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Effective Java (2nd Edition) 2nd Edition

4.6 out of 5 stars 665 ratings

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Are you looking for a deeper understanding of the Java™ programming language so that you can write code that is clearer, more correct, more robust, and more reusable? Look no further! Effective Java™, Second Edition, brings together seventy-eight indispensable programmer’s rules of thumb: working, best-practice solutions for the programming challenges you encounter every day. This highly anticipated new edition of the classic, Jolt Award-winning work has been thoroughly updated to cover Java SE 5 and Java SE 6 features introduced since the first edition. Bloch explores new design patterns and language idioms, showing you how to make the most of features ranging from generics to enums, annotations to autoboxing. Each chapter in the book consists of several “items” presented in the form of a short, standalone essay that provides specific advice, insight into Java platform subtleties, and outstanding code examples. The comprehensive descriptions and explanations for each item illuminate what to do, what not to do, and why. Highlights include: New coverage of generics, enums, annotations, autoboxing, the for-each loop, varargs, concurrency utilities, and much more Updated techniques and best practices on classic topics, including objects, classes, libraries, methods, and serialization How to avoid the traps and pitfalls of commonly misunderstood subtleties of the language Focus on the language and its most fundamental libraries: java.lang, java.util, and, to a lesser extent, java.util.concurrent and java.io Simply put, Effective Java™, Second Edition, presents the most practical, authoritative guidelines available for writing efficient, well-designed programs.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Raves for the First Edition!

“I sure wish I had this book ten years ago. Some might think that I don’t need any Java books, but I need this one.”

—James Gosling, fellow and vice president, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

“An excellent book, crammed with good advice on using the Java programming language and object-oriented programming in general.”

—Gilad Bracha, coauthor of The Java™ Language Specification, Third Edition

“10/10—anyone aspiring to write good Java code that others will appreciate reading and maintaining should be required to own a copy of this book. This is one of those rare books where the information won’t become obsolete with subsequent releases of the JDK library.”
—Peter Tran, bartender, JavaRanch.com

“The best Java book yet written.... Really great; very readable and eminently useful. I can’t say enough good things about this book. At JavaOne 2001, James Gosling said, ‘Go buy this book!’ I’m glad I did, and I couldn’t agree more.”
—Keith Edwards, senior member of research staff, Computer Science Lab at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and author of
Core JINI (Prentice Hall, 2000)

“This is a truly excellent book done by the guy who designed several of the better recent Java platform APIs (including the Collections API).”
—James Clark, technical lead of the XML Working Group during the creation of the XML 1.0 Recommendation, editor of the XPath and XSLT Recommendations

“Great content. Analogous to Scott Meyers’ classic Effective C++. If you know the basics of Java, this has to be your next book.”
—Gary K. Evans, OO mentor and consultant, Evanetics, Inc

“Josh Bloch gives great insight into best practices that really can only be discovered after years of study and experience.”
—Mark Mascolino, software engineer

“This is a superb book. It clearly covers many of the language/platform subtleties and trickery you need to learn to become a real Java master.”
—Victor Wiewiorowski, vice president development and code quality manager, ValueCommerce Co., Tokyo, Japan

“I like books that under-promise in their titles and over-deliver in their contents. This book has 57 items of programming advice that are well chosen. Each item reveals a clear, deep grasp of the language. Each one illustrates in simple, practical terms the limits of programming on intuition alone, or taking the most direct path to a solution without fully understanding what the language offers.”

—Michael Ernest, Inkling Research, Inc.

“I don’t find many programming books that make me want to read every page—this is one of them.”
—Matt Tucker, chief technical officer, Jive Software

“Great how-to resource for the experienced developer.”
—John Zukowski, author of numerous Java technology books

“I picked this book up two weeks ago and can safely say I learned more about the Java language in three days of reading than I did in three months of study! An excellent book and a welcome addition to my Java library.”
—Jane Griscti, I/T advisory specialist

Video Game Review by 1UP.com

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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Addison-Wesley
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 28, 2008
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 2nd
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 346 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0321356683
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0321356680
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.83 x 11 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 665 ratings

About the author

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Joshua Bloch
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Joshua J. Bloch (born August 28, 1961) is a software engineer and a technology author, formerly employed at Sun Microsystems and Google. He led the design and implementation of numerous Java platform features, including the Java Collections Framework, the java.math package, and the assert mechanism. He is the author of the programming guide Effective Java (2001), which won the 2001 Jolt Award, and is a co-author of two other Java books, Java Puzzlers (2005) and Java Concurrency In Practice (2006).

