Book Advice

[cyberCLoWn]

I'm a university student and am looking to purchase some books for myself. I'd call myself a fairly intermediate programmer with knowledge in Java and C++.

What I've done is searched through Amazon for some books on certain topics I'd like to get to compliment my knowledge I'm getting from university (listed below). I'm basically looking for books that don't hold me by the hand while explaining (for example) a while loop - I just need to see the syntax to see how a language uses it.

Here are some areas I'm keen to get some knowledge into:

- PHP and it's interaction with MySQL
It's not covered in my courses but I feel it's required for industry.

- Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2005 environment
We're using the MFC in VS2005 at the moment to implement programs (and therefore show how Visual C++ works) using proper OOP techniques, however I don't have a text book or anything to reference from or teach myself new things.

- C#
I've got a beginner C# book which covers the normal beginner stuff up to Polymorphism. I want to take C# further as it's a language many people use in "industry". I need something a bit more in-depth on the C# language and possibly the .NET framework.

The books I currently have are:
- C++ How to Program (4th ed) by Deitel
- Java How to Program (5th Ed) by Deitel
- Java Software Solutions by Lewis and Loftus (beginner book recommended by university)
- C# for Students by Douglas Bell & Mike Parr (beginner book recommended by university)

I'm currently looking at purchasing the following books:

PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition)
- by Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
- ISBN: 0672326728

Murach's C# 2005
- Joel Murach
- ISBN: 1890774375

Any suggestions/tips/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Wraithan]

Go download Thinking in C++ 1 and 2 from bruceeckel.com those books cover itermediate to advanced topics. It covers OOP and some design patterns.

As far as PHP/MySQL goes, don't buy a book, PHP has pretty awesome documentation. And their are tons of guides to SQL on the 'net. I did some professional level stuff in PHP/SQL (used a Oracle database instead of MySQL but not much different) and I have never owned or read a book on either language.

I can't recommend anything as far as C#/Java goes...

[Dave_Sinkula]

Stickies: C++, C.
Others: C#, PHP, By Subject.