The Art of Computer Programming

The Art of Computer Programming is Donald Knuth’s multivolume reference work on algorithms, their mathematical analysis, and the techniques used to implement them.

Algorithm analysis: The study of an algorithm’s resource use and behavior as its input grows. The series makes rigorous analysis central to understanding algorithms.
Knuth's Algorithm X: A method for finding solutions to exact-cover problems by systematic backtracking. Its treatment illustrates how the series turns a combinatorial problem into a precise procedure.
Donald Knuth: An American computer scientist known for foundational work on algorithms, typesetting, and literate programming. Knuth is the series’ author and its central intellectual presence.
Sorting algorithm: An algorithm that rearranges items into an order determined by their keys. Sorting is one of the series’ most extensively analyzed practical problems.
Literate programming: A programming approach that presents source code alongside prose explaining its design. Knuth developed the approach while creating the series’ typesetting system.
MIX (Knuth): A hypothetical computer architecture Knuth uses to describe and analyze programs in the early volumes. MIX gives many low-level examples a concrete machine to run on.
Dancing Links: A technique that uses circular doubly linked lists to implement reversible changes efficiently. Knuth developed it to make Algorithm X’s backtracking updates efficient.
Addison-Wesley: An educational publisher that issued the volumes of The Art of Computer Programming. Its commission prompted Knuth to begin the project in the early 1960s.
Search algorithm: An algorithm that locates a target or matching item within a collection of data. The books compare search strategies by correctness, cost, and data structure.
TeX: A typesetting system designed by Donald Knuth for producing high-quality technical documents. Knuth created TeX after dissatisfaction with the typography of his books.

Linked from 3 pages

Insertion sortRelated: Its treatment of sorting includes insertion sort’s exact operation counts and performance analysis.