Ask HN: Discrete Mathematics Preriquisites for Data Structures?
3•shivajikobardan•2d ago
What chapters of keneth rosen's books are a must to learn Data Structures? I am planning to learn Discrete Mathematics step by step that's why.
Comments
dapperdrake•1d ago
If mathematical definitions, theorems and proofs help your way of thinking, then go for it.
Many good people don't even need math books to be really effective with data structures.
High-performance data structures are more about different Geometries (asymmetries in timings on hardware vs. access patterns -- tape vs. drum (bubble-sort, yay) vs. disk vs. flash; temporal locality, spatial locality, caching) rather than algebraic structures (symmetry properties of binary trees, bipartite graphs, groups, rings, fields, algebras, set algebras).
Some people interested in discrete mathematics and data structures go with Knuth: The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth mentioned the link between drum storage and bubble sort. Just a fun tidbit.
Stuff like permutations become interesting for statistics and NP-hard search problems.
P.S. What options do you have to clarify your question? How is learning discrete mathematics from Keneth Rosen's books linked to hard requirements for understanding data structures and at the same time learning discrete mathematics step by step? Which are you targeting, data structures or discrete mathematics?
dapperdrake•1d ago
Many good people don't even need math books to be really effective with data structures.
High-performance data structures are more about different Geometries (asymmetries in timings on hardware vs. access patterns -- tape vs. drum (bubble-sort, yay) vs. disk vs. flash; temporal locality, spatial locality, caching) rather than algebraic structures (symmetry properties of binary trees, bipartite graphs, groups, rings, fields, algebras, set algebras).
Some people interested in discrete mathematics and data structures go with Knuth: The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth mentioned the link between drum storage and bubble sort. Just a fun tidbit.
Stuff like permutations become interesting for statistics and NP-hard search problems.
P.S. What options do you have to clarify your question? How is learning discrete mathematics from Keneth Rosen's books linked to hard requirements for understanding data structures and at the same time learning discrete mathematics step by step? Which are you targeting, data structures or discrete mathematics?