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This question's answers are a community effort. Edit existing answers to improve this post. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
This question attempts to collect the few pearls among the dozens of bad C++ books that are published every year.
Unlike many other programming languages, which are often picked up on the go from tutorials found on the Internet, few are able to quickly pick up C++ without studying a well-written C++ book. It is way too big and complex for doing this. In fact, it is so big and complex, that there are very many very bad C++ books out there. And we are not talking about bad style, but things like sporting glaringly obvious factual errors and promoting abysmally bad programming styles.
Please edit the accepted answer to provide quality books and an approximate skill level — preferably after discussing your addition in the C++ chat room. (The regulars might mercilessly undo your work if they disagree with a recommendation.) Add a short blurb/description about each book that you have personally read/benefited from. Feel free to debate quality, headings, etc. Books that meet the criteria will be added to the list. Books that have reviews by the Association of C and C++ Users (ACCU) have links to the review.
*Note: FAQs and other resources can be found in the C++ tag info and under c++-faq.
Beginner
Introductory, no previous programming experience
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
C++ Primer* * Not to be confused with C++ Primer Plus (Stephen Prata), with a significantly less favorable review.
Stanley Lippman, Josée Lajoie, and Barbara E. Moo (updated for C++11)
Coming at 1k pages, this is a very thorough introduction into C++ that covers just about everything in the language in a very accessible format and in great detail. The fifth edition (released August 16, 2012) covers C++11.
[Review]
Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++
Bjarne Stroustrup, 2nd Edition - May 25, 2014 (updated for C++11/C++14)
An introduction to programming using C++ by the creator of the language. A good read, that assumes no previous programming experience, but is not only for beginners.
Introductory, with previous programming experience
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
A Tour of C++
Bjarne Stroustrup (2nd edition for C++17, 3rd edition for C++20)
The “tour” is a quick (about 180 pages and 14 chapters) tutorial overview of all of standard C++ (language and standard library, and using C++11) at a moderately high level for people who already know C++ or at least are experienced programmers. This book is an extended version of the material that constitutes Chapters 2-5 of The C++ Programming Language, 4th edition.
Accelerated C++
Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo, 1st Edition - August 24, 2000
This basically covers the same ground as the C++ Primer, but does so in a quarter of its space. This is largely because it does not attempt to be an introduction to programming, but an introduction to C++ for people who've previously programmed in some other language. It has a steeper learning curve, but, for those who can cope with this, it is a very compact introduction to the language. (Historically, it broke new ground by being the first beginner's book to use a modern approach to teaching the language.) Despite this, the C++ it teaches is purely C++98.
[Review]
Best practices
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
Effective C++
Scott Meyers, 3rd Edition - May 22, 2005
This was written with the aim of being the best second book C++ programmers should read, and it succeeded. Earlier editions were aimed at programmers coming from C, the third edition changes this and targets programmers coming from languages like Java. It presents ~50 easy-to-remember rules of thumb along with their rationale in a very accessible (and enjoyable) style. For C++11 and C++14 the examples and a few issues are outdated and Effective Modern C++ should be preferred.
[Review]
Effective Modern C++
Scott Meyers
This book is aimed at C++ programmers making the transition from C++03 to C++11 and C++14. This book can be treated like a continuation and "correction" of some parts of the previous book - "Effective C++". They don't cover the same things, but keep similar item-based theme.
[Review]
Effective STL
Scott Meyers
This aims to do the same to the part of the standard library coming from the STL what Effective C++ did to the language as a whole: It presents rules of thumb along with their rationale.
Intermediate
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
More Effective C++
Scott Meyers
Even more rules of thumb than Effective C++. Not as important as the ones in the first book, but still good to know.
Exceptional C++
Herb Sutter
Presented as a set of puzzles, this has one of the best and thorough discussions of the proper resource management and exception safety in C++ through Resource Acquisition is Initialization (RAII) in addition to in-depth coverage of a variety of other topics including the pimpl idiom, name lookup, good class design, and the C++ memory model.
[Review]
More Exceptional C++
Herb Sutter
Covers additional exception safety topics not covered in Exceptional C++, in addition to discussion of effective object-oriented programming in C++ and correct use of the STL.
[Review]
Exceptional C++ Style
Herb Sutter
Discusses generic programming, optimization, and resource management; this book also has an excellent exposition of how to write modular code in C++ by using non-member functions and the single responsibility principle.
[Review]
C++ Coding Standards
Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu
“Coding standards” here doesn't mean “how many spaces should I indent my code?” This book contains 101 best practices, idioms, and common pitfalls that can help you to write correct, understandable, and efficient C++ code.
[Review]
C++ Templates: The Complete Guide
David Vandevoorde and Nicolai M. Josuttis
This is the book about templates as they existed before C++11. It covers everything from the very basics to some of the most advanced template metaprogramming and explains every detail of how templates work (both conceptually and at how they are implemented) and discusses many common pitfalls. Has excellent summaries of the One Definition Rule (ODR) and overload resolution in the appendices. A second edition covering C++11, C++14 and C++17 has been already published.
[Review]
C++ 17 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. Josuttis
This book describes all the new features introduced in the C++17 Standard covering everything from the simple ones like 'Inline Variables', 'constexpr if' all the way up to 'Polymorphic Memory Resources' and 'New and Delete with over aligned Data'.
[Review]
C++ 20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. Josuttis
This book presents all the new language and library features of C++20. It covers the motivation and context of each new feature with examples and background information. The focus is on how these features impact day-to-day programming, what it means to combine them, and how to benefit from C++20 in practice. (Note that this book was published step-by-step, and the first edition is now complete.)
C++ in Action
Bartosz Milewski
This book explains C++ and its features by building an application from ground up.
