ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF

ALGORITHMS
-BHASKAR H S
 Chapter 1
Introduction
 WHAT IS AN ALGORITHM?

AN ALGORITHM IS A SEQUENCE OF UNAMBIGUOUS

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SOLVING A PROBLEM, I.E., FOR
OBTAINING A REQUIRED OUTPUT FOR ANY LEGITIMATE
INPUT IN A FINITE AMOUNT OF TIME.
problem

algorithm

input “computer” output

 WHAT IS AN ALGORITHM?
• RECIPE, PROCESS, METHOD, TECHNIQUE, PROCEDURE,
ROUTINE,… WITH THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS:
1. FINITENESS
TERMINATES AFTER A FINITE NUMBER OF STEPS
2. DEFINITENESS
RIGOROUSLY AND UNAMBIGUOUSLY SPECIFIED
3. CLEARLY SPECIFIED INPUT
VALID INPUTS ARE CLEARLY SPECIFIED
4. CLEARLY SPECIFIED/EXPECTED OUTPUT
CAN BE PROVED TO PRODUCE THE CORRECT OUTPUT GIVEN A VALID
INPUT
5. EFFECTIVENESS
STEPS ARE SUFFICIENTLY SIMPLE AND BASIC
 ALGORITHM
• AN ALGORITHM IS A SEQUENCE OF UNAMBIGUOUS
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SOLVING A PROBLEM, I.E., FOR
OBTAINING A REQUIRED OUTPUT FOR ANY LEGITIMATE
INPUT• Can
IN Abe FINITE AMOUNT
represented OF TIME.
various forms
• Unambiguity/clearness
• Effectiveness
• Finiteness/termination
• Correctness
EXAMPLE OF COMPUTATIONAL PROBLEM: SORTING
• STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:
• INPUT: A SEQUENCE OF N NUMBERS <A1, A2, …, AN>

• OUTPUT: A REORDERING OF THE INPUT SEQUENCE <A´1,

A´2, …, A´N> SO THAT A´I ≤ A´J WHENEVER I < J

• INSTANCE: THE SEQUENCE <5, 3, 2, 8, 3>

• ALGORITHMS:
• SELECTION SORT
• INSERTION SORT
• MERGE SORT
• (MANY OTHERS)
 SELECTION SORT
• INPUT: ARRAY A[1],…,A[N]

• OUTPUT: ARRAY A SORTED IN NON-DECREASING ORDER

• ALGORITHM:
FOR I=1 TO N
SWAP A[I] WITH SMALLEST OF A[I],…,A[N]

• Is this unambiguous? Effective?

SOME WELL-KNOWN COMPUTATIONAL PROBLEMS

• SORTING
• SEARCHING
• SHORTEST PATHS IN A GRAPH
• MINIMUM SPANNING TREE
• TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM
• KNAPSACK PROBLEM
• CHESS
• TOWERS OF HANOI
Some of these problems don’t have
efficient algorithms, or algorithms at all!
BASIC ISSUES RELATED TO ALGORITHMS
• HOW TO DESIGN ALGORITHMS

• HOW TO EXPRESS ALGORITHMS

• PROVING CORRECTNESS

• EFFICIENCY (OR COMPLEXITY) ANALYSIS

• THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

• EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

• OPTIMALITY
 ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS

• HOW GOOD IS THE ALGORITHM?

• CORRECTNESS
• TIME EFFICIENCY
• SPACE EFFICIENCY

• DOES THERE EXIST A BETTER ALGORITHM?

• LOWER BOUNDS
• OPTIMALITY
 WHY STUDY ALGORITHMS?
• THEORETICAL IMPORTANCE

• THE CORE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

• PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE

• A PRACTITIONER’S TOOLKIT OF KNOWN ALGORITHMS

• FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGNING AND ANALYZING ALGORITHMS FOR NEW

PROBLEMS
 EUCLID’S ALGORITHM
PROBLEM: FIND GCD(M,N), THE GREATEST COMMON DIVISOR OF TWO
NONNEGATIVE, NOT BOTH ZERO INTEGERS M AND N

EXAMPLES: GCD(60,24) = 12, GCD(60,0) = 60, GCD(0,0) = ?

