UNIT - I

An Algorithm is a finite sequence of instructions, each of which has a clear meaning

and can be performed with a finite amount of effort in a finite length of time. No matter
what the input values may be, an algorithm terminates after executing a finite number of
instructions. In addition every algorithm must satisfy the following criteria:

 Input: there are zero or more quantities, which are externally supplied;
 Output: at least one quantity is produced
 Definiteness: each instruction must be clear and unambiguous;
 Finiteness: if we trace out the instructions of an algorithm, then for all cases the
algorithm will terminate after a finite number of steps;
 Effectiveness: every instruction must be sufficiently basic that it can in principle be
carried out by a person using only pencil and paper. It is not enough that each
operation be definite, but it must also be feasible.

In formal computer science, one distinguishes between an algorithm, and a program. A

program does not necessarily satisfy the fourth condition. One important example of such
a program for a computer is its operating system, which never terminates (except for
system crashes) but continues in a wait loop until more jobs are entered.

We represent algorithm using a pseudo language that is a combination of the constructs

of a programming language together with informal English statements.

Psuedo code for expressing algorithms:

Algorithm Specification: Algorithm can be described in three ways.
1. Natural language like English: When this way is choused care should be taken, we should
ensure that each & every statement is definite.

2. Graphic representation called flowchart: This method will work well when the algorithm
is small& simple.

3. Pseudo-code Method: In this method, we should typically describe algorithms as program,

which resembles language like Pascal & algol.

Pseudo-Code Conventions:

1. Comments begin with // and continue until the end of line.

2. Blocks are indicated with matching braces {and}.

3. An identifier begins with a letter. The data types of variables are not explicitly declared.

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4. Compound data types can be formed with records. Here is an example,
Node. Record
{
data type – 1 data-1;
.
.
.
data type – n data – n;
node * link;
}

Here link is a pointer to the record type node. Individual data items of a record can
be accessed with  and period.

5. Assignment of values to variables is done using the assignment statement.

<Variable>:= <expression>;

6. There are two Boolean values TRUE and FALSE.

 Logical Operators AND, OR, NOT

Relational Operators <, <=,>,>=, =, !=

7. The following looping statements are employed.

For, while and repeat-until

While Loop:
While < condition > do
{
<statement-1>
.
.
.

<statement-n>
}
For Loop:
For variable: = value-1 to value-2 step step do

{
<statement-1>
.
.
.
<statement-n>
}
repeat-until:

repeat
<statement-1>
.
.
.
2
 <statement-n>
until<condition>

8. A conditional statement has the following forms.

 If <condition> then <statement>

 If <condition> then <statement-1>
Else <statement-1>

Case statement:

Case
{
: <condition-1> : <statement-1>
.
.
.
: <condition-n> : <statement-n>
: else : <statement-n+1>
}

9. Input and output are done using the instructions read & write.

10. There is only one type of procedure:

Algorithm, the heading takes the form,

Algorithm <Name> (<Parameter lists>)

 As an example, the following algorithm fields & returns the maximum of ‘n’ given
numbers:

1. Algorithm Max(A,n)
2. // A is an array of size n
3. {
4. Result := A[1];
5. for I:= 2 to n do
6. if A[I] > Result then
7. Result :=A[I];
8. return Result;
9. }

In this algorithm (named Max), A & n are procedure parameters. Result & I are Local
variables.

Algorithm:

1. Algorithm selection sort (a,n)

2. // Sort the array a[1:n] into non-decreasing
order. 3.{
4. for I:=1 to n do
5. {
6. j:=I;
7. for k:=i+1 to n do 3
 8. if (a[k]<a[j])
9. t:=a[I];
10. a[I]:=a[j];
11. a[j]:=t;
12. }
13. }

Performance Analysis:
The performance of a program is the amount of computer memory and time needed to
run a program. We use two approaches to determine the performance of a program. One
is analytical, and the other experimental. In performance analysis we use analytical
methods, while in performance measurement we conduct experiments.

