Data Structures and

Algorithms

Analysis of Algorithms
Outline
Running time
Pseudo-code
Big-oh notation
Big-theta notation
Big-omega notation
Asymptotic algorithm analysis
Analysis of Algorithms

Input Algorithm Output

An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for

solving a problem in a finite amount of time.
Running Time
Most algorithms transform input
objects into output objects.
Measure of “goodness”:
n Running time
n Space
The running time of an algorithm
typically grows with the input size
and other factors:
n Hardware environments: processor,
memory, disk.
n Software environments: OS, compiler.
Focus: input size vs. running time.
Experimental Studies
Write a program 9000

implementing the 8000

algorithm 7000

Run the program with 6000

Time (ms)
inputs of varying size and 5000
composition 4000
Use a method like 3000
System.currentTimeMillis() to 2000
get an accurate measure
1000
of the actual running time
0
Plot the results 0 50 100
Input Size
Running time: worst case
Average case time is often best case
average case
difficult to determine. worst case
We focus on the worst case 120

running time. 100

Easier to analyze

Running Time
n
80
n Crucial to applications such as
60
games, finance and robotics
40

20

0
1000 2000 3000 4000
Input Size
Limitations of Experiments
It is necessary to implement the
algorithm, which may be difficult
Results may not be indicative of the
running time on other inputs not included
in the experiment.
In order to compare two algorithms, the
same hardware and software
environments must be used
Theoretical Analysis
Find alternative method.
Ideally: characterizes running time as a
function of the input size, n.
Uses a high-level description of the algorithm
instead of an implementation
Takes into account all possible inputs
Allows us to evaluate the speed of algorithms
independent of the hardware/software
environment
Pseudocode
Mix of natural language Example: find max
and programming element of an array
constructs: human reader
oriented. Algorithm arrayMax(A, n)
High-level description of an Input array A of n integers
algorithm
Output maximum element of A
Less detailed than a
program currentMax ← A[0]
Preferred notation for for i ← 1 to n - 1 do
describing algorithms
Hides program design
if A[i] > currentMax then
issues currentMax ← A[i]
return currentMax
Pseudocode Details
Control flow Method call
n if … then … [else …] var.method (arg [, arg…])
n while … do … Return value
n repeat … until … return expression
n for … do … Expressions
n Indentation replaces braces ← Assignment
(like = in C++/Java)
Method declaration = Equality testing
Algorithm method (arg [, arg…]) (like == in C++/Java)
Input … n2 Superscripts and other
Output … mathematical
formatting allowed
Primitive Operations
Basic computations
Examples:
performed by an algorithm
n Evaluating an
Identifiable in pseudocode expression
Largely independent from the n Assigning a value
to a variable
programming language
n Indexing into an
Exact definition not important array
Assumed to take a constant n Calling a method
Returning from a
amount of time in the RAM n
method
model
The Random Access Machine
(RAM) Model
A CPU

An potentially unbounded
bank of memory cells, 2
1
each of which can hold an 0
arbitrary number or
character
Memory cells are numbered and accessing
any cell in memory takes unit time.
Counting Primitive
Operations
By inspecting the pseudocode, we can determine the
maximum number of primitive operations executed by
an algorithm, as a function of the input size
Algorithm arrayMax(A, n) # operations
currentMax ← A[0] 2
for i ← 1 to n - 1 do n
if A[i] > currentMax then 2(n - 1)
currentMax ← A[i] [0, 2(n - 1)]
{ increment counter i } 2(n - 1)
return currentMax 1
Total [5n - 1, 7n - 3]
Worst case analysis
Average case analysis is typically challenging:
n Probability distribution of inputs.
We focus on the worst case analysis: will perform well
on every case.
Estimating Running Time
Algorithm arrayMax executes 7n - 3 primitive
operations in the worst case. Define:
a = Time taken by the fastest primitive operation
b = Time taken by the slowest primitive operation
Let T(n) be worst-case time of arrayMax. Then
a (7n - 3) ≤ T(n) ≤ b(7n - 3)
Hence, the running time T(n) is bounded by two
linear functions
Asymptotic Notation
Is this level of details necessary?
How important is it to compute the
exact number of primitive operations?
How important are the set of primitive
operations?
Growth Rate of Running Time
Changing the hardware/ software
environment
n Affects T(n) by a constant factor, but
n Does not alter the growth rate of T(n)
The linear growth rate of the running
time T(n) is an intrinsic property of
algorithm arrayMax
Constant Factors
1E+26
The growth rate is 1E+24 Quadratic
Quadratic
not affected by 1E+22
Linear
1E+20
n constant factors or 1E+18 Linear
n lower-order terms 1E+16
1E+14
Examples T (n )
1E+12
1E+10
n 102n + 105 is a linear
1E+8
function 1E+6
n 105n2 + 108n is a 1E+4
quadratic function 1E+2
1E+0
1E+0 1E+2 1E+4 1E+6 1E+8 1E+10
n
Big-Oh Notation
Given functions f(n)
and g(n), we say
that f(n) is O(g(n)) if
there are positive
constants
c and n0 such that
f(n) ≤ cg(n) for n ≥
n0
Big-Oh Example
10,000
3n
Example: 2n + 10 is O(n)
1,000 2n+10
n 2n + 10 ≤ cn
n (c - 2) n ≥ 10 n

