CSE408

Fundamentals of Algorithms

Lecture #1

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
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

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Notion of algorithm and problem

problem

algorithm

input “computer” output

(or instance)

algorithmic solution
(different from a conventional solution)
Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Some Well-known Computational Problems

 Sorting
 Searching
 Shortest paths in a graph
 Minimum spanning tree
 Primality testing
 Traveling salesman problem
 Knapsack problem
 Chess
 Towers of Hanoi
 Program termination

Some of these problems don’t have efficient algorithms,

or algorithms at all!
Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Basic Issues Related to Algorithms

 How to design algorithms

 How to express algorithms

 Proving correctness

 Efficiency (or complexity) analysis

 Optimality

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Algorithm design strategies

 Brute force  Greedy approach

 Divide and conquer  Dynamic programming

 Decrease and conquer

 Backtracking and branch-and-bound
 Transform and conquer
 Space and time tradeoffs

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Analysis of Algorithms

 How good is the algorithm?

• Correctness
• Time efficiency
• Space efficiency

 Does there exist a better algorithm?

• Lower bounds
• Optimality

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
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

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
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

Example: Google’s PageRank Technology

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 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

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
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

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
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)

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Fundamentals of Algorithmic Problem Solving

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Two main issues related to algorithms

 How to design algorithms

 How to analyze algorithm efficiency

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
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

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Analysis of algorithms

 How good is the algorithm?

• time efficiency
• space efficiency
• Correctness

 Does there exist a better algorithm?

• lower bounds
• optimality

Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1
Copyright © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 2nd ed., Ch. 1