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Book: Effective Java

28.Sep.2008

Effective Java (2nd Edition) was the book I picked up when I was looking for a more advanced book on the Java programming language. The book covers all its important issues: Classes, Interfaces, Methods, Generics, Concurrency, Exceptions, etc… But unlike the normal Java books, it doesn’t teach you how to program. It’s a collection of best practices.

The book is structured as a large list of items. Each item corresponds to an advice or best practice. For example: Consider static factory methods instead of constructors, Make defensive copies when needed and Return empty arrays or collections, not nulls. What I liked most is that it doesn’t just tell you what to do. The author carefully explains all the pros and cons of such a decision. First learn the rules, then learn when to break them. This second edition already covers the Java 6 version, so there are some interesting chapters on Generics, Enums and Annotations. Additional, some of items’ solutions point to known Design Patterns, so it’s also a change to learn a bit about them.

I believe this book should be a requirement for every Java coder doing serious programming. Some of the practices advocated may seem unusual, but all aim for better maintainability and code comprehension, a worthwhile goal for every programmer.