Rating: 
Summary: A book for realy lerning Java
Review: I bougt this book 2 months ago, as the fourth book about java.
My task is to program a project for data aquisition, and i never programmed java before. The only way to learn a programing language is using it and the best way to use it first are examples.
And this Cookbook is a very big collection of thousand very well documented, very useful examples ! Very good.
The other java books i am using is "Hooked on Java (very old)",
"Java Examples in a Nutshell (German edition)", similar to the Cookbook but not so good, its more scratching on the surface and a German book: "Jetzt lern ich Java" very good for the first steps.
I hope that in the next time a German translation of the Java Cookbook will be available.Markus Greim
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference!
Review: I had been searching for a good book that served as a reference for short snippets of code, similar to what "The Visual Basic 6 Black Book" did for VB and my understanding of it. I had seen "Java Black Book" at bookstores, but really was hesitant on purchasing it after seeing an unkind review for it. After mentioning this to someone, he loaned me his copy of Java Cookbook so that I would see what it was like. A few days later, I was returning his copy because I had already obtained my own. I was sold!! There is tremendous amounts of detail in this book, starting from the author's own package of goodies, to small routines adapted from other texts on programming (and giving due credit to these references), to extended examples of code that solve a myriad of problems. All of the code is downloadable from the 'Net. The table of contents, 5.5 pages long, lists a condensed one-line description for each piece of code in the book. But the book is not only code. The descriptions themselves of the code are practical and helpful as well, explaining reasons behind design decisions for certain structures. I've created my own version of some of his programs (a Roman-numeral class he develops seems to do well in writing them out, but not at reading them. Strange topic to adapt, but I just wanted to challenge myself.) and found that I like mine better, but I'd probably never have gotten around to doing such until I saw his routines. All in all, this book is a prize possession, and one I'd like to recommend very heartily.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite type of supplemental reference manual...
Review: I make no apologies about being an "R&D" developer... "Rob & Duplicate". I learn best by seeing something that works, and then adapting it to my own needs. Therefore, a book like Java Cookbook by Ian Darwin (O'Reilly) is the exact type of book I look for and use on a regular basis.
The chapter breakdown: Getting Started; Interacting With The Environment; Strings and Things; Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions; Numbers; Dates and Times; Structuring Data with Java; Data Structuring with Generics, foreach, and Enumerations; Object-Oriented Techniques; Input and Output; Directory and Filesystem Operations; Programming External Devices: Serial and Parallel Ports; Graphics and Sound; Graphical User Interfaces; Internationalization and Localization; Network Clients; Server-Side Java: Sockets; Network Clients II: Applets and Web Clients; Java and Electronic Mail; Database Access; XML; Distributed Java: RMI; Packages and Packaging; Threaded Java; Introspection, or "A Class Named Class"; Using Java with Other Languages
For those unfamiliar with the "Cookbook" style, the chapters have a series of real-life problems, such as playing a sound file, playing a video clip, and printing in Java. The problem is followed by a short one or two line solution and an expanded discussion of the issue complete with code. This approach makes it really easy to find something that is similar to the issue you're facing and to see how someone else would solve it.
For me, the quality of this book is really high. It's a second edition covering the Java 1.5 package, so it's fully up on the current technology. In fact, the Generics chapter deals exclusively with new features in 1.5. Some of the solutions are code classes developed by the author and made available for download. But unlike some books I've reviewed where the author supplies code, this isn't an attempt to push their company or product. It's just a clean way to use a solution that someone else has worked through.
This isn't a book you'd use to learn Java from scratch, but it's a book you'll use on a regular basis as you continue to expand your Java knowledge. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than the first version
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book for the practicing Java developer
Review: I'm recommending this book to all the developers in my company. Java is so large that you really only remember which piece you are currently working with. This is a great resource for those times when you scratch your head and ask : "Now how do I do that ?"
