With the same insight and authority that made their book The Unix Programming Environment a classic, Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike have written The Practice of Programming to help make individual programmers more effective and productive. This book is full of practical advice and real-world examples in C, C++, Java, and a variety of special-purpose languages. Kernighan and Pike have distilled years of experience writing programs, teaching, and working with other programmers to create this book. Anyone who writes software will profit from its principles and guidance.

. Style.
Names.Expressions and Statements.Consistency and Idioms.Function Macros.Magic Numbers.Comments.Why Bother?

2. Algorithms and Data Structures.
Searching.Sorting.Libraries.A Java Quicksort.O-Notation.Growing Arrays.Lists.Trees.Hash Tables.Summary.

3. Design and Implementation.
The Markov Chain Algorithm.Data Structure Alternatives.Building the Data Structure in C.Generating Output.Java.C++.Awk and Perl.Performance.Lessons.

4. Interfaces.
Comma-Separated Values.A Prototype Library.A Library for Others.A C++ Implementation.Interface Principles.Resource Management.Abort, Retry, Fail?User Interfaces.

5. Debugging.
Debuggers.Good Clues, Easy Bugs.No Clues, Hard Bugs.Last Resorts.Non-reproducible Bugs.Debugging Tools.Other People's Bugs.Summary.

6. Testing.
Test as You Write the Code.Systematic Testing.Test Automation.Test Scaffolds.Stress Tests.Tips for Testing.Who Does the Testing?Testing the Markov Program.Summary.

7. Performance.
A Bottleneck.Timing and Profiling.Strategies for Speed.Tuning the Code.Space Efficiency.Estimation.Summary.

8. Portability.
Language.Headers and Libraries.Program Organization.Isolation.Data Exchange.Byte Order.Portability and Upgrade.Internationalization.Summary.

9. Notation.
Formatting Data.Regular Expressions.Programmable Tools.Interpreters, Compilers, and Virtual Machines.Programs that Write Programs.Using Macros to Generate Code.Compiling on the Fly.

Epilogue.


Appendix: Collected Rules