Algorithms Books

Computational Geometry in C (Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science)

Joseph O'Rourke

Amazon Price: $40.50 List Price: $45.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $24.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> C -> Algorithms

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the newly revised and expanded edition of the popular introduction to the design and implementation of geometry algorithms arising in areas such as computer graphics, robotics, and engineering design. The second edition contains material on several new topics, such as randomized algorithms for polygon triangulation, planar point location, 3D convex hull construction, intersection algorithms for ray-segment and ray-triangle, and point-in-polyhedron. A new "Sources" chapter points to supplemental literature for readers needing more information on any topic. A novel aspect is the inclusion of working C code for many of the algorithms, with discussion of practical implementation issues. The self-contained treatment presumes only an elementary knowledge of mathematics, but reaches topics on the frontier of current research, making it a useful reference for practitioners at all levels. The code in this new edition is significantly improved from the first edition, and four new routines are included. Java versions for this new edition are also available. All code is accessible from the book's Web site (http://cs.smith.edu/~orourke/) or by anonymous ftp.

Introduction to Computing Systems: From bits & gates to C & beyond

Yale Patt, Sanjay Patel

Amazon Price: $100.60 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math Amazon Marketplace: 68 new & used starting at $47.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Design & Architecture

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Introduction to Computing Systems: From bits And gates to C And beyond, now in its second edition, is designed to give students a better understanding of computing early in their college careers in order to give them a stronger foundation for later courses. The book is in two parts: (a) the underlying structure of a computer, and (b) programming in a high level language and programming methodology. . .

To understand the computer, the authors introduce the LC-3 and provide the LC-3 Simulator to give students hands-on access for testing what they learn. To develop their understanding of programming and programming methodology, they use the C programming language. The book takes a "motivated" bottom-up approach, where the students first get exposed to the big picture and then start at the bottom and build their knowledge bottom-up. Within each smaller unit, the same motivated bottom-up approach is followed. Every step of the way, students learn new things, building on what they already know. The authors feel that this approach encourages deeper understanding and downplays the need for memorizing. Students develop a greater breadth of understanding, since they see how the various parts of the computer fit together. . .

Mastering Algorithms with C (Mastering)

Kyle Loudon

Amazon Price: $29.16 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $13.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Human Vision & Language Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Development -> C & C++ Windows Programming
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

good, concise algorithm book ruined by comment 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.

compare to most algorithm/data structure books out there, this book is not as complete as those, but it's much easier to read, and diagrams in this book is well drawn and much eaiser to follow. Why would I only give it 3 stars? One thing really ruined this book - obviously the publisher/editor/author try to increase the total page number by putting ridiculously big comment block in sample code(single line comments takes about 5 lines, all surrounded by '*' and spaces) This made the sample code difficult to read, imagine a 5 line function has to be printed in 2 or 3 pages.

Editorial Review:

Mastering Algorithms with C offers robust solutions for everyday programming tasks. This book avoids the abstract style of most classic data structures and algorithms texts, yet provides all the information you need to understand and use common programming techniques. Intended for anyone with a basic understanding of the C language, it includes implementations and real-world examples of each data structure and algorithm in the text, plus full source code on the accompanying disk. Using both a programming style and a writing style that are exceptionally clean, Kyle Loudon shows you how to use such essential data structures as lists, stacks, queues, sets, trees, heaps, priority queues, and graphs. He shows you how to use algorithms for sorting, searching, numerical analysis, data compression, data encryption, common graph problems, and computational geometry. He also describes the relative efficiency of all implementations.

Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C (2nd Edition)

Mark Allen Weiss

Amazon Price: $76.00 List Price: $95.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Addison Wesley Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $8.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Development -> C & C++ Windows Programming

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Concepts explained well. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I thought that this book did its job in explaining the data structures under consideration effectively, but I did not like the author's coding style, and this is nothing more than taste. The book's goal is the teaching of data structures and it did this. Overall, though, this book is a good reference.

Good Read for Computer Scientists 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I use this book for my Data Structures & Algorithms class as a sophomore Computer Science major.

