this introduction tells you briefly what this book is about why it' different who might want to read it what you need to know before you read it the software and equipment you need to use it how this book is organized what this book is about this book is about data structures and algorithms as used in computer programming data structures are ways in which data is arranged in your computer' memory (or stored on diskalgorithms are the procedures software program uses to manipulate the data in these structures almost every computer programeven simple oneuses data structures and algorithms for exampleconsider program that prints address labels the program might use an array containing the addresses to be printedand simple for loop to step through the arrayprinting each address the array in this example is data structureand the for loopused for sequential access to the arrayexecutes simple algorithm for uncomplicated programs with small amounts of datasuch simple approach might be all you need howeverfor programs that handle even moderately large amounts of dataor that solve problems that are slightly out of the ordinarymore sophisticated techniques are necessary simply knowing the syntax of computer language such as java or +isn' enough this book is about what you need to know after you've learned programming language the material we cover here is typically taught in colleges and universities as second-year course in computer scienceafter student has mastered the fundamentals of programming what' different about this book there are dozens of books on data structures and algorithms what' different about this onethree thingsour primary goal in writing this book is to make the topics we cover easy to understand demonstration programs called workshop applets bring to life the topics we covershowing you step by stepwith "moving pictures,how data structures and algorithms work the example code is written in javawhich is easier to understand than cc++or pascalthe languages traditionally used to demonstrate computer science topics let' look at these features in more detail -