n n ≥ 10/(c - 2) 100

n Pick c = 3 and n0 = 10
10

1
1 10 100 1,000
n
Big-Oh Example
1,000,000
n^2
Example: the function 100n
100,000
n2 is not O(n) 10n
n n2 ≤ cn 10,000 n
n n≤c
n The above inequality 1,000
cannot be satisfied
since c must be a 100
constant
10

1
1 10 100 1,000
n
More Big-Oh Examples
7n-2
7n-2 is O(n)
need c > 0 and n0 ≥ 1 such that 7n-2 ≤ c•n for n ≥ n0
this is true for c = 7 and n0 = 1

n 3n3 + 20n2 + 5
3n3 + 20n2 + 5 is O(n3)
need c > 0 and n0 ≥ 1 such that 3n3 + 20n2 + 5 ≤ c•n3 for n ≥ n0
this is true for c = 4 and n0 = 21

n 3 log n + 5
3 log n + 5 is O(log n)
need c > 0 and n0 ≥ 1 such that 3 log n + 5 ≤ c•log n for n ≥ n0
this is true for c = 8 and n0 = 2
Big-Oh and Growth Rate
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 can use the big-Oh notation to rank functions
according to their growth rate

f(n) is O(g(n)) g(n) is O(f(n))

g(n) grows more Yes No
f(n) grows more No Yes
Same growth Yes Yes
Big-Oh Rules

If is f(n) a polynomial of degree d, then f(n) is

O(nd), i.e.,
1. Drop lower-order terms
2. Drop constant factors
Use the smallest possible class of functions
n Say “2n is O(n)” instead of “2n is O(n2)”
Use the simplest expression of the class
n Say “3n + 5 is O(n)” instead of “3n + 5 is O(3n)”
Asymptotic Algorithm Analysis
The asymptotic analysis of an algorithm determines
the running time in big-Oh notation
To perform the asymptotic analysis
n We find the worst-case number of primitive operations
executed as a function of the input size
n We express this function with big-Oh notation
Example:
n We determine that algorithm arrayMax executes at most
7n - 3 primitive operations
n We say that algorithm arrayMax “runs in O(n) time”
Since constant factors and lower-order terms are
eventually dropped anyhow, we can disregard them
when counting primitive operations
Seven Important Functions
Seven functions that
often appear in 1E+30
algorithm analysis: 1E+28
1E+26
Cubic
n Constant ≈ 1 1E+24 Quadratic
n Logarithmic ≈ log n 1E+22
Linear
1E+20
n Linear ≈ n
1E+18
n N-Log-N ≈ n log n
T (n )
1E+16
n Quadratic ≈ n2 1E+14
n Cubic ≈ n3 1E+12
1E+10
n Exponential ≈ 2n 1E+8
1E+6
In a log-log chart, the 1E+4
slope of the line 1E+2
1E+0
corresponds to the
1E+0 1E+2 1E+4 1E+6 1E+8 1E+10
growth rate of the n
function
Seven Important Functions
Asymptotic Analysis
Caution: 10100n vs. n2

