Customer Reviews

Data Structures: A Pseudocode Approach With C

5 star:		(10)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am an instructor and I have used this book for the data structure course based on the recommendation of the department. After a few weeks I decided to replace it by Horowitz's "Fundamentals of Data structures in C". Really Gilberg's book is too bad. It make the subject too complicated. For example, it explains "stack" in 60+ pages long chapter! Really it gives the reader the impression that stack is a complex subject. In a nutshell, avoid this book! Go for Horowitz's book. It is more concise and easier to read.

I had to buy this book for a computer science course. Thankfully I got a refund on it when I tested out of the course two weeks later. For those who are forced to learn the contents of this book, here is what to expect, as I read the entire book.

Since I was already very familiar with most concepts ( ie. actually programmed them ), I have to say that no book has made me more confused or angry than this one. Ideas that are simple are obscured with inappropriate examples / wordings, so I actually had to read many paragraphs TWICE, to get the point of the author. Even the pictures are far from refined, and the presentation is quite amateur. There were several times I just wanted to throw the book at the wall in disgust.

As a first (and unbelievable) example, from page 2 you are given the "Commandments" of good Pseudocode. One such rule is never to use identifiers such as 'i' or 'j', as they should instead be given an 'english' name such as 'student'. On page 6, we have the first code example, where they proceed to use 'i' and 'j' within the code. Then they explain that, oh yes, 'i' and 'j' is actually a loop tradition in C++! So we're already confused! By page 6. Now, the beautiful thing is that you can read this for yourself right now, with Amazon's page excerpts. This sets the level of presentation for the rest of the book.

My apologies to those who may like this book, but please take time to explore other books before this one. Programming is far easier than is explained in this book. At this level of programming development, a bad experience can be most discouraging. And this book is very, very bad.

In order to understand the book, one must understand the author. Gilberg is the type of professor that concerns himself more with flowcharts and whether students staple assignments properly. The book was originally riddled with algorithmic mistakes that were not obvious because, guess what? You cannot compile pseudo-code.

The author seems to come from the school of thought that places importance on theory over practice. Is it no surprise that the C++ portions (from the helper site) are no more than converted C code with couts? In today's market, you have to write code, not pseudo-code. You have to compete in a global market. This fossilized notion of pseudo-code not only hides the fact that possibly the lazy professors couldn't write code to save their lives, but also is a disservice to students who WANT to not only learn data structures in the context of MODERN engineering practices, but also want to know how to IMPLEMENT data structures - be it C++, C#, Java - as well.

I'll wrap up with a final word for students and professors:
- Professors: Please don't torture your students with this book.
- Students: If your professor uses this book... Run!!

Another book killed my interest on computer programming.

Don't be fooled by any of the positive and semi-positive reviews above, this book is half-baked, poorly detailed and in a number of exercises it is simply flat out wrong!

How I wish I could contact the authors directly. While I'm sure they meant well, the result is pedestrian at best. The prose reads fairly well and the diagrams are well-printed and attractive but once you dive in and start trying to work through the many exercises... you'll soon realize the authors didn't give you adequate information to complete them.

It is not uncommon for an exercise to refer to a method about which the authors have only described in 2-3 short sentences... and worse yet, the exercises frequently ask you to construct solutions based on a combination of methods; which would be great but nowhere in the book will you find even a single example to guide you along.

The publisher's web site does provide a download file of the source-code but you'll soon find that the code is so flawed it won't even compile or build (even using the compilers the authors reference). Books says based on C yet much of the code is C++.

Do yourself and your students a favor. Avoid this book at all costs. You'd enjoy using this book as much as a mechanic would enjoy a flawed and incomplete service manual.

Lest you think I a hyper-skilled software engineer, please note that my review is based on my experience as a computer science student (undergraduate) with a 3.4 GPA.

Looking back to the first few semesters of computer science I've had so far, while they did teach me the fundamentals and mainstream paradigms in use in languages today, they definately lacked a pragmatic, real-world approach to programming, in favor of condescending, trivial examples. As a result, I've had to re-learn the languages that I use now in order to really apply them on the job (I'm a student/CM script kiddie at a VoIP co. right now).

This book uses this entry-level mentality, and it's definately a bad thing. A data structures book SHOULD, in my ever so humble opinion, be geared toward actual application. The techniques described in this book may leave you wondering how they're useful, if you were at my experience level at the time i was taking the class that used this book. The class was funnily enough called 'advanced' programming with data structures. Anyway, after dropping that class I went on to teach myself C. I started with 'The C programming language', and have now moved on to 'Mastering Algorithms in C'. Both are great resources for learning real programming, and the K & R book is renouned for its elegance. I don't know if there are any books on C++ that are as good as those two, but I'd assume that it might be a good idea to read Blarney Stroustrup's (sp??) book if you're really interested in C++.

In a nutshell, this book tries to teach with an entry-level rhetoric while covering an intermediate topic. My advice is: the first entry level programming book should be the ONLY entry level programming book you get. Trivial and Contrived examples and excercises may be a necessary stepping stone to bigger and better things, but it should be kept to a minimum!

p.s. real men program with gcc on unix

This is an incredibly rich Data Structure text presented in a easy to read and straightforward manner. The text layout is appealing to the eye with lots of supporting pictures, diagrams, tables, Pseudocode algorithms, and program code. The Pseudocode is general for any language yet closely relates to C. The program code is in C. The Pseudo code logic covers all data structures very well. ~J Franzmeier

This would be a fantastic book if only the authors had put a little more effort into their conversion of C to C++. Instead, they took their C-based book, added a couple of appendices on C++, and converted printf statements into cout statements. The result is horribly frustrating. The pseudocode approach is wonderful, the writing is generally understandable, and the example applications are simple enough to get students to read them, yet complex enough to be interesting.

But the hangovers from C, combined with the authors' laziness in converting, make the book far less useful than it could be. A small example is the way the authors repeatedly instruct the reader to check the result of "new" for a NULL return (which can't happen in C++). A huge, glaring example is the lack of any use of inheritance, one of C++'s most important features.

I would really like to use this book in my C++ course, but even given the strengths of the pseudocode approach, I doubt that I could justify choosing such an incompetent coverage of a complex and important language.

This is a great book if you are taking either a data Structure class or you have trouble understanding Data Structures.

Pros : The author has taken an entirely different approach to explain various data Structures . First the concept is explained through very clear explanation and diagrams wherever required . Then the author presents the code in pseudo code (which is not the actual code) . The pseudo code gives you the base to write the code on your own . If you have clearly understood the concept you will be able to able to build your own code.

Cons: This book has not been revised . It was written couple of years ago. The code i.e. ADT for every data Structure seems to be written in old fashion way .

I definately recommend this book to everyone . For the code part just use any of the book assigned by your instructor and if you are ambitious you should have no trouble building your own codes from the pseudocode.

Dont listen to the negative comments . If you are really in to computer science you will love this book .

This book is great and I don't know why so many people rated it negatively. I don't know if it's the best in data struct books because I haven't read all of them, but it's surely one of the top ones. Text is clearly written, very understanding step-by-step explanations accompanied with illustrations, diagrams, graphs, and charts. You don't need an instructor with this book, in fact, this is how I'm learning data struct now--on my own! Projects and excersises are very interesting and relevant to material studied in the chapter. I strongly recommend this book! :)