Introduction to Probability and Statistics

Good

This text was required textbook for college course. The text is fairly well written and not too difficult to follow if you're comfortable referring to the appendices. My only issue with this book is that it states they operate under the assumption the reader has a basic knowledge of C++ core concepts, so at times leaves gaps in understanding that could easily be filled with short footnotes or explanations to bring readers up to speed if they experience gaps in understanding or are proficient in other languages. I would be less likely to voice this issue if the text did not spend the first chapter going over the software development processes and other some other basic programming concepts. I feel the text would flow better if the first chapter was structred as a brief intro to the software development process then a more gradual introduction into the basics of the C++ language.

I am pursuing a computer science degree through Baker College Online. For all of our "Hardcore" programming courses such as C++, Data Structures and Algorithms, and Java (although I wouldn't really count Java as "Hardcore"), we are using D.S. Malik's books. I must say that after using three of his textbooks, I find them all to be less than adequate at best.This book is not a total loss. Sometimes the examples provided are a decent overview that clears up topics such as Linked Lists, Stacks, and Queues for newcomers. In fact if I were rating only the first half of the book (aside from the first two chapters, which are actually just rehashes from one of Malik's other books), I would probably give it four stars rather than three. It is in the second half of the book, when covering Binary Trees, AVL Height Balancing, Graphs, and STL Algorithms that Malik's coverage of Data Structures and Algorithms begins to slip into the realm of incoherence. Here, Malik spends too much time with diagrams and not enough with code. Also, when he does include source code, many times the amount of comments he includes are insufficient to really ascertain what he is trying to accomplish without spending extraneous time studying his code. Also, Malik tends to gloss over certain topics such as Kruskal's minimum spanning tree algorithm. Iterators are barely covered - Malik talks about how to use an Iterator, but never covers how one might construct one for their own data structures. The final chapter, which covers some of the STL Algorithms and the Set and Map data structures, is more of a joke than a real coverage of these items. Again, Malik covers how to use a Set or Map without really diving into their inner workings or how one might construct a similar data structure for their own use. I was also disappointed with Malik's coverage of Vectors. As with Sets and Maps, Malik covered how one might use a vector from the STL, but never how to construct one. To me that would seem like one of the most basic topics that any Data Structures and Algorithms text should cover. Finally, this book does not even cover or mention algorithms such as a Union Find or Union Join (which makes sense since he does not cover Kruskal's minimum spanning tree algorithm, which makes use of Union Find and Union Join, typically).

This book kinda blew my mind. I've been coding for a few years but this book made me realize that I was doing it wrong the whole time (very inefficiently).

Note: This book is meant to be used for a college students Programming II(Data Structures) class. Malik's other book, 'C++ Programming: From...' is meant to be used for Programming I(C++ Computer Science). They are meant to be read in succession. Those who skip the first book may be disappointed to know that things that are taught in the first book are picked back up again in the second book and therefore only have brief introductions in the second book.Also, GREATER UNDERSTANDING IS EXPECTED TO BE ACHIEVED THROUGH LECTURE & LAB, WHERE YOU ARE ABLE TO TALK TO YOUR PROFESSOR &&/|| GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT!!!! <------ UNDERSTAND THIS??Also, the teachers edition comes with powerpoint slides, notes, and other stuff that can be used to help you learn the material. Using this book for self study is okay, but you don't exactly have access to the stuff that comes with the teachers edition.I'm using "Data Structures Using C++" by Malik for my -CSC:240B Data Structures- class. We used "C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design" by Malik for my -CSC:240A C++ Computer Science- class. I must say that I really enjoyed the latter of the two. "C++ Programming: F.P.A. 2 P.D." was an awesome book! It was printed in color, so the comments in the code were green while the code was black, making the code very easy to read. In fact, printing it in color gave a better impression of what was important, you could separate the built-in keywords and control structures from comments and code. When key-words such as 'class', 'struct', or member-names like courseType or getCredits, getHoursEnrolled, etc were used they might be written in a different color or font making them stand out more. It was much easier to read when it was in color!"Data Structures Using C++" is good content wise, however it is certainly presented poorly. Presentation is key to understanding, we all have a little bit of a visual learner in us and printing this book in black and white is an absolute no-no. I'm really questioning whether anybody really looked through this after printing it, because all text is the same color for the most part - yes: the keywords, code, and comments are all the same color. It feels like we've been shafter to increase the profit margin. The sad thing is, this book would have been MUCH BETTER if it would have been DESIGNED IN BLACK AND WHITE because then the author WOULDNT HAVE ATTEMPTED TO COLOR CODE THINGS! I mean, why go through an extravagant design process if you're just going to cut costs and make it look like shit?This book provides a good introduction to software engineering and algorithm analysis. I thought that he could have been a little bit more mathematical with Big O analysis though, explaining that it is basically an upper bound. I have found the MIT OpenCourseWare lecture videos to be a great help in understanding algorithms in a deeper mathematical sense. Note, I hated math before I started programming in C++. In web development, math wasn't really needed for much. Geometry, sure, but I wasn't checking the complexity of my algorithms.This is a good book overall, but the black and white printing is going to give you a headache when you're trying to mentally separate code from comments, etc!

It has been a pleasure using this textbook for my Data Structures course. Although most of the material can also be found in his other textbook Programming and Problem solving using C++, this is a great book to have as well. The material is well laidout, terrific examples and thorough explanations made this a great experience. The only issue I had is that I liked the color illustrations in his other book, this is published in blue and white. Most of the code examples compiled effortlessly. One example on linked lists gave me some headache. I also would have liked a little more expansion on the STL.