Good reference manual for learning to program in C

[Animeniax]

I haven't programmed in C in 11 years. Can anyone suggest a book (preferably one that's available from Amazon.com) that would serve as a good starting point for learning to program in C from scratch?

Keep in mind, if I'm busy learning to code, I won't be here talking trash as much. Thanks.

[SamuraiOdin]

I'd say your best bet, if you're trying to learn from scratch, is to take a trip to your local college/university (not to take classes) and visit their book store. Stroll around till you find their IT department section in the text books, and look for their beginning C class and just pick up the text books they have for that.

[Animeniax]

Cool, thanks for the suggestion. It's the great idea because I'd also be preparing myself for college level curriculum, probably at the university I would end up attending. Unfortunately I'm overseas and there are no bookstores around (with English works anyway), so I can only get books online, through Amazon or another website.

[kooshi]

Since you're overseas, here's a handy website:
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html

I think that it's more of a refresher on how to program in C. I had a quick look at some of the tutorial stuff and seems pretty reliable. Plus, it has some C++ stuff as a bonus.

[Yukimura]

Got me through all my college courses.
The C Programming Language, Second Edition
by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988.
ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback), 0-13-110370-9 (hardback).

Sitting on My desk right now (at work as I write C code on the other monitor)
C In a Nutshell
by Peter Prinz; Tony Crawford
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pub Date: December 01, 2005
Print ISBN-10: 0-596-00697-7
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-59-600697-6

[Animeniax]

Great thanks guys.

@kooshi: I definitely check out that website while at work :D

@Yukimura: looks like we have a winner! This book gets really good reviews (on Amazon). $48, not bad price too. I'm placing my order as I type this post.

Thanks all!

[Animeniax]

Got me through all my college courses.
The C Programming Language, Second Edition
by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988.
ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback), 0-13-110370-9 (hardback).

So I finally got to reading this book and chapter 1 is an intro to C as a whole. Unfortunately it's got me worried, as some of the exercises in the "introductory" chapter seem pretty complicated, for a first chapter.

Is the first chapter kind of a "throw you into the deep end to see if you can swim" kind of deal or what? Because it seems they spend the rest of the book explaining the subjects they briefly introduce in the first chapter. But if that's the structure of the book, why are the exercise questions in the first chapter so difficult?

I say they're difficult because (beyond the fact I can't code them) I found an online website with the answers to the exercises. The answers are provided by online contributors who solved the exercises, so I'm wondering if they are pros who wrote complicated code to answer the simple exercises. I see that some of the contributors stuck to only the material and commands introduced in the book to that point, but I can't say if everyone adhered to that.

[Animeniax]

Ahh nuts. I checked some of the less gracious reviews for the book and it's definitely not a good learning text for people who are new to programming and if C is your first programming language. Nuts!

Going to have to go with a C for Dummies book instead.