Algorithms in C

by Robert Sedgewick

Sedgewick's bestselling book, Algorithms, is now available for C programmers. Algorithms in C describes a variety of algorithms in a number of areas of interest, sorting, searching, string-processing, and geometric, graph and mathematical algorithms. The book emphasizes fundamental techniques, providing readers with the tools to confidently implement, run, and debug useful algorithms.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Computers

657 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Woflmao · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this is not one of the better books on algorithms. Sedgewick's explanations are confusing and he often tries to use an informal language to explain things that require a precise mathematical description (this is particularly bad in the chapter in cryptography). Quicksort is basically the only algorithm he explains adequately, which is not a surprise given that Sedgewick wrote his dissertation on it.
I recommend reading Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest's book instead.

[Nick Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, this is alright, but both the algorithms and the C leave something to be desired. From what I've seen of later editions, this (the second) is pretty much the worst -- Sedgewick gave things a mighty overhaul for the third edition, producing a multivolume work that's likely not meaningfully comparable to this one. GT's Jim Greenlee, scourge of undergraduate CS and CmpE majors, gave me his copy while I was TA'ing for him, and thus there's some sentimental attachment to this -- furthermore, I remember studying from it in the Holiday Inn back in Fall 2000, the night before GT Team A went in and annihilated all comers at that year's Southeastern Regionals of the ACM Programming Competiton (hehehe, we kicked ass, w00t!).

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been superseded by second and third editions, much expanded, and is also available with code samples in other languages, especially Java. But this happens to be the text that I still have on my shelf, purchased when I took Sedgewick's intro to computer science class at Princeton in 1992. This book is a great overview of basic algorithms from a wide range of applications: sorting, searching, graph traversal, geometric analysis, and some basic math. I re-read it to prepare myself for going back on the job market. The descriptions and especially the illustrations are so good that I found I didn't need to study the C code to follow the algorithms. The book's only weakness, in my opinion, is that the asymptotic analysis is largely glossed-over.