"Every programming language has its quirks. This lively book reveals oddities of the Java programming language through entertaining and thought-provoking programming puzzles."

--Guy Steele, Sun Fellow and coauthor of The Java™ Language Specification

"I laughed, I cried, I threw up (my hands in admiration)."

--Tim Peierls, president, Prior Artisans LLC, and member of the JSR 166 Expert Group

How well do you really know Java? Are you a code sleuth? Have you ever spent days chasing a bug caused by a trap or pitfall in Java or its libraries? Do you like brainteasers? Then this is the book for you!

In the tradition of Effective Java™, Bloch and Gafter dive deep into the subtleties of the Java programming language and its core libraries. Illustrated with visually stunning optical illusions, Java™ Puzzlers features 95 diabolical puzzles that educate and entertain. Anyone with a working knowledge of Java will understand the puzzles, but even the most seasoned veteran will find them challenging.

Most of the puzzles take the form of a short program whose behavior isn't what it seems. Can you figure out what it does? Puzzles are grouped loosely according to the features they use, and detailed solutions follow each puzzle. The solutions go well beyond a simple explanation of the program's behavior--they show you how to avoid the underlying traps and pitfalls for good. A handy catalog of traps and pitfalls at the back of the book provides a concise taxonomy for future reference.

Solve these puzzles and you'll never again fall prey to the counterintuitive or obscure behaviors that can fool even the most experienced programmers.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 30 Ratings

Totally useless - 2009-01-07
Reviewer Rating:
The "puzzles" in the book are cases which no programmer would come across in real life 99.99% of the times. I am sure all of the languages have corner cases like those mentioned in the book. The book should be renamed as "Cases where you can be fooled by the Java compiler"

I loved it - I must be a Geek! - 2008-10-17
Reviewer Rating:
Don't buy this book if you other chores to do. You won't be able to put it down! Both fun and challenging. A one-of-a-kind book for Java lovers.

one of my best for Java - 2008-07-14
Reviewer Rating:
This is an amusing and at the same time amazing book that helps avoiding some very dark corners you might not have been aware of when programming in Java. I used FindBugs to test for some of the pitfalls described in the book in some codebases we had and did I find errors! Go get yourself a copy.

Interesting and funny - 2008-07-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book presents several problems that maybe even expert Java developers never thougt about. Some of them are only curious corner cases, others present tricky behaviours of the language that every developer must be aware of to avoid unwanted behaviours. I warmly suggest this book as a complement to "Effective Java", by the same author.

Great Book! - 2008-01-12
Reviewer Rating:
Completing the puzzles in this book will increase your knowledge of the Java language spec. This book was written by 2 of the world's foremost Java experts.

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