Bloch holds a B.S. in computer science from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. His 1990 thesis was titled A Practical Approach to Replication of Abstract Data Objects and was nominated for the ACM Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Bloch has worked as a Senior Systems Designer at Transarc, and later as a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems. In June 2004 he left Sun and became Chief Java Architect at Google. On August 3, 2012, Bloch announced that he would be leaving Google.

In December 2004, Java Developer's Journal included Bloch in its list of the "Top 40 Software People in the World".

Bloch has proposed the extension of the Java programming language with two features: Concise Instance Creation Expressions (CICE) (coproposed with Bob Lee and Doug Lea) and Automatic Resource Management (ARM) blocks. The combination of CICE and ARM formed one of the three early proposals for adding support for closures to Java. ARM blocks were added to the language in JDK7.

Bloch is currently a faculty member of the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University, where he holds the title "Professor of the Practice". In addition to his research, Bloch teaches coursework in Software Engineering.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
665 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this Java programming book essential for developers, providing core programming advice and clear explanations of language usage. The book receives positive feedback for its design and gotchas, with one customer noting its well-written sections, and customers appreciate its comprehensive coverage and error-free content. The page size receives mixed reviews, with some customers noting size differences between copies, and the book's images are described as blurry.

60 customers mention "Clarity"53 positive7 negative

Customers find the book clear and easy to understand, with well-written sections that provide a concise collection of essential practices for Java programming.

"...The book is written in a clear and concise language and each problem is exceptionally well reasoned...." Read more

"...Included code samples are clear, concise and contain comments that highlight the relevant parts of the code...." Read more

"...implementation details, it has a lot of great teachings that are language agnostic...." Read more

"...The author has complete clear and crisp understanding of the concepts and lucidly explains the points - with clear small and right examples...." Read more

10 customers mention "Design"10 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's design and gotchas, with one customer noting its great appearance and another highlighting its well-organized structure.

"...I liked that the author made definitive statements about which style is best, and explains why...." Read more

"...programming/software design including generic, concurrency, OOP, API design and exception handling...." Read more

"...Block lays out 78 best practice in usage of the language. His style is lucid and direct with great examples...." Read more

"...The content looks GREAT, so that's the most important thing, because that's where your eyes will be looking/reading at, not at the front cover." Read more

5 customers mention "Error avoidance"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's approach to error avoidance, with one noting it makes code more maintainable.

"...it make you avoid human error and make you more organized, the name of the book is really descriptive , this teach you to write more effective..." Read more

"...language basics but that you want to make your code more effective: error free, easy to maintain...." Read more

"...of reading the book I learned some new ways to help make my code more maintainable...." Read more

"Correctness is not enough. This book is playing a role as mentor who helps you to a master...." Read more

4 customers mention "Coverage"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the comprehensive coverage of the book.

"...and covers a wide range of topics which anyone can benefit from...." Read more

"Great book with effective coverage of not the science but also the art of programming in many ways...." Read more

"...It is as excellent as the first but with much more coverage. New material includes Generics and the Concurrency package...." Read more

"excellent coverage of the concepts in the Java language and how to correctly use them..." Read more

6 customers mention "Page size"3 positive3 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the page size of the book, with some noting that it is different from their coworkers' copies.

"...of the concepts and lucidly explains the points - with clear small and right examples...." Read more

"...are printed at original scale but because of the larger page size there's a really big margin. Overall poor quality of the physical book." Read more

"...It is divided to short items, each one packs a powerful wisdom...." Read more

"...The cover is all jpeg artifact-y, and it's a different size than my coworker's copy of the same book. what the heck? Get it together, amazon." Read more

4 customers mention "Blurry image"0 positive4 negative

Customers report that the book has a blurry image.

