In this well-written introductory textbook, Jones and Harrow cover the basic features of C and many of the advanced features one would expect in such a volume. The text would be useful for a novice programming student and would be suitable in a first-year college class. The format and layout make the material easy to read, and the topics are easy to find, using either the table of contents or the index.

The text is organized into 12 chapters and seven appendices. Each chapter is organized around a specific problem. These problems are easy in the early chapters and become progressively more challenging. Within the chapters, the problems are extended and modified as new language features are covered.

The text is a bit slow in getting to some of the most important features. For example, functions are not introduced until chapter 5, pointers first appear in chapter 8, and recursion is the last topic covered in chapter 12. Since some courses will not cover the entire book, some critical concepts may be omitted or covered so late that students will not have time to fully understand them and gain experience with them.

By far, the strongest feature of the book is the vast number and variety of exercises included in each chapter. For example, chapter 7, on arrays, has 44 excellent exercises, all of which are well written and understandable. These range from exercises where students trace variables through programs, to exercises where students modify previous programs, to more traditional programming assignments. There is such variety that any instructor can select those most appropriate to his or her course.

A second strong feature is the emphasis given to designing and outlining a solution before starting to write code. The student is led through the proper steps to analyze and write pseudocode before coding. This emphasis is a dominant theme throughout the text.

The book gives an excellent introduction to C at a comfortable pace and is intended for the beginning student. Instructors who want to cover more advanced concepts early in their courses will need to rearrange the order of some of the chapters.