This book is a tad bit on the advanced side, but the explanations and examples are great all the way through. There's a certain level of knowledge that is expected and it doesn't let up. I'm not too keen on how good the practice problems are, but the few that i've done require a high level of concentration. Before reading, make sure you're up on proofs (read: proofs EVERYWHERE).

I do think it'd be a good addition to any programmer's collection.

Editorial Review:

This revision adds a new chapter examining advanced data structures and their implementation such as red black trees, top down splay trees, treaps, k-d trees and pairing heaps, among others. In addition, the author has refined the presentation, made all code examples conform to standard C programming style conventions, and strengthened the coverage of formal proofs.

Algorithms in C (paperback)

Robert Sedgewick

Amazon Price: $55.51 List Price: $59.99 Not yet published By: Addison-Wesley Professional

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Systems Analysis & Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This new version of the best-selling book, Algorithms, SecondEdition, provides a comprehensive collection of algorithmsimplemented in C. A variety of algorithms are described in eachofthe following areas: sorting, searching, string-processing,geometric, graph, and mathematical algorithms. These algorithmsare expressed in terms of concise implementations in C, so thatreaders can both appreciate their fundamental properties and testthem on real applications. The treatment of analysis of algorithms is carefully developed. When appropriate, analytic results are discussed to illustratewhy certain algorithms are preferred, and in some cases, therelationship of the practical algorithms being disussed to purelytheoretical results is also described. Features *Hundreds of detailed, innovative figures clearly demonstratehow important algorithms work. *Throughout the book, "properties" sections encapsulatespecific information on the performance characteristics ofalgorithms. *Six chapters present fundamental concepts, including a briefintroduction to data structures. Algorithms in C provides readers with the tools to confidentlyimplement, run, and debug useful algorithms.This book may beuseful for self-study, or as a reference for people engaged inthe development of computer systems for applications programs.

Data Structures Using C

Aaron M. Tenenbaum

List Price: $96.33 By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $1.32

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Development -> C & C++ Windows Programming
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This is a very good book 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

If you are interested in trees (Binary Search,Generic & Multiway ) & Graphs this book could be a very good reference. Common Data Structures are also dealt with very nicely.

If you would study Data Structures... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

..this book is very easy to read... and there are very very exercices to help in the learning, also the topics of structures data is sufficent vast!

good luck!

Excellent book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book, full of code and best of all, full with good examples; very important in this topic that is often cover merely as ADT. Stacks, queues, list, trees, everything is covered here. The chapter about trees is specially detailed, and topics like sorting and searching are covered in a separated chapter. I lost mine some time ago, and I did not hesitate to buy it again.

Editorial Review:

Using the increasingly popular C language, this book teaches data structures from their theoretical conception through to their concrete realizations. It emphasizes structured design and programming techniques, and contains numerous debugged programming samples. For CS2 course in advanced programming or data structures in C.

Schaum's Outline of Programming with C

Byron S. Gottfried

Amazon Price: $14.21 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $2.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Languages & Tools -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

For review/revision purposes only 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Do not buy this book if you are just learning C. The way in which the information is organised in this book assumes that you have a knowledge of the topic and that you only need a refresher. There is information in this book but if you want to learn C without swallowing boulders, you should look elsewhere.

Excellent as a Reference and a Self-study Guide 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the excellent books in programming. I have come to master C programming in less than two months by following this book page by page. Chapters are organized in an excellent way that goes systematically with programming skills development. I highly recommend it.

Editorial Review:

The broad, yet in-depth coverage of C programming language, within the context of today's C programming style, makes this book as useful for practicing professionals as it is for beginning programmers. This study guide solves many sample problems using other programming languages so readers can compare several popular languages. It also includes clear explanations of most of the features in the current ANSI standard. The emphasis throughout is on designing clear, legible, modular and efficient programs.

Data Structures Using C and C++ (2nd Edition)

Yedidyah Langsam, Moshe J. Augenstein, Aaron M. Tenenbaum

Amazon Price: $92.00 List Price: $115.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $3.52

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Modeling & Simulation
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Above average breath 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Many of the criticisms here are justified, but IMHO there are no good DS&A books. I have Binstock's book and it has lots of errors, although code listings on the website that I tried to compile did finally work, the stuff on the disk didn't. Sedgwick's stuff is about as muddled in C as this book is. Knuth is still wedded to his own private assembly language and a half a dozen others I own are so unremarkable I won't mention them.