"...The cover looks like it is larger than the original size so it is pretty blurry...." Read more

"...1. Front image print looks very blurry, like someone downloaded low-res image from web and stretched it to A4. 2...." Read more

"The book I got is like a fake product. The cover image is blurred. I doubt if it is printed by home printers." Read more

"...It looks like they inflated the size of the book by 50% so that everything is blurry." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2008
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This book seems to be one of the most critically acclaimed Java titles. What could I possibly add to what has been said? The acclaim is fully deserved. I had the feeling that I already learned something new and important as soon as I reached page twenty. This is something that I cannot say of very many books. Effective Java manages to be extremely useful and simultaneously extremely easy to read. However, "easy" doesn't mean simple in this case, since many of the discussed problems are subtly complex. Some are so complex, in fact, that Java beginners might not fully understand or appreciate them. So, it's probably not a book for beginners. On the other hand, the book is neither esoteric. The 78 items are general Java programming issues which one is likely to encounter in everyday work at some point, regardless of any specific domain. The book is written in a clear and concise language and each problem is exceptionally well reasoned. The author has a very deep understanding of the Java language, which is rather apparent and no surprise, since Joshua Bloch is one of the architects of the Java platform. Incidentally, this also means that the problems are discussed from the perspective of an API designer rather than from the perspective of an application programmer. This is useful, because it is primarily concerned with creating robust and high quality interfaces. Architects, designers, and application programmers benefit likewise from this. The items discussed in this book can probably be described as design and implementation level rationales. They are grouped by Java categories, such as generics, enums, annotations, exceptions, serialisation, as well as by more general concepts, such as object creation, classes and interfaces, methods and concurrency. Many of the individual topics are related; therefore the author makes ample use of cross references, which is helpful for reference use. The included code examples are a joy to read; they are clear, concise, and always illustrative. While discussing the intricacies of the above named topics, Joshua Bloch casually introduces the reader to a good number of commonly used design patterns, many of which are illustrated with code examples. However, design patterns are not themselves formally discussed. The book equips Java programmers with an arsenal of relevant best practices, from comparatively simple things such as creating objects, implementing "equals()" and "hashCode()" methods to more advanced topics, such as concurrency, mutability, and thread safety. In doing so, Joshua Bloch points out quite a few quirks and peculiarities of the Java language, and he does not only point them out, but explains their practical consequences in detail. Thus, the book has great didactic value, as the reader will end up with a higher level of familiarity with the language. Reading this book is time well invested for any Java programmer.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This book is one of the highest rated Java books in existence. The main reason that I chose to read this book is because one of my colleagues highly recommended it. Needless to say, I have to jump on the bandwagon and join in with all of the hoopla and praise that’s associated with this book. It is simply fantastic on several latitudes. This includes but is not limited to the scope, depth, and writing style of this piece of work . The concepts are presented in bite-sized items which often cross reference one another. These chunks are then grouped into chapters for broader topics such as “Generics”, “Exceptions” and “Enums and Annotations” just to name a few. All items are presented in a practical manner that will help real developers on the job immediately. You’ll go to work the next day and be able to quickly identify code that should be improved by applying the principles in this book. Included code samples are clear, concise and contain comments that highlight the relevant parts of the code. Every item is gold and the constant supply will have you reading it from cover to cover with little interruption.

    It should be of no surprise that this book is not for beginners. In fact, I would argue that it’s targeted to advanced Java developers looking to obtain “Expert” status. (“Guru” status come after one reads both the Java and JVM specifications in their entirety and grow a worthy beard). If you’re a curious Java developer looking for some of the more interesting aspects of the language or a Java veteran determined to take your understanding to the next level, Effective Java is the book you need to have.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2009
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I am thoroughly enjoying this book and learning a lot in the process. The author is responsible for many of the successful APIs in the Java language, such as the Collections framework, so he certainly knows what he is talking about.

    I am still a student but I can relate to some of the things he talks about, and see where I have deviated from his suggestions in the past. The author is clear to point out why these things are problems in terms of either code reuse, extensibility, type safety, or some other aspect, so even though it wasn't necessarily an issue in the context of a school project, in the real world it certainly might be.

