By John Morris
This course will focus on data structures and algorithms for manipulating them. Data structures for storing information in tables, lists, trees, queues and stacks will be covered. Some basic graph and discrete transform algorithms will also be discussed.
Good Programs
There are a number of facets to good programs: they must
- run correctly
- run efficiently
- be easy to read and understand
- be easy to debug and
- be easy to modify.
The first of these is obvious - programs which don't run correctly are clearly of little use. "Efficiently" is usually understood to mean in the minimum time - but occasionally there will be other constraints, such as memory use, which will be paramount. As will be demonstrated later, better running times will generally be obtained from use of the most appropriate data structures and algorithms, rather than through "hacking", i.e. removing a few statements by some clever coding - or even worse, programming in assembler!
This course will focus on solving problems efficiently: you will be introduced to a number of fundamental data structures and algorithms (or procedures) for manipulating them.