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Think Java

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

By Allen Downey, Chris Mayfield

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Release Date: May 2016

Pages: 252

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Currently used at many colleges, universities, and high schools, this hands-on introduction to computer science is ideal for people with little or no programming experience. The goal of this concise book is not just to teach you Java, but to help you think like a computer scientist. You’ll learn how to program—a useful skill by itself—but you’ll also discover how to use programming as a means to an end.

Authors Allen Downey and Chris Mayfield start with the most basic concepts and gradually move into topics that are more complex, such as recursion and object-oriented programming. Each brief chapter covers the material for one week of a college course and includes exercises to help you practice what you’ve learned.

Learn one concept at a time: tackle complex topics in a series of small steps with examples
Understand how to formulate problems, think creatively about solutions, and write programs clearly and accurately
Determine which development techniques work best for you, and practice the important skill of debugging
Learn relationships among input and output, decisions and loops, classes and methods, strings and arrays
Work on exercises involving word games, graphics, puzzles, and playing cards

Chapter 1 The Way of the Program
1. What Is Programming?
2. What Is Computer Science?
3. Programming Languages
4. The Hello World Program
5. Displaying Strings
6. Escape Sequences
7. Formatting Code
8. Debugging Code
9. Vocabulary
10. Exercises
Chapter 2 Variables and Operators
1. Declaring Variables
2. Assignment
3. State Diagrams
4. Printing Variables
5. Arithmetic Operators
6. Floating-Point Numbers
7. Rounding Errors
8. Operators for Strings
9. Composition
10. Types of Errors
11. Vocabulary
12. Exercises
Chapter 3 Input and Output
1. The System Class
2. The Scanner Class
3. Program Structure
4. Inches to Centimeters
5. Literals and Constants
6. Formatting Output
7. Centimeters to Inches
8. Modulus Operator
9. Putting It All Together
10. The Scanner Bug
11. Vocabulary
12. Exercises
Chapter 4 Void Methods
1. Math Methods
2. Composition Revisited
3. Adding New Methods
4. Flow of Execution
5. Parameters and Arguments
6. Multiple Parameters
7. Stack Diagrams
8. Reading Documentation
9. Writing Documentation
10. Vocabulary
11. Exercises
Chapter 5 Conditionals and Logic
1. Relational Operators
2. Logical Operators
3. Conditional Statements
4. Chaining and Nesting
5. Flag Variables
6. The return Statement
7. Validating Input
8. Recursive Methods
9. Recursive Stack Diagrams
10. Binary Numbers
11. Vocabulary
12. Exercises
Chapter 6 Value Methods
1. Return Values
2. Writing Methods
3. Method Composition
4. Overloading
5. Boolean Methods
6. Javadoc Tags
7. More Recursion
8. Leap of Faith
9. One More Example
10. Vocabulary
11. Exercises
Chapter 7 Loops
1. The while Statement
2. Generating Tables
3. Encapsulation and Generalization
4. More Generalization
5. The for Statement
6. The do-while Loop
7. break and continue
8. Vocabulary
9. Exercises
Chapter 8 Arrays
1. Creating Arrays
2. Accessing Elements
3. Displaying Arrays
4. Copying Arrays
5. Array Length
6. Array Traversal
7. Random Numbers
8. Traverse and Count
9. Building a Histogram
10. The Enhanced for Loop
11. Vocabulary
12. Exercises
Chapter 9 Strings and Things
1. Characters
2. Strings Are Immutable
3. String Traversal
4. Substrings
5. The indexOf Method
6. String Comparison
7. String Formatting
8. Wrapper Classes
9. Command-Line Arguments
10. Vocabulary
11. Exercises
Chapter 10 Objects
1. Point Objects
2. Attributes
3. Objects as Parameters
4. Objects as Return Types
5. Mutable Objects
6. Aliasing
7. The null Keyword
8. Garbage Collection
9. Class Diagrams
10. Java Library Source
11. Vocabulary
12. Exercises
Chapter 11 Classes
1. The Time Class
2. Constructors
3. More Constructors
4. Getters and Setters
5. Displaying Objects
6. The toString Method
7. The equals Method
8. Adding Times
9. Pure Methods and Modifiers
10. Vocabulary
11. Exercises
Chapter 12 Arrays of Objects
1. Card Objects
2. Card toString
3. Class Variables
4. The compareTo Method
5. Cards Are Immutable
6. Arrays of Cards
7. Sequential Search
8. Binary Search
9. Tracing the Code
10. Recursive Version
11. Vocabulary
12. Exercises
Chapter 13 Objects of Arrays
1. The Deck Class
2. Shuffling Decks
3. Selection Sort
4. Merge Sort
5. Subdecks
6. Merging Decks
7. Adding Recursion
8. Vocabulary
9. Exercises
Chapter 14 Objects of Objects
1. Decks and Hands
2. CardCollection
3. Inheritance
4. Dealing Cards
5. The Player Class
6. The Eights Class
7. Class Relationships
8. Vocabulary
9. Exercises
Appendix Development Tools
1. Installing DrJava
2. DrJava Interactions
3. Command-Line Interface
4. Command-Line Testing
5. Running Checkstyle
6. Tracing with a Debugger
7. Testing with JUnit
8. Vocabulary
Appendix Java 2D Graphics
1. Creating Graphics
2. Graphics Methods
3. Example Drawing
4. Vocabulary
5. Exercises
Appendix Debugging
1. Compile-Time Errors
2. Run-Time Errors
3. Logic Errors

Books & Videos

Think Java

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Read on Safari with a 10-day trial

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Way of the Program

What Is Programming?

What Is Computer Science?

Programming Languages

The Hello World Program

Displaying Strings

Escape Sequences

Formatting Code

Debugging Code

Vocabulary

Exercises

Chapter 2 Variables and Operators

Declaring Variables

Assignment

State Diagrams

Printing Variables

Arithmetic Operators

Floating-Point Numbers

Rounding Errors

Operators for Strings

Composition

Types of Errors

Vocabulary

Exercises

Chapter 3 Input and Output

The System Class

The Scanner Class

Program Structure

Inches to Centimeters

Literals and Constants

Formatting Output

Centimeters to Inches

Modulus Operator

Putting It All Together

The Scanner Bug

Vocabulary

Exercises

Chapter 4 Void Methods

Math Methods

Composition Revisited

Adding New Methods

Flow of Execution

Parameters and Arguments

Multiple Parameters

Stack Diagrams

Reading Documentation

Writing Documentation

Vocabulary

Exercises

Chapter 5 Conditionals and Logic

Relational Operators

Logical Operators

Conditional Statements

Chaining and Nesting

Flag Variables

The return Statement

Validating Input

Recursive Methods

Recursive Stack Diagrams

Binary Numbers

Vocabulary

Exercises

Chapter 6 Value Methods

Return Values

Writing Methods

Method Composition

Overloading

Boolean Methods

Javadoc Tags

More Recursion

Leap of Faith

One More Example

Vocabulary

Exercises

Chapter 7 Loops