C++: An Introduction to Data Structures

Rating:
Summary: Great book for introducing Data Structures
Review:
I bought this book as additional reference for my Data Structures course.

Pros:

The book covers MANY topics.
Basic data structures such as stacks, queues, lists and trees (avl, binary, nary) are well developed.
ADTs have nice explanations that give a basic insight on designing and implementing them.
Great as an introduction to Data Structures with some depth.

Cons:

Very few code. Most examples don't include any code, which is a crucial part in understanding concepts at times.
Graphs seem to be unimportant to Nyhoff, since his coverage of the subject is scarce (or none?).
The complexities chapter and ADT analysis seemed too shallow. The examples are extremely simple and complexity analysis for recursive or more complex algorithms is not good.

Bottom line: as the title implies, an excellent book for introducing data structures. Lots of subjects are covered. If you need something more advanced, buy something else. Drozdek's Data Structures and Algorithms in C++ is worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: so far so good
Review: Currently I am on chapter 9.

To be honest, this is my own first datastructure c++ book; I have read many books regarding the introduction of data structures....and they had failed to teach me.
I found this book really easy to read and understand, the important thing to remember before reading any c++ data structure book is to be able to convert the pseudocode and algorithm to c++ syntax.

The author has made life easier by writing the algorithms for you....and rest we do the job. + the usage of STL libraries...to good to use them when ur doing tedious and manipulating code i.e stack, queue, vectors, list, string..etc..

I also liked the fact he has given a section in templates, which is very important nowadays...most of the programs are templated and we should kn ow how to make them.

Every book has problems: so far I have found that his code lacks the declaration of some libraries, while he is using them in the code. Fix: just figure out what library is missing and tadaaaa ur code compiles.

Have fun reading.

Rating:
Summary: good lessons easy to follow
Review: I am an independent software engineer; I got this book to help me in my development of software it is the best book I have on this subject. If I have a problem, this book gives me the information I need to solve the problem. Granted this is not a book for the person who wants Her/His hand held and this book does not spoon-feed you like the HOW TO books but that person who truly wants to learn and is willing to put in a little effort to learn, not much but a little C++ An Introduction To Data Structures is the book for you.

If you really want to learn Data Structures and how to correctly use them grab this book and you will learn more then you thought you would.

Bomber

Rating:
Summary: so far so good
Review: I am teaching the second programming / first data structure course in the department of electrical and computer engineering.

This book is very good for students who already know how to program in C or C++. My students learn C part of C++ in the first programming course. This book covers object oriented programming part of C++. Then it follows into data structures. It starts with its own definitions of stack and queue and then migrates to the standard template library (STL). Everything is kept on the undergraduate student level. All other STL books I know assume that you are already an expert in programming or at lest for students after two programming courses, and are too difficult for average non-CS students.

My only complain is that pointers are introduced very late in the text. Some students complain that there is not enough examples, while others complain that the book is overexplanatory. My solution to the first problem is providing a set of complete compilable examples on the course Web site. I refer the latter group of students to the programming encyclopedia books for more details.

Ordinarily I would rate this text as four star only. Since it is the only introductory text that both introduces OOP and covers STL, it gets five stars from me.

Rating:
Summary: Best Intro to ANSI C++ and Datastructures with STL so far
Review: I am teaching the second programming / first data structure course in the department of electrical and computer engineering.

This book is very good for students who already know how to program in C or C++. My students learn C part of C++ in the first programming course. This book covers object oriented programming part of C++. Then it follows into data structures. It starts with its own definitions of stack and queue and then migrates to the standard template library (STL). Everything is kept on the undergraduate student level. All other STL books I know assume that you are already an expert in programming or at lest for students after two programming courses, and are too difficult for average non-CS students.

My only complain is that pointers are introduced very late in the text. Some students complain that there is not enough examples, while others complain that the book is overexplanatory. My solution to the first problem is providing a set of complete compilable examples on the course Web site. I refer the latter group of students to the programming encyclopedia books for more details.

Ordinarily I would rate this text as four star only. Since it is the only introductory text that both introduces OOP and covers STL, it gets five stars from me.

Rating:
Summary: Less than helpful
Review: I used this book as a student in an online version of a Data Structures class. None of us liked this book. The examples are vague and some of the exercises are misleading. I found the organization of the book to be confusing as well. Not good for learning Data Structures on your own.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the faint of heart
Review: This book, while perhaps suitable for a more agressive Data Structures course. Was unsuitable for most students in my college Data Structures class after a year of C++ experience. The code presented in the text is very skeletal, with far too many "left as an exercise to the reader" for my taste.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the faint of heart
Review: This book, while perhaps suitable for a more agressive Data Structures course. Was unsuitable for most students in my college Data Structures class after a year of C++ experience. The code presented in the text is very skeletal, with far too many "left as an exercise to the reader" for my taste.