[Review]
Functional Programming in C++
Ivan Čukić
This book introduces functional programming techniques to modern C++ (C++11 and later). A very nice read for those who want to apply functional programming paradigms to C++.
Advanced
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
Modern C++ Design
Andrei Alexandrescu
A groundbreaking book on advanced generic programming techniques. Introduces policy-based design, type lists, and fundamental generic programming idioms then explains how many useful design patterns (including small object allocators, functors, factories, visitors, and multi-methods) can be implemented efficiently, modularly, and cleanly using generic programming.
[Review]
C++ Template Metaprogramming
David Abrahams and Aleksey Gurtovoy
C++ Concurrency In Action
Anthony Williams
A book covering C++11 concurrency support including the thread library, the atomics library, the C++ memory model, locks and mutexes, as well as issues of designing and debugging multithreaded applications. A second edition covering C++14 and C++17 has already been published.
[Review]
Advanced C++ Metaprogramming
Davide Di Gennaro
A pre-C++11 manual of TMP techniques, focused more on practice than theory. There are a ton of snippets in this book, some of which are made obsolete by type traits, but the techniques, are nonetheless useful to know. If you can put up with the quirky formatting/editing, it is easier to read than Alexandrescu, and arguably, more rewarding. For more experienced developers, there is a good chance that you may pick up something about a dark corner of C++ (a quirk) that usually only comes about through extensive experience.
Large Scale C++ volume I, Process and architecture (2020)
John Lakos
Part one of a three-part series extending the older book 'Large Scale C++ Design'. Lakos explains battle-tested techniques to manage very big C++ software projects. If you work in a big C++ software project this is a great read, detailing the relationship between physical and logical structure, strategies for components, and their reuse.
[Review]
Reference Style - All Levels
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
The C++ Programming Language
Bjarne Stroustrup (updated for C++11)
The classic introduction to C++ by its creator. Written to parallel the classic K&R, this indeed reads very much like it and covers just about everything from the core language to the standard library, to programming paradigms to the language's philosophy.
[Review] Note: All releases of the C++ standard are tracked in the question "Where do I find the current C or C++ standard documents?".
C++ Standard Library Tutorial and Reference
Nicolai Josuttis (updated for C++11)
The introduction and reference for the C++ Standard Library. The second edition (released on April 9, 2012) covers C++11.
[Review]
The C++ IO Streams and Locales
Angelika Langer and Klaus Kreft
There's very little to say about this book except that if you want to know anything about streams and locales, then this is the one place to find definitive answers.
[Review]
C++11/14/17/… References:
Working Draft, Standard for Programming Language C++ generated from LaTeX sources published on GitHub.
C++ Standard Papers, latest standard working draft: ISO working draft
The C++11/14/17 Standard (INCITS/ISO/IEC 14882:2011/2014/2017) This, of course, is the final arbiter of all that is or isn't C++. Be aware, however, that it is intended purely as a reference for experienced users willing to devote considerable time and effort to its understanding. The C++17 standard is released in electronic form for 198 Swiss Francs.
The C++17 standard is available, but seemingly not in an economical form – directly from the ISO it costs 198 Swiss Francs (about $200 US). For most people, the final draft before standardization is more than adequate (and free). Many will prefer an even newer draft, documenting new features that are likely to be included in C++20.
C++20 draft is available on GitHub as some older too.
Overview of the New C++ (C++11/14) (PDF only) (Scott Meyers) (updated for C++14) These are the presentation materials (slides and some lecture notes) of a three-day training course offered by Scott Meyers, who's a highly respected author on C++. Even though the list of items is short, the quality is high.
The C++ Core Guidelines (C++11/14/17/…) (edited by Bjarne Stroustrup and Herb Sutter) is an evolving online document consisting of a set of guidelines for using modern C++ well. The guidelines are focused on relatively higher-level issues, such as interfaces, resource management, memory management, and concurrency affecting application architecture and library design. The project was announced at CppCon'15 by Bjarne Stroustrup and others and welcomes contributions from the community. Most guidelines are supplemented with a rationale and examples as well as discussions of possible tool support. Many rules are designed specifically to be automatically checkable by static analysis tools.
The C++ Super-FAQ (Marshall Cline, Bjarne Stroustrup, and others) is an effort by the Standard C++ Foundation to unify the C++ FAQs previously maintained individually by Marshall Cline and Bjarne Stroustrup and also incorporating new contributions. The items mostly address issues at an intermediate level and are often written with a humorous tone. Not all items might be fully up to date with the latest edition of the C++ standard yet.
cppreference.com (C++03/11/14/17/…) (initiated by Nate Kohl) is a wiki that summarizes the basic core-language features and has extensive documentation of the C++ standard library. The documentation is very precise but is easier to read than the official standard document and provides better navigation due to its wiki nature. The project documents all versions of the C++ standard and the site allows filtering the display for a specific version. The project was presented by Nate Kohl at CppCon'14.
Classics / Older
Note: Some information contained within these books may not be up-to-date or no longer considered best practice.
The Design and Evolution of C++ (Bjarne Stroustrup) If you want to know why the language is the way it is, this book is where you find answers. This covers everything before the standardization of C++.
Ruminations on C++ - (Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo) [Review]
Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms (James Coplien) A predecessor of the pattern movement, it describes many C++-specific “idioms”. It's certainly a very good book and might still be worth a read if you can spare the time, but quite old and not up-to-date with current C++.
Large Scale C++ Software Design (John Lakos) Lakos explains techniques to manage very big C++ software projects. Certainly, a good read, if it only was up to date. It was written long before C++ 98 and misses on many features (e.g. namespaces) important for large-scale projects. If you need to work on a big C++ software project, you might want to read it, although you need to take more than a grain of salt with it. Not to be confused with the extended and later book series Large Scale C++ volume I-III.