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for Beginners and Intermediate Developers
Review: I'm relatively new to Java and having this book makes finding simple answers easy. For beginners and intermediate developers this is a wonderful resource when you don't know the answer off the top of your head. I was thrown into coding in Java at my job without any formal training so I'm learning the language as I develop solutions for clients. This book helps me get my job done quicker and also helps me understand the language better.
Rating:
Summary: Good to see how others would do something...
Review: I'm very into a method of programming called "R&D"... that stands for "Rob And Duplicate". I'd rather not invent or reinvent something if I can "borrow" someone else's solution. Given that as my mindset, I LOVE this book! While the hardcore reference books are necessary, all too often the beleaguered developer is left asking for a simple example of how something works in a real program. Sometimes it's nice just to be able to see a class (like the Java I/O classes) used in the context of a complete solution. From there, you can figure out how to start using the class in your own program. That's the real value of this book. I may conceptually understand what a class does, but it's sometimes hard to translate that knowledge into syntactically correct code. Seeing an example helps me get a grasp of how it is really used. For Notes/Domino 5 developers, this is an extremely useful book. Many Notes/Domino developers are used to using and sharing solutions that have already been coded and solved by others. This book will feel very natural to them. It allows you to get a core set of code working, and then from there you can expand to work into a complete coding solution. Conclusion
Regardless of where you are at in your Java career, you should have this book. If you're a Java newbie, it will help you bridge the gap between reference manuals and real programs. If you're an experienced Java programmer, it will give you different perspectives on how a problem could be solved.
Rating:
Summary: Good to see how others would do something...
Review: I'm very into a method of programming called "R&D"... that stands for "Rob And Duplicate". I'd rather not invent or reinvent something if I can "borrow" someone else's solution. Given that as my mindset, I LOVE this book! While the hardcore reference books are necessary, all too often the beleaguered developer is left asking for a simple example of how something works in a real program. Sometimes it's nice just to be able to see a class (like the Java I/O classes) used in the context of a complete solution. From there, you can figure out how to start using the class in your own program. That's the real value of this book. I may conceptually understand what a class does, but it's sometimes hard to translate that knowledge into syntactically correct code. Seeing an example helps me get a grasp of how it is really used. For Notes/Domino 5 developers, this is an extremely useful book. Many Notes/Domino developers are used to using and sharing solutions that have already been coded and solved by others. This book will feel very natural to them. It allows you to get a core set of code working, and then from there you can expand to work into a complete coding solution. Conclusion
Regardless of where you are at in your Java career, you should have this book. If you're a Java newbie, it will help you bridge the gap between reference manuals and real programs. If you're an experienced Java programmer, it will give you different perspectives on how a problem could be solved.
Rating:
Summary: Good to see how others would do something...
Review: I'm very into a method of programming called "R&D"... that stands for "Rob And Duplicate". I'd rather not invent or reinvent something if I can "borrow" someone else's solution. Given that as my mindset, I LOVE this book! While the hardcore reference books are necessary, all too often the beleaguered developer is left asking for a simple example of how something works in a real program. Sometimes it's nice just to be able to see a class (like the Java I/O classes) used in the context of a complete solution. From there, you can figure out how to start using the class in your own program. That's the real value of this book. I may conceptually understand what a class does, but it's sometimes hard to translate that knowledge into syntactically correct code. Seeing an example helps me get a grasp of how it is really used. For Notes/Domino 5 developers, this is an extremely useful book. Many Notes/Domino developers are used to using and sharing solutions that have already been coded and solved by others. This book will feel very natural to them. It allows you to get a core set of code working, and then from there you can expand to work into a complete coding solution. Conclusion
Regardless of where you are at in your Java career, you should have this book. If you're a Java newbie, it will help you bridge the gap between reference manuals and real programs. If you're an experienced Java programmer, it will give you different perspectives on how a problem could be solved.
Rating:
Summary: Code To Go
Review: 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.
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