A very practical reference in designing algorithm | The Algorithm Design Manual

Accessible Guide to Algorithm Design | The Algorithm Design Manual | Steven S. Skiena

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	• The Algorithm Design Manual Steven S. Skiena Springer, 2008 - 736 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

extremely practical, very good as a starting point in algorithms study

I found this book extremely practical, especially for professionals that don't have everyday the occasion to be confronted with real algorithmic problems (I assume that most of the industry-related software programmers / designers / analysts are in this category), thus beeing in need to have a reference at hand "just in case" :-).

Together with "Programming challenges" also from Skiena & co. constitutes a powerful known algorithms references, and supplied with some natural problem-solving talent, could be a succesfull preparation for something like ACM contests or topcoders.com

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A very practical reference in designing algorithm

Nice to have this book handy if you need to design efficient algorithms for your programs. This is more of a reference than to teach you what algorithms are out there, so you better know them before using this book. That said, this book is quite unique since it differs from a typical algorithm book on the market. Skiena has done a great job in presenting the material. I find this book really handy, definately recommanded.

Accessible Guide to Algorithm Design

For those computer science students and programmers who are put off by the style of "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen et al., this book is a good alternative. Rather than just being a catalog of algorithms with code and little explanation, this book covers a much needed middle ground and contains a good deal about the analysis and design of algorithms in general along with discussions of common algorithms themselves in an accessible style. In fact, the author makes a point of mentioning in his preface that you will not find a single theorem in this book, and that the purpose of his book is to get working programmers up to speed quickly on both the generalities and specifics of algorithm design.
The first part of the book is on techniques, and covers the basics of modeling algorithms along with "Big Oh" notation, data structures and sorting, dynamic programming, graph algorithms, combinational search, and the concept of intractibility. What makes this section of the book particularly interesting are the author's "war stories" that talk about real world applications of the ideas discussed in each chapter.
Part two of the book, "Resources", is an extensive catalog of algorithmic problems organized by type. For each problem mentioned, the book includes a problem description and discussion, possible implementations, and other algorithmic problems that are related to this one. In the implementation section for each algorithm, the author demonstrates the kinds of questions that the reader should ask when designing his or her own implementation. The C, C++, Fortran, and Pascal code for all algorithm implementations mentioned is on the accompanying CD rather than in the book itself, which helps make the book more compact.
This book is a very good introduction to the methods of algorithm analysis and design, and an encyclopedic reference on many different types of algorithms. Highly recommended.

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Great book

This book is splitted in two parts.
The first part mostly contains general advices about algorithms, performances, and such.
The second part is more like a huge catalogue of "classical" problems and algorithms related to those, with advices about how to work them. It does not contain algorithms or pseudo-code (or very little), but is more about how to address the problem (and also contains pointers to an implementation).

For the real programmer

There are many reasons I like this book more than other Algorithms books I own (e.g. Sedgewick). One is that Skiena's book comes with an HTML version, so it's easy to keep it with you at all times (e.g. on your laptop, at work, and at home). Another is the "war stories". I found that I wanted to read the war stories first, rather than the technical content. Another is that the book points you at existing implementations, which really is what you'll eventually need to look at if you're going to use or write any code.

Overall, I found that when confronted to real world problems, the "Algorithm Design Manual" was a better resource than other Algorithm books. This is why I'm recommending it to software engineers out there. It seems to be written for people working with algorithms to solve problems, rather than as a support for an academic course.

On the negative side: I find the resource catalog to be exhaustive but somewhat shallow. As I'm getting older and slower, some things are not as obvious as they used to be. For example, I was quite unable to derive how to use Voronoi diagrams to perform nearest neighbour search, although it is supposed to be "a simple matter".

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....The most comprehensive guide to designing practical and efficient algorithms!....

The Algorithm Design Manual, Second Edition

"...the book is an algorithm-implementation treasure trove, and putting all of these implementations in one place was no small feat. The list of implementations [and] extensive bibliography make the book an invaluable resource for everyone interested in the subject." --ACM Computing Reviews

"It has all the right ingredients: rich contents, friendly, personal language, subtle humor, the right references, and a plethora of pointers to resources." -- P. Takis Metaxas, Wellesley College

"This is the most approachable book on algorithms I have." -- Megan Squire, Elon University, USA

This newly expanded and updated second edition of the best-selling classic continues to take the "mystery" out of designing algorithms, and analyzing their efficacy and efficiency. Expanding on the first edition, the book now serves as the primary textbook of choice for algorithm design courses while maintaining its status as the premier practical reference guide to algorithms for programmers, researchers, and students.

The reader-friendly Algorithm Design Manual provides straightforward access to combinatorial algorithms technology, stressing design over analysis. The first part, Techniques, provides accessible instruction on methods for designing and analyzing computer algorithms. The second part, Resources, is intended for browsing and reference, and comprises the catalog of algorithmic resources, implementations and an extensive bibliography.

NEW to the second edition:

? Doubles the tutorial material and exercises over the first edition

? Provides full online support for lecturers, and a completely updated and improved website component with lecture slides, audio and video

? Contains a unique catalog identifying the 75 algorithmic problems that arise most often in practice, leading the reader down the right path to solve them

? Includes several NEW "war stories" relating experiences from real-world applications

? Provides up-to-date links leading to the very best algorithm implementations available in C, C++, and Java

ADDITIONAL Learning Tools:

? Exercises include "job interview problems" from major software companies

? Highlighted take-home lesson boxes emphasize essential concepts

? Provides comprehensive references to both survey articles and the primary literature

? Exercises points to relevant programming contest challenge problems

? Many algorithms presented with actual code (written in C) as well as pseudo-code

? A full set of lecture slides and additional material available at www.algorist.com

Written by a well-known algorithms researcher who received the IEEE Computer Science and Engineering Teaching Award, this new edition of The Algorithm Design Manual is an essential learning tool for students needing a solid grounding in algorithms, as well as a special text/reference for professionals who need an authoritative and insightful guide. Professor Skiena is also author of the popular Springer text, Programming Challenges: The Programming Contest Training Manual.

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