Data Structures the Fun Way: An Amusing Adventure with Coffee-Filled Examples

by Jeremy Kubica

Overview

Learn how and when to use the right data structures in any situation, strengthening your computational thinking, problem-solving, and programming skills in the process.

This accessible and entertaining book provides an in-depth introduction to computational thinking through the lens of data structures — a critical component in any programming endeavor. You’ll learn how to work with more than 15 key data structures, from stacks, queues, and caches to bloom filters, skip lists, and graphs. You’ll also master linked lists by virtually standing in line at a cafe, hash tables by cataloging the history of the summer Olympics, and Quadtrees by neatly organizing your kitchen cabinets, all while becoming familiar with basic computer science concepts, like recursion and running time analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781718502604
Publisher:	No Starch Press
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,043,942
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jeremy Kubica is an engineer director specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He received a Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Computer Science from Cornell University. He spent his graduate school years creating algorithms to detect killer asteroids (actually stopping them was, of course, left as “future work”). He is the author of multiple books designed to introduce people to computer science, including Computational Fairy Tales and The CS Detective, as well as the Computational Fairy Tales Blog.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Information in Memory
Chapter 2: Binary Search
Chapter 3: Dynamic Data Structures
Chapter 4: Stacks and Queues
Chapter 5: Binary Search Trees
Chapter 6: Tries and Adapting Data Structures
Chapter 7: Priority Queues and Heaps
Chapter 8: Grids
Chapter 9: Spatial Trees
Chapter 10: Hash Tables
Chapter 11: Caches
Chapter 12: B-Trees
Chapter 13: Bloom Filters
Chapter 14: Skip Lists
Chapter 15: Graphs
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"The perfect book for novice programmers as well as developers who want to improve their knowledge of key software concepts."
—Ben Dickson, TechTalks

"Clear and fun to someone learning the topics for the first time. . . . overall a great read."
—Jeanne Boyarsky, CodeRanch

"A good book to read from beginning to end . . . a nice quick reference for reading about data structures, the complexity of each one, and for what is useful or not!"
—Eduardo Blázquez, @Farenain, COSEC Lab at Charles III University of Madrid

"Good overview of data structures, intuitive with good visualizations."
—Lucille E Nguyen, Computational Social Scientist

"A fun intro to the topic for self-taught programmers and data scientists."
—Crow Intelligence

From the Publisher