Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition

Top positive review

Best deal for this textbook

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 20, 2018

Best deal for this textbook. Well, it's a textbook, so there is not much use for it unless you are taking corresponding course. It does contain interesting algorithmic theories but I doubt anyone would actually use this as a "casual read"...

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A. M.

Not a very good book, even if it was not mandatory textbook

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 2, 2022

This is worthless even as a used book. Mine is eating dust. Many years later and I still think this is a way to scalp money from poor university students in my opinion.

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Jammy Lee

Best deal for this textbook

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

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Rodrigo Nunes Laigner

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 24, 2014

Verified Purchase

Great book with a good condition. I`m satisfied.

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gammel-Jo

Very usable algorithm reference...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 1, 2002

Some may say the title is a bit misleading. Sure, you'd want to be very interested in the subject to use this as your first introduction to algorithms, and the analysis and design of them. On the other hand, the book isn't especially advanced. It just covers a lot!
As a textbook, or for self-study, the book excels in clarity, coverage, and precision. It never lets go of the big picture, but still has every bit of detail you would want in an introductory text, with mathematical proofs of interesting properties of the algorithms introduced (and the first 6 chapters explain any mathematics you need).
As a reference, the book is immensely useful. Because almost any other algorithm book has a reasonable size, they must make a choice of what to cover. This book avoids the choice, and is therefore much thicker.
Of course, one book can't cover everything, the authors limit themselves to fundamental algorithms, anything related to parsing, semantic analysis, rewrite-systems, theorem-proving, computational biology, numerical analysis, computer graphics, machine-learning, signal-processing, or a number of other topics is better dealt with in a more specialized book. Still the coverage is unusually broad, and you would be hard pressed to find a more complete reference.
If you only want one book on algorithms, this is the book you want. If one algorithm-book isn't enough, you would still want this one, because it would be hard to even find a collection of books covering the same material. Besides, it will give you more shelf-space for other more advanced texts :-)

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Todd Ebert

The definitive reference for data structures and algorithms

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 2, 2003

While working as a software engineer, my supervisor, who also wrote programs for a living, had a book on his shelf, "Data Structures and Algorithms", written by Horowitz and Sahni. It was one of the most tattered-looking hardback books I had ever seen! (a true indicator of the worth of a book). Moreover, I view the Cormer, Leiserson, Rivest book as an updated version of this book, in that it has the same core content of data structures and algorithms, and presents the algorithms in psuedocode instead of a GPL like C++. I find this book, however, not only better written than its predecessor, but also containing a number of advanced chapters (e.g. computational geometry and parallel computation) that reflects the explosion of the study of algorithms over the past 20 years. If I had to choose one book on data structures and algorithms to have on my shelf it would be this one, as no other modern text compares with it in terms of its breadth and depth of the subject material. However, for those students or practitioners who prefer to learn about data structures and algorithms within the context of a progromming language, I recommend Mark Weiss's book on data structures and algorithms, both in Java and in C++. His book seems less developed and rigorous, but he gives good examples, explanations, and more practical insights.

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R. Johnson

Honestly? I'm disappointed with reviewers...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 13, 2004

Giving this book a bad review because:
a) you had a bad instructor for the course
b) you find the material difficult
c) you can't understand pseudo-code
are not what I would call constructive or worthwhile critiques of the text of this excellent book. PLEASE society, PLEASE understand that some topics you have to actually WORK at understanding. It won't be spoon fed to you.
It seems moreso with Computer Science majors than other majors (I'm an electrical engineer undergrad, comp sci grad student) that they whine and whine and whine about the math or about it being difficult to actually have to work to understand something.
Oh my GOODNESS!!!! It's hard? Well, BLAME THE BOOK.
Rant over.
This book is amazing. It's the bible of algorithms and, to some extent, data structures. If you're not aforementioned whiners, feel free to buy this book, work hard, and learn a lot! There's not a better book out there in my experience.

6 people found this helpful

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Ning Zhao

Crystal clear and down-to-earth, a must-have classic

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 18, 2002

Maybe the biggest difficulty to a student who is taking courses on algorithms is to do the mathematical proof - the homework assignments hog students' time, and it's very common to have no idea in front of proof questions in an exam. This great text book from MIT does its best to minimize the pain all along the road, well designed illustrations are widely applied on the proofs in this book, and the ideas behind the mathematic equations are crystal clearly explained in a very accessible way. It is the best text book I have read among a long list Of algorithms books suggested by my professor. Of course it is not to say that learning algorithms is dirt easy with this book, "Nothing worthwile is achieved without effort. You'll need to put in the work and have the ambition to succeed when the going gets tough." -as Ivor Horton said in a book.
Besides, it's not only a rigour academic text book but also problem and engineering oriented, unlike some other books on algorithms you might throw away after the schooling.
The only problem is: I cannot find solutions of the exercises in the book. Since the exercises are very well conceived and worth working out, there should be something to let the readers check if they are doing right.

