With the advent of computers, search theory emerged in the sixties as an area of research in its own right. Sorting questions arising in computer science were the first to be thoroughly studied. But soon it was found that the intrinsic complexity of many other data structures could be fruitfully analyzed from a search theoretic point of view. Worst case and average case analyses of algorithms have since become indispensable tools in many fields bordering on combinatorics and computer science.

Combinatorial Search gives an overview of the subject, ranging from such time-honored problems as the defective coin puzzle to some very recent advances in parallel computing. It stresses the strong connections with information theory, combinatorics, tree structures, order and graphs.

Each chapter contains a large number of exercises of various degrees of difficulty with an addendum of solutions to recommended exercises. There are also bibliographical notes to all topics discussed and all chapters are concluded with an extensive list of open problems.