"This comprehensive textbook on combinatorial optimization puts special emphasis on theoretical results and algorithms with provably good performance, in contrast to heuristics. It has arisen as the basis of several courses on combinatorial optimization and more special topics at graduate level. Since the complete book contains enough material for at least four semesters (4 hours a week), one usually selects material in a suitable way. The book contains complete (but concise) proofs, also for many deep results, some of which did not appear in a book before. Many very recent topics are covered as well, and many references are provided. Thus this book represents the state-of-the-art of combinatorial optimization."--BOOK JACKET.