EUCLID’S ALGORITHM IS BASED ON REPEATED APPLICATION OF EQUALITY

GCD(M,N) = GCD(N, M MOD N)
UNTIL THE SECOND NUMBER BECOMES 0, WHICH MAKES THE PROBLEM
TRIVIAL.

EXAMPLE: GCD(60,24) = GCD(24,12) = GCD(12,0) = 12

TWO DESCRIPTIONS OF EUCLID’S ALGORITHM

STEP 1 IF N = 0, RETURN M AND STOP; OTHERWISE GO TO STEP 2

STEP 2 DIVIDE M BY N AND ASSIGN THE VALUE OF THE REMAINDER TO R
STEP 3 ASSIGN THE VALUE OF N TO M AND THE VALUE OF R TO N. GO TO STEP
1.

WHILE N ≠ 0 DO
R ← M MOD N
M← N
N←R
RETURN M
 OTHER METHODS FOR COMPUTING GCD(M,N)

CONSECUTIVE INTEGER CHECKING

ALGORITHM
STEP 1 ASSIGN THE VALUE OF MIN{M,N} TO T
STEP 2 DIVIDE M BY T. IF THE REMAINDER IS 0, GO TO STEP 3;
OTHERWISE, GO TO STEP 4
STEP 3 DIVIDE N BY T. IF THE REMAINDER IS 0, RETURN T AND
STOP;
OTHERWISE, GO TO STEP 4
STEP 4 Is this slowerT than
DECREASE BY 1 Euclid’s
AND GOalgorithm?
TO STEP 2
How much slower?
O(n), if n <= m , vs O(log n)
 OTHER METHODS FOR GCD(M,N)
[CONT.]
MIDDLE-SCHOOL PROCEDURE
STEP 1 FIND THE PRIME FACTORIZATION OF M
STEP 2 FIND THE PRIME FACTORIZATION OF N
STEP 3 FIND ALL THE COMMON PRIME FACTORS
STEP 4 COMPUTE THE PRODUCT OF ALL THE COMMON PRIME
FACTORS
AND RETURN IT AS GCD(M,N)

IS THIS AN ALGORITHM?

HOW EFFICIENT IS IT?