Time Complexity:
The time needed by an algorithm expressed as a function of the size of a problem is
called the time complexity of the algorithm. The time complexity of a program is the
amount of computer time it needs to run to completion.
The limiting behavior of the complexity as size increases is called the asymptotic time
complexity. It is the asymptotic complexity of an algorithm, which ultimately determines
the size of problems that can be solved by the algorithm.

The Running time of a program

When solving a problem we are faced with a choice among algorithms. The basis for this
can be any one of the following:
i. We would like an algorithm that is easy to understand code anddebug.
ii. We would like an algorithm that makes efficient use of the computer’s
resources, especially, one that runs as fast as possible.

Measuring the running time of a program

The running time of a program depends on factors such as:

1. The input to theprogram.
2. The quality of code generated by the compiler used to create the object
program.
3. The nature and speed of the instructions on the machine used to execute the
program,
4. The time complexity of the algorithm underlying theprogram.
Statement S/e Frequency Total

1. Algorithm Sum(a,n) 0 - 0
2.{ 0 - 0
3. S=0.0; 1 1 1
4. for I=1 to n do 1 n+1 n+1
5. s=s+a[I]; 1 n n
6. return s; 1 1 1
7. } 0 - 0

The total time will be 2n+3

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Space Complexity:
The space complexity of a program is the amount of memory it needs to run to
completion. The space need by a program has the following components:
Instruction space: Instruction space is the space needed to store the compiled
version of the program instructions.
Data space: Data space is the space needed to store all constant and variable
values. Data space has two components:
 Space needed by constants and simple variables inprogram.
 Space needed by dynamically allocated objects such as arrays and class
instances.
Environment stack space: The environment stack is used to save information
needed to resume execution of partially completed functions.
Instruction Space: The amount of instructions space that is needed depends on
factors such as:
 The compiler used to complete the program into machinecode.
 The compiler options in effect at the time ofcompilation
 The target computer.

The space requirement s(p) of any algorithm p may therefore be written as,
S(P) = c+ Sp(Instance characteristics)
Where ‘c’ is a constant.

Example 2:

Algorithm sum(a,n)
{
s=0.0;
for I=1 to n do
s= s+a[I];
return s;
}

 The problem instances for this algorithm are characterized by n,the number of
elements to be summed. The space needed d by ‘n’ is one word, since it is of type
integer.
 The space needed by ‘a’a is the space needed by variables of tyepe array of floating
point numbers.
 This is atleast ‘n’ words, since ‘a’ must be large enough to hold the ‘n’ elements to be
summed.
 So,we obtain Ssum(n)>=(n+s)
[ n for a[],one each for n,I a& s]

Complexity of Algorithms
The complexity of an algorithm M is the function f(n) which gives the running time
and/or storage space requirement of the algorithm in terms of the size ‘n’ of the input
data. Mostly, the storage space required by an algorithm is simply a multiple of the data
size ‘n’. Complexity shall refer to the running time of thealgorithm.
The function f(n), gives the running time of an algorithm, depends not only on the
size ‘n’ of the input data but also on the particular data. The complexity function f(n) for
certain cases are:
1. Best Case : The minimum possible value of f(n) is called the best case.

2. Average Case : The expected value of f(n).

3. Worst Case : The maximum value of f(n) for any key possible input.
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Asymptotic Notations:
The following notations are commonly use notations in performance analysis and
used to characterize the complexity of an algorithm:

1. Big–OH (O)
2. Big–OMEGA (Ω),
3. Big–THETA (Θ) and
4. Little–OH (o)

Big–OH O (Upper Bound)

f(n) = O(g(n)), (pronounced order of or big oh), says that the growth rate of f(n) is less
than or equal (<) that of g(n).

Big–OMEGA Ω (Lower Bound)

f(n) = Ω (g(n)) (pronounced omega), says that the growth rate of f(n) is greater than or
equal to (>) that of g(n).

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 Big–THETA Θ (Same order)
f(n) = Θ (g(n)) (pronounced theta), says that the growth rate of f(n) equals (=) the
growth rate of g(n) [if f(n) = O(g(n)) and T(n) = Θ (g(n)].

little-o notation
Definition: A theoretical measure of the execution of an algorithm, usually the time or memory needed,
given the problem size n, which is usually the number of items. Informally, saying some equation f(n) =
o(g(n)) means f(n) becomes insignificant relative to g(n) as n approaches infinity. The notation is read, "f
of n is little oh of g of n".
Formal Definition: f(n) = o(g(n)) means for all c > 0 there exists some k > 0 such that 0 ≤ f(n) < cg(n) for
all n ≥ k. The value of k must not depend on n, but may depend on c.

