Sedgewick has a real gift for explaining concepts in a way that makes them easy to understand. The use of real programs in page-size (or less) chunks that can be easily understood is a real plus. The figures, programs, and tables are a significant contribution to the learning experience of the reader; they make this book distinctive.-William A. Ward, University of South Alabama

This edition of Robert Sedgewick's popular work provides current and comprehensive coverage of important algorithms for Java programmers. Michael Schidlowsky and Sedgewick have developed new Java implementations that both express the methods in a concise and direct manner and provide programmers with the practical means to test them on real applications.

Many new algorithms are presented, and the explanations of each algorithm are much more detailed than in previous editions. A new text design and detailed, innovative figures, with accompanying commentary, greatly enhance the presentation. The third edition retains the successful blend of theory and practice that has made Sedgewick's work an invaluable resource for more than 400,000 programmers!

This particular book, Parts 1-4, represents the essential first half of Sedgewick's complete work. It provides extensive coverage of fundamental data structures and algorithms for sorting, searching, and related applications. Although the substance of the book applies to programming in any language, the implementations by Schidlowsky and Sedgewick also exploit the natural match between Java classes and abstract data type (ADT) implementations.

Whether you are learning the algorithms for the first time or wish to have up-to-date reference material that incorporates new programming styles with classic and new algorithms, you will find a wealth of useful information in this book.