Instructor: Mitch Edelman

Meeting Times:

          Section 0301 meets 5:30 - 6:45 Tu Th
          Section 0201 meets 7:00 - 8:15 Tu Th
          Both sections meet in SS 208

Course Description

The course covers data structures and associated algorithms. Relationships among data structures, their utility in various situations, and factors affecting their performance in algorithms will be considered. You will learn to analyze the time and space complexity of algorithms, how to choose appropriate data structures, and how to integrate data structures into algorithms.

Textbooks

Recommended:

• Your favorite C++ reference book -- here are some of mine

 
• The C++ Programming Language, Special Edition by Bjarne Stroustroup

(He's the guy who invented the language)
Addison-Wesley, 2000, ISBN 0-201-70073-5
 
• C++ Primer, Third Edition by Stanely B. Lippman, Josee Lajoie

Addison-Wesley, 1998, ISBN 0-201-82470-1
 
• C++ FAQs, Second Edition by Marshall Cline, Greg Lomow, Mike Girou

Addison-Wesley, 1999, ISBN 0-201-30983-1
 
• Effective C++ Second Edition by Scott Meyers

Addison-Wesley
 
• More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers

Addison-Wesley


• Thinking in C++ by Bruce Eckel.
  This book is available in its entirety on the web at
  http://www.mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html

• Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis by Clifford Shaffer, Prentice-Hall, 1996. This book has good coverage of data structures and algorithm analysis in C++. It has excellent descriptions of a number of data structures.
• Data Structures, Algorithms, and Applications in C++ by Sartaj Sahni, McGraw-Hill, 1998. Covers some material not covered by the Heileman text.
• Data Structures and Algorithms by Alfred Aho, John Hopcroft, and Jeffrey Ullman, Addison-Wesley, 1983. This is one of the all-time classics, written in Pascal.
• Fundamentals of Data Structures by Ellis Horowitz, Sartaj Sahni, and Dinesh Mehta, 1995. Another classic. In C++.
• Abstract Data Types by Nell Dale and Henry Walker, D.C. Heath and Company, 1996. A high-level view of data structures and algorithms, with no programming language specified. A very worthwhile and modern text with an alternative viewpoint.

Prerequisites

Grading

Your final letter grade is based on the standard formula:

0 <= F < 60, 60 <= D < 70, 70 <= C < 80, 80 <= B < 90, 90 <= A <= 100

Your grade is given for timely work done during the semester; incomplete grades will only be given for medical illness or other such dire circumstances.

Attendance and Readings

You must study to do well in this course. It will not be enough to attend lectures and do the homework. As advanced undergraduates, you will be responsible for learning material that is not covered in lectures. A prime learning requirement is that you contribute to class discussions and raise questions about the course material. I reserve the right to give unannounced pop quizzes.

Help Sessions

Contacting Me or the TAs

• If you want me or the TA to help you debug your code, submit it in the usual way, and then send email about the problem. We will look at the submitted code. Please, do NOT mail code to me or to the TA!
• Note that the Help Center does not offer help with code for this course.
• Please use your real name. Email from "Pleasure Machine" or "Phantasy Phreak" gets filtered out along with the other 60 or so messages that spam me daily, so using your AOL account is certain to get scrubbed. Besides, when you get that great-paying job because you know data structures so well, will you want to send mail to your boss from the "Hormone Factory"? Your mail will look much more professional if you use your real name.
• Include a meaningful subject line, something like "CMSC 341 Project 2 question."

Academic Integrity

Students are welcome and encouraged to study together for exams, but examinations are to be your own work -- not your neighbor's and not your notes. All exams are closed-book, closed-notes. Only pencils (or pens) and erasers are permitted in the exam room unless otherwise indicated. If you need the security of a calculator, you may have one of them, too, but unless you are a candidate for remedial arithmetic, you probably will not need one of them. Scratch paper is provided to you, as needed. Having any other materials in your possession during an exam will be taken as evidence of cheating and dealt with accordingly.  

Additional Power Point Slides

Exam Preview

Syllabus

• Dates and topics are subject to change as required by class progress
• MAW = Weiss text "Data Structures & Algorithm Analysis in C++"

Course Web Page

www.cs.umbc.edu/courses/undergraduate/341/fall02/index.shtml