This text is, primarily, about data structures and their performance, and, secondarily, about algorithms. It has been written for a junior- or senior-level course in data structures. My goals are to introduce students to the world of data structures, to show them how to evaluate data structures, to help them obtain insight about data structures, and to give them the basis for making wise choices of data structures in the future. I consider this book to be the second volume of a trilogy on data structures; the first volume would be on data structures and program design (CS II material) such as the text of Kruse, Data Structures and Program Design, and the third volume would emphasize the cutting edge of data-structure research, such as the text of Mehlhorn Data Structures and Algorithms. For this reason, the text is divided into three parts:

A review (Chapters 1 through 6) that covers the material to which I expect most students to have been exposed; it is medium paced and detailed.
A core (Chapters 7 through 14) that covers strings, tables, dictionaries, priority queues, sorting, graphs, and partitions; it is brisk and detailed.
A preview (Chapter 15) that covers, briefly, material that both is exciting and is more recent or less established than that in the core; it is very brisk and provides little detail.