'This book covers the dominant theoretical approaches to the approximate solution of hard combinatorial optimization and enumeration problems. It contains elegant combinatorial theory, useful and interesting algorithms, and deep results about the intrinsic complexity of combinatorial problems. Its clarity of exposition and excellent selection of exercises will make it accessible and appealing to all those with a taste for mathematics and algorithms' - Richard Karp, University Professor, University of California at Berkeley. Following the development of basic combinatorial optimization techniques in the 1960s and 1970s, a main open question was to develop a theory of approximation algorithms. In the 1990s, parallel developments in techniques for designing approximation algorithms as well as methods for proving hardness of approximation results have led to a beautiful theory. The need to solve truly large instances of computationally hard problems, such as those arising from the Internet or the human genome project, has also increased interest in this theory. The field is currently very active, with the toolbox of approximation algorithm design techniques getting always richer. It is a pleasure to recommend Vijay Vazirani's well-written and comprehensive book on this important and timely topic. "I am sure the reader will find it most useful both as an introduction to approximability as well as a reference to the many aspects of approximation algorithms' - Laszlo Lovasz, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research.

This text, extensively class-tested over a decade at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, explains the fundamentals of algorithms in a story line that makes the material enjoyable and easy to digest. Emphasis is placed on understanding the crisp mathematical idea behind each algorithm, in a manner that is intuitive and rigorous without being unduly formal.

Essential Information about Algorithms and Data Structures A Classic Reference The latest version of Sedgewick,s best-selling series, reflecting an indispensable body of knowledge developed over the past several decades. Broad Coverage Full treatment of data structures and algorithms for sorting, searching, graph processing, and string processing, including fifty algorithms every programmer should know. See

这是一本关于生物信息学算法和计算思想的导论性教科书，原著由国际上的权威学者撰写，经国内知名专家精心翻译为中文，系统介绍推动生物信息学不断进步的算法原理。全书强调的是算法中思想的运用，而不是对表面上并不相关的各类问题进行简单的堆砌。 体现了以下特色： 阐述生物学中的相关问题，涉及对问题的模型化处理并提供一种或多种解决方案： 简要介绍生物信息学领域领军人物； 饶有趣味的小插图使得概念更加具体和形象，方法更容易被领会，激励学生学习的兴趣并鼓励他们加入到生物信息学研究工作中来。 书中的大量论述表明：较少的几种设计思想就能解决大量的生物学难题。 目前，可供本科学生使用的生物信息学著作为数不多，本书恰恰是其中的一本。国内生物信息学，计算生物学、计算数学等领域的本科生、研究生和其他研究人员，会从书中汲取基本的算法原理、解决实际问题的方法和技巧，进而更好地从事相关研究工作。