Time complexity: O(sqrt(n))
 TWO MAIN ISSUES RELATED TO
ALGORITHMS

• HOW TO DESIGN ALGORITHMS

• HOW TO ANALYZE ALGORITHM EFFICIENCY

ALGORITHM DESIGN TECHNIQUES/STRATEGIES

• BRUTE FORCE  Greedy approach

• DIVIDE AND CONQUER  Dynamic programming

 Iterative improvement
• DECREASE AND CONQUER

 Backtracking
• TRANSFORM AND CONQUER

• SPACE AND TIME TRADEOFFS  Branch and bound

 IMPORTANT PROBLEM TYPES
• SORTING

• SEARCHING

• STRING PROCESSING

• GRAPH PROBLEMS

• COMBINATORIAL PROBLEMS

• GEOMETRIC PROBLEMS

• NUMERICAL PROBLEMS
 SORTING (I)
• REARRANGE THE ITEMS OF A GIVEN LIST IN ASCENDING
ORDER.
• INPUT: A SEQUENCE OF N NUMBERS <A1, A2, …, AN>
• OUTPUT: A REORDERING <A´1, A´2, …, A´N> OF THE INPUT
SEQUENCE SUCH THAT A´1≤ A´2 ≤ … ≤ A´N.
• WHY SORTING?
• HELP SEARCHING
• ALGORITHMS OFTEN USE SORTING AS A KEY SUBROUTINE.
• SORTING KEY
• A SPECIALLY CHOSEN PIECE OF INFORMATION USED TO GUIDE
SORTING. E.G., SORT STUDENT RECORDS BY NAMES.
 SORTING (II)
• EXAMPLES OF SORTING ALGORITHMS
• SELECTION SORT
• BUBBLE SORT
• INSERTION SORT
• MERGE SORT
• HEAP SORT …
• EVALUATE SORTING ALGORITHM COMPLEXITY: THE NUMBER OF
KEY COMPARISONS.
• TWO PROPERTIES
• STABILITY: A SORTING ALGORITHM IS CALLED STABLE IF IT PRESERVES
THE RELATIVE ORDER OF ANY TWO EQUAL ELEMENTS IN ITS INPUT.
• IN PLACE : A SORTING ALGORITHM IS IN PLACE IF IT DOES NOT REQUIRE
EXTRA MEMORY, EXCEPT, POSSIBLY FOR A FEW MEMORY UNITS.
 SELECTION SORT
ALGORITHM SELECTIONSORT(A[0..N-1])
//THE ALGORITHM SORTS A GIVEN ARRAY BY SELECTION SORT
//INPUT: AN ARRAY A[0..N-1] OF ORDERABLE ELEMENTS
//OUTPUT: ARRAY A[0..N-1] SORTED IN ASCENDING ORDER
FOR I  0 TO N – 2 DO
MIN  I
FOR J  I + 1 TO N – 1 DO
IF A[J] < A[MIN]
MIN  J
SWAP A[I] AND A[MIN]
 SEARCHING
• FIND A GIVEN VALUE, CALLED A SEARCH KEY, IN A GIVEN SET.
• EXAMPLES OF SEARCHING ALGORITHMS
• SEQUENTIAL SEARCH
• BINARY SEARCH …
Input: sorted array a_i < … < a_j and key x;
m (i+j)/2;
while i < j and x != a_m do
if x < a_m then j  m-1
else i  m+1;
if x = a_m then output a_m;

Time: O(log n)
 STRING PROCESSING
• A STRING IS A SEQUENCE OF CHARACTERS FROM AN
ALPHABET.
• TEXT STRINGS: LETTERS, NUMBERS, AND SPECIAL
CHARACTERS.
• STRING MATCHING: SEARCHING FOR A GIVEN
WORD/PATTERN IN A TEXT.
Examples:
(i) searching for a word or phrase on WWW or in a
Word document
(ii) searching for a short read in the reference genomic
sequence
 GRAPH PROBLEMS
• INFORMAL DEFINITION
• A GRAPH IS A COLLECTION OF POINTS CALLED
VERTICES, SOME OF WHICH ARE CONNECTED BY
LINE SEGMENTS CALLED EDGES.
• MODELING REAL-LIFE PROBLEMS
• MODELING WWW
• COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
• PROJECT SCHEDULING …
• EXAMPLES OF GRAPH ALGORITHMS
• GRAPH TRAVERSAL ALGORITHMS
• SHORTEST-PATH ALGORITHMS
• TOPOLOGICAL SORTING
 ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS
• ISSUES:
• CORRECTNESS
• TIME EFFICIENCY
• SPACE EFFICIENCY
• OPTIMALITY

• APPROACHES:
• EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS – LESS USEFUL
• THEORETICAL ANALYSIS – MOST IMPORTANT
 EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF TIME EFFICIENCY
• SELECT A SPECIFIC SAMPLE OF INPUTS

• USE PHYSICAL UNIT OF TIME (E.G., MILLISECONDS) OR COUNT ACTUAL

NUMBER OF BASIC OPERATION’S EXECUTIONS

• ANALYZE THE EMPIRICAL DATA

• PROBLEMS:
 EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF TIME EFFICIENCY
• SELECT A SPECIFIC SAMPLE OF INPUTS
• USE PHYSICAL UNIT OF TIME (E.G., MILLISECONDS) OR COUNT ACTUAL NUMBER
OF BASIC OPERATION’S EXECUTIONS
• ANALYZE THE EMPIRICAL DATA