Inside the C++ Object Model (Stanley Lippman) If you want to know how virtual member functions are commonly implemented and how base objects are commonly laid out in memory in a multi-inheritance scenario, and how all this affects performance, this is where you will find thorough discussions of such topics.
The Annotated C++ Reference Manual (Bjarne Stroustrup, Margaret A. Ellis) This book is quite outdated in the fact that it explores the 1989 C++ 2.0 version - Templates, exceptions, namespaces, and new casts were not yet introduced. Saying that however, this book goes through the entire C++ standard of the time explaining the rationale, the possible implementations, and features of the language. This is not a book to learn programming principles and patterns on C++, but to understand every aspect of the C++ language.
Thinking in C++ (Bruce Eckel, 2nd Edition, 2000). Two volumes; is a tutorial-style free set of intro level books. Downloads: vol 1, vol 2. Unfortunately, they're marred by a number of trivial errors (e.g. maintaining that temporaries are automatic const), with no official errata list. A partial 3rd party errata list is available at http://www.computersciencelab.com/Eckel.htm, but it is apparently not maintained.
Scientific and Engineering C++: An Introduction to Advanced Techniques and Examples (John Barton and Lee Nackman)
It is a comprehensive and very detailed book that tried to explain and make use of all the features available in C++, in the context of numerical methods. It introduced at the time several new techniques, such as the Curiously Recurring Template Pattern (CRTP, also called Barton-Nackman trick).
It pioneered several techniques such as dimensional analysis and automatic differentiation.
It came with a lot of compilable and useful code, ranging from an expression parser to a Lapack wrapper.
The code is still available online.
Unfortunately, the books have become somewhat outdated in the style and C++ features, however, it was an incredible tour-de-force at the time (1994, pre-STL).
The chapters on dynamics inheritance are a bit complicated to understand and not very useful.
An updated version of this classic book that includes move semantics and the lessons learned from the STL would be very nice.
This question's answers are a community effort. Edit existing answers to improve this post. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
This question attempts to collect the few pearls among the dozens of bad C++ books that are published every year.
Unlike many other programming languages, which are often picked up on the go from tutorials found on the Internet, few are able to quickly pick up C++ without studying a well-written C++ book. It is way too big and complex for doing this. In fact, it is so big and complex, that there are very many very bad C++ books out there. And we are not talking about bad style, but things like sporting glaringly obvious factual errors and promoting abysmally bad programming styles.
Please edit the accepted answer to provide quality books and an approximate skill level — preferably after discussing your addition in the C++ chat room. (The regulars might mercilessly undo your work if they disagree with a recommendation.) Add a short blurb/description about each book that you have personally read/benefited from. Feel free to debate quality, headings, etc. Books that meet the criteria will be added to the list. Books that have reviews by the Association of C and C++ Users (ACCU) have links to the review.
*Note: FAQs and other resources can be found in the C++ tag info and under c++-faq.
Beginner
Introductory, no previous programming experience
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
C++ Primer* * Not to be confused with C++ Primer Plus (Stephen Prata), with a significantly less favorable review.
Stanley Lippman, Josée Lajoie, and Barbara E. Moo (updated for C++11)
Coming at 1k pages, this is a very thorough introduction into C++ that covers just about everything in the language in a very accessible format and in great detail. The fifth edition (released August 16, 2012) covers C++11.
[Review]
Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++
Bjarne Stroustrup, 2nd Edition - May 25, 2014 (updated for C++11/C++14)
An introduction to programming using C++ by the creator of the language. A good read, that assumes no previous programming experience, but is not only for beginners.
Introductory, with previous programming experience
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
A Tour of C++
Bjarne Stroustrup (2nd edition for C++17, 3rd edition for C++20)
The “tour” is a quick (about 180 pages and 14 chapters) tutorial overview of all of standard C++ (language and standard library, and using C++11) at a moderately high level for people who already know C++ or at least are experienced programmers. This book is an extended version of the material that constitutes Chapters 2-5 of The C++ Programming Language, 4th edition.
Accelerated C++
Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo, 1st Edition - August 24, 2000
This basically covers the same ground as the C++ Primer, but does so in a quarter of its space. This is largely because it does not attempt to be an introduction to programming, but an introduction to C++ for people who've previously programmed in some other language. It has a steeper learning curve, but, for those who can cope with this, it is a very compact introduction to the language. (Historically, it broke new ground by being the first beginner's book to use a modern approach to teaching the language.) Despite this, the C++ it teaches is purely C++98.
[Review]
Best practices
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
Effective C++
Scott Meyers, 3rd Edition - May 22, 2005
This was written with the aim of being the best second book C++ programmers should read, and it succeeded. Earlier editions were aimed at programmers coming from C, the third edition changes this and targets programmers coming from languages like Java. It presents ~50 easy-to-remember rules of thumb along with their rationale in a very accessible (and enjoyable) style. For C++11 and C++14 the examples and a few issues are outdated and Effective Modern C++ should be preferred.
[Review]
Effective Modern C++
Scott Meyers
This book is aimed at C++ programmers making the transition from C++03 to C++11 and C++14. This book can be treated like a continuation and "correction" of some parts of the previous book - "Effective C++". They don't cover the same things, but keep similar item-based theme.
[Review]
Effective STL
Scott Meyers
This aims to do the same to the part of the standard library coming from the STL what Effective C++ did to the language as a whole: It presents rules of thumb along with their rationale.
Intermediate
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
More Effective C++
Scott Meyers
Even more rules of thumb than Effective C++. Not as important as the ones in the first book, but still good to know.
