The Java Language Specification, The Java Programming Language Guide (4th Edition), and the SJCP Study Guide for Java 5 (Sierra, Bates) are essential to passing the SJCP exam. The Java Language Specification gives you the important technical details that textbooks tend to leave out. The best way to use this book is to make small, simple test programs for each chapter or topic (the programs that the authors provide are too cryptic for my taste). This book is not a tutorial and you should have the level of knowledge aquired by studying the Java textbooks by Walter Savitch and/or Daniel Liang. It's also a good idea to have Head First Java (2nd Edition, Sierra, Bates) in your bookshelf with the others - plus anything by Cay Horstmann (Core Java I and Core Java II.)

Just the book for the java hungry community. For those that are pressed for cash and cannot afford the book just yet you can visit the java dot sun website to download a pdf version of this book with minor cosmetic changes dealing with copyright. The integrity of the book is otherwise intact. The directory to look for is docs->books->jls. Cheers

Are you the type that has to know the "why" and "how" behind how a language behaves? Then this is the book you need... The Java Language Specification, Third Edition by James Gosling, Bill Joy, Guy Steele, Gilad Bracha. Provided you're buying it for the right reason, there's nothing close to it.

Contents: Introduction; Grammars; Lexical Structure; Types, Values, and Variables; Conversions and Promotions; Names; Packages; Classes; Interfaces; Arrays; Exceptions; Execution; Binary Compatibility; Blocks and Statements; Expressions; Definite Assignment; Threads and Locks; Syntax; Index

So why do I say "for the right reason"? Because if you pick it up expecting something else, you'll be highly disappointed. This is *not* a tutorial of the language, nor is it an easy-to-read conversation or discussion of Java. Instead, it's a computer engineering level coverage of how Java is structured and how it works, from the people who wrote it. As such, you're going to find information in here that you'll have a hard time getting elsewhere. You'll find out how the nitty-gritty of how things like classes and interfaces work, and how they *should* be structured. If you're just getting started in Java, you'll likely be over your head by the second chapter. The target of this type of writing would be people who are Java journeymen, and who have gotten to the point where they need to know some of the theory behind features and structure. You'll also need a book like this if you write development tools that target the Java environment. Armed with this book and a solid background in Java, you'll be able to produce software that behaves just as developers would expect.

Don't let the depth and complexity of the material steer you away from the book if you're ready to go deeper with Java. Just don't pick up the book expecting to learn Java for the first time. There are better books out there for that purpose. But if you need to understand the guts of Java, this is it.

This is it, the complete and authoritative definition of the Java programming language. This edition covers the Java language up to 1.5, so it gives a full description of generics and type parameters, boxing and unboxing, enums, annotation, and all the latest. If you develop Java language tools - debuggers, compilers, etc. - you simply must have this book. If you care about Java details that much, you must have the newest edition.

The typical programmer, someone who uses Java for application development, probably won't find much of interest in this book. This isn't a programmer's how-to manual. Nearly nothing describes how to use the language features. The code samples just illustrate language syntax and subtleties. There's nearly no discussion of the Java APIs, not even the java.lang.* packages or language-dependent reflection features. These are not flaws in this reference manual - this simply isn't a book meant to serve those needs.

Despite its 650+ pages, this really is a concise, precise definition of the Java 1.5 programming language. If you care about the internals of Java or about OO lnaguages in general, then this book is for you.

//wiredweird

This book is essential for learning Java, and should be read by anyone serious about learning the language. Pay special attention to the example programs, as they highlight special cases and subtleties that are not explained in other books, and often misconstrued by the authors of other books.

Bear in mind that this books is available for free from Sun Microsystems's web site. They offer it in either HTML or in PDF. So you can save some money.