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Rating: 
Summary: I normally buy books because they contain information...
Review: ...but this was a mandatory book for my university's two-course Data Structures & Algorithms sequence that all computer scientists and computer engineers must take.
Coming in with a good deal of programming experience, I find that this book is not as clear or as complete as it could be. The sample code snippets throughout tend to be awkwardly implmented with obscure variable names and obtuse datatyping, and more often than not represent 'a' way of accomplishing a task rather than 'the best' way. Finding better ways of doing things is normally left for exercises at the end of the chapter; the answers are not included with the book.
Also, many significant details or comments are skimmed over or are ommitted from the text. Many important (and complex) observations are left as exercises - but again, the answers are not included, so there is no way of validating your answers.
Further, this book is targeted at the C++ language. It is obscene to discuss data structures and algorithms without mentioning the free, prepackaged, and optimized code of the C++ Standard Template Library. Indeed, this book and the code it includes would have benefitted from the ingenious architecture and software engineering behind the STL.
I really hope the campus bookstore will buy this one back when I'm done with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Very unhelpful book
Review: Dr. Shaffer attempts to address the difficult topic of data structures and fails. Consistently he glosses over important points, or does not describe the implementation of data structures (the buffer pool, for example, is especially poor) adequately and leaves the hapless student confused and frustrated. For a computer scientist who already understands the subject this book may contain a few good points. Indeed, I was able to follow the sections where I had previous training, but when I studied material new to me, I was out of luck.If you are unlucky enough to have a university that uses this text, consider trying to find a better book to get yourself an adequate understanding of this important subject, because Dr. Shaffer's text won't do that for you.
Rating:
Summary: Very unhelpful book
Review: Frankly, I was extremely disappointed with this book. I originally bought it for a Data Structures class and soon found that it was never of any use. The book is extremely hard to follow and, at times, fails to include enough information. Such as Big-O notation. I count a total of 5 pages that show no useful examples but constantly talk about Big-Oh (notice the "h") while providing no solutions to finding the bounds.
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Summary: From a students perspective...
Review: I am a Computer Science student at Virginia Tech and Cliff Shaffer taught my Data Structures class. This book was used in the class, and many of my fellow students would agree, this book is awkward in every sense of the word. Not only is the material poorly written and confusing, the code examples didnt help much either. I found myself constantly reading and re-reading sections that were needed for programming assignments and going huh? If you have a strong desire to learn data structures, keep looking for your data structures book, this one isnt it...
Rating:
Summary: Student Perspective: Atrociously Written
Review: I just finished using this book for my Data Structures class, and as most of the reviews say, this book is no good. The text itself is poorly written to where it is difficult to even follow small passages. The code examples in the book are horrible. Shaffer consistently uses worthless variable names, and makes plenty of errors that made it frustrating for the students and even our professor. If you must buy it for class, do so, but otherwise keep on looking for a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Book
Review: I was required to get this book for my CS344 class and so far I don't like this book at all. The exercises at the end of each chapter aren't good problems. Don't get it unless, like me, you have to.
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