Rating: 
Summary: Introduction?
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A definitive guide, but not perfect
Review: INTRODUCTION TO ALGORITHMS is pretty much the standard textbook in the field of algorithms. In its favor is the fact that it is quite comprehensive, covering a wide range of topics that the beginning student will need to know. On the other hand, it has a tendency towards the confusing and the obscure, with many of the example problems not making a lot of sense. If one decides to purchase this book (and the students will have no choice in this matter, being subject as they are to the whims of their professors), then I recommend that one immediately prints out the "bug correction" page available on the web, as there are several major howlers present in the book, and if one isn't careful then many hours will be lost while one checks and rechecks faulty pseudo-code. In one particularly confused portion of the book, the correction sheet completely replaces three entire pages of the text. This book covers a huge amount of material, and many of the topics are described quite adequately. Although readers may already be familiar with the numerous data structures that are discussed, the book doesn't assume prior knowledge and goes into quite a lot of detail concerning them. These sections, in particular, are illustrated clearly and offer great reference material that every programmer should have access to. This portion on data structures is one area where the book's conciseness is an advantage. It's simple enough for the beginner to learn from, but it contains more than enough information for the advanced user in need of mental refreshing. The opening sections that discuss the rudiments of algorithm analysis are also covered competently. The easier subjects don't suffer from the book's shortcomings, as these ideas aren't quite as difficult to understand. For a simple introduction to the easier-to-grasp concepts in Algorithms, these sections simply can't be bettered. It's not until later chapters that some of the material appears incomprehensible. Other parts of the book are very confusing to the beginning students who, presumably, make up the bulk of the target audience. If this text is used as an accompaniment to a class (as it usually is), then you'll probably do all right. One really needs to have some other source of information, because this book tends to get quite confusing. The problem sets included are frequently obscure, and don't always relate to the material in that chapter. The fact that many of the problems have no given solution (even if one attempts to contact the authors!) is quite telling. The style of the book is extremely dry and occasionally impenetrable, even when compared to other computer science textbooks. If you're looking at this page, then no doubt you're looking mainly for pricing information, since this book is the definitive standard on the subject. Keep in mind that "definitive" doesn't necessarily mean perfect, and, alas, this book is far from perfection. But if you have an alternative method of learning the material, then this is an excellent book to have as accompaniment. And once you've learned the material, you'll find this to be a great resource.
Rating:
Summary: Reference book..yes; for learning...not really
Review: I had this book for a class during my undergraduate studies. I'll agree it provides a comprehensive amount of information on data structures, encryption, etc. I would not recommend it as a source to learn the information on a first pass. As a post-lecture reference it served its purpose, however if you have not been introduced to the topic previously, it's pretty dry and cumbersome to acquire from. And by the way, if you don't plan on developing some serious systems for a tech company, you don't need to worry about this stuff. Every language has foundation classes that do the dirty work for you.
Rating:
Summary: Too detailed...
Review: I was disappointed by this book. The coverage of the subject is exhaustive and encyclopedic. But I think that the pseudo code to explain algorithms were poorly done and difficult to follow in many cases. For instance in their tree code they included pointers to parents for each node, I think this is unnecessary in most cases and befuddles the pseudo code. It seems that the authors were saying "We're going to include every single detail in this explanation so that it's perfect", when in fact they should have been saying "how do we make this explanation concise and understandable" A clear case of seeing the trees and not the forest.
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly more fun than the dentist, but not much.
Review: As textbooks go, this one is pretty dry. Granted, it is about Algorithm analysis, but even so, its pretty bad. The explanation of the concepts is poor, and the exercises are not obviously answered in the text, if they are at all. This book is known to actually introduce concepts in the exercises at the end of the chapter. Question: what is X? Index says: see question on X. I have never had a worse text in my life. If you are a teacher, and hate your students, require this book. It more than any other will give your pupils ulcers and sleepless nights.
Rating: 
Summary: Still "the" reference, still errors
Review: The book is, as long as I know, the standard for introductive algorithms courses. And one can easily understand why, since it is complete and authoritative. An encyclopedic good work that deserves respect and a good reviews.
I'd gladly give a five stars rate, but it seems that this book must chronically suffer the annoying disease of bugs and printing errors. It was so in the first edition and it seems it is going exactly the same way in this second edition. Just go to the MIT Press web site and check the impressive (since we are just at the sixth month of life ...) bug reports list.
Rating:
Summary: Worth every Page, Penny and Brain Cell !
Review: This book is outstanding. All the algorithms are given in pseudo code which make the material (and notation) very precise and devoid of any idiosyncrasies which a real programming language might introduce. Although, the book requires fairly decent mathematical background, the more complex math can be skipped on a first reading (to avoid getting bogged down). Of course, you still need to know the basics of discrete mathematics and it will serve you well throughout this book. All algorithms are compact which helps focus on the crux of the algorithm. I didn't see any algorithm pesudo code listing in the book so far which exceeds half a page. The chapters are reasonably independent of each other, although sometimes its obvious when you can't skip ahead. The book is really exhaustive and goes into depth on all major design techniques (iterative, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, amortized analysis, greedy algorithms and so on). The effort required to get through the whole book is definitely worth it, and will make you a better programmmer in the long run.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting and easy to understand
Review: An Introduction to Algorithms is an excellent book. It's easy to understand and very comprehensive. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Extreemly confusing book
Review: If you are a person who eats, sleeps, and dreams about algorithms, then this book is for you. However, if you are an average student interested in programming, and want to get a good understanding of this subject matter, don't buy this one. The authors of this book do a very poor job of explaining even the most basic concepts, and seem to think the people reading this book are high-level graduate students. There are few examples, and fewer explanations. We have two teachers teaching this stuff at my school, one of which has a doctorate in CS, and both of them are having a hard time explaining this stuff to us. KEEP AWAY !!!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best in any topic
Review: Outstanding book on general algorithms *and* data structures. Pretty much everything here is top-notch: the algorithms' (pseudo)code, the correctness explanations, the time/space analysis and even the exercises. This could be a reasonable candidate as best computer science textbook ever. Only some zest is lacking. This book can also be used as a reference and for self-study. Especially strong in sorting, graph algorithms and data structures, it also contains excellent short introductions to a variety of "selected topics" (such as Number-Theoretic Algorithms and NP-Completeness). Highly recommended for advanced students and the more mathematically inclined.
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