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whiplashll

Introduction?

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 1, 2002

I gave the title Introduction? to this review as a question because this book is not for a novice which is what I am. I gave it five stars because I'm assuming that it is a good book worth the money one spends on it. This review is basically for beginners with only a high school education. I'm going to give an excert from the preface of the book so beginners will know what I'm talking about because the reviews given are are a little miss leading. From the book:
"Each chapter presents an algorithm, design technique, an application area, or a realted topic. Algorithms are described in English and in a pseudocode designed to be readable by anyone who has done a little progamming"
"The text is intended primarily for use in undergraduate or graduate courses in algorithms or data structures. Because it discusses engineering issues in algorithm design, as well as mathematical aspects, it is equally will suited for self-study by technical professionals."
If I would have known this I wouldn't have bought the book because I have a long way to go before I get as advanced as the content of this book. I plan on keeping this book because I am really interested in this subject, but I have a lot to learn before I get there. Advanced users have a good laugh on me and novice users take caution in the wind.

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Ron Gutman

The New Edition is Great!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 21, 2002

For years, I've looked for a single algorithms book that would cover all of the bases and provide an up-to-date replacement for the 3 Knuth volumes. The 2001 edition of CLR is it. I had looked at earlier versions of CLR and somehow not seen what I wanted; seemed too much like a enumeration of algorithms rather an explanation of them. But what the other reviewers say about CLR is definitely true of this edition. Its the one you want on your shelf to accompany your career in software or computer science.
The reviewers who knocked off stars for being difficult were probably also correct; this book is not for community college course with students who earned Cs in math and programming courses. In fact, I question the word "introduction" in the title. Yes, it only assumes minimal math and programming knowledge, but it goes a long ways into the topic. Sure, it might not cover some exotic academic topics or some very specialized topics, but if you are a software engineer it has all you are likely to want or need in your practical work (until there are new research results that prove important in industry) unless you work in area that requires specialized algorithms.
One topic regretablly omitted from this book, and most other books on algorithms, is extendible hashing, hashing techniques that support an arbitrary, unkown amount of data. Papers by Fagin and Litwin describe such methods.

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Vikram Kamat

best book on algorithms

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 7, 2003

this is possibly the best book for the course 'Data structures and analysis of algorithms'.Knuth is far too advanced and many others are not even worth mentioning.
The best part is that it is very perspicuous but does not compromise on mathematical rigour.The proofs of correctness are very elegant as are the detalied analyses of all the algorithms.Actually,the mathematical approach that the authors employ is very enjoyable.A full section devoted to the mathematical tools is a very good idea.
All the topics viz. data structures, sorting techniques,graphs,design techniques like dynamic programming,greedy algorithms,Divide-n-conquer r given in extensive detail.(since i m only a second yr under grad student,i havent read the more advanced topics like FFT,computational geometry,NP-completeness.)
The exercises make you think and test both mathematical acumen and programming dexterity.many of them require a fair bit of creativity.
As another reviewer pointed out, this book is the one for budding computer scientists and software engineers,not for the 'learn XYZ in 21 hours' fans.
a bit of background in a structured programming language(Pascal ,C etc.) and more importantly,knowledge of the fundamentals of discrete mathematics is required.
A must buy for all CS students.

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Mugizi R. Rwebangira

An Excellent choice!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 29, 2003

I had heard much about this book before I purchased it but since it was never required I had never actually looked at it until recently.
Well its reputation is well deserved. This book is certainly COMPREHENSIVE if nothing else. I cannot imagine a common algorithm that is not explained and analyzed in this book, from Discrete Fourier Transform to Computational Geometry it is all here.
Also I like the fact that the material is presented in such a way that it is easy to study by yourself. The style is informal, and although rigorous proofs are also provided the emphasis is on the intuition behind the algorithm.
There are substantial appendices and an easy introduction section, such that you need very little mathematical background at all to be able to benefit from this text.
Overall, I cannot imagine that there is another algorithms textbook that is as comprehensive and rigorous as this one.
The only downside is that it is very hefty and correspondingly expensive. But if you are a novice in algorithms and want an easy to follow text I can highly recommend it.

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Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition

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