Different time complexities

Suppose ‘M’ is an algorithm, and suppose ‘n’ is the size of the input data. Clearly
the complexity f(n) of M increases as n increases. It is usually the rate of increase of
f(n) we want to examine. This is usually done by comparing f(n) with some standard
functions. The most common computing times are:

O(1), O(log2 n), O(n), O(n. log2 n), O(n2), O(n3), O(2n), n! and nn

Classification of Algorithms

If ‘n’ is the number of data items to be processed or degree of polynomial or the size of
the file to be sorted or searched or the number of nodes in a graph etc.

1 Next instructions of most programs are executed once or at most only a few
times. If all the instructions of a program have this property, we say that its
running time is a constant.

Log n When the running time of a program is logarithmic, the program gets
slightly slower as n grows. This running time commonly occurs in
programs that solve a big problem by transforming it into a smaller
problem, cutting the size by some constant fraction., When n is a million,
log n is a doubled. Whenever n doubles, log n increases by a constant, but
log n does not double until n increases to n2.
n When the running time of a program is linear, it is generally the case that a
small amount of processing is done on each input element. This is the
optimal situation for an algorithm that must process n inputs.
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o. log n This running time arises for algorithms that solve a problem by
breaking it up into smaller sub-problems, solving then independently, and
then combining the solutions. When n doubles, the running time more
than doubles.

n2 When the running time of an algorithm is quadratic, it is practical for use

only on relatively small problems. Quadratic running times typically
arise in algorithms that process all pairs of data items (perhaps in a double
nested loop) whenever n doubles, the running time increases fourfold.

n3 Similarly, an algorithm that process triples of data items (perhaps in a

triple–nested loop) has a cubic running time and is practical for use only
on small problems. Whenever n doubles, the running time increases eight
fold.

2n Few algorithms with exponential running time are likely to be appropriate

for practical use, such algorithms arise naturally as “brute–force”
solutions to problems. Whenever n doubles, the running timesquares.

Numerical Comparison of Different Algorithms

The execution time for six of the typical functions is given below:

n log2 n n*log2n n2 n3 2n
1 0 0 1 1 2
2 1 2 4 8 4
4 2 8 16 64 16
8 3 24 64 512 256
16 4 64 256 4096 65,536
32 5 160 1024 32,768 4,294,967,296
64 6 384 4096 2,62,144 Note 1
128 7 896 16,384 2,097,152 Note 2
256 8 2048 65,536 1,677,216 ????????

Note1: The value here is approximately the number of machine instructions

executed by a 1 gigaflop computer in 5000 years.

Divide and Conquer

General Method:

Divide and conquer is a design strategy which is well known to breaking down
efficiency barriers. When the method applies, it often leads to a large improvement in
time complexity. For example, from O (n 2) to O (n log n) to sort theelements.

Divide and conquer strategy is as follows: divide the problem instance into two or
more smaller instances of the same problem, solve the smaller instances recursively,
and assemble the solutions to form a solution of the original instance. The recursion
stops when an instance is reached which is too small to divide. When dividing the
instance, one can either use whatever division comes most easily to hand or invest
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 time in making the division carefully so that the assembly is simplified.

Divide and conquer algorithm consists of two parts:

Divide : Divide the problem into a number of sub problems. The sub problems
are solved recursively.
Conquer : The solution to the original problem is then formed from the solutions
to the sub problems (patching together the answers).

Traditionally, routines in which the text contains at least two recursive calls are called
divide and conquer algorithms, while routines whose text contains only one recursive
call are not. Divide–and–conquer is a very powerful use of recursion.

Control Abstraction of Divide and Conquer

A control abstraction is a procedure whose flow of control is clear but whose
primary operations are specified by other procedures whose precise meanings are left
undefined. The control abstraction for divide and conquer technique is DANDC(P),
where P is the problem to be solved.

