Algorithms (4th Edition)

The book is about algorithms and data structures in Java, and not about learning to program. My review will contrast this book with Sedgewick's 25+year old "Algorithms in C++" in my shelf. The new algorithms book is such a vast improvement over the old C++ book that I hardly recognize it any more. The new Algorithms has two authors. The authors are using a sub-set of the Java OO features (unlike the C++ version, which used none). While I may not agree in detail with some choices, I can understand, because they explained their coding standards well, and why they limit features. The algorithms are updated to the basic algorithms a student these days needs to have heard of, which includes new material like tries. I was fascinated to see a regular expression evaluation automaton in code, with explanations. Some more esoteric material from the C++ book (for instance, Voronoi diagrams) is left for specialized books. At a few places in the book, the impact of algorithms and data structures is illustrated giving real-world examples. And I have yet to read chapter 6.But what really impressed me was the code. This book shows the fundamental data structures and algorithms in just a few lines of beautiful and well-thought code. Sure, any nit-picker may find quibbles, but most choices are understandable from a didactic and printing perspective. This code is so much better than any in the old C++ book. The authors preferred clarity, yet the code is still concise. The authors are clear about feature creep, and limit their code to what is needed and no more, though some extensions are part of the exercises. I am reminded of the Einstein paraphrase "As simple as possible, but no simpler".More complex data structures and algorithms need multiple code boxes, which are all explained in detail, with the box appearing close to the explanation. Some readers may take issue with the density of information in examples, but I find it advantageous to have all information close-by rather than spread out. I prefer to pore over their dense examples than having to flip pages.

The authors provide an clear and concise set of criterion for the use of algorithms in general, and then go about developing the basic set to use in daily development of your own. I got this book as a reference to assist newcomers and interns in their progress, but find myself referring to its contents frequently to remind myself of some foundational elements that have floated merrily away over the years.I would heartily recommend this book to everyone. For the student to learn the basic set of algorithms, for the entry and mid level software engineers (or programmers) to inspire new ideas from a solid foundation, and for us veterans as a reminder to a solid way for development of our own algorithms.It is well written, and easy to understand (even for the interns I've had read through it). The examples are developed around Java, and so the book starts with a section on Java and basic programming techniques. It contains a large set of the basic algorithms that are frequently necessary on a day to day basis, but also shows HOW and WHY they were developed. It also provides a section on several advanced topics, again with an eye to the HOWs and WHYs. All along the way, there are references to "Good" development foundations, and reminders the development philosophies.

What is this book?This book is a practical introduction to fundamental computer science algorithms, it also includes real world applications of all algorithms, and last but not least, it includes actual Java code that implements all the algorithms & data structures, for some subjects, even real-world applications of the algorithms are also coded in Java.How is it different to other Algorithm books?Its not overly scientific, the book's chapters are not filled entirely with mathematical demonstrations, don't get me wrong, it does provide formal proof of the algorithms, but that is just a small part of each chapter.Most of each chapter's focus is on explaining what each algorithm does and its advantages and disadvantages. Each chapter and section explains an algorithm with actual Java code or well thought images and graphs.Finally, each section of the book has exercises for the reader to solve which help cement the knowledge learned in each section, in reality, I'd say that reading each section is only about 50% of what is necessary to obtain the skills to apply each algorithm or data structure in real-world scenarios. You must also solve the exercises in order to be able to use this book's knowledge in real life.I've read a big chunk of this book and I've coded a lot of the book's exercises in Ruby ([...]).