Book Image

C# Data Structures and Algorithms - Second Edition

By : Marcin Jamro
Book Image

C# Data Structures and Algorithms - Second Edition

By: Marcin Jamro

Overview of this book

Building your own applications is exciting but challenging, especially when tackling complex problems tied to advanced data structures and algorithms. This endeavor demands profound knowledge of the programming language as well as data structures and algorithms – precisely what this book offers to C# developers. Starting with an introduction to algorithms, this book gradually immerses you in the world of arrays, lists, stacks, queues, dictionaries, and sets. Real-world examples, enriched with code snippets and illustrations, provide a practical understanding of these concepts. You’ll also learn how to sort arrays using various algorithms, setting a solid foundation for your programming expertise. As you progress through the book, you’ll venture into more complex data structures – trees and graphs – and discover algorithms for tasks such as determining the shortest path in a graph before advancing to see various algorithms in action, such as solving Sudoku. By the end of the book, you’ll have learned how to use the C# language to build algorithmic components that are not only easy to understand and debug but also seamlessly applicable in various applications, spanning web and mobile platforms.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Single-dimensional arrays

Let’s start with the simplest variant of arrays, namely single-dimensional ones. Such an array stores a collection of items of the same type, which are accessible by an index. It is important to remember that indices of elements within arrays in C# are zero-based. This means that the first element has an index equal to 0, while the last one has an index equal to the length of the array minus one.

Imagine a single-dimensional array

If you want to better imagine a single-dimensional array, take your eyes off this book for a moment and look at the chest of drawers or wardrobe in your room. A standard chest of drawers consists of several drawers and a single-dimensional array looks similar. It also has several elements (as drawers), which are accessible via the index. You cannot change the size of the array in the same way as you cannot change the number of drawers since the furniture is prepared. An array has one significant advantage over a chest...