Exceptional C++
Herb Sutter
Presented as a set of puzzles, this has one of the best and thorough discussions of the proper resource management and exception safety in C++ through Resource Acquisition is Initialization (RAII) in addition to in-depth coverage of a variety of other topics including the pimpl idiom, name lookup, good class design, and the C++ memory model.
[Review]
More Exceptional C++
Herb Sutter
Covers additional exception safety topics not covered in Exceptional C++, in addition to discussion of effective object-oriented programming in C++ and correct use of the STL.
[Review]
Exceptional C++ Style
Herb Sutter
Discusses generic programming, optimization, and resource management; this book also has an excellent exposition of how to write modular code in C++ by using non-member functions and the single responsibility principle.
[Review]
C++ Coding Standards
Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu
“Coding standards” here doesn't mean “how many spaces should I indent my code?” This book contains 101 best practices, idioms, and common pitfalls that can help you to write correct, understandable, and efficient C++ code.
[Review]
C++ Templates: The Complete Guide
David Vandevoorde and Nicolai M. Josuttis
This is the book about templates as they existed before C++11. It covers everything from the very basics to some of the most advanced template metaprogramming and explains every detail of how templates work (both conceptually and at how they are implemented) and discusses many common pitfalls. Has excellent summaries of the One Definition Rule (ODR) and overload resolution in the appendices. A second edition covering C++11, C++14 and C++17 has been already published.
[Review]
C++ 17 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. Josuttis
This book describes all the new features introduced in the C++17 Standard covering everything from the simple ones like 'Inline Variables', 'constexpr if' all the way up to 'Polymorphic Memory Resources' and 'New and Delete with over aligned Data'.
[Review]
C++ 20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. Josuttis
This book presents all the new language and library features of C++20. It covers the motivation and context of each new feature with examples and background information. The focus is on how these features impact day-to-day programming, what it means to combine them, and how to benefit from C++20 in practice. (Note that this book was published step-by-step, and the first edition is now complete.)
C++ in Action
Bartosz Milewski
This book explains C++ and its features by building an application from ground up.
[Review]
Functional Programming in C++
Ivan Čukić
This book introduces functional programming techniques to modern C++ (C++11 and later). A very nice read for those who want to apply functional programming paradigms to C++.
Advanced
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
Modern C++ Design
Andrei Alexandrescu
A groundbreaking book on advanced generic programming techniques. Introduces policy-based design, type lists, and fundamental generic programming idioms then explains how many useful design patterns (including small object allocators, functors, factories, visitors, and multi-methods) can be implemented efficiently, modularly, and cleanly using generic programming.
[Review]
C++ Template Metaprogramming
David Abrahams and Aleksey Gurtovoy
C++ Concurrency In Action
Anthony Williams
A book covering C++11 concurrency support including the thread library, the atomics library, the C++ memory model, locks and mutexes, as well as issues of designing and debugging multithreaded applications. A second edition covering C++14 and C++17 has already been published.
[Review]
Advanced C++ Metaprogramming
Davide Di Gennaro
A pre-C++11 manual of TMP techniques, focused more on practice than theory. There are a ton of snippets in this book, some of which are made obsolete by type traits, but the techniques, are nonetheless useful to know. If you can put up with the quirky formatting/editing, it is easier to read than Alexandrescu, and arguably, more rewarding. For more experienced developers, there is a good chance that you may pick up something about a dark corner of C++ (a quirk) that usually only comes about through extensive experience.
Large Scale C++ volume I, Process and architecture (2020)
John Lakos
Part one of a three-part series extending the older book 'Large Scale C++ Design'. Lakos explains battle-tested techniques to manage very big C++ software projects. If you work in a big C++ software project this is a great read, detailing the relationship between physical and logical structure, strategies for components, and their reuse.
[Review]
Reference Style - All Levels
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
The C++ Programming Language
Bjarne Stroustrup (updated for C++11)
The classic introduction to C++ by its creator. Written to parallel the classic K&R, this indeed reads very much like it and covers just about everything from the core language to the standard library, to programming paradigms to the language's philosophy.
[Review] Note: All releases of the C++ standard are tracked in the question "Where do I find the current C or C++ standard documents?".
C++ Standard Library Tutorial and Reference
Nicolai Josuttis (updated for C++11)
The introduction and reference for the C++ Standard Library. The second edition (released on April 9, 2012) covers C++11.
[Review]
The C++ IO Streams and Locales
Angelika Langer and Klaus Kreft
There's very little to say about this book except that if you want to know anything about streams and locales, then this is the one place to find definitive answers.
[Review]
C++11/14/17/… References:
Working Draft, Standard for Programming Language C++ generated from LaTeX sources published on GitHub.
C++ Standard Papers, latest standard working draft: ISO working draft
The C++11/14/17 Standard (INCITS/ISO/IEC 14882:2011/2014/2017) This, of course, is the final arbiter of all that is or isn't C++. Be aware, however, that it is intended purely as a reference for experienced users willing to devote considerable time and effort to its understanding. The C++17 standard is released in electronic form for 198 Swiss Francs.
The C++17 standard is available, but seemingly not in an economical form – directly from the ISO it costs 198 Swiss Francs (about $200 US). For most people, the final draft before standardization is more than adequate (and free). Many will prefer an even newer draft, documenting new features that are likely to be included in C++20.
C++20 draft is available on GitHub as some older too.
Overview of the New C++ (C++11/14) (PDF only) (Scott Meyers) (updated for C++14) These are the presentation materials (slides and some lecture notes) of a three-day training course offered by Scott Meyers, who's a highly respected author on C++. Even though the list of items is short, the quality is high.