What I like about this book is they mention algorithms that no one else even seems to know about - like the interpolation search. I don't need a lot of hand holding as I have been programming longer than most reviewers have been out of diapers, and it is annoying when stuff you paid for turns out to be nothing more than misdirection, but all of these books seem to be more in the form of some theory and some p-code disguised in some commercial language's syntax, so until editors and buyers insist on quality, use these books as guidelines.

When writing an in-memory database about 10 years ago I had to write an interface to a COBOL system that had the most convoluted method for identifying record types imaginable. The next record read could be one of about 300 possible record types. Running the routine that could discriminate between the 300 odd records was very expensive and required some sort of optimization. Observing that the records tended to present themselves in small groups of identical record types I wrote a type of elevator algorithm where a list of recently seen record types was constantly resorted and used to cue the guesses used to interrogate the next record I'd get(). By the time I tackled this problem I had written dozens of sort and search algorithms and had been programming in C for over 5 years for a Wall St banks. This book was the only book on DS&A that suggested this approach.

I could give a half dozen other illustrations to demonstrate the value of breath of coverage too, but suffice it to say you only need one gem per book to make it worthwhile buying. FWIW, I found out the hard way that even K&R has errors, and a book like Harbinger and Steele's is still to be preferred to the bloat tomes coming from Wrox. The real problem for writers of these books is professional programmers, with rare exceptions, no longer use DS&A, they use Java, STL, C# (should be C dullard - C without pointers ain't C people! Read the C standard library and get a clue!), or MS's C++ container classes and have no clue what they are doing. (Don't make me think, I have money to make) That leaves students as almost the sole reader group for these books and you can't get into much depth without losing the reader there.

Editorial Review:

This introduction to the fundamentals of data structures explores abstract concepts, considers how those concepts are useful in problem solving, explains how the abstractions can be made concrete by using a programming language, and shows how to use the C language for advanced programming and how to develop the advanced features of C++. Covers the C++ language, featuring a wealth of tested and debugged working programs in C and C++. Explains and analyzes algorithms — showing step- by-step solutions to real problems. Presents algorithms as intermediaries between English language descriptions and C programs. Covers classes in C++, including function members, inheritance and object orientation, an example of implementing abstract data types in C++, as well as polymorphism.

Algorithms in C, Parts 1-5 (Bundle): Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching, and Graph Algorithms (3rd Edition) (Bundle)

Robert Sedgewick

Amazon Price: $93.15 List Price: $103.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Addison-Wesley Professional Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $71.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Software Engineering -> Information Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Development -> C & C++ Windows Programming
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Lucid thought process - excellent coverage & examples 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 31 people found this review helpful.

I have quite a few books on algorithms and C programming, and this probably takes the cake. Sedgewick writes clearer than perhaps anyone on the subject. The book is filled to the gills with tiny 20 line (complete) programs that do amazing things - such as the program to compute all the prime numbers less than N (provided as input). These examples are typically given to illustrate some point (such as using dynamic array allocation for storing which numbers are prime) - but the short, concise algorithms given in the examples are learning aids as well (i.e. - I didn't know you could calculate a list of primes so easily, and I can probably take this knowledge and use it somewhere else). The reader is challenged to alter the examples (instead of using an array to store which numbers are prime, use a bitmap). Because the examples are small, compact, and easy to read, this provokes one to actually sit down and try and play with them. In contrast, I also have the Algorithms In C O'Reilley book by Kyle Loudon and after reading the Sedgewick title, I'm throwing that away. That book spends 1/3 of the chapter describing the algorithms, and then spends the rest of it in user-interface code examples. Of course, all the user interfaces for all the examples in the book are pretty much the same, so the whole book is filled with redundant useless code. More analysis, less filler, please. As Sedgewick was a student of Knuth, I consider his books as the practical guide to Knuth's tomes (which seem out of date - do we really need algorithm analysis on external storage these days??), which are filled with rigorous mathematical analysis. I highly recommend this book(s) -- actually there are two, with the second volume covering graphs. I wish my University had used these texts in programming / algorithm analysis courses. I really don't have any negative commentary -- other than the nitpick that his coding style is very compact and skeletal --> main(){ for(...) do_something;} However, since the examples are so small, it hardly matters.

