Customer Reviews

Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in Java

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hi, before I go any further, let me mention that I bought a slightly older edition - my edition has 542 pages - so it seems that the author is still working on the book. But the book shouldn't have changed much.

This is an advance book on Data Structures - the author waste no time with the basics (unlike lots of other data structure books that spends like 50 pages going over basic language elements like arrays)

Let me stress the fact that this is an advance book, containing material that's NOT typical of a second quarter data structure class. Topics like d-Heaps, Binomial Heaps, NP-Completeness, Deterministic Skip Lists, and get this JAVA 1.2 COLLECTION API! - These things are definitely not for beginners. DO NOT read this book until you understand basic data structures from some other book. Perhaps: "Data Structures & Algorithms in Java (Mitchell Waite Signature Series)"??

That's why in the title of this review, I said that the book unleashes the full power of Java. If we just stick to simple binary trees or the usual heaps, C++ is just as good as Java. Java can only really beat C++ when it's used for complicated object systems. So by spending about half of time on advance data structures, AND PROVIDING SO MUCH SOURCE CODE, this book reveals the full power of Java.

So that's the good part (well for some people) - this book really puts Java to work. Here's the bad part, the author is really smart but goes really fast. I never learned anything advanced in my first pass. If it's something new for me, I always have to reread a passage at least twice, and VERY SLOWLY too, to grasp the material. Well, hard things never come easily. Mr. Weiss (author), if you are reading this, more pictures would be nice.

Another thing that annoys me is the cost. Well, it seems all data structure books are expensive except for the "Data Structures & Algorithms in Java (Mitchell Waite Signature Series)" book. That's definitely the book to buy for most people.

Get the "Data Structures & Algorithms in Java (Mitchell Waite Signature Series)" book first. Then get this book if you want to learn more (OR JUST TO SEE THE SOURCE CODE AND CHEAT - that's why I bought the book. Well, that's cause I am too dumb/lazy to get the AVL trees to work. So I get the book and cheat!) One last time, the book is hard to understand (or is it just that the material is hard? or is it just me?).

As at least one previous reviewer has stressed, this is _not_ a book for beginners. It is also not necessarily a book for users who simply want access to algorithm code (although the code is excellent, easy to read, and fully Java-aware). However, for the advanced user, it does an excellent job of living up to its title, particularly in its analysis of various algorithms (as opposed to simply describing those algorithms and printing the code for them). It crams a lot of thought into 542 pages, but be prepared to take it all in slowly. This is no "Algorithms for Dummies" book, but it is the best book I have seen for algorithm development in Java, and one of the best I've seen that discusses algorithms in general.

Any time I attempt to learn a new programming language I buy two books. One is a book on the core language itself and the other a book on alogorithms. When I initially learned Java algorithms I bought Data Structures and Problem Solving Using Java which is also buy Weiss and which I highly recommend.

This book is really great because it goes beyond just coding and basic analysis and really shows rigorous analysis of every type of algorithm. So for instance in hashing it will go through linear and quadratic probing as well as double hashing. The problem with this book is that sometimes Weiss gives too much analysis and doesnt show good examples of how to make the code prove his mathematical conclusions. Overall though its a great book and I would definitely recommend it.

I give this book only 2 stars. This book is not for students taking their first course in data structures. However, I first encountered it as a required text for an introductory Data Structures course that I took. This book is not an easy nor an enjoyable read. It does not contain nearly enough visual aides i.e., graphics, screen shots, diagrams to help a reader develop a mental image of abstract data structures. It is far too technical to be used as an introductory text to Data Structures. It is a colorless, lifeless presentation of a subject that actually can be quite fun and interesting. How can a book on Data Structure be fun or interesting...Please see my review of "Data Structures And Algorithms in Java" by Robert LaFore. Mr. Lafore's book is OUTSTANDING! It has great graphics, simple explanations, a great Table of Contents, and Index. I bought it and it was instrumental in my getting a "A" in the course. I recommend you buy it instead of Mr. Weiss's product.

This book really impressed me. The author goes far beyond explaining how to code algorithms and actually explains the logic behind the various data structures. One warning, though, if you're not already somewhat familiar with the subject, you won't be able to understand much of the book. I would recommend this for anyone who wants to do serious programming in Java or any other language. Nearly every chapter contained something that I'll be able to use in the future.

This book is next to useless, because of its superficial approach to almost any topic it covers. You would be hard-pressed to find a single data structure, clearly presented and explained conceptually and with examples. Many times the author would skip on the concept and would attempt to explain to you something, from the start based on examples, which would be represented by the start point and the end point with no explanation in between.

I would understand if the author would omit some topics based on the premise that students should already know them, but instead he chooses to contain everything( and as a result contain nothing in particular).

On the other hand in more "advanced" topic sections it is not unusual to find statements of the sort "beyond the scope of this book". Which leads me (and many others) to ask, what is the scope of this book?

If you don't know Java, don't expect to be able to learn the things you need to for a class. If you learned how to do alorgithms in mathematics, it may not be enough for computer science. You probably want to get a supplemental or two if you have to get this book for class. It is quite advanced and a hard read.

PROs: decent coverage of the material

CONs: mediocre writing style ("Irregardless"?) and coding style; occasional bugs/typos in example code; poor explanation of Java generics

This book is quite advanced as many others have written in their reviews. Maybe it should have had a "pre-requisites" section, telling what background the author expects from the reader. BUT with that said, I love this book and could not put it down from the time I started reading it.

Weiss has driven the points across very well. Right from page 1 the book is quite exciting to read. Weiss stresses the importance of recursion and shows many good (and a bad) uses of recursion. Chapter 2 illustrates bad and good algorithms with elegant examples - all the algorithms and their computational complexities are explained in detail very well in Sec. 2.4.3. I could not wait to get to the O(N) algorithm, and then there is the surprise - it is so simple, what the heck am I missing? And then you realize you are not dumb and the short program does involve some serious intelligence behind it!

This book has really flexed my mind very well and I love reading it! I am sure I will learn a lot more as I read more from it. And I feel this book does not deserve a poor 3-point rating and does deserve more 5-point ratings by advanced readers.

I felt the author has a firm understanding of the concepts and truly what he wanted to convey, but this book lacked a great deal for beginners or newcomers to Java. Far too many of the examples were tough to understand and in many cases simply un-answered. This is not a book for beginners.