Building from basics and demonstrating the relationships among the various branches of combinatorics, Victor Bryant presents the results in a straightforward way. Numerous examples and exercises including hints and solutions are included throughout and serve to lead the reader to some of the deeper results of the subject, many of which are usually excluded from introductory texts.

Combinatorics may very loosely be described as that branch of mathematics which is concerned with the problems of arranging objects in accordance with various imposed constraints. It covers a wide range of ideas and because of its fundamental nature it has applications throughout mathematics. Among the well-established areas of combinatorics may now be included the studies of graphs and networks, block designs, games, transversals, and enumeration problem s concerning permutations and combinations, from which the subject earned its title, as weil as the theory of independence spaces (or...