• PROBLEM - INEFFICIENT:
• MUST IMPLEMENT ALGORITHM
• MUST RUN ON MANY DATA SETS TO SEE EFFECTS OF SCALING
• HARD TO SEE PATTERNS IN ACTUAL DATA
 THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF TIME
EFFICIENCY
TIME EFFICIENCY IS ANALYZED BY DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF REPETITIONS OF
THE BASIC OPERATION AS A FUNCTION OF INPUT SIZE

• BASIC OPERATION: THE OPERATION THAT CONTRIBUTES MOST TOWARDS THE

RUNNING TIME OF THE ALGORITHM

input size

T(N) ≈ COPC(N)
execution time Number of times
for basic operation basic operation is
running time
executed
INPUT SIZE AND BASIC OPERATION EXAMPLES

Problem Input size measure Basic operation

Searching for key in a Number of list’s items,

Key comparison
list of n items i.e. n

Multiplication of two Matrix dimensions or Multiplication of two

matrices total number of elements numbers

Checking primality of n’size = number of digits

Division
a given integer n (in binary representation)

Visiting a vertex or
Typical graph problem #vertices and/or edges
traversing an edge
 COUNTING OPERATIONS
CONSIDER COUNTING STEPS
• PROBLEMS:
• HARD TO ANALYZE
• MAY NOT NEED PRECISE INFORMATION
• PRECISE DETAILS LESS RELEVANT THAN ORDER GROWTH
• MAY NOT KNOW TIMES (OR RELATIVE TIMES) OF STEPS
• ONLY GIVES RESULTS WITHIN CONSTANTS (CONSTANTS RELEVANT LATER)
• AC(N) < T(N) < BC(N)

• MORE INTERESTED IN GROWTH RATES (IE BIG O), BUT

• CAREFUL ANALYSIS CAN COMPARE ALGORITHMS WITH SAME GROWTH RATE
• IF NEEDED
 BEST-CASE, AVERAGE-CASE, WORST-CASE

FOR A GIVEN INPUT SIZE, HOW DOES ALGORITHM PERFORM

ON DIFFERENT DATASETS OF THAT SIZE
FOR DATASETS OF SIZE N IDENTIFY DIFFERENT DATASETS THAT GIVE:
• WORST CASE: CWORST(N) – MAXIMUM OVER ALL INPUTS OF SIZE N

• BEST CASE: CBEST(N) – MINIMUM OVER ALL INPUTS OF SIZE N

• AVERAGE CASE: CAVG(N) – “AVERAGE” OVER INPUTS OF SIZE N

• TYPICAL INPUT, NOT THE AVERAGE OF WORST AND BEST CASE
• ANALYSIS REQUIRES KNOWING DISTRIBUTION OF ALL POSSIBLE INPUTS OF SIZE N
• CAN CONSIDER ALL POSSIBLE INPUT SETS OF SIZE N, AVERAGE OVER ALL SETS

• SOME ALGORITHMS ARE SAME FOR ALL THREE (EG ALL CASE PERFORMANCE)
EXAMPLE: SEQUENTIAL SEARCH

• WORST CASE
• BEST CASE
• AVERAGE CASE: DEPENDS ON ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT
INPUT: ?
EXAMPLE: SEQUENTIAL SEARCH

• WORST CASE
• BEST CASE
• AVERAGE CASE: DEPENDS ON ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT INPUT:
PROPORTION OF FOUND VS NOT-FOUND KEYS
CRITICAL FACTOR FOR ANALYSIS: GROWTH RATE

• MOST IMPORTANT: ORDER OF GROWTH AS N→∞

• WHAT IS THE GROWTH RATE OF TIME AS INPUT SIZE INCREASES
• HOW DOES TIME INCREASE AS INPUT SIZE INCREASES
GROWTH RATE: CRITICAL FOR PERFORMANCE