The C++ Core Guidelines (C++11/14/17/…) (edited by Bjarne Stroustrup and Herb Sutter) is an evolving online document consisting of a set of guidelines for using modern C++ well. The guidelines are focused on relatively higher-level issues, such as interfaces, resource management, memory management, and concurrency affecting application architecture and library design. The project was announced at CppCon'15 by Bjarne Stroustrup and others and welcomes contributions from the community. Most guidelines are supplemented with a rationale and examples as well as discussions of possible tool support. Many rules are designed specifically to be automatically checkable by static analysis tools.
The C++ Super-FAQ (Marshall Cline, Bjarne Stroustrup, and others) is an effort by the Standard C++ Foundation to unify the C++ FAQs previously maintained individually by Marshall Cline and Bjarne Stroustrup and also incorporating new contributions. The items mostly address issues at an intermediate level and are often written with a humorous tone. Not all items might be fully up to date with the latest edition of the C++ standard yet.
cppreference.com (C++03/11/14/17/…) (initiated by Nate Kohl) is a wiki that summarizes the basic core-language features and has extensive documentation of the C++ standard library. The documentation is very precise but is easier to read than the official standard document and provides better navigation due to its wiki nature. The project documents all versions of the C++ standard and the site allows filtering the display for a specific version. The project was presented by Nate Kohl at CppCon'14.
Classics / Older
Note: Some information contained within these books may not be up-to-date or no longer considered best practice.
The Design and Evolution of C++ (Bjarne Stroustrup) If you want to know why the language is the way it is, this book is where you find answers. This covers everything before the standardization of C++.
Ruminations on C++ - (Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo) [Review]
Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms (James Coplien) A predecessor of the pattern movement, it describes many C++-specific “idioms”. It's certainly a very good book and might still be worth a read if you can spare the time, but quite old and not up-to-date with current C++.
Large Scale C++ Software Design (John Lakos) Lakos explains techniques to manage very big C++ software projects. Certainly, a good read, if it only was up to date. It was written long before C++ 98 and misses on many features (e.g. namespaces) important for large-scale projects. If you need to work on a big C++ software project, you might want to read it, although you need to take more than a grain of salt with it. Not to be confused with the extended and later book series Large Scale C++ volume I-III.
Inside the C++ Object Model (Stanley Lippman) If you want to know how virtual member functions are commonly implemented and how base objects are commonly laid out in memory in a multi-inheritance scenario, and how all this affects performance, this is where you will find thorough discussions of such topics.
The Annotated C++ Reference Manual (Bjarne Stroustrup, Margaret A. Ellis) This book is quite outdated in the fact that it explores the 1989 C++ 2.0 version - Templates, exceptions, namespaces, and new casts were not yet introduced. Saying that however, this book goes through the entire C++ standard of the time explaining the rationale, the possible implementations, and features of the language. This is not a book to learn programming principles and patterns on C++, but to understand every aspect of the C++ language.
Thinking in C++ (Bruce Eckel, 2nd Edition, 2000). Two volumes; is a tutorial-style free set of intro level books. Downloads: vol 1, vol 2. Unfortunately, they're marred by a number of trivial errors (e.g. maintaining that temporaries are automatic const), with no official errata list. A partial 3rd party errata list is available at http://www.computersciencelab.com/Eckel.htm, but it is apparently not maintained.
Scientific and Engineering C++: An Introduction to Advanced Techniques and Examples (John Barton and Lee Nackman)
It is a comprehensive and very detailed book that tried to explain and make use of all the features available in C++, in the context of numerical methods. It introduced at the time several new techniques, such as the Curiously Recurring Template Pattern (CRTP, also called Barton-Nackman trick).
It pioneered several techniques such as dimensional analysis and automatic differentiation.
It came with a lot of compilable and useful code, ranging from an expression parser to a Lapack wrapper.
The code is still available online.
Unfortunately, the books have become somewhat outdated in the style and C++ features, however, it was an incredible tour-de-force at the time (1994, pre-STL).
The chapters on dynamics inheritance are a bit complicated to understand and not very useful.
An updated version of this classic book that includes move semantics and the lessons learned from the STL would be very nice.
This question's answers are a community effort. Edit existing answers to improve this post. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
This question attempts to collect the few pearls among the dozens of bad C++ books that are published every year.
Unlike many other programming languages, which are often picked up on the go from tutorials found on the Internet, few are able to quickly pick up C++ without studying a well-written C++ book. It is way too big and complex for doing this. In fact, it is so big and complex, that there are very many very bad C++ books out there. And we are not talking about bad style, but things like sporting glaringly obvious factual errors and promoting abysmally bad programming styles.
Please edit the accepted answer to provide quality books and an approximate skill level — preferably after discussing your addition in the C++ chat room. (The regulars might mercilessly undo your work if they disagree with a recommendation.) Add a short blurb/description about each book that you have personally read/benefited from. Feel free to debate quality, headings, etc. Books that meet the criteria will be added to the list. Books that have reviews by the Association of C and C++ Users (ACCU) have links to the review.
*Note: FAQs and other resources can be found in the C++ tag info and under c++-faq.
Beginner
Introductory, no previous programming experience
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
C++ Primer* * Not to be confused with C++ Primer Plus (Stephen Prata), with a significantly less favorable review.
Stanley Lippman, Josée Lajoie, and Barbara E. Moo (updated for C++11)
Coming at 1k pages, this is a very thorough introduction into C++ that covers just about everything in the language in a very accessible format and in great detail. The fifth edition (released August 16, 2012) covers C++11.
[Review]
Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++
Bjarne Stroustrup, 2nd Edition - May 25, 2014 (updated for C++11/C++14)
An introduction to programming using C++ by the creator of the language. A good read, that assumes no previous programming experience, but is not only for beginners.
