SAMPLE CHAPTERS Effective Java Programming Language Guide by Joshua Bloch Foreword by Guy Steele

The following chapters are available online:

• Chapter 3, "Methods Common to All Objects"
  This chapter tells you when and how to override the nonfinal Object methods (equals, hashCode, toString, and clone), as well as the Comparable interface's compareTo method.
   
• Chapter 5, "Substitutes for C Constructs"
  This chapter suggests replacements for several C constructs that were omitted from the Java programming language.
   
• Chapter 6, "Methods"
  This chapter discusses several aspects of method and constructor design: how to treat parameters and return values, how to design method signatures, and how to document methods.
   
• Chapter 7, "General Programming"
  This chapter is devoted to the nuts and bolts of the language. It discusses local variables, libraries, data types, reflection, native methods, optimization, and naming conventions.