Customer Reviews

Combinatorics for Computer Science (Dover Books on Mathematics)

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While most computer science departments require their students to take calculus, with few exceptions it is a skill that they will not use. The mathematics used by computer scientists is almost exclusively discrete in nature. In fact, assumptions concerning continuity can often lead to subtle errors in programming, the laws of algebra do not universally apply in computing. This book presents most of the key ideas of discrete mathematics applied to computing and the coverage is thorough and detailed.

It is split into two parts, linear order and graphs, trees and recursion. The emphasis is on detailed problem solving rather than explanations of the foundations. For example, there is a detailed example of a lexicographic bucket sort on page 16. The material is presented using higher level mathematical notation, so it is best suited for graduate level courses. A large number of exercises are included, but no solutions are given.

If you are looking for a text to be used in classes that have significant discrete mathematics prerequisites, then this book is certainly appropriate. It would be best suited for students with a great deal of programming experience.

I am a software engineer by trade, and this is the book I wish I had with me.

Today, I don't see it as a textbook for coursework, but I think there are probably better in today's world. Though I will let the other reviewer's viewpoint on this address that issue.

However, this is an excellent book for any programmer or software engineer. Honestly I doubt most programmers have this math background ( okay contradicting myself a little, but I did say the other reviewer covered the academic side of this ).

The structure of this books makes it an excellent self-study or reference for actually coding. You will have to brush up on the notation at the beginning of the book, but that is minor.

It is well written and has very broad coverage of the subject and does not lose rigor or examples. It is well illustrated when it needs to be. Whether you are writing sorting routines or want to really understand and implement graph theory. ( the graph theory coverage is outstanding. ). Honestly you could spend a month learning everything you wanted to know about sorting and network optization from this book.

It is not an easy textbook, and honestly I have alot to learn from it yet, but I just simply have to revisit some of my math foundations. But even if you get lost on part of the material in the book, it is still worth it for what you will get.

The only cons are some of the material not covered in this book from number theory, which newer textbooks really cover well.

This excellent reference has numerous examples, definitions and exercises covering trees, graphs, linked lists etc. This book provides a great companion to any data structures text.