You have a choice: you can wade your way through lengthy Java tutorials and figure things out by trial and error, or you can pick up Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition and get to the heart of what you need to know when you need to know it.

With the completely revised and thoroughly updated Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition, Java developers like you will learn by example, try out new features, and use sample code to understand how new additions to the language and platform work--and how to put them to work for you.

This comprehensive collection of problems, solutions, and practical examples will satisfy Java developers at all levels of expertise. Whether you're new to Java programming and need something to bridge the gap between theory-laden reference manuals and real-world programs or you're a seasoned Java programmer looking for a new perspective or a different problem-solving context, this book will help you make the most of your Java knowledge.

Packed with hundreds of tried-and-true Java recipes covering all of the major APIs from the 1.4 version of Java, this book also offers significant first-look recipes for the most important features of the new 1.5 version, which is in beta release. You get practical solutions to everyday problems, and each is followed by a detailed, ultimately useful explanation of how and why the technology works.

Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition includes code segments covering many specialized APIs--like those for working with Struts, Ant and other new popular Open Source tools. It also includes expanded Mac OS X Panther coverage and serves as a great launching point for Java developers who want to get started in areas outside of their specialization.

In this major revision, you'll find succinct pieces of code that can be easily incorporated into other programs. Focusing on what's useful or tricky--or what's useful and tricky--Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition is the most practical Java programming book on the market.

Average Customer Review: ( 34 customer reviews )
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To judge the quality of the recipes, I checked out some very basic and common Java problems, such as writing equals and clone methods, synchronizing threads, and comparing floating point numbers. In most cases, I found flaws in the code or accompanying explanations. The discussion of equals doesn't mention that the hashCode method needs to be compatible with it. The recipe for clone has the method unnecessarily throw a CloneNotSupportedException. The explanation of synchronizing threads says that locks are held on methods, instead of correctly pointing out that locks are held on objects. The code for floating point comparison requires that the user keep track of the magnitude of the numbers being compared.

By using the term "Cookbook" in the title, I expected to find a collection of the best standard code templates. Instead, I found code samples that merely demonstrated a basic concept, and that they serve as only a starting point for understanding Java. Together with the misleading explanations, this book has the potential for confusing beginning Java programmers as much as it guides them. This book is best used as merely a guide to get the beginning Java programmer started. The "recipes" should be viewed as started points to be improved upon -- using them as is will result in less than optimal Java code.

22 of 23 found the following review helpful:

Much better than the first versionJul 29, 2004
By Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author"
I'm blown away by how much better the second version has improved from the first. I was so disappointed by the first edition that I swore off O'Reilly for a little while. One of my major gripes, the rampant use of classes provided by the author in libraries has all but vanished. In addition the anti-patterns of bad SQL use that are so rampant in other Java books are nowhere to be found, and in their place are recipes that show sane and proper use of JDBC.

I heartily recommend this practical work for Java engineers. For those not familiar with the first edition this is a solid practical work that covers a wide range of Java programming challenges. For those turned off by the first edition, you should take a look at the second, the improvement is profound.

17 of 18 found the following review helpful:

Code To GoAug 13, 2001
By Jeff Lawson
If I'd had this book two years ago, I would have saved myself weeks of work. As a software developer of some twenty years, I find that the ever-present problem of `looking things up' is the major factor that impedes progress. I've spent hours trying to track down `how-to' solutions only to find in the end all that's required is a few elusive lines of code. Well, the Java Cookbook is filled with such code along with insightful explanations.

I'm impressed by how comprehensive the coverage is: 26 chapters covering such things as file i/o, Swing, RMI, applets, Java Servlets, JSP, e-mail, JDBC, XML, multi-threading... At 48 pages, the index is HUGE, just what you need to look things up!

The author assumes you know Java but not as well as you ought to! He explains all those things that I really should know but I never get around to figuring out properly: the correct handling of dates/times, internationalization, floating point numbers, etc. Thankfully, the book is concise and easy to read so you can quickly plug a bunch of gaps in your knowledge by browsing over chapters.

This book will quickly pay for itself. Enjoy.

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

Great source for how to code specific situationsOct 10, 2004
By Harold McFarland
Anyone who has been involved in programming very long soon comes to realize the value of the various programming cookbooks. The cookbooks are not for the person who wants to learn how to program in a particular language, but are very useful for programmers with a basic knowledge of the language. The idea is simple, take the most common problems people deal with and put the solutions into a book. Simply state the problem and then show the code to resolve it. So, if you need to know how to do something you can look it up, enter the code, and test it.

Some of the chapter subjects include Interacting with the Environment, Strings and Things, Pattern Matching, Numbers, Dates and Times, Object-Oriented Techniques, Directory and Filesystem Operations, Graphics and Sound, Network Clients, Server-Side Java, Database Access, XML, and Threaded Java. Typical of any of the programming cookbooks, it is a quick and easy source for answers. Each item has a short explanation of the problem and then goes straight to the code to demonstrate how it works. A great time saver and required resource for Java programmers, Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition is highly recommended.

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