W. W. Norton & Company C Programming: A Modern Approach

The goat.

Great C programming book with all that you need to use C

I am a first-year comp sci student (although I have a degree in an unrelated field) who was due to start an algorithm/problem solving class that would be focused on C. Although the class had no assigned textbook, I figured if I'm going to be using C, I'd better learn what I'm doing. I had tried previously to learn C with K&R, but I didn't make much progress. Too many of the programming practice problems given in K&R were frankly just too difficult for a beginner who is self-teaching. I decided to pick up another textbook. After extensive research, King's book seemed to be one of the most consistently and highly recommended. I started working through King's book a couple weeks before the class started to try and keep ahead of the class material. I can't say enough good things about this textbook. It is thorough but clear, and includes plenty of code examples to learn from. The programming exercises are just challenging enough to push you a bit beyond your comfort zone without feeling impossible, and there are many interesting problems to pick and choose from. There's enough material so that you can find many common standard library functions or core C concepts referenced over and over throughout the book. This really helps to see how the guts of C work in different contexts. The writing style is pleasant. King manages to keep what most would consider a very dry subject entertaining and fun, without losing any of the rigor you'd expect from a textbook. That's quite an achievement. Thanks partially to this book I finished the class with a perfect 100% score.

Good introduction to C language

I usually hate textbooks because they’re expensive and full of useless filler. This textbook is expensive, but there’s zero filler here. Just concise explanations and good exercises. This was one of the few textbooks that I actually used often and it really helped me study. Definitely recommend it.