This book provides an introduction to discrete mathematics. At the end of the book the reader should be able to answer counting questions such as: How many ways are there to stack n poker chips, each of which can be red, white, blue, or green, such that each red chip is adjacent to at least 1 green chip? The book can be used as a textbook for a semester course at the sophomore level. The first five chapters can also serve as a basis for a graduate course for in-service teachers.

This book is a gentle introduction to the enumerative part of combinatorics suitable for study at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. In addition to covering all the standard techniques for counting combinatorial objects, the text contains material from the research literature which has never before appeared in print, such as the use of quotient posets to study the Möbius function and characteristic polynomial of a partially ordered set, or the connection between quasisymmetric functions and pattern avoidance. The book assumes minimal background, and a first course in abstract algebra should suffice. The exposition is very reader friendly: keeping a moderate pace, using lots of examples, emphasizing recurring themes, and frankly expressing the delight the author takes in mathematics in general and combinatorics in particular.

Presenting the state of the art, the Handbook of Enumerative Combinatorics brings together the work of today's most prominent researchers. The contributors survey the methods of combinatorial enumeration along with the most frequent applications of these methods.This important new work is edited by Miklos Bona of the University of Florida where he

Richard Stanley's two-volume basic introduction to enumerative combinatorics has become the standard guide to the topic for students and experts alike. This thoroughly revised second edition of Volume 1 includes ten new sections and more than 300 new exercises, most with solutions, reflecting numerous new developments since the publication of the first edition in 1986. The author brings the coverage up to date and includes a wide variety of additional applications and examples, as well as updated and expanded chapter bibliographies. Many of the less difficult new exercises have no solutions so that they can more easily be assigned to students. The material on P-partitions has been rearranged and generalized; the treatment of permutation statistics has been greatly enlarged; and there are also new sections on q-analogues of permutations, hyperplane arrangements, the cd-index, promotion and evacuation and differential posets.

This textbook offers the opportunity to create a uniquely engaging combinatorics classroom by embracing Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) techniques. Readers are provided with a carefully chosen progression of theorems to prove and problems to actively solve. Students will feel a sense of accomplishment as their collective inquiry traces a path from the basics to important generating function techniques. Beginning with an exploration of permutations and combinations that culminates in the Binomial Theorem, the text goes on to guide the study of ordinary and exponential generating functions. These tools underpin the in-depth study of Eulerian, Catalan, and Narayana numbers that follows, and a selection of advanced topics that includes applications to probability and number theory. Throughout, the theory unfolds via over 150 carefully selected problems for students to solve, many of which connect to state-of-the-art research. Inquiry-Based Enumerative Combinatorics is ideal for lower-division undergraduate students majoring in math or computer science, as there are no formal mathematics prerequisites. Because it includes many connections to recent research, students of any level who are interested in combinatorics will also find this a valuable resource.

An introduction to enumerative combinatorics, vital to many areas of mathematics. It is suitable as a class text or for individual study.