Bundle of Algorithms in Java, Third Edition, Parts 1-5: Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching, and Graph Algorithms (3rd Edition) (Pts. 1-5) (Paperback)

by Robert Sedgewick (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Texts provide a tool set for programmers in implementing, debugging, and using graph algorithms across a wide range of computer applications. Volume 1 listed in approval week 50-2002; Volume 2 listed in approval week 32-2003. Softcover.

About the Author

Robert Sedgewick is one of the most revered individuals in computer science. He is the William O. Baker Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. He is a director of Adobe Systems and has held visiting research positions at INRIA, the Institute for Defense Analyses, and Xerox PARC. Michael Schidlowsky contributed to the Java implementations. Michael, a Princeton graduate, is an independent software consultant specializing in object-oriented programming. Most recently he was the CTO of Teaching That Works, and the founder of xSense Corporation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1200 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 3 edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201775786
• ISBN-13: 978-0201775785
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.8 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #130,923 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, November 9, 2005

By	lew "lwndw123" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

First is Knuth, second is Corman that brings the art of algorithms closer to earth. Then is Sedgewick. This book provides very good balance between theory and practice and lets the practitioners know that programming is a bit more than just writing "if" and "for" and that the art of algorithms is not only art but also science. This book evolved from early editions (Algorithms in C, 1990) and keeps the standard. These two volumes is the must for every serious programmer.

Cons: Java code is a bit "C-ish" and makes it clear that it is easy to write C program in Java. In addition, section Geometric Algorithms from 1990 edition and other material following this section is missing in newer editions. Maybe this material will be included in Volume 3, that as rumor says, is in preparation.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent combination of books, May 25, 2004

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Sedgewick's publisher (Addison-Wesley) has gathered his two books, Algorithms in Java, parts 1-5, into one resource for developers. Convenient, for you now have something that spans the most common algorithms encountered during computer programming. Logically, the combination of the two volumes is very coherent.

(Below is my review of the Part 1-4 book.)

In my work, I have a bunch of interlinked objects. I can use tables to display these, but showing linkages is awkward. It is far more natural to graph them. This lets me use evolution, for the human eye and brain are excellent at processing images and discerning patterns in them. But I also want to algorithmically find groupings and invariant properties of the graphs. There is a danger here. In graph theory, it is very easy to inadvertantly pose a simple question that is computationally hard to solve (NP-hard). Conversely, I don't want to reinvent the wheel. From graph theory, there may well be properties of my graph that I can easily extract. Certainly, the amount of research on graphs is voluminous.

But how does one take advantage of that? Consulting research journals in maths for papers on graph theory is really feasible only for the career mathematician. But for me, graphs are just a tool; not an ends per se. So I need a book that has the right amount of complexity. It needs to get enough into the subject, beyond the trivial exposition of definitions. Yet it should not bury me in lemmas and theorems.

I found such a book! This one. A well deserved third iteration. The explanations are extremely clear. Before I encountered this text, I used Donald Knuth's "Art of Computer Programming" (which is also put out by Addison-Wesley) and his treatment of graphs. But Sedgewick's discourse is far more extensive and, to me, just as well written.

A bonus is the extensive problem sets at the ends of each chapter. Even if I have no inclination to do them, the results they give are a valuable extension of the text, by providing an extra summary of the research. I only wish that Sedgewick would provide answers, like Knuth. But this is a just a quibble.

This edition has example code in Java. Certainly nothing wrong with that. [I program in Java.] But really the code should be a secondary consideration to you. If you are a programmer and you can understand the text, then you should be of a calibre that you can write the code.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars extremelly hard to follow book, November 7, 2007

By	A. Simionoiu - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a total mess, I don't know if it's the author or the publisher but is written in a style that got me really frustrated.

The author has the bad habit of start explaining a thing a little bit (not enough to fully understand it) then say something like "we will cover this topic in depth in chapter 7", and you are in chapter 2. This sort of jump back and forth is completely frustrating, the book doesn't seem to have any kind of flow. The same technique is used inside a chapter too, you start reading about something then the author start diverging in the middle of the topic to come back after few pages.

The code samples are a total mess, it's just really bad. I mean common, read any introductory book in software development and you get warned in the first chapter not to name your variables i,j,v i1...just give them a meaningful name.
Every time I read sample code in this book I had to spent at least 20 minutes deciphering what the variables are suppose to be, why the author define variables that are not used at all or they don't have any kind of effect on the end result (yes, I did found a whole bunch of these). If you don't know Java or don't care to follow any of Java standards fine, write C code or something, at least I will be prepared to read obfuscated code.

I give this book 2 stars, it has after all a lot of information in it, even if it is scattered all over the place