Introductory, with previous programming experience
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
A Tour of C++
Bjarne Stroustrup (2nd edition for C++17, 3rd edition for C++20)
The “tour” is a quick (about 180 pages and 14 chapters) tutorial overview of all of standard C++ (language and standard library, and using C++11) at a moderately high level for people who already know C++ or at least are experienced programmers. This book is an extended version of the material that constitutes Chapters 2-5 of The C++ Programming Language, 4th edition.
Accelerated C++
Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo, 1st Edition - August 24, 2000
This basically covers the same ground as the C++ Primer, but does so in a quarter of its space. This is largely because it does not attempt to be an introduction to programming, but an introduction to C++ for people who've previously programmed in some other language. It has a steeper learning curve, but, for those who can cope with this, it is a very compact introduction to the language. (Historically, it broke new ground by being the first beginner's book to use a modern approach to teaching the language.) Despite this, the C++ it teaches is purely C++98.
[Review]
Best practices
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
Effective C++
Scott Meyers, 3rd Edition - May 22, 2005
This was written with the aim of being the best second book C++ programmers should read, and it succeeded. Earlier editions were aimed at programmers coming from C, the third edition changes this and targets programmers coming from languages like Java. It presents ~50 easy-to-remember rules of thumb along with their rationale in a very accessible (and enjoyable) style. For C++11 and C++14 the examples and a few issues are outdated and Effective Modern C++ should be preferred.
[Review]
Effective Modern C++
Scott Meyers
This book is aimed at C++ programmers making the transition from C++03 to C++11 and C++14. This book can be treated like a continuation and "correction" of some parts of the previous book - "Effective C++". They don't cover the same things, but keep similar item-based theme.
[Review]
Effective STL
Scott Meyers
This aims to do the same to the part of the standard library coming from the STL what Effective C++ did to the language as a whole: It presents rules of thumb along with their rationale.
Intermediate
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
More Effective C++
Scott Meyers
Even more rules of thumb than Effective C++. Not as important as the ones in the first book, but still good to know.
Exceptional C++
Herb Sutter
Presented as a set of puzzles, this has one of the best and thorough discussions of the proper resource management and exception safety in C++ through Resource Acquisition is Initialization (RAII) in addition to in-depth coverage of a variety of other topics including the pimpl idiom, name lookup, good class design, and the C++ memory model.
[Review]
More Exceptional C++
Herb Sutter
Covers additional exception safety topics not covered in Exceptional C++, in addition to discussion of effective object-oriented programming in C++ and correct use of the STL.
[Review]
Exceptional C++ Style
Herb Sutter
Discusses generic programming, optimization, and resource management; this book also has an excellent exposition of how to write modular code in C++ by using non-member functions and the single responsibility principle.
[Review]
C++ Coding Standards
Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu
“Coding standards” here doesn't mean “how many spaces should I indent my code?” This book contains 101 best practices, idioms, and common pitfalls that can help you to write correct, understandable, and efficient C++ code.
[Review]
C++ Templates: The Complete Guide
David Vandevoorde and Nicolai M. Josuttis
This is the book about templates as they existed before C++11. It covers everything from the very basics to some of the most advanced template metaprogramming and explains every detail of how templates work (both conceptually and at how they are implemented) and discusses many common pitfalls. Has excellent summaries of the One Definition Rule (ODR) and overload resolution in the appendices. A second edition covering C++11, C++14 and C++17 has been already published.
[Review]
C++ 17 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. Josuttis
This book describes all the new features introduced in the C++17 Standard covering everything from the simple ones like 'Inline Variables', 'constexpr if' all the way up to 'Polymorphic Memory Resources' and 'New and Delete with over aligned Data'.
[Review]
C++ 20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. Josuttis
This book presents all the new language and library features of C++20. It covers the motivation and context of each new feature with examples and background information. The focus is on how these features impact day-to-day programming, what it means to combine them, and how to benefit from C++20 in practice. (Note that this book was published step-by-step, and the first edition is now complete.)
C++ in Action
Bartosz Milewski
This book explains C++ and its features by building an application from ground up.
[Review]
Functional Programming in C++
Ivan Čukić
This book introduces functional programming techniques to modern C++ (C++11 and later). A very nice read for those who want to apply functional programming paradigms to C++.
Advanced
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
Modern C++ Design
Andrei Alexandrescu
A groundbreaking book on advanced generic programming techniques. Introduces policy-based design, type lists, and fundamental generic programming idioms then explains how many useful design patterns (including small object allocators, functors, factories, visitors, and multi-methods) can be implemented efficiently, modularly, and cleanly using generic programming.
[Review]
C++ Template Metaprogramming
David Abrahams and Aleksey Gurtovoy
C++ Concurrency In Action
Anthony Williams
A book covering C++11 concurrency support including the thread library, the atomics library, the C++ memory model, locks and mutexes, as well as issues of designing and debugging multithreaded applications. A second edition covering C++14 and C++17 has already been published.
[Review]
Advanced C++ Metaprogramming
Davide Di Gennaro
A pre-C++11 manual of TMP techniques, focused more on practice than theory. There are a ton of snippets in this book, some of which are made obsolete by type traits, but the techniques, are nonetheless useful to know. If you can put up with the quirky formatting/editing, it is easier to read than Alexandrescu, and arguably, more rewarding. For more experienced developers, there is a good chance that you may pick up something about a dark corner of C++ (a quirk) that usually only comes about through extensive experience.
Large Scale C++ volume I, Process and architecture (2020)
John Lakos
Part one of a three-part series extending the older book 'Large Scale C++ Design'. Lakos explains battle-tested techniques to manage very big C++ software projects. If you work in a big C++ software project this is a great read, detailing the relationship between physical and logical structure, strategies for components, and their reuse.