Data Structures and Program Design In C (2nd Edition)

Robert L. Kruse, Bruce P. Leung, Clovis L. Tondo

Amazon Price: $92.32 List Price: $115.40 Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $1.38

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Software Engineering -> Design Tools & Techniques
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Decent Book on Data Structures 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I just finished an online course on data structures at UMass, Lowell (secured an A grade without any problem) and this is the textbook used for this course. I agree with some of the comments made by the reviewers here - that typedef's are used beyond reason, code is presented in fragments. I must strongly disagree with the reviewers who said - the book is not worth the money (it's cheap if you buy a used one), it is a bad book, useful only as a paper weight. The strong plus point for this book is that it presents theory well - there are many figures using which it is easy to understand complicated stuff. The other plus point is that it also analyzes the performance of algorithms and I felt the book does a great job of explaining this part in clear terms. The main drawback is that the code is fragmented and spread out, which is certainly frustating. Also, in order to get the code to work on a compiler (I used Microsoft VC++ version 6), you will need to "fill in the gaps" as most code examples (I tried 90% of the examples in the text on MVC++ compiler) are by no means complete but this was not difficult. You can download the code from the publisher's website and the code is actually not organized into different files (sorted by chapter and example) but it comes in a few files where examples from different chapters are mixed. You will have to search and find the part you need. I do agree usage of dummy functions creates confusion. This book has a rocky start with the life game example, which was not very easy to follow with the explanation provided. While I was frustated with the first two chapters, the rest of the chapters are presented well. To the reviewer who said that the code has bugs (which certainly isn't true), my guess that the gaps are not properly filled. I patiently tested most of the code on the computer (after filling in the gaps of course!) and find absolutely no problems with it. This however took lot of time since significant effort is needed from the student to fill the missing code to make it work. I have supplied working code to my fellow students who were facing difficulties in getting the code to run. In a couple of places in the text, the author surprised me with C syntax I did not know was legal (I consider myself intermediate programmer).

I suspect the reason why many readers have problems with this book is two-fold: 1.The code is not available in a format that can be tested on the compiler. Having read a lot of CS books which supply with readily usable code, this book gets annoying. I was wondering why the authors did not give downloadable working code for all examples in the text (which is a definite minus point) 2. The reader will have to go back and forth between the chapters as some functions developed in former chapters are used in later chapters. This does get irritating. I have read books that do this to a ridiculous level but this book stays with in tolerable bounds.

I will not rate this book as the best one on the subject out there but it is definitely good enough to learn data structures. I have used another book as a supplement: Data Structures & Algorithms in Java (Mitchell Waite Signature Series) (Hardcover) By Mitchell Waite, Robert Lafore ISBN: 1571690956. This book has lot of applets that show step by step how algorithms work. I am a visual learner and this helped tremendously. However, I felt that Waite Series book did not present the theory as thoroughly as Robert Kruse's text.

In summary, I consider this book as "decent". I was very much concerned when I first purchased this text because of so many bad reviews. As it turns out, those that can understand C and are willing to sit in front of the computer to make the code samples in this book work need not have any fear. As I said earlier, the theory is presented well, and all it needs is patience and diligence from the student to go through the code examples on a compiler. I believe that I now have a good understanding of the subject and I can move on books that deal with it at more depth. There are a plethora books on this topic out there and there may be better books than the ones mentioned in this review.

Editorial Review:

Progressing from the concrete to the abstract — and using numerous, substantial case studies and sample programs — this book explores structured problem solving, data abstraction, software engineering principles, and the comparative analysis of algorithms as fundamental tools of program design. Emphasizes principles of top-down refinement, program design, review, and testing. Uses the C programming language throughout. Offers Internet access to the source code for all the programs and program extracts printed in the book.