Sparse linear problems of the least squares method

One gives a survey of the direct method of solving large sparse diverse overdetermined linear systems of full column rank in the least squares sense. The survey covers practically all investigations on this topic, published in the seventies and in the beginning of the eighties.Translated from Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Seriya Matematicheskii Analiz, Vol. 23, pp. 219–285, 1985.