Finished reading Data Structures an Algorithms

I started taking a bus to work, and one immediate advantage of doing that is ability to read books. In 6 days I finished Data Structures and Algorithms by Alfred V. Aho, Jeffrey D. Ullman, John E. Hopcroft. It’s a pretty good overview of data structures and algorithms in Computer Science, although it’s a bit light on the examples. The chapter-by-chapter overview of data structures and algorithms is pretty straightforward, and it offers good tips on algorithm design and analysis. None of this stuff would be new to anyone who’s been through a data structures class, but if you’re out of college for a while now, refreshing helps, and next time someone brings up a balanced DSW tree or analyzing recursive algorithms as far as their O(n) performance in a casual conversation, you can quickly chime in. The authors stick to pseudo-code throughout the book, so mentally transforming the examples into your favorite programming language is not too hard. Overall, a pretty good refresher, not as comprehensive as this list of data structures from NIST, but easy to read and coherent.

Posted Monday, October 23rd, 2006 under Review.
  • http://www.tdrake.net Ted Drake

    I was at one of those parties the other night where everyone sits around trying to think of somehting to say and instead stare into their drinks counting ice cubes. Suddenly, two people started arguing about data structures. Girlfriend, the hair was flying. Ernie started pumping his fists in the air, yelling recurse this you bone head!

    I had to leave. It was so noisy, I couldn’t count the number of ice cubes in my chardonay.

  • Alex

    People do indeed get opinionated on proper ways to traverse b-trees.

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