Extremal Finite Set Book Recommendation

Question

I want to read Extremal Finite Set Combinatorics in some detail.

(By 'Extremal Finite Set Combinatorics' I mean the subject which covers theorems like Sperner's Theorem, Erdos-Ko-Rado Theorem, deBruijn-Erdos Theorem etc.)

Can somebody please recommend me a good book for self-study for this purpose?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I would recommend Ian Anderson's book: Combinatorics of Finite Sets. It is very readable and gives a good introduction.

Another good choice is Bollobas's book: Combinatorics: Set Systems, Hypergraphs, Families of Vectors and Combinatorial Probability. Also readable. A bit more emphasis on probabilistic ideas.

There is also a couple chapters of an unfinished book here http://www.renyi.hu/~ohkatona/

For linear algebraic techniques there is a great preliminary manuscript which is linked to here due to Frankl and Babai: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/17006/linear-algebra-proofs-in-combinatorics

One more nice introduction in a broader setting is the notes of this BSM class, they are available somewhere online I think but I can't find them at the moment: http://www.bsmath.hu/11spring/com2a_11s.html

Answer 2

I would also recommend Stasys Jukna - Extremal Combinatorics There is a free draft of the book here