Focus: asymptotic order of growth:

Main concern: which function describes behavior.
Less concerned with constants
 ASYMPTOTIC ORDER OF GROWTH
CRITICAL FACTOR FOR PROBLEM SIZE N:
- IS NOT THE EXACT NUMBER OF BASIC OPS EXECUTED FOR GIVEN N
- IS HOW NUMBER OF BASIC OPS GROWS AS N INCREASES

- CONSTANT FACTORS AND CONSTANTS DO NOT CHANGE GROWTH RATE

- RATE MOST RELEVANT FOR LARGE INPUT SIZES, SO IGNORE SMALL SIZES
- INFORMALLY: 5N^2 AND 100N^2 +1000 ARE BOTH N^2
- DEFINE FORMALLY LATER

CALL THIS: ASYMPTOTIC ORDER OF GROWTH

 ORDER OF GROWTH: SETS OF FUNCTIONS
APPROACH: GROUP FUNCTIONS BASED ON THEIR GROWTH RATES

EXAMPLE: Θ(N^2) IS SET OF FUNCTIONS WHOSE GROWTH RATE IS N^2

(IE GROUP ALL FUNCTIONS WITH N^2 GROWTH RATE)

THESE ARE ALL IN Θ(N^2):

- F(N) = 100N^2 + 1000
- F(N) = N^2 + 1
- F(N) = 0.001N^2 + 1000000
ORDER OF GROWTH: UPPER, TIGHT, LOWER BOUNDS

UPPER, TIGHT, AND LOWER BOUNDS ON PERFORMANCE:

• O(G(N)): CLASS OF FUNCTIONS F(N) THAT GROW NO FASTER THAN G(N)
• [IE F ’S SPEED IS SAME AS OR FASTER THAN G, F BOUNDED ABOVE BY G]

• Θ(G(N)): CLASS OF FUNCTIONS F(N) THAT GROW AT SAME RATE AS

G(N)

• Ω(G(N)): CLASS OF FUNCTIONS F(N) THAT GROW AT LEAST AS FAST AS

G(N)
• [IE F ’S SPEED IS SAME AS OR SLOWER THAN G, F BOUNDED BELOW BY G]
T(N)  O(G(N)) IFF T(N) <=CG(N) FOR N > N0

t(n) = 10n3 in O(n3) and in O(n5). What c and n0? More later.
T(N)  Ω(G(N)) IFF T(N) >=CG(N) FOR N > N0

t(n) = 10n3 in Ω(n2) and in Ω(n3)

T(N) Θ(G(N)) IFF T(N)O(G(N)) AND Ω(G(N))

t(n) = 10n3 in Θ(n3) but NOT in Θ(n2) or Θ(n4)

 BIG O, Ω, Θ : INFORMAL DEFINITIONS

F(N) IS IN O(G(N)) IF ORDER OF GROWTH OF F(N) ≤ ORDER OF

GROWTH OF G(N) (WITHIN CONSTANT MULTIPLE AND FOR LARGE
N).

F(N) IS IN Ω(G(N)) IF ORDER OF GROWTH OF F(N) ≥ ORDER OF

GROWTH OF G(N) (WITHIN CONSTANT MULTIPLE AND FOR LARGE
N).

F(N) IS IN Θ(G(N)) IF ORDER OF GROWTH OF F(N) = ORDER OF

GROWTH OF G(N) (WITHIN CONSTANT MULTIPLES AND FOR LARGE
N).
 BIG O, Ω, Θ : FORMAL DEFINITIONS
F(N)  O(G(N)) IFF THERE EXIST POSITIVE CONSTANT C AND NON-NEGATIVE
INTEGER N0 SUCH THAT