DANDC (P)
{
if SMALL (P) then return S (p);
else
{
divide p into smaller instances p1, p2, …. Pk, k  1;
apply DANDC to each of these sub problems;
return (COMBINE (DANDC (p1) , DANDC (p2),…., DANDC (pk));
}
}

SMALL (P) is a Boolean valued function which determines whether the input size is
small enough so that the answer can be computed without splitting. If this is so
function ‘S’ is invoked otherwise, the problem ‘p’ into smaller sub problems. These
sub problems p1, p2, . . . , pk are solved by recursive application of DANDC.

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If the sizes of the two sub problems are approximately equal then the computing
time of DANDC is:
 g (n)
 n small
T (n) = 2 T(n/2) f (n)
 otherwise

Where, T (n) is the time for DANDC on ‘n’ inputs

g (n) is the time to complete the answer directly for small inputs and
f (n) is the time for Divide and Combine

Binary Search:

If we have ‘n’ records which have been ordered by keys so that x 1 < x2 < … < xn .
When we are given a element ‘x’, binary search is used to find the corresponding
element from the list. In case ‘x’ is present, we have to determine a value ‘j’ such
that a[j] = x (successful search). If ‘x’ is not in the list then j is to set to zero (un
successful search).

In Binary search we jump into the middle of the file, where we find key a[mid], and
compare ‘x’ with a[mid]. If x = a[mid] then the desired record has been found.
If x < a[mid] then ‘x’ must be in that portion of the file that precedes a[mid], if there
at all. Similarly, if a[mid] > x, then further search is only necessary in that past of
the file which follows a[mid]. If we use recursive procedure of finding the middle key
a[mid] of the un-searched portion of a file, then every un-successful comparison of
‘x’ with a[mid] will eliminate roughly half the un-searched portion from consideration.

Since the array size is roughly halved often each comparison between ‘x’ and
a[mid], and since an array of length ‘n’ can be halved only about log 2n times before
reaching a trivial length, the worst case complexity of Binary search is about log2n
low and high are integer variables such that each time through the loop either ‘x’
is found or low is increased by at least one or high is decreased by at least one. Thus
we have two sequences of integers approaching each other and eventually low will
become greater than high causing termination in a finite number of steps if ‘x’ is not
present.

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24
 Example for Binary Search

Let us illustrate binary search on the following 9 elements:

Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Elements -15 -6 0 7 9 23 54 82 101

The number of comparisons required for searching different elements is as follows:

1. Searching for x = 101 low high mid

1 9 5
6 9 7
8 9 8
9 9 9
found
Number of comparisons = 4

2. Searching for x = 82 low high mid

1 9 5
6 9 7
8 9 8
found
Number of comparisons = 3

3. Searching for x = 42 low high mid

1 9 5
6 9 7
6 6 6
7 6 not found

Number of comparisons = 4

4. Searching for x = -14 low high mid

1 9 5
1 4 2
1 1 1
2 1 not found
Number of comparisons = 3

Continuing in this manner the number of element comparisons needed to find each of
nine elements is:

Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Elements -15 -6 0 7 9 23 54 82 101
Comparisons 3 2 3 4 1 3 2 3 4

No element requires more than 4 comparisons to be found. Summing the

comparisons needed to find all nine items and dividing by 9, yielding 25/9 or
approximately 2.77 comparisons per successful search on the average.

There are ten possible ways that an un-successful search may terminate depending
upon the value of x.

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 If x < a[1], a[1] < x < a[2], a[2] < x < a[3], a[5] < x < a[6], a[6] < x < a[7] or
a[7] < x < a[8] the algorithm requires 3 element comparisons to determine that ‘x’
is not present. For all of the remaining possibilities BINSRCH requires 4 element
comparisons. Thus the average number of element comparisons for an unsuccessful
search is:

(3 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4) / 10 = 34/10 = 3.4

The time complexity for a successful search is O(log n) and for an unsuccessful
search is Θ(log n).