    The author borrows the format from Scott Meyer's Effective C++ series of books, and it works very well in this context. While the chapters are logically organized, they are set up in such a way that you do not need to read from start to finish; you can jump around and read the interesting bits at will, and often items in one section of the book refer to later (or earlier) items.

    Finally, I appreciate that the book explains some of the less well known or understood features of recent versions of Java. For instance, I had never heard of the annotation feature added, but he goes on to show a great example of how you can use annotations to build a simple test framework for a class.

    Even if you are not yet a software professional, you owe it to yourself to get a jump start by reading this book.
    6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Marco S
    5.0 out of 5 stars La Bibbia di ogni sviluppatore Java
    Reviewed in Italy on June 2, 2012
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Una raccolta di item ben organizzata, precisa e ben scritta riguardante un buon numero di problemi che lo sviluppatore Java si ritrova ad affrontare quotidianamente e le relative "best practices" per risolverli al meglio, scritta da uno dei maggiori Guru del linguaggio al mondo.
    Suggerimenti a tutto campo, dall'organizzazione di classi e interfacce, pattern, generics, concorrenza e serializzazione: leggendo questo libro si impara molto più di quello che i tutorial Sun o un qualsiasi corso universitario possono insegnare su Java. Insomma: un must-have per tutti coloro che vogliono approfondire l'uso di questo stupendo linguaggio, anche per quelli che credono di sapere già tutto!
    Report
  • Oliver Kolle
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sehr guter, aber teilweise schwerer Stoff
    Reviewed in Germany on November 19, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Ich spreche für die 2. Edition. Berechtigterweise erscheint das Buch stets in "Java books you must read"-Listen. Es kennt die grundlegenden Neuerungen von Java 5. (Erst die 3. Edition kennt die weitreichenden Spracherweiterungen, die mit Java 8 kamen)
    Das Buch behandelt eigentlich nur die Grundlagen der Sprache und nebenbei einige Patterns, geht dabei aber mehr in die Tiefe als man das von normalen Lehrbüchern gewohnt ist. Daher ist das Buch nichts für Anfänger oder Leute mit nur etwas Java-Erfahrung. Die Texte verwenden teils anspruchsvolles Englisch. Oft schafft es der Autor mit minimalen Code-Beispielen maximale Verwirrung beim Leser zu stiften. Zum Teil musste ich mich (z.B. Kapitel zu Concurrency und Serialization) durchquälen.
    Fazit: Im Buch stehen viele nützliche, empfehlenswerte Sachen, die allerdings durch wiederholtes Lesen und eventuell zusätzliches Nachprogrammieren erarbeitet werden müssen.
  • Alejandro Cámara
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfecto para aprender las "frases hechas" del lenguaje Java
    Reviewed in Spain on February 14, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    El libro trata temas avanzados de Java. No es un libro para aprender la sintaxis o gramática de Java, si no el equivalente a sus frases hechas. Se compone de "items" que abordan diferentes situaciones donde ya existen soluciones bien establecidas. Cada solución se presenta con muchos ejemplos de código.

    El libro está bien escrito y bien estructuado. Es de gran utilidad para los que quieren pasar de escribir código Java correcto a código Java eficiente.
  • Ivan S.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for Students
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    As my first Java book it did not disappoint. I am currently studying CS at university and everything we have covered usually pops up in this. It is probably not the best book if you are literally just starting how to code in Java but it is a great for learner or a 10 year Java proffesional. The structure is great as it provides great arguments for Bloch's points as well as always trying to mention disadvantages. The book is not biased and teaches you how to write the most proffesional Java, telling you what to use and why you should use it. I am only about a third of the way through it but it has been very helpful along with my university notes.
  • JulienZ
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
    Reviewed in France on November 19, 2010
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Ce livre s'adresse aux personnes maitrisant les bases de JAVA (une connaissance du langage, des API de base et des patterns les plus courants, est indispensable). Il donne beaucoup d'astuces permettant de rendre son code plus lisible, plus réutilisable, et surtout plus performant.

    En bref, ce livre est un condensé de bonne pratique, dont chaque développeur JAVA intermédiaire ou avancé devrait être conscient.

    Je ne suis vraiment pas déçu de mon achat et je le recommande donc fortement.