data structures algorithms in javasecond edition the knapsack problem listing things taken at time folding-digits hash functions the radix sort end-of-questions short questions covering the key points of each are included at the end of each the answers can be found in appendix "answers to questions these questions are intended as self-test for readersto ensure that they have understood the material experiments we include some suggested activities for the reader these experiments often involve using the workshop applets or example programs to examine certain features of an algorithm' operationbut some are pencil-and-paper or "thought experiments programming projects most importantlywe have included at the end of each number (usually fiveof challenging programming projects they cover range of difficulty the easiest are simple variations on the example programs the most challenging are implementations of topics discussed in the text but for which there are no example programs solutions to the programming projects are not provided in this bookbut see the adjacent note note it is expected that the programming projects will be useful for instructors looking for class assignments to this endqualified instructors can obtain suggested solutions to the programming projects in the form of source code and executable code contact the sams web site for information on instructors programs 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