[Review]
Reference Style - All Levels
Book
Author(s)
Description
review
The C++ Programming Language
Bjarne Stroustrup (updated for C++11)
The classic introduction to C++ by its creator. Written to parallel the classic K&R, this indeed reads very much like it and covers just about everything from the core language to the standard library, to programming paradigms to the language's philosophy.
[Review] Note: All releases of the C++ standard are tracked in the question "Where do I find the current C or C++ standard documents?".
C++ Standard Library Tutorial and Reference
Nicolai Josuttis (updated for C++11)
The introduction and reference for the C++ Standard Library. The second edition (released on April 9, 2012) covers C++11.
[Review]
The C++ IO Streams and Locales
Angelika Langer and Klaus Kreft
There's very little to say about this book except that if you want to know anything about streams and locales, then this is the one place to find definitive answers.
[Review]
C++11/14/17/… References:
Working Draft, Standard for Programming Language C++ generated from LaTeX sources published on GitHub.
C++ Standard Papers, latest standard working draft: ISO working draft
The C++11/14/17 Standard (INCITS/ISO/IEC 14882:2011/2014/2017) This, of course, is the final arbiter of all that is or isn't C++. Be aware, however, that it is intended purely as a reference for experienced users willing to devote considerable time and effort to its understanding. The C++17 standard is released in electronic form for 198 Swiss Francs.
The C++17 standard is available, but seemingly not in an economical form – directly from the ISO it costs 198 Swiss Francs (about $200 US). For most people, the final draft before standardization is more than adequate (and free). Many will prefer an even newer draft, documenting new features that are likely to be included in C++20.
C++20 draft is available on GitHub as some older too.
Overview of the New C++ (C++11/14) (PDF only) (Scott Meyers) (updated for C++14) These are the presentation materials (slides and some lecture notes) of a three-day training course offered by Scott Meyers, who's a highly respected author on C++. Even though the list of items is short, the quality is high.
The C++ Core Guidelines (C++11/14/17/…) (edited by Bjarne Stroustrup and Herb Sutter) is an evolving online document consisting of a set of guidelines for using modern C++ well. The guidelines are focused on relatively higher-level issues, such as interfaces, resource management, memory management, and concurrency affecting application architecture and library design. The project was announced at CppCon'15 by Bjarne Stroustrup and others and welcomes contributions from the community. Most guidelines are supplemented with a rationale and examples as well as discussions of possible tool support. Many rules are designed specifically to be automatically checkable by static analysis tools.
The C++ Super-FAQ (Marshall Cline, Bjarne Stroustrup, and others) is an effort by the Standard C++ Foundation to unify the C++ FAQs previously maintained individually by Marshall Cline and Bjarne Stroustrup and also incorporating new contributions. The items mostly address issues at an intermediate level and are often written with a humorous tone. Not all items might be fully up to date with the latest edition of the C++ standard yet.
cppreference.com (C++03/11/14/17/…) (initiated by Nate Kohl) is a wiki that summarizes the basic core-language features and has extensive documentation of the C++ standard library. The documentation is very precise but is easier to read than the official standard document and provides better navigation due to its wiki nature. The project documents all versions of the C++ standard and the site allows filtering the display for a specific version. The project was presented by Nate Kohl at CppCon'14.
Classics / Older
Note: Some information contained within these books may not be up-to-date or no longer considered best practice.
The Design and Evolution of C++ (Bjarne Stroustrup) If you want to know why the language is the way it is, this book is where you find answers. This covers everything before the standardization of C++.
Ruminations on C++ - (Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo) [Review]
Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms (James Coplien) A predecessor of the pattern movement, it describes many C++-specific “idioms”. It's certainly a very good book and might still be worth a read if you can spare the time, but quite old and not up-to-date with current C++.
Large Scale C++ Software Design (John Lakos) Lakos explains techniques to manage very big C++ software projects. Certainly, a good read, if it only was up to date. It was written long before C++ 98 and misses on many features (e.g. namespaces) important for large-scale projects. If you need to work on a big C++ software project, you might want to read it, although you need to take more than a grain of salt with it. Not to be confused with the extended and later book series Large Scale C++ volume I-III.
Inside the C++ Object Model (Stanley Lippman) If you want to know how virtual member functions are commonly implemented and how base objects are commonly laid out in memory in a multi-inheritance scenario, and how all this affects performance, this is where you will find thorough discussions of such topics.
The Annotated C++ Reference Manual (Bjarne Stroustrup, Margaret A. Ellis) This book is quite outdated in the fact that it explores the 1989 C++ 2.0 version - Templates, exceptions, namespaces, and new casts were not yet introduced. Saying that however, this book goes through the entire C++ standard of the time explaining the rationale, the possible implementations, and features of the language. This is not a book to learn programming principles and patterns on C++, but to understand every aspect of the C++ language.
Thinking in C++ (Bruce Eckel, 2nd Edition, 2000). Two volumes; is a tutorial-style free set of intro level books. Downloads: vol 1, vol 2. Unfortunately, they're marred by a number of trivial errors (e.g. maintaining that temporaries are automatic const), with no official errata list. A partial 3rd party errata list is available at http://www.computersciencelab.com/Eckel.htm, but it is apparently not maintained.
Scientific and Engineering C++: An Introduction to Advanced Techniques and Examples (John Barton and Lee Nackman)
It is a comprehensive and very detailed book that tried to explain and make use of all the features available in C++, in the context of numerical methods. It introduced at the time several new techniques, such as the Curiously Recurring Template Pattern (CRTP, also called Barton-Nackman trick).
It pioneered several techniques such as dimensional analysis and automatic differentiation.
It came with a lot of compilable and useful code, ranging from an expression parser to a Lapack wrapper.
The code is still available online.
Unfortunately, the books have become somewhat outdated in the style and C++ features, however, it was an incredible tour-de-force at the time (1994, pre-STL).
