Looking for an unusual c++ book

I know I'm picky, but I can't find my idea of a good c++ book. If you know anything that comes close, please tell me. Here's what I want:

1. My biggest wish is for alphabetical lookup.
I want to be able to find "new" or "for" or "delete" in less than 10 tries.

2. And I'm always looking for syntax examples.
I once spent 15 minutes searching for whether the 3rd entry in a for statement is supposed to be followed by a ";".

3. And I need thorough coverage:
I am always unsuccessfully trying to remember, for example, which "include" I need to make some function available.

4. And I need a list of gotcha's.
E.g: why would a "delete" statement cause a "fatal runtime error". Yes, I sometimes create unusual errors, but mostly they're the ones everybody else makes too.

5. For all of this, I need an honest index, not a list of pages where the word appears. Example: Looking for "Recursion" in Deitel & Deitel "How to program" (which is an ok book) I found probably 30 entries all referring to 1 useless self-serving page that mentions 30 recursion exercises without saying where they are. Besides, I was looking for explanations, not exercises.

Here are a couple of optional things I would appreciate:
1. A book that does not assume that I have never heard of a for-loop.
2. A book that does not assume I know C.
3. A book that cuts to the chase instead of wording me to death.
thanx for your suggestions :)

Frankly, I'd be staggered if you found a book like that. "A book that tells me everything I ever wanted to know" - nah.

You're "3" for example, is to a certain extent, compiler specific.

The book I have mentioned before is Herbert Schildts, but if you can't work with Deitel^2 I doubt Herb will help you more.

Sad fact of life, almost all programmers have a great big pile of books, because "a little bit of that one, and a little bit of that one..."

i highly highly recommend the "From the Ground Up" series of books, i have read Windows 98 programming and PERL in this serious and have found them both excellent. Try it !

Beginning Visual C++ 6 By: Ivor Horton.

Best book, fits your description.

Begininning Visual C++ 6.0 is a terrible book for you, so don't buy it. I got it for free with visual c++ 6.0, and I hate how the book is writted... It gives you the history of the book, and you think it sounds pretty good, and then it suddenly expects you to know everything about programming in c++. Also I think the guy on the cover looks kinda scary...

Hi, I appreciate everyone trying to help, and I'm still looking. I'm leaning towards "reference" titles. Any comments on the following:
Schildt: C++ The Complete Reference or C/C++ Programmer's Reference;
Pappas & Murray: Visual C++ The Complete Reference;
Schaum's Outlines: Fundamentals of Computing with C++; and also
Data Structures with C++, though I'm really looking for a general purpose book.

Comments on these would be appreciated :)

gee...umm....'Beginning Visual C++ 6' must not be real good, thats why its ranked in like the top 2000 best selling books of any kind of books (sarcasm). I have the book and it's awsome. You look in the back, you find exactly what you're looking for. After starting to read 'Deitel & Deitel How to program C++' and then reading Beginning Visual C++, I learned about double the stuff on every topic. The descriptions are very thorough and easy to understand.

...or maybe it is cause they include it with visual C++ so every copy should have one, therefore if you bought a copy you were forced to buy the book, and "C++ from Scratch" is a much better book for just starting to learn c++ "beinging visual c++ 6.0" is more of the c++ programmer that is new to visual C++ 6.0

Actually...the prob is they don't inlcude beggining c++ by ivor horton with c++...it's a very shortened version. VERY SHORTENED. Buy the real thing...it is amazing, a very good book. The short one is so short it can't help but move that fast.

>Schildt: C++ The Complete Reference or C/C++ Programmer's Reference;

i recommend C: The Complete Reference... it's, well, a _complete_ reference... even introduces C++... C++ TCR looks just as good, tho i've not gotten it yet... i think it assumes you are very comfortable with C as it discusses the ++ language extensions... which, in my opinion, just makes sense...

hth...

You want a reference?

The C++ Programming Language. By Bjarne Stroustrup

Or
The Annotated C++ Reference Manual. By the same author

C++ How to Program by Deitel & Deitel

Very good, its the one we use on our CS Course, evertything that you ask for.

The complete Reference as mentioned before is definately a must to accompany any C++ book, that and the Deitel book and you are sorted m8.

Since this thread has been reawakened, I want to thank everybody who helped me, and tell some of what I have learned:
1. One of the first responses was that my dream reference book does not exist. I totally believe that.
2. I have the Stroustrup, and it is not a tutorial and not for beginners. But I am looking for a book I can look up things in, and this isn't it. If you don't believe me, look in the index under operator precedence for example. Zilch.
3. I bought the "C++ Master Reference" by Walnum, because it's alphabetized. But I now think that its main purpose might be to list all the functions in the standard libraries. It does not try to answer questions about the language. There is no entry for array, for example. Nothing about operator precedence. Also, when I have found an entry I was looking for, the answer was always quite shallow.
4. I like Deitel, but it's not meant to be a reference and their index is poor.
So I'm still looking, but not very hard.
:(
Thanx