Successful searches un-successful searches

Θ(1), Θ(log n), Θ(log n) Θ(log n)
Best average worst best, average and worst

Analysis for worst case

Let T (n) be the time complexity of Binary search

The algorithm sets mid to [n+1 / 2]

Therefore,
T(0) = 0
T(n) = 1 if x = a [mid]
= 1 + T([(n + 1) / 2] – 1) if x < a [mid]
= 1 + T(n – [(n + 1)/2]) if x > a [mid]

Let us restrict ‘n’ to values of the form n = 2 K – 1, where ‘k’ is a non-negative

integer. The array always breaks symmetrically into two equal pieces plus middle
element.

2K – 1 - 1 2K – 1 - 1

2K 1
 n  1
Algebraically this is  2K  1  1 = 2K – 1
for K > 1
  
  2   2 
 Giving,

 T(0) = 0

T(2k – 1) = 1 if x = a [mid]

K - 1
 = 1 + T(2 – 1) if x < a [mid]
 = 1 + T(2 k - 1
– 1) if x > a [mid]


In the worst case the test x = a[mid] always fails, so
w(0) = 0
w(2k – 1) = 1 + w(2k - 1
– 1)
This is now solved by repeated substitution:

w(2k – 1) = 1 + w(2k - 1
– 1)

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 = 1 + [1 + w(2k -2
–1)]
= 1 + [1 + [1 + w(2k - 3 –1)]]
= ........
= ........
= i + w(2k - i
– 1)

For i < k, letting i = k gives w(2k –1) = K + w(0) = k

But as 2K – 1 = n, so K = log2(n + 1), so

w(n) = log2(n + 1) = O(log n)

for n = 2K–1, concludes this analysis of binary search.

Although it might seem that the restriction of values of ‘n’ of the form 2 K–1 weakens
the result. In practice this does not matter very much, w(n) is a monotonic
increasing function of ‘n’, and hence the formula given is a good approximation even
when ‘n’ is not of the form 2K–1.

Merge Sort:

Merge sort algorithm is a classic example of divide and conquer. To sort an array,
recursively, sort its left and right halves separately and then merge them. The time
complexity of merge mort in the best case, worst case and average case is O(n log n)
and the number of comparisons used is nearly optimal.

This strategy is so simple, and so efficient but the problem here is that there seems
to be no easy way to merge two adjacent sorted arrays together in place (The result
must be build up in a separate array).

The fundamental operation in this algorithm is merging two sorted lists. Because the
lists are sorted, this can be done in one pass through the input, if the output is put in
a third list.

Algorithm

Algorithm MERGESORT (low, high)

// a (low : high) is a global array to be sorted.
{
if (low < high)
{
mid := (low + high)/2 //finds where to split the set
MERGESORT(low, mid); //sort one subset
MERGESORT(mid+1, high); //sort the other subset
MERGE(low, mid, high); // combine the results
}
}

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Algorithm MERGE (low, mid, high)
// a (low : high) is a global array containing two sorted subsets
// in a (low : mid) and in a (mid + 1 : high).
// The objective is to merge these sorted sets into single sorted
// set residing in a (low : high). An auxiliary array B is used.
{
h :=low; i := low; j:= mid + 1;
while ((h < mid) and (J < high)) do
{
if (a[h] < a[j]) then
{
b[i] := a[h]; h := h + 1;
}
else
{
b[i] :=a[j]; j := j + 1;
}
i := i + 1;
}
if (h > mid) then
for k := j to high do
{
b[i] := a[k]; i := i + 1;
}
else
for k := h to mid do
{
b[i] := a[K]; i := i + l;
}
for k := low to high do
a[k] := b[k];
}

Example

For example let us select the following 8 entries 7, 2, 9, 4, 3, 8, 6, 1 to illustrate

merge sort algorithm:

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 Tree Calls of MERGESORT(1, 8)

The following figure represents the sequence of recursive calls that are produced by
MERGESORT when it is applied to 8 elements. The values in each node are the values
of the parameters low and high.

