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Table of Contents Cover Introduction About This Book Foolish Assumptions Icons Used in This Book Beyond the Book Where to Go from Here Part 1: Getting Started Chapter 1: Introducing Algorithms Describing Algorithms Using Computers to Solve Problems Distinguishing between Issues and Solutions Structuring Data to Obtain a Solution Chapter 2: Considering Algorithm Design Starting to Solve a Problem Dividing and Conquering Learning that Greed Can Be Good Computing Costs and Following Heuristics Evaluating Algorithms Chapter 3: Using Python to Work with Algorithms Considering the Benefits of Python Looking at the Python Distributions Installing Python on Linux Installing Python on MacOS Installing Python on Windows Downloading the Datasets and Example Code Chapter 4: Introducing Python for Algorithm Programming Working with Numbers and Logic Creating and Using Strings Interacting with Dates Creating and Using Functions Using Conditional and Loop Statements Storing Data Using Sets, Lists, and Tuples Defining Useful Iterators Indexing Data Using Dictionaries Chapter 5: Performing Essential Data Manipulations Using Python Performing Calculations Using Vectors and Matrixes Creating Combinations the Right Way Getting the Desired Results Using Recursion Performing Tasks More Quickly Part 2: Understanding the Need to Sort and Search Chapter 6: Structuring Data Determining the Need for Structure Stacking and Piling Data in Order Working with Trees Representing Relations in a Graph Chapter 7: Arranging and Searching Data Sorting Data Using Mergesort and Quicksort Using Search Trees and the Heap Relying on Hashing Part 3: Exploring the World of Graphs Chapter 8: Understanding Graph Basics Explaining the Importance of Networks Defining How to Draw a Graph Measuring Graph Functionality Putting a Graph in Numeric Format Chapter 9: Reconnecting the Dots Traversing a Graph Efficiently Sorting the Graph Elements Reducing to a Minimum Spanning Tree Finding the Shortest Route Chapter 10: Discovering Graph Secrets Envisioning Social Networks as Graphs Navigating a Graph Chapter 11: Getting the Right Web page Finding the World in a Search Engine Explaining the PageRank Algorithm Implementing PageRank Going Beyond the PageRank Paradigm Part 4: Struggling with Big Data Chapter 12: Managing Big Data Transforming Power into Data Streaming Flows of Data Sketching an Answer from Stream Data Chapter 13: Parallelizing Operations Managing Immense Amounts of Data Working Out Algorithms for MapReduce Chapter 14: Compressing Data Making Data Smaller Part 5: Challenging Difficult Problems Chapter 15: Working with Greedy Algorithms Deciding When It Is Better to Be Greedy Finding Out How Greedy Can Be Useful Chapter 16: Relying on Dynamic Programming Explaining Dynamic Programming Discovering the Best Dynamic Recipes Chapter 17: Using Randomized Algorithms Defining How Randomization Works Putting Randomness into your Logic Chapter 18: Performing Local Search Understanding Local Search Presenting local search tricks Solving satisfiability of Boolean circuits Chapter 19: Employing Linear Programming Using Linear Functions as a Tool Using Linear Programming in Practice Chapter 20: Considering Heuristics Differentiating Heuristics Routing Robots Using Heuristics Explaining Path Finding Algorithms Part 6: The Part of Tens Chapter 21: Ten Algorithms That Are Changing the World Using Sort Routines Looking for Things with Search Routines Shaking Things Up with Random Numbers Performing Data Compression Keeping Data Secret Changing the Data Domain Analyzing Links Spotting Data Patterns Dealing with Automation and Automatic Responses Creating Unique Identifiers Chapter 22: Ten Algorithmic Problems Yet to Solve Dealing with Text Searches Differentiating Words Determining Whether an Application Will End Creating and Using One-Way Functions Multiplying Really Large Numbers Dividing a Resource Equally Reducing Edit Distance Calculation Time Solving Problems Quickly Playing the Parity Game Understanding Spatial Issues About the Authors Connect with Dummies End User License Agreement