Running Maximum Problem Size (n)

Time 1 second 1 minute 1 hour
400n 2,500 150,500 9,000,000
20nlogn 4,096 166,666 7,826,087
2n2 707 5,477 42,426
n4 31 88 244
2n 19 25 31
Computing Prefix Averages
We further illustrate 35
asymptotic analysis with X
two algorithms for prefix 30 A
averages 25
The i-th prefix average of 20
an array X is average of the
first (i + 1) elements of X: 15
A[i] = (X[0] + X[1] + … + X[i])/(i+1) 10

Computing the array A of 5

prefix averages of another 0
array X has applications to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
financial analysis
Prefix Averages (Quadratic)
The following algorithm computes prefix averages in
quadratic time by applying the definition
Algorithm prefixAverages1(X, n)
Input array X of n integers
Output array A of prefix averages of X #operations
A ← new array of n integers n
for i ← 0 to n - 1 do n
s ← X[0] n
for j ← 1 to i do 1 + 2 + …+ (n - 1)
s ← s + X[j] 1 + 2 + …+ (n - 1)
A[i] ← s / (i + 1) n
return A 1
Arithmetic Progression
7
The running time of
prefixAverages1 is 6
O(1 + 2 + …+ n) 5
The sum of the first n 4
integers is n(n + 1) / 2
3
n There is a simple visual
proof of this fact 2
Thus, algorithm 1
prefixAverages1 runs in 0
O(n2) time
1 2 3 4 5 6
Prefix Averages (Linear)
The following algorithm computes prefix averages in
linear time by keeping a running sum
Algorithm prefixAverages2(X, n)
Input array X of n integers
Output array A of prefix averages of X #operations
A ← new array of n integers n
s←0 1
for i ← 0 to n - 1 do n
s ← s + X[i] n
A[i] ← s / (i + 1) n
return A 1
Algorithm prefixAverages2 runs in O(n) time
Math you need to Review
Summations
Logarithms and Exponents
properties of logarithms:
logb(xy) = logbx + logby
logb (x/y) = logbx - logby
Proof techniques:
logbxa = alogbx
Induction logba = logxa/logxb
Counter example properties of exponentials:
Contradiction a(b+c) = aba c
abc = (ab)c
Basic probability
ab /ac = a(b-c)
b = a logab
bc = a c*logab
Relatives of Big-Oh
big-Omega
n f(n) is Ω(g(n)) if there is a constant c > 0

and an integer constant n0 ≥ 1 such that

f(n) ≥ c•g(n) for n ≥ n0

big-Theta
n f(n) is Θ(g(n)) if there are constants c’ > 0 and
c’’ > 0 and an integer constant n0 ≥ 1 such that
c’•g(n) ≤ f(n) ≤ c’’•g(n) for n ≥ n0
Intuition for Asymptotic
Notation
Big-Oh
n f(n) is O(g(n)) if f(n) is asymptotically

less than or equal to g(n)

big-Omega
n f(n) is Ω(g(n)) if f(n) is asymptotically
greater than or equal to g(n)
big-Theta
n f(n) is Θ(g(n)) if f(n) is asymptotically
equal to g(n)
Example Uses of the
Relatives of Big-Oh
n 5n2 is Ω(n2)
f(n) is Ω(g(n)) if there is a constant c > 0 and an integer constant n0 ≥ 1
such that f(n) ≥ c•g(n) for n ≥ n0
let c = 5 and n0 = 1
n 5n2 is Ω(n)
f(n) is Ω(g(n)) if there is a constant c > 0 and an integer constant n0 ≥ 1
such that f(n) ≥ c•g(n) for n ≥ n0
let c = 1 and n0 = 1
n 5n2 is Θ(n2)
f(n) is Θ(g(n)) if it is Ω(n2) and O(n2). We have already seen the former,
for the latter recall that f(n) is O(g(n)) if there is a constant c > 0 and an
integer constant n0 ≥ 1 such that f(n) < c•g(n) for n ≥ n0
Let c = 5 and n0 = 1
References
Chapter 4: Data Structures and
Algorithms by Goodrich and Tamassia