If you want to bring your programming skills to the next level, the most important thing you need is a good grasp of fundamental data structures. Proper choice of data structures is what distinguishes excellent programmers from merely competent ones. If you are an experienced programmer, you use data structures—at least arrays—all the time. But you may not be familiar with hash tables, trees and binary trees, priority queues, directed and undirected graphs, and all the other data structures at your disposal. A good choice of data structures will make your job simpler, not more complicated. Your code will be not only faster but also easier to understand and debug. There is no downside to using the right data structures for the purpose. This book: • Provides an understanding of the fundamental building blocks of data structures. • Describes the construction and use of all common data structures. • Explains the simple math required for the choice of efficient data structures. • Gives you everything you need to choose data structures or devise appropriate new ones.