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Summary: The New Edition is Great!
Review: 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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Summary: I Hate This Book!
Review: This book will probably make you hate life. But it's written well. It usually takes me hours to get through one chapter. My only complaint is that the answers to the questions are nowhere to be found. That's not very helpful when the questions can be pretty tough. Get through this book and you can get through anything.
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Summary: introduction to algorithms
Review: The best book in algorithms, its kinda like a bible as far as algorithms is concerned.
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Summary: Great reference, but verbose
Review: I am currently enrolled in MIT 6.046, which uses this book as a textbook. The course covers a substantial portion of the textbook, Chapters 1-17, 21-26, and 33. This means that I must read several chapters per week. Reading sessions take much time, because the authors have made the book very verbose. The same book could have been written to better effect in about four to five hundred pages. The material covered is very broad, and most algorithms are nonobvious. Every once in a while, there is a simplification that is simply 'slick'. Definitely one of the textbooks that I will keep. For those who mention that the book is too difficult, I must comment that they are not ready for algorithms. Strength in mathematics is obviously required to be a good programmer. And remember, as Prof. C.E. Leiserson mentioned in the first lecture, "Speed is fun!"
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Summary: A student's perspective -- this book is horrible
Review: I don't know who is paying the other critics to give this book a high rating but this book has a lot of problems. There is an insufficient number of sample problems with answers, which is a minimum requirement for any math book. The questions at the end of each chapter are not related to the examples described within the chapters. It can take hours to frame a problem and even then you are not sure if your answers are correct because you have no way to check your work. "We will leave that as an excersise for the student" -- what a cop out. The sad part is that the material should not be impossible to learn. The authors have managed to take a difficult subject and make it worse. You know you are in trouble when your professor is also struggling with the material in the book. Whatever happened to "reaching the students".
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Summary: Caution: Great book but there is a new edition
Review: Please note that this is a great book, but that the second edition is being published; it was scheduled for September, 2001. ... seems to be selling both editions. Please make sure you really want the 11 year old one. To find the others, click on the first author's name.
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Summary: review
Review: I hate this book! It is sooo hard to understand it. Even the simple concepts are described so bad that i hate opening it. I wish there was another book with simple words and easy explanation of concepts.
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Summary: Great Algorithms Book
Review: I only recommend this book to intelligent people with good math skills that actually code difficult algorithms. If you fall into this category, this is the best book to learn about algorithms I've found. If you don't fall into the above category, you will probably find the book too difficult to follow.
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Summary: Wait a little - 2nd edition out in September 2001 !!
Review: While this is the undisputed leader in the field and worth every penny you spend on it, the second edition is due in September 2001 - check out the book's website They mention that it's been extensively revised, with practically every section having something new, and they now use the concept of loop invariants throughout the book to analyse algorithm performance. (they also explain the 'Professor jokes' sprinkled throghout the problems). More motivational material has also been included, perhaps for the benefit of those who think processor power is the cure-all for all computational problems ! Anyway, unless you're in a tearing hurry, i'd suggest that you wait till next month - i sure am going to. For a detailed review of the first edition, please refer to my review below.
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Summary: an amazing book
Review: This is the best CS book I have ever read. It is concise. Each paragraph of this book equals several paragraphs in other books. But its explanations are very clear and show the beauty of mathematics.If you understand the math and the logic, you will not need a lot of time to read it at all. The exercises and problems are very good too. You will not believe how much joy you are going to have for solving the problems. It makes you enjoy analysing and designing algorithms. If you only want to learn how to code and be a programmer, find another book. It is such an amazing and beautiful book!
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