Amazon.com: The Algorithm Design Manual (9781848000698): Steven S. Skiena: Books

Review

From the reviews of the 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, an extensive bibliography … make the book an invaluable resource for everyone interested in the subject." (ACM Computing Reviews) "My absolute favorite for this kind of interview preparation is Steven Skiena’s The Algorithm Design Manual. More than any other book it helped me understand just how astonishingly commonplace … graph problems are -- they should be part of every working programmer’s toolkit. The book also covers basic data structures and sorting algorithms, which is a nice bonus. … every 1 – pager has a simple picture, making it easy to remember. This is a great way to learn how to identify hundreds of problem types." (Steve Yegge, Steve Yegge’s Blog, March, 2008) "For a decade, Steven Skiena’s Algorithm Design Manual retained its title as the best and most comprehensive practical algorithm guide to help identify and solve problems. It is now available in an improved second edition that is worth buying simply for the updates. … Every programmer should read this book, and anyone working in the field should keep it close to hand. … Would I recommend it? Absolutely. This is the best investment … a programmer or aspiring programmer can make." (Harold Thimbleby, Times Higher Education, November, 2008) "Addressing the main difficulties of solving problems, this book goes far beyond the design of algorithms. It is essential for scientists, engineers, and any professionals who aim to solve problems, with a noticeable emphasis on real problems. It will not only serve as a valuable undergraduate textbook, but it will also become an irreplaceable reference guide for most professionals in the area." (Carlos Linares Lopez, Computing Reviews, February, 2009) "Skiena focuses on the practical aspects of algorithm design and use. … this work fills an important gap in the knowledge of CS practitioners and students. … this book is suitable as a text for an undergraduate algorithms class, but also as an invaluable reference for the practicing programmer. … This second edition has updated the bibliography to include recent works, making it an extensive bibliography. The index is also thorough and very useful for finding specific problems." (William Fahle, ACM Computing Reviews, December, 2008) “Algorithms are the very heart of computing … . This book is about right for most people. … Each of the topics is treated in a readable informal style with lots of asides and accounts of personal experiences - ‘war stories’ in implementing algorithms. … If you want to use it as a course textbook then there are lots of exercises at the end of every chapter. Highly recommended.” (Mike James, I Programmer, September, 2009) “The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena is aimed at two groups of people: students and professionals. … It is written in an informal style that I found pleasant and engaging. … The book’s unique structure makes it more likely to be immediately useful to the practitioner who has problem to solve and wants to quickly make progress … . the book succeeds admirably. … would be helpful to the student who has never seen this material before. … Overall, I recommend this book warmly.” (Neelakantan Kartha, The Book Review Column, 2011)

Review

From the reviews of the 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, an extensive bibliography ! make the book an invaluable resource for everyone interested in the subject." (ACM Computing Reviews) "My absolute favorite for this kind of interview preparation is Steven Skiena's The Algorithm Design Manual. More than any other book it helped me understand just how astonishingly commonplace ! graph problems are -- they should be part of every working programmer's toolkit. The book also covers basic data structures and sorting algorithms, which is a nice bonus. ! every 1 -- pager has a simple picture, making it easy to remember. This is a great way to learn how to identify hundreds of problem types." (Steve Yegge, Steve Yegge's Blog, March, 2008) "For a decade, Steven Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual retained its title as the best and most comprehensive practical algorithm guide to help identify and solve problems. It is now available in an improved second edition that is worth buying simply for the updates. ! Every programmer should read this book, and anyone working in the field should keep it close to hand. ! Would I recommend it? Absolutely. This is the best investment ! a programmer or aspiring programmer can make." (Harold Thimbleby, Times Higher Education, November, 2008) "Addressing the main difficulties of solving problems, this book goes far beyond the design of algorithms. It is essential for scientists, engineers, and any professionals who aim to solve problems, with a noticeable emphasis on real problems. It will not only serve as a valuable undergraduate textbook, but it will also become an irreplaceable reference guide for most professionals in the area." (Carlos Linares Lopez, Computing Reviews, February, 2009) "Skiena focuses on the practical aspects of algorithm design and use. ! this work fills an important gap in the knowledge of CS practitioners and students. ! this book is suitable as a text for an undergraduate algorithms class, but also as an invaluable reference for the practicing programmer. ! This second edition has updated the bibliography to include recent works, making it an extensive bibliography. The index is also thorough and very useful for finding specific problems." (William Fahle, ACM Computing Reviews, December, 2008) "Algorithms are the very heart of computing ! . This book is about right for most people. ! Each of the topics is treated in a readable informal style with lots of asides and accounts of personal experiences - 'war stories' in implementing algorithms. ! If you want to use it as a course textbook then there are lots of exercises at the end of every chapter. Highly recommended." (Mike James, I Programmer, September, 2009) "The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena is aimed at two groups of people: students and professionals. ! It is written in an informal style that I found pleasant and engaging. ! The book's unique structure makes it more likely to be immediately useful to the practitioner who has problem to solve and wants to quickly make progress ! . the book succeeds admirably. ! would be helpful to the student who has never seen this material before. ! Overall, I recommend this book warmly." (Neelakantan Kartha, The Book Review Column, 2011) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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39 of 45 people found the following review helpful

