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

1
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

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 2
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 fo 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

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 3
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 Decrease t by 1 and go to Step 2

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 4
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?

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 5
Sieve of Eratosthenes
Input: Integer n ≥ 2
Output: List of primes less than or equal to n
for p ← 2 to n do A[p] ← p
for p ← 2 to n do
if A[p]  0 //p hasn’t been previously eliminated from the list
j ← p* p
while j ≤ n do
A[j] ← 0 //mark element as eliminated
j←j+p

Example: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
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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

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 7
Two main issues related to algorithms
 How to design algorithms

 How to analyze algorithm efficiency

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 8
Algorithm design techniques/strategies

 Brute force  Greedy approach

 Divide and conquer  Dynamic programming

 Decrease and conquer  Iterative improvement

 Transform and conquer  Backtracking

 Space and time tradeoffs  Branch and bound

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 9
Analysis of algorithms
 How good is the algorithm?
• time efficiency
• space efficiency

 Does there exist a better algorithm?

• lower bounds
• optimality

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 10
Important problem types
 sorting

 searching

 string processing

 graph problems

 combinatorial problems

 geometric problems
 numerical problems

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 11
Fundamental data structures

  graph
list
• array  tree
• linked list  set and dictionary
• string
 stack
 queue
 priority queue

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 1 ©2012
Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 12