Good books for learning algorithm design

[Seraphimsan]

I would foreword that I am a senior in High School so I do not have a textbook on the matter, nor can I take a class on the subject for another few years.

That being said, would some one be kind enough to point me in the path of a good book on algorithm design. I Find I'm quite intrigued by the subject and wish to learn it before I declare my major of computer science next year.


Thank you in advance

Regards,

Alex E.

[1yR4jE8b]

Introduction to The Design & Analysis of Algorithms
by Anany Levitin

Is the book that I am currently studying and it is very good. I would just like to warn you that Algorithm Design is typically a senior level course at University so you might have a hard time with it. But if it interests you than by all means get a head start on it, but there's alot of math that you need to understand before hand, such as Recurrence Relations. I'm not trying to discourage you, by all means, if you want to learn it that's really great. Most people I know skipped out on the Algorithms course in my program, but it really is interesting subject matter. If you have alot of experience in general programming and understand the difference between the performances of different sorting algorithms it's a good place to get you started on algorithm analysis and design.

[helios]

Disclaimer: I haven't actually read any of these. These are just some interesting picks from searching "algorithm".

Introduction to Algorithms - Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest
Algorithms Design Techniques and Analysis - Alsuwaiyel
Algorithms and Data Structures in C++ - Parker (more about program design [choosing the right algorithm or data structure] than the computer science side of algorithms)

Another book you can use as an introduction to algorithms is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs; you can download it in HTML from the MIT website.
Also, The Art of Computer Programming, if you don't mind all the math, and the fact that it's three volumes long and it's still not finished (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming#Chapter_outline_of_published_and_unpublished_volumes ).

[Seraphimsan]

Thank you very much DarkestFright. It's going to be a challenge, without a doubt. But I think it's safe for me to say I'm a swift learner, and I love a good challenge. As for a good knowledge of general programming...I'm a proficient programmer in 4 languages, only 2 the same in moderate structure (c/c++). and I've been programming since I was in 6th grade. So I've got an ok understanding of it :P.

Helios, Thank you as well, I'm about to check out the one on MIT's website, as it's probably free for the download and I'm low on funds. thank you again guys :)

[1yR4jE8b]

Best of luck to you then, it's always nice to hear about people who are actually interested in the theory, and aren't just getting into the field for the paycheck (like 80% of my class unfortunately).

[Seraphimsan]

heh, Yea or just there to make video games. I wont Lie i love to make video games...But people who get into programming just cause they think it would be cool to make the next halo...

[firedraco]

Introduction to Algorithms - Cormen, et al

I used this during my Alg class and it is pretty good IMO. My only problem with it is that their psuedocode has really weird indentation, like this:

if
  then
    stuff
    stufff
  else <-- ???
    if
      then
        stuff
        stufff
      else
        end
continue

[helios]

Oh, it's sort of like GNU. It definitely looks weirder in pseudocode.