanced c++

Reviewed by Francis Glassborow in C Vu 4-4 (May 1992)

Even the second edition is now wrong in certain places as the standard continues to be developed and refined.

Having entered that caveat let me concentrate on the book itself.

The book is written with an expectation that the reader will have Stroustrup's book readily to hand. What it does is to take each of the problems that Stroustrup included in his book and produce a heavily annotated solution to the problem. Fortunately each problem is re-stated by Hansen otherwise those who only had access to the 2nd edition of Stroustrup's book would rapidly get confused.

Most problems in the 1st edition can be found in the second but the chapters have been re-organised and extra material added.

Any book on C++ will have the problem of addressing a moving target. At least this book has the advantage that the time of the target is clearly stated. An appendix is added to cover the modifications made to C++ between the date of Stroustrup's 1st edition of his book and the final draft of Hansen's.

Books like this one are particularly useful to individuals labouring to learn a language without access to an experienced instructor. I have reservations but I believe that this book is good value for money and works well even with the updated version of Stroustrup's book.