1, 8

1, 4 5, 8

1, 2 3, 4 5, 6 7, 8

1, 1 2, 2 3, 3 4, 4 5, 5 6, 6 7, 7 8, 8

Tree Calls of MERGE()

The tree representation of the calls to procedure MERGE by MERGESORT is as

follows:

1, 1, 2 3, 3, 4 5, 5, 6 7, 7, 8

1, 2, 4 5, 6, 8

1, 4, 8

Analysis of Merge Sort

We will assume that ‘n’ is a power of 2, so that we always split into even halves, so
we solve for the case n = 2k.

For n = 1, the time to merge sort is constant, which we will be denote by 1.

Otherwise, the time to merge sort ‘n’ numbers is equal to the time to do two
recursive merge sorts of size n/2, plus the time to merge, which is linear. The
equation says this exactly:

T(1) = 1
T(n) = 2 T(n/2) + n

This is a standard recurrence relation, which can be solved several ways. We will
solve by substituting recurrence relation continually on the right–hand side.

We have, T(n) = 2T(n/2) + n

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Since we can substitute n/2 into this main equation

2 T(n/2) = 2 (2 (T(n/4)) + n/2)

= 4 T(n/4) + n
We have,
T(n/2) = 2 T(n/4) + n
T(n) = 4 T(n/4) + 2n

Again, by substituting n/4 into the main equation, we see that

4T (n/4) = 4 (2T(n/8)) + n/4

= 8 T(n/8) + n
So we have,

T(n/4) = 2 T(n/8) + n
T(n) = 8 T(n/8) + 3n

Continuing in this manner, we obtain:

T(n) = 2k T(n/2k) + K. n

As n = 2k, K = log2n, substituting this in the above equation

n k
T (n)  2log2  2
k  log n . n
T    2

 2 
= n T(1) + n log n
= n log n + n

Representing this in O notation:

T(n) = O(n log n)

We have assumed that n = 2k. The analysis can be refined to handle cases when ‘n’
is not a power of 2. The answer turns out to be almost identical.

Although merge sort’s running time is O(n log n), it is hardly ever used for main
memory sorts. The main problem is that merging two sorted lists requires linear
extra memory and the additional work spent copying to the temporary array and
back, throughout the algorithm, has the effect of slowing down the sort considerably.
The Best and worst case time complexity of Merge sort is O(n log n).

Strassen’s Matrix Multiplication:

The matrix multiplication of algorithm due to Strassens is the most dramatic example
of divide and conquer technique (1969).

The usual way to multiply two n x n matrices A and B, yielding result matrix ‘C’ as
follows :

for i := 1 to n do
for j :=1 to n do
c[i, j] := 0;
for K: = 1 to n do
c[i, j] := c[i, j] + a[i, k] * b[k, j];

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This algorithm requires n3 scalar multiplication’s (i.e. multiplication ofsingle
numbers) and n3 scalar additions. So we naturally cannot improve upon.

We apply divide and conquer to this problem. For example let us considers three
multiplication like this:
A 11 A 12  B 11 B 12  C 12 
 C 11
A 
A  B B C C
 21 22   21 22   21 22 

Then cij can be found by the usual matrix multiplication algorithm,

C11 = A11 . B11 + A12 . B21

C12 = A11 . B12 + A12 . B22
C21 = A21 . B11 + A22 . B21
C22 = A21 . B12 + A22 . B22

This leads to a divide–and–conquer algorithm, which performs nxn matrix

multiplication by partitioning the matrices into quarters and performing eight
(n/2)x(n/2) matrix multiplications and four (n/2)x(n/2) matrix additions.
T(1) = 1
T(n) = 8 T(n/2)

Which leads to T (n) = O (n3), where n is the power of 2.

Strassens insight was to find an alternative method for calculating the C ij, requiring
seven (n/2) x (n/2) matrix multiplications and eighteen (n/2) x (n/2) matrix
additions and subtractions:

P = (A11 + A22) (B11 + B22)

Q = (A21 + A22) B11

R = A11 (B12 – B22)

S = A22 (B21 - B11)

T = (A11 + A12) B22

U = (A21 – A11) (B11 + B12)

V = (A12 – A22) (B21 + B22)

C11 = P + S – T + V

C12 = R + T

C21 = Q + S

C22 = P + R - Q + U.

