Rating: 
Summary: Excellent introduction to data structures in java.
Review: I found this book to be an invaluable aid to understanding data structures in java. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding how to implement data structures in java.
Rating:
Summary: Data Structures & Algorithms In Java
Review: I give this book 5 stars. 1. It has a great Table of Contents and Index. Finding topics is a breeze. 2. The explanations for the various data structures presented were outstanding. Explanations were built using simple words and short sentences which facilitates grasping new concepts and definitions. When new words were introduced, their meanings were thoroughly and simply explained. It is a good read. 3. Every data structure and its mechanisms were represented by drawings of colored objects that represented the various data structures. It made visualization of abstract concepts a breeze. This book has the best pictorial representations of Data Structures I that I have seen. (I reviewed over 14 textbooks. Most were didactic regurgitations of either Knuth's tome or Weiss, i.e., difficult to read, appear written for an audience of academics, not students.) 4.The book is very well made. I used it every day for 4 months and it showed no signs of wear and tear. Several other books had pages falling off of their backing withing two weeks of purchase. I returned those books. This book will be will me for decades. 5. The CD included with the book is quite good, and the price of this book was far better than other books. It is an excellent value. Why did I need a book about Data Structures? One required course that I took for my CSCI degree was Data Structures. The book chosen by the CSCI department for our course in Data Structures was "Data Structures & Algorithm Analysis in Java " by Mark Allen Weiss. I reviewed it in detail and found that it was not written in a easy to understand format. Also, it did not include enough diagrams to help me grasp abstract concepts. After reviewing this book, "Data Structures And Algorithms in Java" I purchased it and used it exclusively. It was essential to helping me grasp the concepts of how B-Trees and other structures operate and when they are indicated for use. This book is one of the reasons I got an "A".
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but incomplete
Review: I HATE books that tell you they cover certain subjects and then leave things "as an exercise for the reader." I think it's a cop out. Either cover the subject or not; but don't do a [poor] job. This book, although good, does that "exercise" thing. It devotes a whole chapter to describing Red-Black Trees, and then doesn't even provide an algorithm, but leaves it up to the reader to look in the references for a book that covers the algorithm or code. It does the same for B-Trees. As I said, the book is good, but that "exercise" thing is a big hot button for me. I would rather have the author just say that there are other data structures called such-and-such that may be better for certain use but they're outside the scope of the book. If you're an absolute beginner (as I am), and don't mind a $50 book teasing you and then telling you to buy another $50 for the complete answer, go ahead and buy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: The devil is in the details...
Review: I must agree with the bulk of the reviews of this book: it is excellent. This is my first attempt at mastering data structures and algorithms, and I have found the treatment to be accessible and interesting. But I have two concerns that prevent me from giving this book the full 5 stars. The first is that it is now dated. It was published in '98, and the version of the JDK supplied is 1.1.5 when the present version available from Sun is 1.2.3. It doesn't make a big difference, because a lot of the basic structures are the same; but it does mean that the book doesn't cover the Collections interface, which directly deals with data structures and algorithms. My second concern is that the editing is often poor. I have noticed errors in the code examples several times. As I am often struggling to follow the code as it is, these errors can really make things confusing. When brackets or semi-colons are missing it can completely change the meaning of the code. Also, in one particularly tricky description of an operation the 'to' and 'from' objects were reversed in the text. That one had me stumped for quite a while before I realised that it was an editing error. Given that the publishers have had two years to correct these errors I find them to be quite a blemish on the value of the book, particulalry if you are not already perfectly fluent in Java as a language. Even with these concerns, though, I do not hesitate to recommend this book to anybody who is a programming novice. It is a gentle introduction to the common algorithms encountered in other texts. Just watch out for the typos!
Rating: 
Summary: Truly Awful
Review: I teach a Data Structures course and this book was thrust upon me by previous instructors. Book is full of code: much of it very poorly written...I censored much of it before showing to students. Some code I left as is to show them examples of bad programming practices. The little "analysis" contained in the book is misleading and sometimes wrong. The lack of rigor is appalling. Maybe a good choice for high-school students, otherwise avoid this book!
Rating:
Summary: Buy IT!
Review: If you r looking for a book that concentrates on Data structures in JAVA, then this book is definately for you. It does not bore you with the AWT libararies and all that, it lets u jump into the nitty gritty of data structures programming in Java. I don't think it even touched on the AWT libraries once in this book. Which is good for me since my school sylabus doesn't touch on that at all either. It especially touched on the topic of linked lists very well, explaining the concept in the most simplest way possible. And for alot of us, we usually hit the brick wall when we reach tht topic on linked list. So yeah, if u really want to buy a good book for DS on Java, this book is for u!
Rating:
Summary: excellent supplement to your main text or class notes
Review: Is there a perfect book out there on data structures using Java? No, but this book by Lafore is the best among the lot especially for students (like me) trying to learn the stuff. This book is the exact opposite of the widely used book by Tamassia&Goodrich (T&G) - that is, Lafore covers data structures in a non-mathematical, non-technical way without using formal proofs and abstract mathematical definitions. This makes it very readable and understandable especially when compared to T&G. It covers all the major topics you're likely to see in your data structures course: arrays, stacks, linked lists, queues, sorting algorithms, trees, heaps and hash tables. The last chapter - When to Use What - is excellent. Distills the whole topic into just a few pages. Complaints: This book gives very short shrift to big O notation IMO. And Lafore really takes the easy way out with heaps - he uses an array (Ugh!). Come on, Lafore, you should have used a tree for this ! He doesn't cover AVL trees at all so you'll have to look elsewhere for that. Also, ... the source code isn't 'generic' enough - he implements many data structures to hold a specific type instead of allowing them to hold generic Objects. There are no end of chapter exercises so I don't know if it could be used as a regular class text. The applets on the disc are instructive, though. If you could combine the topic coverage of T&G (along with just a bit of their formalism) and Lafore's readablity you'd have the perfect teaching book on data structures using Java.
Rating:
Summary: Last chapter worth the price
Review: Last chapter of when to use what is great! Don't like implementations of data structures however, not generic enough for handling any kind of object.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for CS/CSE Students
Review: Not only is the text clear and concise, but unlike too many other java books, the author stays away from customized classes. Most of the examples in the book can be compiled with any java compiler without finding some proprietary "helper" clases. If you are a student who wants a better understanding and a good hand on those programming assignments, look no further; this is the book you want.
Rating:
Summary: 50 stars are more like it.
Review: The Absolute definitive book on beginning data Stuctures. I paid $50 for this book offline and still felt like a winner (But now I check online first :) ). Everything is explained perfect, You can use the applets on any computer with a browser and the reading is so much fun you throw away any novels you have.
| 
