• Informal and entertaining style, yet mathematically precise and entertaining
• Concentrates on developing mathematical thinking and skills rather than accumulating facts
• Written by internationally renowned mathematicians with extensive teaching experience
• Large collection of exercises and problems
• Over 200 drawings and diagrams

New to this edition

• New chapters on partially ordered sets and Ramsey's Theorem
• New sections on Tuarán's Theorem
• Proofs of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, Cayley's Formula, and the determinant formula for counting spanning trees

Readership: Undergraduates and early graduates in mathematics and computer science

Ji%rí Matousek, Professor of Computer Science, Charles University, Prague, and Jaroslav Ne%set%ril, Professor of Mathematics, Charles University, Prague

Review(s) from previous edition

"'The book is a self-contained introduction to discrete mathematics, and in particular to combinatorics and graph theory. It is aimed at undergraduate and early graduate students and encourages an active, problem-solving approach to the material. The book treats selected topics in unusual depth and from several points of view.' - Zentralblatt fur Didaktik der Mathematik

"'...a far-from-traditional textbook and...a joy to read. The text is lucid and sprinkled with small jokes and background stories.' " - Times Higher Education Supplement, Friday 26th November 1999

Preface to the second edition
Preface to the first edition
1: Introduction and basic concepts
2: Orderings
3: Combinatorial counting
4: Graphs: an introduction
5: Trees
6: Drawing graphs in the plane
7: Double-counting
8: The number of spanning trees
9: Finite projective planes
10: Probability and probabilistic proofs
11: Order from disorder: Ramsey's theorem
12: Generating functions
13: Applications of linear algebra
Appendix
Bibliography
Hints to selected exercises
Index