This fifth edition continues to improve on the features that have made it the market leader. The text offers a flexible organization, enabling instructors to adapt the book to their particular courses. The book is both complete and careful, and it continues to maintain its emphasis on algorithms and applications. Excellent exercise sets allow students to perfect skills as they practice. This new edition continues to feature numerous computer science applications-making this the ideal text for preparing students for advanced study.

Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics provides a comprehensive reference volume for mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers, as well as students and reference librarians. The material is presented so that key information can be located and used quickly and easily. Each chapter includes a glossary. Individual topics are covered in sections and subsections within chapters, each of which is organized into clearly identifiable parts: definitions, facts, and examples. Examples are provided to illustrate some of the key definitions, facts, and algorithms. Some curious and entertaining facts and puzzles are also included. Readers will also find an extensive collection of biographies. This second edition is a major revision. It includes extensive additions and updates. Since the first edition appeared in 1999, many new discoveries have been made and new areas have grown in importance, which are covered in this edition.

This is the most readable and thorough graduate textbook and reference for combinatorics, covering enumeration, graphs, sets, and methods.

What Is Combinatorics Anyway? Broadly speaking, combinatorics is the branch of mathematics dealing with different ways of selecting objects from a set or arranging objects. It tries to answer two major kinds of questions, namely, counting questions: how many ways can a selection or arrangement be chosen with a particular set of properties; and structural questions: does there exist a selection or arrangement of objects with a particular set of properties? The authors have presented a text for students at all levels of preparation. For some, this will be the first course where the students see several real proofs. Others will have a good background in linear algebra, will have completed the calculus stream, and will have started abstract algebra. The text starts by briefly discussing several examples of typical combinatorial problems to give the reader a better idea of what the subject covers. The next chapters explore enumerative ideas and also probability. It then moves on to enumerative functions and the relations between them, and generating functions and recurrences., Important families of functions, or numbers and then theorems are presented. Brief introductions to computer algebra and group theory come next. Structures of particular interest in combinatorics: posets, graphs, codes, Latin squares, and experimental designs follow. The authors conclude with further discussion of the interaction between linear algebra and combinatorics. Features Two new chapters on probability and posets. Numerous new illustrations, exercises, and problems. More examples on current technology use A thorough focus on accuracy Three appendices: sets, induction and proof techniques, vectors and matrices, and biographies with historical notes, Flexible use of MapleTM and MathematicaTM

Combinatorics, Second Edition is a well-rounded, general introduction to the subjects of enumerative, bijective, and algebraic combinatorics. The textbook emphasizes bijective proofs, which provide elegant solutions to counting problems by setting up one-to-one correspondences between two sets of combinatorial objects. The author has written the textbook to be accessible to readers without any prior background in abstract algebra or combinatorics. Part I of the second edition develops an array of mathematical tools to solve counting problems: basic counting rules, recursions, inclusion-exclusion techniques, generating functions, bijective proofs, and linear algebraic methods. These tools are used to analyze combinatorial structures such as words, permutations, subsets, functions, graphs, trees, lattice paths, and much more. Part II cover topics in algebraic combinatorics including group actions, permutation statistics, symmetric functions, and tableau combinatorics. This edition provides greater coverage of the use of ordinary and exponential generating functions as a problem-solving tool. Along with two new chapters, several new sections, and improved exposition throughout, the textbook is brimming with many examples and exercises of various levels of difficulty.

This is an attempt to present some complex problems of discrete mathematics in a simple and unified form using a unique, general combinatorial scheme. The author's aim is not always to present the most general results, but rather to focus attention on ones that illustrate the methods described. A distinctive aspect of the book is the large number of asymptotic formulae derived.This is an important book, describing many ideas not previously available in English; the author has taken the chance to update the text and references where appropriate.