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I never hear anybody mentioning him but Jeff Erickson's 'Algorithms' textbook [1] has some of the most lucid explanations I've come across. CLRS is often times

I never hear anybody mentioning him but Jeff Erickson's 'Algorithms' textbook [1] has some of the most lucid explanations I've come across. CLRS is often times impenetrable and for the times I didn't like its explanation of something I turned to Jeff Erickson's book and it hasn't failed me yet. I'd urge anybody trying to solidify algorithms and data structures to take a look at it. [1] http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/ http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/

kyteland 10y ago
Jeff is also a great professor. If you ever get the chance to take a course with him, do it. You won't regret it. I had him for both 173 and 373 back in the day, and credit his teaching style for the immense amount of material I picked up. Also, this: http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/pikachu.html http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/pikachu.html
- excelangue 10y ago
  I'm currently taking 374 (the new 373). Unfortunately Jeff isn't leading my lectures, but the couple times he's subbed in were excellent. Really looking forward to taking 473 with Jeff next semester!
marrs 10y ago
is there a print version?
- stuxnet79 10y ago
  No but I printed this PDF (http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/everything.pdf http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/everything....). 1250 pages. Not sure about the legality of it.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - shogun21 10y ago
    Suppose we want to prove that every string is perfectly cromulent. I love it already.
  - jefferickson 10y ago
    Totally legal! (Just don't sell it for profit.)
    - pryelluw 10y ago
      Fantastic resource. Do you have nay more like it? I'm always hungry for stuff like this. :)
    - frr149 10y ago
      Why don't you sell it for profit? ;-) Lulu or Kindle if you don't want to deal with editors.
      - rak00n 10y ago
        +1 As a kindle user I'd love to see a kindle edition.
        dkersten 10y ago
        I would happily pay for both a kindle and print version.
  - pryelluw 10y ago
    Great link, thanks for sharing.
  - darylfritz 10y ago
    > Not sure about the legality of it. Says on the title page: Creative Commons! "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International" https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
nextos 10y ago
For beginners, I've always thought Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman's Data Structures & Algorithms is a bit under-rated [1]. It's short, mathematically inclined and contains very clear Pascal pseudo-code. [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201000237 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201000237
- ljw1001 10y ago
  (edit) Their book, The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms, impressed me greatly for the clarity of the thinking and conciseness of explanation, not just compared to other algorithm books, but against anything I've read in any subject.
jefferickson 10y ago
Thanks for the shout-out! If you can't remember the long URL, http://algorithms.wtf http://algorithms.wtf also works. Please send me bug reports!
- 0xmohit 10y ago
  Thanks. Easy to remember domain :)
- Jun8 10y ago
  Looks great, thanks a lot! While causally browsing I noted the following in the 8-queens backtracking example: "The following recursive algorithm, essentially due to Gauss (who called it “methodical groping”), ..." Hilarious, especially given the current situation. I'd like to know what his original German term was.
  - ludwigschubert 10y ago
    Oh this is a fun rabbit hole to go down: Gauss indeed wrote "methodisches tatonniren"[1], the latter of which is not a common German word, nor does it suggest grouping. I believe it to be an expression used at the time which was borrowed from French "tâtonner", which means "fumble", to describe a step-by-step process, "approaching" a solution. The closest I get in modern German is "herantasten", which in turn does not have an elegant English translation; you will have to take its elements "heran" (onto) and "tasten" (touch/feel/grope) individually to judge how close it is to fumble. So, methodical groping is not as far off as you might have thought! [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=3jEDAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA106&lpg=RA1-PA106&dq=8+königinnen+gauss&source=bl&ots=BuaJSJydKs&sig=1Z78TngV_y6IyQ8QNRwSVmvohvY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim0v3zhZHQAhXolFQKHStQCFYQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q&f=true https://books.google.com/books?id=3jEDAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA106&... This may be a typo—the regular verb form would be "tatonnieren"—then again a lot of German spelling has changed since the time of those letters.
    - bonzini 10y ago
      The word "tâtonner" should be the same as Italian "procedere (proceed) a tastoni", since usually the circumflex accent in French correspond to an "s" in Italian. The meaning is "feel your way"---proceed carefully and at every step feel what is around you, as if you were walking on complete darkness.
justicezyx 10y ago
I personally favor TAOCP much more than CLRS. TAOCP reads so much fun. The historical accounting is so appealing. "Algorithm design manual" is another my favorite. I never find CLRS appealing to read other than being used as a textbook in a formal class.
bogomipz 10y ago
I had no idea about this. This looks fantastic! Theres a whole chapter on "advanced dynamic programming."! I know people like to debate the merits of "thee algorithm book" be it CLRS or Desgupta etc. but I find that having many such books is extremely beneficial - occasionally one author will articulate a particular insight that will resonate for me in such a way that makes me believe I maybe hadn't completely internalized that thing before, despite having read similar content from other sources on many occasions and believing I had. Anyway this looks like a great such addition to my personal canon. Thanks for sharing!
susan_hall 10y ago
It is strange that neither Google nor Amazon can find this book: https://www.google.com/search?q=Algorithms+Jeff+Erickson+site%3Aamazon.com&oq=Algorithms+Jeff+Erickson+site%3Aamazon.com&aqs=chrome..69i57.3628j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=Algorithms+Jeff+Erickson+sit...
- avyfain 10y ago
  According to the author, it isn't a textbook: "Am I writing a textbook? No. All textbooks suck."
  - susan_hall 10y ago
    So why can't Google find it? If it is an article, an essay or a series of lectures , Google should find it.
    - chillee 10y ago
      It's only available as an ebook. I found it trivially at https://www.google.com/search?q=algorithms+jeff+erickson https://www.google.com/search?q=algorithms+jeff+erickson

kyteland 10y ago

Jeff is also a great professor. If you ever get the chance to take a course with him, do it. You won't regret it. I had him for both 173 and 373 back in the day, and credit his teaching style for the immense amount of material I picked up. Also, this: http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/pikachu.html http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/pikachu.html

excelangue 10y ago
I'm currently taking 374 (the new 373). Unfortunately Jeff isn't leading my lectures, but the couple times he's subbed in were excellent. Really looking forward to taking 473 with Jeff next semester!

