This is an introductory-level algorithm book. It includes worked-out examples and detailed proofs. Presents Algorithms by type rather than application. KEY TOPICS: Includes structured material by techniques employed, not by the application area, so readers can progress from the underlying abstract concepts to the concrete application essentials. It begins with a compact, but complete introduction to some necessary math. And it approaches the analysis and design of algorithms by type rather than by application.

In August 1977, Scientific American challenged its readers to decipher a secret message and win one hundred dollars. This sounded safe: it was estimated at the time that the fastest existing computer using the most efficient known algorithm could not earn the award until it had run without interruption for millions of times the age of the Universe. Nevertheless, eight months of computation started sixteen years later sufficed for the task. What happened? The increase in raw computing power during those years cannot be discounted, but far more significant was the discovery of better algorithms to solve the problem-see Sections 7.8, 7.10 and 10.7.4 for details. Additional examples of how the development of efficient algorithms have extended the frontiers of feasible computation are given in Section 2.7 and throughout this book.