"Our goal in writing this book was to combine a strong emphasis on problem-solving, program analysis, design, and testing with the study of data structures. To this end, we discuss applications of each data structure to motivate its study. After providing the specification (interface) and the implementation (a Java class), we then cover case studies that use the data structure to solve a significant problem. Examples include maintaining an ordered list, evaluating arithmetic expressions using a stack, managing a list of cell-phone contacts, finding the shortest path through a maze, finding the shortest route to a destination, and Huffman coding using a binary tree and a priority queue. In the implementation of each data structure and in the solutions of the case studies, we reinforce the message "Think, then code" by performing a thorough analysis of the problem and then carefully designing a solution (using pseudocode and UML class diagrams) before the implementation. We also provide a performance analysis when appropriate and provide examples of how to test the code developed in the text. Readers gain an understanding of why different data structures are needed, the applications they are suited for, and the advantages and disadvantages of their possible implementations"--