From the Preface:

We have tried to retain the brevity of the first edition. C is not a big language, and it is not well served by a big book. We have improved the exposition of critical features, such as pointers, that are central to C programming. We have refined the original examples, and have added new examples in several chapters. For instance, the treatment of complicated declarations is augmented by programs that convert declarations into words and vice versa. As before, all examples have been tested directly from the text, which is in machine-readable form.

As we said in the first preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade more experience, we still feel that way. We hope that this book will help you to learn C and use it well.

Brian W. Kernighan works in the Computing Science Research Center at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies. He is Consulting Editor for Addison-Wesley's Professional Computing Series and the author, with Dennis Ritchie, of The C Programming Language.

Dennis Ritchie is a computer scientist notable for his influence on ALTRAN, B, BCPL, C, Multics, and Unix.

2. Types, Operators, and Expressions.

3. Control Flow.

4. Functions and Program Structure.

5. Pointers and Arrays.

6. Structures.

7. Input and Output.

8. The UNIX System Interface.

Appendix A.

Appendix B.

Appendix C.

Index.