4 ms·

Ask HN: Recommendations for a book about algorithms and data structures?

20 points by eecks 11y ago

Is there any book that acts as a reference book for algorithms and/or data structures that have the following: * Explanation * Code examples * History (when/who first used it) * Application examples

atmosx 11y ago
Hm, is history important? There's wikipedia if you're interested in the 'history' of a specific algorithm. For the rest, most books I've seen have pseudo-code, which is easy to translate to code. The classic textbooks are: * "Algorithms" by Robert Sedgewick et al. * "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen et al. If you're extremely serious about algorithms, you might wanna go directly with the bible: TAOCP[1]. [1] http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html
- eecks 11y ago
  I would love to go with The Art of Computer Programming.. but I am already confused reading that page. Is this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Computer-Programming-Fundamental-Algorithms/dp/0201896834/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444594221&sr=1-2&keywords=the+art+of+computer+programming http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Computer-Programming-Fundamental... part 1 or is this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Programming-Fascicle-MMIX-Millennium/dp/0201853922/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444594221&sr=1-4&keywords=the+art+of+computer+programming http://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Programming-Fascicle-MMIX-M...
  - dwarman 11y ago
    You'll be wanting the first one, volume 1, and also Volume 2 for data structures. These are classics, still relevant, and will give you a good grounding to pursue the more recent offerings suggested by other answerers here. Fascicles is a new effort by Knuth and is more hardware oriented.
oddbear 11y ago
I like Grokking Algorithms (pdf only, book done in december). It's quite easy to understand and start with, compared to other algorithms books I have seen.
- suryon 11y ago
  +1 for mentioning entry level book. Can anyone comment about quality?
cristaloleg 11y ago
Algorithms [Dasgupta, Papadimitriou, Vazirani] (2008) Algorithm Design [Kleinberg, Tardos] (2005)
aditya 11y ago
CLR is probably the easiest to get started with: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Edition-Thomas-Cormen/dp/0262033844 http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Edition-Thomas...
caioc 11y ago
Very specific to OOP : "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides
- mherrmann 11y ago
  Great book, but as you said very OOP specific. It has no contents on big-O complexity and very little on algorithms.
brudgers 11y ago
The Art of Computer Programming It also contains instructive exercises and answers.
DanBC 11y ago
How to Solve it by Computer was popular (probably still is in some places) but uses Pascal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_it_by_Computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_it_by_Computer
ystad 11y ago
The Algorithm Design Manual by Stephen Skiena http://www.algorist.com/ http://www.algorist.com/
- charlieegan3 11y ago
  This was one of our course textbooks - it's got good exercises and most of the answers are available online.
- mherrmann 11y ago
  I second that. It's what Google recommend (among other things) to prepare for an interview.
  - dyoo1979 11y ago
    Hyperlink to the recommendation: https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/guide-to-technical-development.html https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/guide-to-techn... It's under the "Develop a strong understanding of algorithms and data structures" part.
- eecks 11y ago
  Cool, I got the pdf version. Is this legit available for free? I just found it as the first link on Google
tk120404 11y ago
http://visualgo.net/ http://visualgo.net/
bordercases 11y ago
Look up "Introduction to Algorithms: A Creative Approach" by Manber and "Algorithm Design Manual" by Skiena. The former has the best exercises (borderline mathematical), but is lightest on implementation. The latter has the best introductory pedagogy and has implementation code, but is not what I would use if I want to grok algorithms deeply. People keep recommending Cormen. He's the book you get AFTER you understand algorithms. Cormen reads more like a reference manual. Cormen can substitute in for Skiena in a pinch. Skiena sounds like the one you want most of all though.

20 points by eecks 11y ago

Is there any book that acts as a reference book for algorithms and/or data structures that have the following: * Explanation * Code examples * History (when/who first used it) * Application examples

atmosx 11y ago

Hm, is history important? There's wikipedia if you're interested in the 'history' of a specific algorithm. For the rest, most books I've seen have pseudo-code, which is easy to translate to code. The classic textbooks are: * "Algorithms" by Robert Sedgewick et al. * "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen et al. If you're extremely serious about algorithms, you might wanna go directly with the bible: TAOCP[1]. [1] http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html

eecks 11y ago
I would love to go with The Art of Computer Programming.. but I am already confused reading that page. Is this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Computer-Programming-Fundamental-Algorithms/dp/0201896834/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444594221&sr=1-2&keywords=the+art+of+computer+programming http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Computer-Programming-Fundamental... part 1 or is this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Programming-Fascicle-MMIX-Millennium/dp/0201853922/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444594221&sr=1-4&keywords=the+art+of+computer+programming http://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Programming-Fascicle-MMIX-M...
- dwarman 11y ago
  You'll be wanting the first one, volume 1, and also Volume 2 for data structures. These are classics, still relevant, and will give you a good grounding to pursue the more recent offerings suggested by other answerers here. Fascicles is a new effort by Knuth and is more hardware oriented.

oddbear 11y ago

I like Grokking Algorithms (pdf only, book done in december). It's quite easy to understand and start with, compared to other algorithms books I have seen.

suryon 11y ago
+1 for mentioning entry level book. Can anyone comment about quality?

cristaloleg 11y ago

Algorithms [Dasgupta, Papadimitriou, Vazirani] (2008) Algorithm Design [Kleinberg, Tardos] (2005)

aditya 11y ago

CLR is probably the easiest to get started with: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Edition-Thomas-Cormen/dp/0262033844 http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Edition-Thomas...

caioc 11y ago

Very specific to OOP : "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides

mherrmann 11y ago
Great book, but as you said very OOP specific. It has no contents on big-O complexity and very little on algorithms.

brudgers 11y ago

The Art of Computer Programming It also contains instructive exercises and answers.

DanBC 11y ago

How to Solve it by Computer was popular (probably still is in some places) but uses Pascal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_it_by_Computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_it_by_Computer

ystad 11y ago

The Algorithm Design Manual by Stephen Skiena http://www.algorist.com/ http://www.algorist.com/

charlieegan3 11y ago
This was one of our course textbooks - it's got good exercises and most of the answers are available online.
mherrmann 11y ago
I second that. It's what Google recommend (among other things) to prepare for an interview.
- dyoo1979 11y ago
  Hyperlink to the recommendation: https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/guide-to-technical-development.html https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/guide-to-techn... It's under the "Develop a strong understanding of algorithms and data structures" part.
eecks 11y ago
Cool, I got the pdf version. Is this legit available for free? I just found it as the first link on Google

tk120404 11y ago

http://visualgo.net/ http://visualgo.net/

bordercases 11y ago

Look up "Introduction to Algorithms: A Creative Approach" by Manber and "Algorithm Design Manual" by Skiena. The former has the best exercises (borderline mathematical), but is lightest on implementation. The latter has the best introductory pedagogy and has implementation code, but is not what I would use if I want to grok algorithms deeply. People keep recommending Cormen. He's the book you get AFTER you understand algorithms. Cormen reads more like a reference manual. Cormen can substitute in for Skiena in a pinch. Skiena sounds like the one you want most of all though.