The chapters on dynamics inheritance are a bit complicated to understand and not very useful.
An updated version of this classic book that includes move semantics and the lessons learned from the STL would be very nice.
After having an answer here wrong, because I wasn't up to date on the C standard, I started to look for some place that gives a description of whats in the C and C++ standards.
I do not want the complete standards, of which I found links in Where do I find the current C or C++ standard documents?, or intimate technical discussions. Instead I would like something that briefly describes the standard, with references to the actual standard if I want to check it more thoroughly, and maybe saying which standard the feature was introduced in.
Is there such a resource available?
EDIT: A little background to the question: I have been programming C for over 20 years now, and when I learnt it not much was standardized. And what was in the official standard was not widely implemented. Through the years I have become good enough C programmer that my friends and colleges come to me for help when they have problems.
However, when I learned C I was told that things like memory layout for multi-dimensional arrays was implementation specific, and when I saw a question about that subject I said that it wasn't standardized only to be told I was wrong. But even knowing this, I have a hard time finding any place saying that it's in the standard, and it's even harder to find in which standard it was first introduced.
If there was some place saying "Memory layout of multi-dimensional arrays was standardized in C9x, in section Y of the standard document" It would have been easy to find and give this to the person asking the question. I am not intrested in what the actual layout is, just that it has been standardized, and where to look if I really want a definitive answer about it.
This of course goes for other things. Like knowing that header file "<yyy.h>" is mandated by standard "C90", and where in the standard I should look for the rationale and contents of it. It is very difficult to find these things when they are spread out, having it collected in one place would make it much easier to find.
Anything that's not the standard will either be not definitive, or be simplified in such a way as to be far less than useful. And anything definitive or really useful will basically be the standard.
I know of no resource that covers every section of the C standard (or even a sizable number of them) in a simplified way and I would doubt its usefulness. You generally have a specific issue you need solved and, in that case, you would search for that specific issue - the vast majority of people don't need the standard, especially when they have a resource like SO at their fingertips.
If you're a language implementer or enjoy examining the dark corners of the language in excruciating detail, then yes, get the standard, it's invaluable. If you're just using the language day-to-day (even as an expert), you can get by without it, with just a bit of googling (a).
(a) Make sure one of the search terms is site:stackoverflow.com :-)
I found http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp is now becoming pretty good! (always much more complete)
There is so much material in the standard there is just no way to briefly describe it. I don't think your question is really answerable as written. If you want a reference for the standard library though, Josuttis' book http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Library-Tutorial-Reference/dp/0201379260/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320994652&sr=8-1 is always a fantastic reference.
I'm guessing you already are familiar with the older standards and want to brush up on the newer less-used stuff.
Here is a good read for C99. It covers changes and has notes to the actual standard. Also some stuff on C++ in there.
Wikipedia is great for C++11. Great for basics, but doesn't go into full detail.
If you fully understand the language then you can generally infer the standard. For strange corner-cases you're going to have to refer to the standard.
I think some of the other people answering this question are right: one seldom needs the ultimately authoritative ISO standard document, unless you are writing a compiler or something like that. For me, I find that the main books on the two languages by the language creators are sufficient for almost all my needs. They are:
The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie
The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup
Look for the latest editions of each, although a quick search on Amazon shows neither updated for the latest incarnations of the languages (C99 and C++11). You might need to supplement with online sources, or perhaps look at A C Primer Plus and Professional C++.
I mainly use C++ to do scientific computing, and lately I've been restricting myself to a very C-like subset of C++ features; namely, no classes/inheritance except complex and STL, templates only used for find/replace kinds of substitutions, and a few other things I can't put in words off the top of my head. I am wondering if there are any official or well-documented subsets of the C++ language that I could look at for reference (as well as rationale) when I go about picking and choosing which features to use.
There is Embedded C++. It sounds mostly similar to what you're looking for.
Google publishes its internal C++ style guide, which is often referred to as such a subset: https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html . Ben Maurer, whose company reCAPTCHA was acquired by Google, describes it as follows in this post on Quora:
You can basically think of Google's
C++ subset as C plus a bit of sugar:
The ability to add methods to structs
Basic single inheritance.
Collection and string classes
Scope based resource management.
They also publish a lint tool, cpplint.py.
Not long ago I listened to this SE-Radio podcast - Episode 152: MISRA with Johan Bezem, which introduces MISRA, standard guidelines for C and C++ to ensure better quality, try looking at it.
The GCC developers are about to allow some C++ features. I'm not aware of any official guidelines, yet, but I am pretty sure that they will define some. Have a look at initial report on the mailing list.
Well, latest developments (TR1, C++0x) in C++ made it very much generic, allowing you to do imperative, OOP or even (limited) functional programming in C++. Libraries like Boost also enable you to do very power declarative template-based meta-programming.
I think Boost is the first thing to try out in C++. It's a comprehensive library, which also includes several modules that enable you to program in functional style (Boost.Functional) or making compile-time declarative meta-programming (Boost MPL).
OpenCL has been using C for writing kernels, but they have recently added (or will soon add) C++ bindings and perhaps Java. OpenCL leaves out a number of performance robbing features of C. Excluded are things like function pointers and recursion. Smart pointers and polymorphism also create overhead.
Restrictions on C:
SIMD programming languages
Slightly off topic: Here is a good discussion comparing OpenCL with CUDA using C.
OpenCL or CUDA Which way to go?
The SEI CERT C++ Coding Standard gives a list of rules for writing safe, reliable, and secure systems in C++14. This is not a subset of C++ per se, but as a coding standard like the other answers is a subset in effect by avoiding unsafe, undefined, or easily-misused features (including some common to C).