C, a reference manual
by Samuel P. Harbison, Guy L. Steele Jr. · first published 1984
73% recommend24% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Thorough, concise reference on the C language and standard library, organized by topic with descriptive examples; suits working C programmers who already know the basics and want a reliable lookup alongside K&R.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
This best-selling, authoritative reference manual provides a complete description of the C language, the run-time libraries, and a style of C programming that emphasizes correctness, portability, and maintainability. Describing the C language more clearly and in more detail than any other book, authors Samuel P. Harbison and Guy L. Steele Jr. provide in a single manual: Standard C - the ANSI/ISO standard now supported by all new C compilers; Traditional C - common practice for twenty years, with millions of lines of code in use every day and the complete Standard and Traditional C run-time li
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2009–2025C Traps and Pitfalls
Andrew Koenig
Recommended by 19 · mentioned by 2419 recommend · 24 mention19 recommend · 2419 recommend
2008–2026C interfaces and implementations
David R. Hanson
Recommended by 46 · mentioned by 6346 recommend · 63 mention46 recommend · 6346 recommend
2015–2022Head first C
David Griffiths
Recommended by 5 · mentioned by 65 recommend · 6 mention5 recommend · 65 recommend
2013–2025Understanding and Using C Pointers
Richard M Reese
Recommended by 12 · mentioned by 1712 recommend · 17 mention12 recommend · 1712 recommend
C Programming
Recommended by 6 · mentioned by 66 recommend · 6 mention6 recommend · 66 recommend
2009–2022The C puzzle book
Alan R. Feuer
Recommended by 10 · mentioned by 1110 recommend · 11 mention10 recommend · 1110 recommend
2010–2016Programming in C
Stephen G. Kochan
Recommended by 7 · mentioned by 77 recommend · 7 mention7 recommend · 77 recommend
2009–2026The Standard C Library
P. J. Plauger
Recommended by 17 · mentioned by 2117 recommend · 21 mention17 recommend · 2117 recommend
…more about major concepts in CS. It's excellent. Do the exercises. It will take a while, but do the exercises. For C, get _The ANSI C Programming Language_ by Kernighan and Ritchie ("K&R"). Harbison's _C: A Reference Manual_ is a good reference. If you do real work in C, you might find Lua helpful - it's a C library that provides a drop-in scripting language for C projects. It's a also nice language in its own right, simple…
on “Ask HN: Confused semi-newbie programmer needs some advice.” ↗…pointers), and you should skim through the standard library (which is tiny compared to Java, or even C++), and you're most of the way there. In addition to K&R, I've hears that Steele and Harbison's "C: A Reference Manual" is very good, although I haven't read it personally.
on “Ask HN: Learning C” ↗…K&R book. In addition, I've found if you're taking an engineering approach, "Applications Programming in ANSI C" by Johnsonbaugh & Kalin was to me a very valuable learning tool. Do not go without the "C: A Reference Manual" by Harbison & Steele, which to me has been the most valuable reference book to have on my person if I couldn't get or chose not to fancy a good Internet reference. For Assembly, my coverage has been…
on “Learning C and ASM, what's the way to go?” ↗…a much darker, somewhat rambling tome that addresses "evil". they're very different, but both great books. for non-fiction the book i've used most this year is an old classic - harbison & steele's "c a reference manual". it's invaluable (if you're writing c). i don't know how people can prefer kernighan & ritchie...
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗For learning C I strongly recommend C: A Reference Manual (Harbison and Steele), not K&R. Read K&R for context, sure, but Harbison and Steele is more up-to-date and comprehensive while still a concise language reference. That book can basically answer almost…
on “Ask HN: Should I learn C?” ↗…cases are not guaranteed to be portable across different compilers even on the same architecture. There is a good explanation of what you can and cannot count on in chapter 6 of Harbison and Steele's C A Reference Manual.
on “Cling: Running C++ in an interpreter” ↗…a good book. It was Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6t...) that was the key, and since its first edition, I've used C: A Reference Manual by Harbison and Steele (as in Guy Steele), initially written for a CMU spinoff compiler company because K&R was an insufficient reference for implementing a compiler.
on “Admitting Defeat on K&R in LCTHW” ↗A much more complete book than K&R is "C: A Reference Manual", which has much better explanations. See it here: http://careferencemanual.com/, at its home page. Or at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Reference-Manual-5th-Edition/dp/013089.... Turn to this…
on “Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C?” ↗…it is impossible, one doesn't exist. So, good news, you don't have to waste time looking for it. Use a reliable reference instead and struggle along for a bit. I would recommend Harbison and Steele's C: A Reference Manual: http://careferencemanual.com/ (Yes, it's that Guy Steele.)
on “Ask HN: What are some good resources for learning C?” ↗GNU manual is quite nice actually, a welcome companion to my worn copy of C: A Reference Manual, 5th Edition by Guy Steele and Harbison Looking at https://crms.tiiny.site/#Function-Pointers I am glad I do not have to program C anymore.. /\* Declare a function returning char *. */ char *a…
on “Richard Stallman Announces GNU C Language Reference Manual” ↗…1840. If however, one is a herding dog, and needs serious work to avoid getting bored and destructive, reading K&R would put C in historical context. Later, as I depended on C, I bought each edition of C: A Reference Manual by Harbison and Steele, and read it as if I were studying to be a lawyer. I now program in Haskell, and wish I was equally versed in Clojure and Rust. If I were returning to C, I'd instead choose Rust.…
on “Ask HN: Best book to learn C in 2022?” ↗I have Steele and Harbison's "C: A Reference Manual", and _is_ very good, but probably not for _learning_ C. It does have very good explanations of some under-the-hood things that I haven't found elsewhere. It is also a good reference on the C std library,…
on “Ask HN: Learning C” ↗…it took years, and several failed attempts before I was actually able to make sense of real C code. My book recommendations would be K&R, Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by Stevens, and C: A Reference Manual by Harbison and Steele. In that order. With liberal doses of web research and reading real world examples and experimentation.
on “Ask HN: Learning C” ↗…less intellectual baggage from the imperative languages. Also, I only recommend learning C first if you plan to do a serious, thorough study of the language and need it for a low-level project. Get C, A Reference Manual by Harbison and Steele, read the whole thing, and tackle a significant project with that knowledge. You can make progress with a half-assed approach to learning Python. If you try that with C it will…
on “Ask HN: What's a good programming language to start with?” ↗…access, web API or GUI toolkit. A Lisp documentation is sufficient for implementing the language, as well as daily use. That's really the main difference I can think of. The C book by Harbison and Steele C: A Reference Manual is the closest thing I have seen to a Lisp-style manual for a non-Lisp programming language, and it's no coincidence ;-) Regards.
on “An Arc REPL online” ↗