CSE 230: Data Structures

Lecture 2: Complexity Analysis

Dr. Vidhya Balasubramanian

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
 Analysis of Data Structures
● Data structures have many functions
– Each function is a set of simple instructions
● Analysis
– Determine resources, time and space the algorithms
requires
● Goal
– Estimate time required to execute the functionalities
– Reduce the running time of the program
– Understand the space occupied by the data structure

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Issues in Analysis
● Running time grows with input size
– Varies with different inputs
– Actual running time can be calculated in seconds or milliseconds
● Issues
– The system setup must be same for all inputs
– Same hardware and software must be used
– Actual time maybe affected by other programs running on the
same machine
●
A theoretical analysis is sometimes preferable

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Average Case and Worst Case
● The running time and memory usage of a program is not constant
– Depends on input
– Can run fast for certain inputs and slow for others
e.g linear search
●

● Average Case Cost

– Cost of the algorithm (time and space) on average
– Difficult to calculate
● Worst Case
– Gives an upper limit for the running time and memory usage
– Easier to analyse the worst case

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Method for analyzing complexity
● Model of Computation
– Mathematical Framework
● Asymptotic Notation
– What to Analyze
● Running Time Calculations
● Checking the analysis

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Counting Primitives to analyze time
complexity
● Primitive operations are identified and counted to analyze cost
● Primitive Operations
– Assigning a value to a variable
– Performing an arithmetic operation
– Calling a method
– Comparing two numbers
– Indexing into an array
– Following an object reference
– Returning from a method

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Example
Algorithm FindMax(S, n)
Input : An array S storing n numbers, n>=1
Output: Max Element in S
curMax <-- S[0] (2 operations)
i ← 0 (1 operations)
while i< n-1 do (n comparison operations)
if curMax <=A[i] then (2(n-1) operations)
curMax <-- A[i] (2(n-1) operations)
i ← i+1; (2(n-1) operations)
return curmax (1 operations)
Complexity between 6n and 8n-2

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Some Points
● Loops
– cost is linear in terms of number of iterations
– Nested loops – product of iteration of the loops
If outer loop has n iterations, and inner m, cost is mn
●

– Multiple loops not nested

Complexity proportional to the longest running loop
●

● If Else
– Cost of if part of else part whichever is higher

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Try these
1) sum = 0; 4) for (i = 20; i <= 30; i++) {
for( i=0; i<n; i++ ) for (j=1; j<=n; j++){
sum++;
x = x + 1;
2) sum = 0;
}
for( i=0; i<n; i++ )
}
for( j=0; j<n; j++ )
sum++;
3) sum = 0;
for( i=0; i<n; i++ )
for( j=0; j<n*n; j++ )
sum++;

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Growth Rates and Complexity
● Important factor to be considered when estimating complexity
● When experimental setup (hardware/software) changes
– Running time/memory is affected by a constant factor
– 2n or 3n or 100n is still linear
– Growth rate of the running time/memory is not affected
● Growth rates of functions
– Linear
– Quadratic
– Exponential

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Sample Growth Functions

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Asymptotic Analysis
● Can be defined as a method of describing limiting behavior
● Used for determining the computational complexity of
algorithms
– A way of expressing the main component of the cost of an
algorithm using the most determining factor
– e.g if the running time is 5n2+5n+3, the most dominating
factor is 5n2
● Capturing this dominating factor is the purpose of asymptotic
notations

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Big-Oh Notation
● Given a function f(n) we say, f(n) = O(g(n)) if there are
positive constants c and n0 such that f(n)<= cg (n) when n>=
n0

cg(n)

f(n)

n0 n
f(n) = (g(n))
Amrita School of Engineering
CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Big-Oh Example
● Show 7n-2 is O(n)
– need c > 0 and n0 >= 1 such that 7n-2 <= cn for n >= n0
– this is true for c = 7 and n0 = 1
● Show 3n3 + 20n2 + 5 is O(n3)
– need c > 0 and n0 >= 1 such that 3n3 + 20n2 + 5 <= cn3 for n >= n0
– this is true for c = 4 and n0 = 21
● n2 is not O(n)
– Must prove n2 <= cn
– n <= c
– The above inequality cannot be satisfied since c must be a constant
– Hence proof by contradiction
Amrita School of Engineering
CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Exercises
● Show that 8n+5 is O(n)
● Show that 20n3 +10nlogn+5 is O(n3)
● Show that 3logn+2 is O(logn).

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Big-Oh Significance
● The big-Oh notation gives an upper bound on the growth rate of a
function
● The statement “f(n) is O(g(n))” means that the growth rate of f(n)
is no more than the growth rate of g(n)
– We are guaranteeing that f(n) grows at a rate no faster than
g(n)
– Both can grow at the same rate
– Though 1000n is larger than n2, n2 grows at a faster rate
●n2 will be larger function after n = 1000
● Hence 1000n = O(n 2)

● The big-Oh notation can be used to rank functions according to

their growth rate
Amrita School of Engineering
CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Big-Oh Significance
● Growth rate for different functions [Goodrich]

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Big-Oh Significance
● Table of max-size of a problem that can be solved in one
second, one minute and one hour for various running time
measures in microseconds [Goodrich]
Running Time Maximum Problem Size (n)
1sec 1 min 1 hour
400n 2500 150000 9000000
20nlogn 4096 166666 7826087
2n2 707 5477 42426
n4 31 88 244
2n 19 25 31

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Common Rules for Big-Oh

● If is f(n) a polynomial of degree d, then f(n) is O(nd), i.e.,

– Drop lower-order terms
– Drop constant factors
● Use the smallest possible class of functions to represent in
big Oh
– “2n is O(n)” instead of “2n is O(n2)”
● Use the simplest expression of the class
– “3n+ 5 is O(n)” instead of “3n + 5 is O(3n)”

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Sample Problem
● There is an algorithm find2D to find an element x in an nxn array A. The algorithm
iterates over the rows of A and calls the algorithm arrayFind on each one, until x is
found or it has searched all rows of A.
– What is the time and space complexity of the algorithm
● Calculate the value returned by total
def example4(S):
”””Return the sum of the prefix sums of sequence S.”””
n = len(S)
prefix = 0
total = 0
for j in range(n):
prefix += S[j]
total += prefix
return total
Amrita School of Engineering
CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Exercises
● Given an n-element sequence S, Algorithm D calls Algorithm
E on each element S[i]. Algorithm E runs in O(i) time when it
is called on element S[i]. What is the worst-case running time
of Algorithm D?
● A sequence S contains n−1 unique integers in the range
[0,n−1], that is, there is one number from this range that is
not in S. Design an O(n)-time algorithm for finding that
number. You are only allowed to use O(1) additional space
besides the sequence S itself.

Amrita School of Engineering

CSE 201: Data Structures and
Algorithms Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham