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What language, if any, is used in this book? My school is currently using a terrible book for the algorithms course that I have to take next year and I'd like to convince the department head that Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen is a much, much better book.

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  • What book is your school using now? Commented Apr 22, 2011 at 17:02
  • Data Structures and Algorithms in Java: amazon.com/Data-Structures-Algorithms-Michael-Goodrich/dp/… Commented Apr 22, 2011 at 17:36
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    I'm pretty sure they use the language 'English' in that book, but translations are probably available. Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 0:24
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    How do you know it's a better book if you haven't read it? Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 3:37
  • @Karl: This was my first thought too! Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 13:18

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No specific programming language -- it uses a sort of natural language/math-y hybrid. "Pseudocode", you might say.*

It's a great textbook; the canonical algorithms text.

* Algorithms are usually expressed in a language-independent manner.

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  • Does this book offer much in the way of an introduction to data structures? The course is technically called "Introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures". Commented Apr 22, 2011 at 15:56
  • @brewer2: yes, it does. Commented Apr 22, 2011 at 16:20
  • @brewer2: I don't have my copy handy. I recall it having some parts about trees, heaps, hash tables, graphs, and so forth. It doesn't focus on data structures per se, but it's hard to cover an introduction to algorithms without showing at least some data structure examples, too (the topics are closely intertwined). Commented Apr 22, 2011 at 16:20
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    If you can't translate the pseudocode into your favorite programming language fairly easily, you have weird taste in languages. Commented Apr 22, 2011 at 17:37
  • @joose it isn't really an intro to data structures. The stuff I covered in it was prim's and djikstra's graph algorithms. Had to figure out the basics.on my own Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 0:27
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Its language agnostic. No language in particular. To understand the syntax of the pseudo-code you have the explanation of used conventions after first algorithm which I remember was perhaps Insertion Sort.

Yes it does have a treatment on data structures as well.

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