F(N) ≤ C G(N) FOR EVERY N ≥ N0

F(N)  Ω(G(N)) IFF THERE EXIST POSITIVE CONSTANT C AND NON-NEGATIVE

INTEGER N0 SUCH THAT

F(N) ≥ C G(N) FOR EVERY N ≥ N0

F(N)  Θ(G(N)) IFF THERE EXIST POSITIVE CONSTANTS C1 AND C2 AND NON-
NEGATIVE INTEGER N0 SUCH THAT

C1 G(N) ≤ F(N) ≤ C2 G(N) FOR EVERY N ≥ N0

 USING THE DEFINITION: BIG O

INFORMAL DEFINITION: F(N) IS IN O(G(N)) IF ORDER OF GROWTH OF F(N) ≤ ORDER OF

GROWTH OF G(N) (WITHIN CONSTANT MULTIPLE),

DEFINITION: F(N)  O(G(N)) IFF THERE EXIST POSITIVE CONSTANT C AND NON-NEGATIVE
INTEGER N0 SUCH THAT

F(N) ≤ C G(N) FOR EVERY N ≥ N0

EXAMPLES:
• 10N IS O(N2)
• [CAN CHOOSE C AND N0. SOLVE FOR 2 DIFFERENT C’S]

• 5N + 20 IS O(N) [SOLVE FOR C AND N0]

 USING THE DEFINITION: BIG OMEGA

INFORMAL DEFINITION: F(N) IS IN  (G(N)) IFF ORDER OF GROWTH OF F(N) ≥ ORDER OF

GROWTH OF G(N) (WITHIN CONSTANT MULTIPLE),

DEFINITION: F(N)  (G(N)) IFF THERE EXIST POSITIVE CONSTANT C AND NON-NEGATIVE
INTEGER N0 SUCH THAT

F(N) ≥ C G(N) FOR EVERY N ≥ N0

EXAMPLES:
• 10N2 IS (N)

• 5N + 20 IS (N)
 USING THE DEFINITION: THETA

INFORMAL DEFINITION: F(N) IS IN (G(N)) IF ORDER OF GROWTH OF F(N) = ORDER OF

GROWTH OF G(N) (WITHIN CONSTANT MULTIPLE),

DEFINITION: F(N)  Θ(G(N)) IFF THERE EXIST POSITIVE CONSTANTS C1 AND C2 AND NON-
NEGATIVE INTEGER N0 SUCH THAT

C1 G(N) ≤ F(N) ≤ C2 G(N) FOR EVERY N ≥ N0

EXAMPLES:
• 10N2 IS (N2)

• 5N + 20 IS (N)
 ORDERS OF GROWTH OF SOME IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS

• ALL POLYNOMIALS OF THE SAME DEGREE K BELONG TO THE SAME CLASS:

• AKNK + AK-1NK-1 + … + A0   (NK) [WHY?]

• ALL LOGARITHMIC FUNCTIONS LOGA N BELONG TO THE SAME CLASS

•  (LOG N) NO MATTER WHAT THE LOGARITHM’S BASE A > 1 IS [WHY?]

• EXPONENTIAL FUNCTIONS AN HAVE DIFFERENT ORDERS OF GROWTH FOR

DIFFERENT A’S
• FREQUENTLY JUST SAY EXPONENTIAL TIME, IGNORING EXPONENT

• ORDER LOG N < ORDER N ( >0) < ORDER AN < ORDER N!

• ORDER N LOG N ?
BASIC ASYMPTOTIC EFFICIENCY CLASSES
1 constant Best case
log n logarithmic Divide
Ignore part

n linear Examine each

Online/Stream Algos

n log n n-log-n or Divide

lineologarithmic Use all parts

n2 quadratic Nested loops

n3 cubic Nested loops

nk Examine all k-tuples

2n exponential All subsets

n! factorial All permutations

 POLYNOMIAL=EFFICIENT. EXPONENTIAL=NOT
EFFICIENT
• IN GENERAL, WE SAY THAT
• FUNCTIONS WITH POLYNOMIAL GROWTH ARE EFFICIENT
• FUNCTIONS WITH EXPONENTIAL GROWTH ARE NOT EFFICIENT

