Many programmers would love to use Perl for projects that involve heavy lifting, but miss the many traditional algorithms that textbooks teach for other languages. Computer scientists have identified many techniques that a wide range of programs need, such as:

• Fuzzy pattern matching for text (identify misspellings!)

• Finding correlations in data

• Game-playing algorithms

• Predicting phenomena such as Web traffic

• Polynomial and spline fitting

Using algorithms explained in this book, you too can carry out traditional programming tasks in a high-powered, efficient, easy-to-maintain manner with Perl. This book assumes a basic understanding of Perl syntax and functions, but not necessarily any background in computer science. The authors explain in a readable fashion the reasons for using various classic programming techniques, the kind of applications that use them, and -- most important -- how to code these algorithms in Perl. If you are an amateur programmer, this book will fill you in on the essential algorithms you need to solve problems like an expert. If you have already learned algorithms in other languages, you will be surprised at how much different (and often easier) it is to implement them in Perl. And yes, the book even has the obligatory fractal display program. There have been dozens of books on programming algorithms, some of them excellent, but never before has there been one that uses Perl. The authors include the editor of The Perl Journal and master librarian of CPAN; all are contributors to CPAN and have archived much of the code in this book there. "This book was so exciting I lost sleep reading it." Tom Christiansen

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 17 Ratings

MAP makes many promises, but fails to deliver. - 2003-08-18
Reviewer Rating:
As a guy ( engineer not computer expert ) who uses computers everyday to help his research, I would steer you away from using Perl for any task involving mathematical concepts more complicated than addition/subtraction/multiplication and addition.

I heard this same advice before buying this book and ignored it, I really wish I had listened back then.

While MAP has some nice pictures which broadly describe the essential concepts, it will give you no idea as to how to actually implement those ideas. Further, all the code is available in CPAN ( If you don't know CPAN, check it out before going any further - at the very least install a module ) and much ( at least what I attempted to use ) appeared to be broken.

Authors of computer books are usually good about answering e-mail but these authors did not deign to respond to mine.

If you are out there, struggling to learn algorithms, I would suggest taking a good computer course on the subject. I'm 99% certain the course will be taught in C/C++ or similar language -these languages have tremendous advantages over Perl when it comes to data structures and, believe me, even as a novice I've come to appreciate them...

If you really know algorithms and wish to write a few in Perl, you can do without this book. Pick up Deitel & Deitel's 'Perl: How to Program' instead or O'Reilly's basic book ( which is good, but I prefer Deitel and Deitel ) ....besides D&D answer their e-mail.

Good implementation of popular algorithms - 2005-05-27
Reviewer Rating:
Klowledge of algorithms and data structures is vital for effective programming, and Perl is one of the most popular programming languages around, so this book fills a long-needed niche.

If you've ever looked at "Introduction to algorithms " by Cormen et al (CLR), this book will look familiar. It covers many of the topics covered in CLR, though not in such theoretic depth. It does, however, have mountains of Perl code implementing those algorithms.

This book can seemingly have two purposes - one is to learn algorithms (as the title suggests), and the other is to understand the implementation of algorithms in Perl.

IMHO, the authors fulfilled the second part quite well. For the first part, CLR is a excellent book and is hard to better. I don't think "Mastering algorithms" explained the topics in a clear enough way to compete with CLR, but it can indeed be a terrific companion to CLR (get the first edition, used copies cost pennies). Read about the algorith m in CLR, understand it from the pseudo-code and diagrams, then take "Mastering algorithms with Perl" and learn the Perl implementation of the algorithm.

Enjoyable, broad-ranging coverage of algorithms - 2007-07-23
Reviewer Rating:
This is a very accessible introduction to data structures and algorithms in Perl. It doesn't go into a lot of theory, it isn't going to answer your computer science homework, but it does give a good feel for the various applications of algorithm research.

Plus, the code is all in Perl, which is not as unreadable as received wisdom asserts. It's certainly more accessible for the interested Perl-savvy amateur than the pseudocode in Introduction to Algorithms.

Obviously, you're going to have to move onto the likes of Cormen et al, if you're really serious about this stuff. And practically speaking, yes, most of this can be found in CPAN without you having to worry your pretty little head about the mechanics. If just getting something done is your main concern, then this is not the book for you.

Plus, it must be admitted that the level of detail varies across the chapters, and some of the explanations can be opaque, even for the simple stuff. I felt I had to work unnecessarily hard to comprehend some of the material: the discussion of the A* algorithm, some of the tree-related algorithms and the section on compression all suffered from this to varying degrees. This is the sort of book which requires concentration (plus copious scrap paper for scribbling down arrows and boxes) to get anything from.

But to complain that Perl doesn't need you to write these data structures from scratch, and it isn't a suitable language for this sort of thing anyway, is to miss the point of at least part of the book. It's about communicating the intellectual pleasure of wrapping your head around these fundamental bits of computer science, and in that respect it succeeds admirably. If you're looking for an introduction to the area, this is definitely worth getting hold of.

Accessible discussion of algorithm topics implemented in Perl - 2006-12-17
Reviewer Rating:
If you have ever studied algorithms and data structures, then balanced trees and O(N) notation may still be a painful memory. Also, part of Perl's strength is in its built in parsing and sorting features so why would you need to know other ways of doing the same job? If your work does not challenge Perl's features then you probably do not need this book. However, if you have no computer science background and Perl is your language of choice then this book requires serious consideration.

The book is concise and the advice given in concepts like choosing an appropriate data structure or in benchmarking your program is actually quite sound. It covers a wide number of topics such as sorting, searching, sets and matrices together with material you may not find in a data structures book like geometry, cryptography and statistics.

Your choice depends on the task at hand. If you're looking for a Perl book where you can find routines to encrypt a string or find the maximum distance between two points then this book will not disappoint. Indeed, I believe that anyone serious about programming would benefit greatly from some of the Computer Science subjects discussed and implemented in Perl that are offered in this book.

A great book on the subject - 2004-07-28
Reviewer Rating:
This book is a great book, not only on the subject of algorithms, but also on how to implement them in Perl. A huge number of topics are covered, from Data Structures, to Searching/sorting, to cryptography, and much more. And what I found to be among the most useful additions was that for every subject, they give you a full implementation on the subject. I've read a few books on algorithms, but this is one of the most easy to read, and definitely one of the most practically useful. Recommended for any Perl programmer, regardless of skill.

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