Despite its highly adaptable and flexible nature, C is also one of the more complex programming languages to learn. Once mastered, however, it can help you organize and process information with amazing efficiency and quickness. The C Cookbook will make your path to mastery much shorter. This practical, problem-solving guide is ideal if youre an engineer, programmer, or researcher writing an application for one of the legions of platforms on which C runs. The algorithms provided in C Cookbook will jump-start your development by giving you some basic building blocks that you dont have to develop on your own. Less a tutorial than a problem-solver, the book addresses many of the most common problems youre likely encounter--whether youve been programming in C for years or youre relatively new to the language. Here are just some of the time-consuming tasks this book contains practical solutions for: Reading the contents of a directory Creating a singleton class Date and time parsing/arithmetic String and text manipulation Working with files Parsing XML Using the standard containers Typical of OReillys "Cookbook" series, C Cookbook is written in a straightforward format, featuring recipes that contain problem statements and code solutions, and apply not to hypothetical situations, but those that youre likely to encounter. A detailed explanation then follows each recipe in order to show you how and why the solution works. This question-solution-discussion format is a proven teaching method, as any fan of the "Cookbook" series can attest to. This book will move quickly to the top of your list of essential C references.