• BUT, WHAT ABOUT N^100 VS 2^{0.2 LOG N}

• YES, EXPONENTIAL IS FASTER FOR ALL REASONABLE N
• BUT, SUCH ALGORITHMS DON’T HAPPEN IN PRACTICE

• IN PRACTICE, POLYNOMIALS ARE FASTER THAN EXPONENTIAL

 TIME EFFICIENCY OF NONRECURSIVE ALGORITHMS

GENERAL PLAN FOR ANALYSIS

• DECIDE ON PARAMETER N INDICATING INPUT SIZE

• IDENTIFY ALGORITHM’S BASIC OPERATION

• DETERMINE WORST, AVERAGE, AND BEST CASES FOR INPUT OF SIZE N

• SET UP A SUM FOR THE NUMBER OF TIMES THE BASIC OPERATION IS EXECUTED

• SIMPLIFY THE SUM USING STANDARD FORMULAS AND RULES (SEE APPENDIX A)
EXAMPLE: SEQUENTIAL SEARCH

• WORST CASE: OMEGA, THETA, O?

• BEST CASE: OMEGA, THETA, O?
• AVERAGE CASE: OMEGA, THETA, O?
EXAMPLE 1: MAXIMUM ELEMENT
EXAMPLE 2: ELEMENT UNIQUENESS PROBLEM
EXAMPLE 3: MATRIX MULTIPLICATION
 PLAN FOR ANALYSIS OF RECURSIVE ALGORITHMS

• DECIDE ON A PARAMETER INDICATING AN INPUT’S SIZE.

• IDENTIFY THE ALGORITHM’S BASIC OPERATION.

• CHECK WHETHER THE NUMBER OF TIMES THE BASIC OP. IS EXECUTED MAY
VARY ON DIFFERENT INPUTS OF THE SAME SIZE. (IF IT MAY, THE WORST,
AVERAGE, AND BEST CASES MUST BE INVESTIGATED SEPARATELY.)

• SET UP A RECURRENCE RELATION WITH AN APPROPRIATE INITIAL CONDITION

EXPRESSING THE NUMBER OF TIMES THE BASIC OP. IS EXECUTED.

• SOLVE THE RECURRENCE (IE FIND A CLOSED FORM OR, ESTABLISH ITS
SOLUTION’S ORDER OF GROWTH) BY BACKWARD SUBSTITUTIONS OR ANOTHER
METHOD.
 RECURRENCES

TERMINOLOGY (USED INTERCHANGEABLY):

- RECURRENCE
- RECURRENCE RELATION
- RECURRENCE EQUATION
EXPRESS T(N) IN TERMS OF T(SMALLER N)
- EXAMPLE: M(N) = M(N-1) + 1, M(0) = 0
SOLVE: FIND A CLOSED FORM:
- IE T(N) IN TERMS OF N, ALONE (IE NOT T)
 EXAMPLE 1: RECURSIVE
EVALUATION OF N!
DEFINITION: N ! = 1  2  …  (N-1)  N FOR N ≥ 1 AND 0! = 1

RECURSIVE DEFINITION OF N!: F(N) = F(N-1)  N FOR N ≥ 1 AND

F(0) = 1

SIZE:
BASIC OPERATION:
RECURRENCE RELATION:
 SOLVING THE RECURRENCE FOR
M(N)
RECURRENCE: M(N) = M(N-1) + 1,
INITIAL CONDITION: M(0) = 0

SOLUTION METHODS:
- GUESS?
- FORWARD SUBSTITUTION?
- BACKWARD SUBSTITUTION?
- GENERAL METHODS?
GUESS CLOSED FORM: ?
HOW TO CHECK A POSSIBLE SOLUTION?
CHECK A POSSIBLE SOLUTION WITH SUBSTITUTION

RECURRENCE: M(N) = M(N-1) + 1

INITIAL CONDITION: M(0) = 0
POSSIBLE SOLUTION: M(N) = N. SUBSTITUTE:
N=0: M(0) = N = 0

N = K > 0: M(K) = M(K-1) + 1

K = (K-1) + 1
= K (CORRECT)
OR: M(K) = M(K-1) + 1 = (K-1) + 1 = K. (CORRECT)
N.B. THIS IS ACTUALLY A HAND-WAY PROOF BY INDUCTION
RECURRENCES, INITIAL CONDITIONS, SOLUTIONS

M(N) = M(N-1) + 1, M(0) = 1

M(N) = ??