marrs 10y ago

is there a print version?

stuxnet79 10y ago
No but I printed this PDF (http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/everything.pdf http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/everything....). 1250 pages. Not sure about the legality of it.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- shogun21 10y ago
  Suppose we want to prove that every string is perfectly cromulent. I love it already.
- jefferickson 10y ago
  Totally legal! (Just don't sell it for profit.)
  - pryelluw 10y ago
    Fantastic resource. Do you have nay more like it? I'm always hungry for stuff like this. :)
  - frr149 10y ago
    Why don't you sell it for profit? ;-) Lulu or Kindle if you don't want to deal with editors.
    - rak00n 10y ago
      +1 As a kindle user I'd love to see a kindle edition.
      - dkersten 10y ago
        I would happily pay for both a kindle and print version.
- pryelluw 10y ago
  Great link, thanks for sharing.
- darylfritz 10y ago
  > Not sure about the legality of it. Says on the title page: Creative Commons! "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International" https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

nextos 10y ago

For beginners, I've always thought Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman's Data Structures & Algorithms is a bit under-rated [1]. It's short, mathematically inclined and contains very clear Pascal pseudo-code. [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201000237 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201000237

ljw1001 10y ago
(edit) Their book, The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms, impressed me greatly for the clarity of the thinking and conciseness of explanation, not just compared to other algorithm books, but against anything I've read in any subject.

jefferickson 10y ago

Thanks for the shout-out! If you can't remember the long URL, http://algorithms.wtf http://algorithms.wtf also works. Please send me bug reports!

0xmohit 10y ago
Thanks. Easy to remember domain :)
Jun8 10y ago
Looks great, thanks a lot! While causally browsing I noted the following in the 8-queens backtracking example: "The following recursive algorithm, essentially due to Gauss (who called it “methodical groping”), ..." Hilarious, especially given the current situation. I'd like to know what his original German term was.
- ludwigschubert 10y ago
  Oh this is a fun rabbit hole to go down: Gauss indeed wrote "methodisches tatonniren"[1], the latter of which is not a common German word, nor does it suggest grouping. I believe it to be an expression used at the time which was borrowed from French "tâtonner", which means "fumble", to describe a step-by-step process, "approaching" a solution. The closest I get in modern German is "herantasten", which in turn does not have an elegant English translation; you will have to take its elements "heran" (onto) and "tasten" (touch/feel/grope) individually to judge how close it is to fumble. So, methodical groping is not as far off as you might have thought! [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=3jEDAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA106&lpg=RA1-PA106&dq=8+königinnen+gauss&source=bl&ots=BuaJSJydKs&sig=1Z78TngV_y6IyQ8QNRwSVmvohvY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim0v3zhZHQAhXolFQKHStQCFYQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q&f=true https://books.google.com/books?id=3jEDAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA106&... This may be a typo—the regular verb form would be "tatonnieren"—then again a lot of German spelling has changed since the time of those letters.
  - bonzini 10y ago
    The word "tâtonner" should be the same as Italian "procedere (proceed) a tastoni", since usually the circumflex accent in French correspond to an "s" in Italian. The meaning is "feel your way"---proceed carefully and at every step feel what is around you, as if you were walking on complete darkness.

justicezyx 10y ago

I personally favor TAOCP much more than CLRS. TAOCP reads so much fun. The historical accounting is so appealing. "Algorithm design manual" is another my favorite. I never find CLRS appealing to read other than being used as a textbook in a formal class.

bogomipz 10y ago

I had no idea about this. This looks fantastic! Theres a whole chapter on "advanced dynamic programming."! I know people like to debate the merits of "thee algorithm book" be it CLRS or Desgupta etc. but I find that having many such books is extremely beneficial - occasionally one author will articulate a particular insight that will resonate for me in such a way that makes me believe I maybe hadn't completely internalized that thing before, despite having read similar content from other sources on many occasions and believing I had. Anyway this looks like a great such addition to my personal canon. Thanks for sharing!

susan_hall 10y ago

It is strange that neither Google nor Amazon can find this book: https://www.google.com/search?q=Algorithms+Jeff+Erickson+site%3Aamazon.com&oq=Algorithms+Jeff+Erickson+site%3Aamazon.com&aqs=chrome..69i57.3628j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=Algorithms+Jeff+Erickson+sit...

avyfain 10y ago
According to the author, it isn't a textbook: "Am I writing a textbook? No. All textbooks suck."
- susan_hall 10y ago
  So why can't Google find it? If it is an article, an essay or a series of lectures , Google should find it.
  - chillee 10y ago
    It's only available as an ebook. I found it trivially at https://www.google.com/search?q=algorithms+jeff+erickson https://www.google.com/search?q=algorithms+jeff+erickson