This method is used recursively to perform the seven (n/2) x (n/2) matrix
multiplications, then the recurrence equation for the number of scalar multiplications
performed is:

31
 T(1) = 1
T(n) = 7 T(n/2)

Solving this for the case of n = 2k is easy:

T(2k) = 7 T(2k–1)

= 72 T(2k-2)

= ------
= ------

= 7i T(2k–i)

Put i = k
= 7k T(1)

= 7k

That is, T(n) = 7 log2 n

= n log 7
2

log 7
= O(n 2 ) = O(2n.81)

So, concluding that Strassen’s algorithm is asymptotically more efficient than the
standard algorithm. In practice, the overhead of managing the many small matrices
does not pay off until ‘n’ revolves the hundreds.

Quick Sort

The main reason for the slowness of Algorithms like SIS is that all comparisons and
exchanges between keys in a sequence w1, w2, . . . . , wn take place between
adjacent pairs. In this way it takes a relatively long time for a key that is badly out of
place to work its way into its proper position in the sorted sequence.

Hoare his devised a very efficient way of implementing this idea in the early 1960’s
that improves the O(n2) behavior of SIS algorithm with an expected performance that
is O(n log n).

In essence, the quick sort algorithm partitions the original array by rearranging it
into two groups. The first group contains those elements less than some arbitrary
chosen value taken from the set, and the second group contains those elements
greater than or equal to the chosen value.

The chosen value is known as the pivot element. Once the array has been rearranged
in this way with respect to the pivot, the very same partitioning is recursively applied
to each of the two subsets. When all the subsets have been partitioned and
rearranged, the original array is sorted.

The function partition() makes use of two pointers ‘i’ and ‘j’ which are moved toward
each other in the following fashion:

 Repeatedly increase the pointer ‘i’ until a[i] >= pivot.

 Repeatedly decrease the pointer ‘j’ until a[j] <= pivot.

32
  If j > i, interchange a[j] with a[i]

 Repeat the steps 1, 2 and 3 till the ‘i’ pointer crosses the ‘j’ pointer. If ‘i’
pointer crosses ‘j’ pointer, the position for pivot is found and place pivot
element in ‘j’ pointer position.

The program uses a recursive function quicksort(). The algorithm of quick sort
function sorts all elements in an array ‘a’ between positions ‘low’ and ‘high’.

 It terminates when the condition low >= high is satisfied. This condition
will be satisfied only when the array is completely sorted.

 Here we choose the first element as the ‘pivot’. So, pivot = x[low]. Now it
calls the partition function to find the proper position j of the element
x[low] i.e. pivot. Then we will have two sub-arrays x[low], x[low+1], . . . .
. . . x[j-1] and x[j+1], x[j+2], x[high].

 It calls itself recursively to sort the left sub-array x[low], x[low+1], . . . . .

. . x[j-1] between positions low and j-1 (where j is returned by the
partition function).

 It calls itself recursively to sort the right sub-array x[j+1], x[j+2], . . . . . .

. . . x[high] between positions j+1 and high.

33
 Example

Select first element as the pivot element. Move ‘i’ pointer from left to right in search
of an element larger than pivot. Move the ‘j’ pointer from right to left in search of an
element smaller than pivot. If such elements are found, the elements are swapped.
This process continues till the ‘i’ pointer crosses the ‘j’ pointer. If ‘i’ pointer crosses ‘j’
pointer, the position for pivot is found and interchange pivot and element at ‘j’
position.

Let us consider the following example with 13 elements to analyze quick sort:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Remarks

38 08 16 06 79 57 24 56 02 58 04 70 45
pivot i j swap i & j
04 79
i j swap i & j

34
 02 57
j i
swap pivot
(24 08 16 06 04 02) 38 (56 57 58 79 70 45)
&j
swap pivot
pivot j, i
&j
(02 08 16 06 04) 24
pivot, swap pivot
i
j &j
02 (08 16 06 04)
pivot i j swap i & j
04 16
j i
swap pivot
(06 04) 08 (16)
&j
pivot,
i
j
swap pivot
(04) 06
&j
04
pivot,
j, i
16
pivot,
j, i
(02 04 06 08 16 24) 38
(56 57 58 79 70 45)
pivot i j swap i & j
45 57
j i
swap pivot
(45) 56 (58 79 70 57)
&j
45
pivot, swap pivot
j, i &j
(58 79 57)
pivot i 70 j swap i & j

