C++ Plus Data Structures, Third Edition (Hardcover)

~ Nell Dale (Author)
Key Phrases: software engineering principles, binary search trees, empty element, Sorted List, Case Study, Priority Queues (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

C++ Plus Data Structures is designed for a course in Data Structures where C++ is the programming language. The book focuses on abstract data types as viewed from three different perspectives: their specification, their application, and their implementation. The authors stress computer science theory and software engineering principles, including modularization, data encapsulation, information hiding, data abstraction, object-oriented decomposition, functional decomposition, the analysis of algorithms, and life-cycle software verification methods. Finally, through classic Dale pedagogy students are offered a clear, easy-to-understand discussion of important theoretical constructs and their implementation in C++.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 816 pages
• Publisher: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc.; 3 Sub edition (November 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763704814
• ISBN-13: 978-0763704810
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #335,663 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #19 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Algorithms > Data Structures
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How to teach fish to swim and birds to fly, May 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: C++ Plus Data Structures (Hardcover)

I've been in college as teacher and student for almost 40 years, and this is one of the most soul-destroying textbooks in any field I have studied.

When introducing fundamentals, the authors often express themselves poorly and try to compensate through repetition and paraphrase. This confuses the student fresh to the material, since it is not clear whether the same point is being repeated, or developed, or a new one introduced. On the other hand, they simply skirt concepts--exception handling, for example--that need to be explained in detail. Instead of straightforwardly presenting new material, they tiptoe around it through constructs of their own design which are no more easy to learn and whose relation to the essential point is unclear. For example, something like myNode->next->back refers to the node pointed to by the back pointer of the node following myNode, i.e. to myNode itself. Not too mind-boggling. But first they have to lead us through a song and dance about a notation they invented which represents the preceding as back(next(myNode)), which is (a) unnecessary, (b) more complex, and (c) really confusing because (a) it is exactly backwards, and (b) the most deeply nested item is one that dominates the structure. The whole book is like this, a weird combination of aimlessness with a hidden agenda, expressed in patronizing, humorless, finger-wagging.

Other reviewers call it a good reference work; it is not. It is poorly indexed, partly because the explanation of a single concept may appear at intervals through several chapters of context which, though rambling, is a necessary to grasp the meaning.

Note that the enthusiastic reviews of this book come from a software reviewer, someone who finds this the clearest of the _three_ data structure books he's used, and someone who recommends it to advanced programmers, granting that you have to understand C++ classes to follow the book--although the book's task is to _introduce_ C++ classes. Another says that all previous courses just taught C++ coding--but this is a second-semester text! In other words, it's a great book to own if you don't need it.

I think teachers who like this book don't actually read it, just flip through it, checking points, "Lists, yup, linked lists, yup, doubly-linked lists, with circles and arrows on the back, yup, yup, yup, it's all there," because THEY DON'T HAVE TO LEARN ANYTHING FROM IT. I can't see how any teacher could adopt it who tried to read it from the point of view of someone new to the material presented.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst book ever, December 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: C++ Plus Data Structures (Jones and Bartlett Series in Computer Science) (Textbook Binding)

I must state that any of Nell Dale's books that I have used I have found very poorly written and organized. The problems can be hard to understand, let alone trying to answer them. It goes into excessive detail when little is needed. I must say that ANY student required to use this book better be prepared for a hard class...because this book will be the bane of your existance until you can safely get rid of it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mind numbing with a hint of confusion, August 6, 2002

By	Brian Maula "Brian" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: C++ Plus Data Structures (Hardcover)

This book is one of the worse text books, I've ever owned. The text in itself is relatively confusing. The book is lengthy, though this might be a good thing, it's lengthy in all the wrong ways. First off, the author spends more time making jokes and using point-less examples to describe a concept. Then, the author proceeds to use not-even-pseudo-code to explain concepts. Then, lastly, the code is presented, but it is not documented properly which makes it harder to trace, especially if you're a beginning data structures student (which I am). The one thing that nags me about this book is the authors use of a stack-implementation in the hash tables (pushing the data to the back of the list) rather than a queue implementation (placing the data at the front of the list), which takes up less operations. Overall, this book is NOT a good thing to buy nor even own.