A RECURRENCE HAS AN INFINITE NUMBER OF

SOLUTIONS
- INITIAL CONDITIONS ELIMINATE ALL BUT 1

(ANYONE KNOW WHAT OTHER KIND OF EQUATION IS SIMILAR?)

(SORT OF SIMILAR TO Y = X + 1, THEN ADD X=3)
EXAMPLE 2: THE TOWER OF HANOI
PUZZLE

1 3

Recurrence for number of moves:

SOLVING RECURRENCE FOR NUMBER OF MOVES

M(N) = 2M(N-1) + 1, M(1) = 1

GUESS CLOSED FORM?

(WHAT HAPPENS TO NUMBER OF MOVES WHEN …)
TREE OF CALLS FOR THE TOWER OF HANOI PUZZLE

n-1 n-1

n-2 n-2 n-2 n-2

... ... ...
2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M(n) = 2M(n-1) + 1, M(1) = 1

What happens when we add another
disk?
Another level of the tree?
What proportion of the nodes are
 FIBONACCI NUMBERS
THE FIBONACCI NUMBERS: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, …
THE FIBONACCI RECURRENCE:
F(N) = F(N-1) + F(N-2)
F(0) = 0
F(1) = 1

GENERAL 2ND ORDER LINEAR HOMOGENEOUS RECURRENCE WITH

CONSTANT COEFFICIENTS:
AX(N) + BX(N-1) + CX(N-2) = 0

KEY IDEA: ASSUME X(N) = RN FOR SOME VALUE R.

STEPS: CHANGE RECURRENCE TO EQUATION. SOLVE FOR R.
 EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS

GENERAL PLAN FOR EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS TIME EFFICIENCY

1. UNDERSTAND THE EXPERIMENT’S PURPOSE
2. DECIDE ON THE EFFICIENCY METRIC M TO BE MEASURED AND THE
MEASUREMENT UNIT (AN OPERATION’S COUNT VERSUS A TIME UNIT)
3. DECIDE ON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INPUT SAMPLE (ITS RANGE, SIZE, AND SO
ON)
4. PREPARE A PROGRAM IMPLEMENTING THE ALGORITHM (OR ALGORITHMS) FOR
THE EXPERIMENTATION
5. GENERATE A SAMPLE OF INPUTS
6. RUN THE ALGORITHM (OR ALGORITHMS) ON THE SAMPLE’S INPUTS AND RECORD
THE DATA OBSERVED
7. ANALYZE THE DATA OBTAINED
 ALGORITHM VISUALIZATION
• DEFINED AS THE USE OF IMAGES TO CONVEY SOME USEFUL INFORMATION
ABOUT ALGORITHMS
• CAN BE A VISUAL ILLUSTRATION OF AN ALGORITHM’S OPERATION,
• OF ITS PERFORMANCE ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF INPUTS, OR
• ITS EXECUTION SPEED VERSUS THAT OF OTHER ALGORITHMS FOR THE SAME
PROBLEM

• USES GRAPHIC ELEMENTS (POINTS, LINE SEGMENTS, TWO- OR THREE-

DIMENSIONAL) TO REPRESENT SOME INTERESTING EVENTS IN AN ALGORITHM’S
OPERATION
• CAN BE
• STATIC THROUGH A SERIES OF STILL IMAGES
• ANIMATION SHOWING A CONTINUOUS, MOVIE-LIKE PRESENTATION