A pioneer of many modern developments in approximation theory, N. I. Achieser designed this graduate-level text from the standpoint of functional analysis. The first two chapters address approximation problems in linear normalized spaces and the ideas of P. L. Tchebysheff. Chapter III examines the elements of harmonic analysis, and Chapter IV, integral transcendental functions of the exponential type. The final two chapters explore the best harmonic approximation of functions and Wiener's theorem on approximation. Professor Achieser concludes this exemplary text with an extensive section of problems and applications (elementary extremal problems, Szego's theorem, the Carathéodory-Fejér problem, and more).