This book was designed for a second course in computer science, which has typically been known as CS-2 Data Structures. The content of CS-2 has been evolving over some time, but there is general agreement that topics such as structures, pointers, and data structures should be taught, along with an introduction to algorithm analysis and a general scaling up of the complexity of programming projects.
Although the general topics of CS-2 are to some extent uniformly accepted, the language of expression has clearly not been and indeed invokes quite spirited debate among computer science educators. We use C++ in this text. C++ has a host of both benefits and disadvantages but is clearly gaining support as a prefered language in industry and academic circles.
My goal in writing this text is to provide a practical introduction to data structures and algorithms, from the viewpoint of abstract thinking and problem solving, as well as to the use of C++. I try to cover all important details concerning the data structures, the analyses, and their C++ implementations, and have stayed away from data structures that are theoretically interesting but not widely used. I have designed the textbook to allow flexibility in topic coverage for the instructor. It is impossible to cover all the C++ details, all the different data structures, and all the mathematics described in the text in a single course. The instructor will need to decide on an appropriate balance between practice, theory, and level of C++ detail. |
