Signals and Systems (2nd Edition) (Prentice-Hall Signal Processing Series)

The book is an excellent basic introduction to the subject. It takes what can be a very difficult subject for students and provides a relatively clear path through the material. It doesn't assume very much mathematical background in the sense that there are plenty of very elementary problems in chapter one to remind you of the basics that you need for the rest of the book. Obviously if students have trouble with these problems they need to consider additional study to fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge on the mathematics side.

The worked examples in the chapters are excellent, although sometimes you have to ask yourself what you are supposed to be learning from each example or end of chapter problem. The first 20 problems at the end of each chapter really cover the chapter material, and subsequent problems delve into the material in a little more depth or in relation to more real-world problems. If you understand the chapter you should have no great difficulty in doing the first 20 problems in each chapter, and the answers are provided to help you make sure you aren't missing the point. I found some of the other problems a little less clear, and certainly the students had difficulties here. I provided well over a hundred pages of written solutions for my students to try to overcome this deficiency.

There is a solutions manual, but I don't recommend it all that highly. I found quite a lot of basic mistakes in the solutions manual. Several problems seemed to be done the "wrong way" compared to what I think the intention of the problem is. Also, some of the solutions in the solutions manual don't give enough guidance to students (at least not to the students I had in my course, and most likely not to many others judging by sorts of comments I've read in reviews here). On the other hand, I've probably made similar sorts of mistakes with the solutions I've provided, so I guess I can understand why the solutions manual has these deficiencies.

A few of the end of chapter problems (very, very few) didn't seem to have much point. Some seemed to involve a lot of work, for not much instructive gain. However, the large majority of problems are excellent and highly instructive.

As with all books there are possibly things which could be improved, but overall this book is excellent in terms of being a good basic introductory text for a Signals and Systems course. Such a course is something that many students are going to find difficult, but the book isn't to blame if that's the case.


It's an excellent text book if you have patience ...   June 1, 1998
Zegeye Alemu (azeg@micro.ti.com) (U.S.A.)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have used this book when I was in college and found it hard to understand, at first. Later on I started using it as a reference and begun to appreciate it. The trick was to read it very patiently (extremely), line by line. No short cuts. If one wants to highlight the most important part of any section of this book, that person will end up highlighting the entire book. It is that dense in information. I have consulted this book several times as a reference since then. I have seen some other work of Oppenheim's and I believe he is one of the most talented person in this field and knows exactly how to present this subject in the most graceful way.

As far as the end of chapter questions are concerned, I should agree to the fact that they are very hard. One needs to be extremely knowledgeable to attack some of the problems. If you are novice to Signal Processing, chances are you will not even understand the solution let alone the question.

Bottom line: I believe this book can be used by any body who has some basic understanding of mathematics. You do not have to be an expert at all.


Simply the best   December 31, 2002
Vijay Krishna (Chennai, TN, India)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

This is the definitive text on this topic. Right from the basics of signals to the presentation of complex topics like communication systems, this book beats every other book. The one drawback is that examples are few and far apart. So eventhough those few examples are representative of entire sections, students may find it tough to solve the hundreds of exercise problems.

However I have used many other texts for this course, and only Simon Haykin's text came close.


Very Well Written   September 22, 2006
whitethunder (Los Angeles, CA)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful

It is probably the best book on the subject which I have had. It was the reference for my undergraduate signals and systems course. It is both good as a text book and a reference. Very well written! explains the concepts very clearly and has a lot of good examples and end of chapter problems.


A very good introduction to signals and systems   May 7, 2006
S. K. (Israel)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

As a non EE undergraduate, I needed a book to prepare my for the rigors of an MSC degree in DSP which builds heavily on basic foundations such as Fourier, Laplace and Z transforms. I spent 3 months reading the book (while working) before starting the MSc and I found that it was exactly what I needed. There are plenty of examples, which for me are a vital ingredient in any book that touches this area--there is no way to learn without examples and this book excels at them.

I recommend this book to the EE undergraduate who is attending his first "signal and systems" course or to MSc studnets like me who need an in depth discussion of the issues.