Could be called "The Joy of Algorithms" December 31, 2009

By George H.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

My Dad loved to cook and one of his favorite cookbooks was "The Joy of Cooking." By the time he died, the pages of his copy were stained and dusted with flour from being constantly used in his kitchen.

Why did he like it so much? Because not only did it have great recipes, it also explored the basic ingredients and methods and told interesting stories about cooking.

That's why "The Algorithm Design Manual" could be called "The Joy of Algorithms." Not only has it become my "goto" book for finding the right algorithmic approach to a problem, it is a joy to read with Skiena's "war stories" and his lively writing style.

Just like my Dad's "The Joy of Cooking" was never far from his stove, "The Algorithm Design Manual" will never be far from my computer.

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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Great book. Maybe a beginner book, but not for comp sci novices! October 3, 2010

By E. Jones

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've got the Cormen book as well, which I love. This book is a much more readable text, by far. I think that others here have broken down the areas covered quite well; so I'll just give a stream of consciousness version of what I liked about the book.

It gives the subject matter with from a need to know standpoint. It also gives you real world examples of how the author has had to utilize algorithms not just to implement a particular solution, but to also optimize existing solutions. Although it doesn't give the hardcore theoretical breakdowns in Cormen's text, don't think that the subject matter is presented in a lightweight format. You will still be given some level of mathematical proof for some algorithms and data structure optimizations.

Although less terse than the typical text on Algorithms, it doesn't try too hard to be cute and quirky. The humor is well placed and not too overbearing.

Though less academic than "Introduction To Algorithms", this ain't the book to pickup to learn about coding algorithms for a quick study prior to an interview. However, if you're planning to get ready for interviews maybe a few months down the road...go for it!

A caveat...I got the Kindle version for the Android, which is none too forgiving when it comes to images. So diagrams look horrible on the phone (even with the DroidX's big-assed screen). It looks fine on the laptop, however.

Enjoy!

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Good material - Index sucks April 6, 2011

By Jason Schorn

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I recently bought the second edition in order to do some personal research and, as such, did not plan on reading the book from cover-to-cover. I intend to use the book as a reference and therefore utilize mainly the index and, to a lesser extent, the table of contents. Yes the material is this book is, in general, sufficient, but the index is bogus. The following presents some examples in order to valid my claim (again, I am referring to the second edition and I am NOT making any claims against the first edition):

(1) Splines --> p. 294 --> Intro to numerical problems with no reference to splines.
(2) Lisp --> p. 409 --> Section on (un)constrained optimisation - no Lisp.
(3) Linked lists -->
(3a) only mentioned in terms of linked lists vs arrays. Correct on p. 368
(3b) p. 72 --> Section stacks/queues or dictionaries. It should refer to pg. 70

My only other complaint (so far) is rather minor and came about while reading the first chapter. In particular, section 1.3.4 on Induction and recursion where the author attempts to use induction in order to prove some function Increment(y). Technically the author is using strong induction and not mathematical induction.

These are just some of the examples of how Springer and their talented editorial staff goofed up, not a representative picture meant to portray the book as an overall failure. As mentioned previously, I would highly recommend this book provided you can get over a faulty index and are not overly pedantic when it comes to someone elses use of Mathematical terminology.

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