57 79
j i
swap pivot
(57) 58 (70 79)
&j
57
pivot,
j, i
(70 79)
pivot, swap pivot
i
j &j
70
79
pivot,
j, i
(45 56 57 58 70 79)
02 04 06 08 16 24 38 45 56 57 58 70 79

35
Analysis of Quick Sort:

Like merge sort, quick sort is recursive, and hence its analysis requires solving a
recurrence formula. We will do the analysis for a quick sort, assuming a random pivot
(and no cut off for small files).

We will take T (0) = T (1) = 1, as in merge sort.

The running time of quick sort is equal to the running time of the two recursive calls
plus the linear time spent in the partition (The pivot selection takes only constant
time). This gives the basic quick sort relation:

T (n) = T (i) + T (n – i – 1) + C n - (1)

Where, i = |S1| is the number of elements in S1.

Worst Case Analysis

The pivot is the smallest element, all the time. Then i=0 and if we ignore T(0)=1,
which is insignificant, the recurrence is:

T (n) = T (n – 1) + C n n > 1 - (2)

Using equation – (1) repeatedly, thus

T (n – 1) = T (n – 2) + C (n – 1)

T (n – 2) = T (n – 3) + C (n – 2)

------- -

T (2) = T (1) + C (2)

Adding up all these equations yields

n
T (n)  T (1) 

i2
i

= O (n2) - (3)

36
Best and Average Case Analysis

The number of comparisons for first call on partition: Assume

left_to_right moves over k smaller element and thus k comparisons. So
when right_to_left crosses left_to_right it has made n-k+1 comparisons.
So, first call on partition makes n+1 comparisons. The average case
complexity of quicksort is

T(n) = comparisons for first call on quicksort

+
{Σ 1<=nleft,nright<=n [T(nleft) + T(nright)]}n = (n+1) + 2 [T(0) +T(1) + T(2) +
----- + T(n-1)]/n

nT(n) = n(n+1) + 2 [T(0) +T(1) + T(2) +------- + T(n-2) + T(n-1)]

(n-1)T(n-1) = (n-1)n + 2 [T(0) +T(1) + T(2) + ------- + T(n-2)] \

Subtracting both sides:

nT(n) –(n-1)T(n-1) = [ n(n+1) – (n-1)n] + 2T(n-1) =

2n + 2T(n-1) nT(n) = 2n + (n-1)T(n-1) + 2T(n-1) = 2n
+ (n+1)T(n-1)
T(n) = 2 + (n+1)T(n-1)/n
The recurrence relation obtained is:
T(n)/(n+1) = 2/(n+1) + T(n-1)/n

Using the method of subsititution:

T(n)/(n+1) = 2/(n+1) + T(n-1)/n

T(n-1)/n = 2/n + T(n-2)/(n-1)
T(n-2)/(n-1) = 2/(n-1) + T(n-3)/(n-2)
T(n-3)/(n-2) = 2/(n-2) + T(n-4)/(n-3)
. .
. .
T(3)/4 = 2/4 + T(2)/3
T(2)/3 = 2/3 + T(1)/2 T(1)/2 = 2/2 + T(0)
Adding both sides:
T(n)/(n+1) + [T(n-1)/n + T(n-2)/(n-1) + -------------- + T(2)/3 + T(1)/2]
= [T(n-1)/n + T(n-2)/(n-1) + -------------- + T(2)/3 + T(1)/2] + T(0) +
[2/(n+1) + 2/n + 2/(n-1) + ----------- +2/4 + 2/3]
Cancelling the common terms:
T(n)/(n+1) = 2[1/2 +1/3 +1/4+ --------------+1/n+1/(n+1)]

T(n) = (n+1)2[  2 k n 1
1/ k
=2(n+1) [ ]
=2(n+1)[log (n+1) – log 2]
=2n log (n+1) + log (n+1)-2n log 2 –log 2
T(n)= O(n log n)