This web site is hosted by the Software and Systems Division, Information Technology Laboratory, NIST. Development of this dictionary started in 1998 under the editorship of Paul E. Black.

This is a dictionary of algorithms, algorithmic techniques, data structures, archetypal problems, and related definitions. Algorithms include common functions, such as Ackermann's function. Problems include traveling salesman and Byzantine generals. Some entries have links to implementations and more information. Index pages list entries by area and by type. The two-level index has a total download 1/20 as big as this page.

Don't use this site to cheat. Teachers, contact us if we can help.

Currently we do not include algorithms particular to business data processing, communications, operating systems or distributed algorithms, programming languages, AI, graphics, or numerical analysis: it is tough enough covering "general" algorithms and data structures. If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.

Some terms with a leading variable, such as n-way, m-dimensional, or p-branching, are under k-. You may find useful entries in A Glossary of Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms.

To look up words or phrases, enter them in the box, then click the button.

Web DADS

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We thank those who contributed definitions as well as many others who offered suggestions and corrections.

The URL https://www.nist.gov/dads/ is an alias which should continue to refer to DADS. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Here are some references on algorithms and data structures.

The Stony Brook Algorithm Repository, which has algorithms organized by type, succinct, illustrated definitions, and ratings of sites with implementations.

Data Structures and Algorithms is a wonderful site with illustrations, explanations, analysis, and code taking the student from arrays and lists through trees, graphs, and intractable problems.

Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics or MathWorld.

The Sphere online judge (SPOJ) has about 6600 small programming tasks or puzzles and 900 contests. Even nicer it automatically assesses your programs written in 40 languages.

The Error Correction Zoo, which was created "to categorize and to organize known classical and quantum error-correction schemes", and the Quantum Algorithm Zoo, which "is a comprehensive catalog of quantum algorithms."

The Computer Science part of Arxiv has sections like Data Structures and Algorithms.

The International Conference on Fun With Algorithms (FUN 2024). The conference "is dedicated to the use, design, and analysis of algorithms and data structures, focusing on results that provide amusing, witty but nonetheless original and scientifically profound contributions to the area." Conference on Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication. The conference "is to explore new ways of communicating mathematical sciences" and "will host a unique interaction between artists (theatre, dance, graphic arts, story) and scientists /teachers/communicators." The notion is to build on "Computer Science Unplugged, Algorithms Unplugged, the IMAGINATION project, Bebras and other similar efforts."

Bibliography

[AS98] Pankaj K. Agarwal and Micha Sharir, Efficient Algorithms for Geometric Optimization, ACM Computing Surveys, 30(4):412-458, December 1998.

[ATCH99] Algorithms and Theory of Computation Handbook, Mikhail J. Atallah, ed., CRC Press LLC, 1999.

[CLR90] Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, and Ronald L. Rivest, Introduction to Algorithms, MIT Press, 1990.

[GBY91] Gaston H. Gonnet and Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Handbook of Algorithms and Data Structures -- in Pascal and C, 2^nd edition, Addison-Wesley, 1991.

[GCG92] P. Gupta, P. P. Chakrabarti, and S. Ghose, The Towers of Hanoi: Generalizations, Specializations, and Algorithms, Intern. J. Computer Math., 46:149-161, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers S.A., 1992.

[GG98] Volker Gaede and Oliver Günther, Multidimensional Access Methods, ACM Computing Surveys, 30(2):170-231, June 1998.

[GT97] Michael T. Goodrich and Roberto Tamassia, Data Structures and Algorithms in Java, 2^nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

[Graef06] Goetz Graefe, Implementing Sorting in Database Systems, ACM Computing Surveys, 38(3), Article 10, September 2006.

[Hirv01] Mika Hirvensalo, Quantum Computing, Springer-Verlag, 2001.

[HS83] Ellis Horowitz and Sartaj Sahni, Fundamentals of Data Structures, Computer Science Press, 1983.

[Knuth97] Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Addison-Wesley, volumes 1 and 2, 2^nd edition, 1997.

[Knuth98] Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Addison-Wesley, volume 3, 2^nd edition, 1998.

[Leda98] LEDA Library of Efficient Data types and Algorithms (accessed 17 June 2019).

[Sedge97] Robert Sedgewick, Algorithms in C, Addison-Wesley, 1997.

[Stand98] Thomas Standish, Data Structures in Java, Addison-Wesley, 1998.

[Sund98] Daniel M. Sunday, A Very Fast Substring Search Algorithm, Communications of the ACM, 33(8):132-142, August 1998.

[Vitt01] Jeffrey Scott Vitter, External Memory Algorithms and Data Structures: Dealing with Massive Data, ACM Computing Surveys, 33(2):209-271, June 2001.

[Wier98] Roel Wieringa, A Survey of Structured and Object-Oriented Software Specification Methods and Techniques, ACM Computing Surveys, 30(4):459-527, December 1998.

Here are citation examples and an explanation of credit.

Robots, please index all term pages, including spelling variants.

This page's URL is https://www.nist.gov/dads/ DOI 10.18434/T4/1422485