Introductory Combinatorics

Richard A. Brualdi0131814885, 9780131814882

Focusing on the core material of value to students in a wide variety of fields, this book presents a broad comprehensive survey of modern combinatorics at an introductory level. The author begins with an introduction of concepts fundamental to all branches of combinatorics in the context of combinatorial enumeration. Chapter 2 is devoted to enumeration problems that involve counting the number of equivalence classes of an equivalence relation. Chapter 3 discusses somewhat less direct methods of enumeration, the principle of inclusion and exclusion and generating functions. The remainder of the book is devoted to a study of combinatorial structures.