Analysis of Algorithms

Analysis of Algorithms
• An algorithm is a finite set of precise
instructions for performing a computation
or for solving a problem.
– It must produce the correct result
– It must finish in some finite time
– You can represent an algorithm using
pseudocode, flowchart, or even actual code
Analysis of Algorithms
 Analysis of Algorithms
• What does it mean to analyze an algorithm?
– To have an estimate about how much time an
algorithm may take to finish, or in other words, to
analyze its running time
– Sometimes, instead of running time, we are interested
in how much memory the algorithm may consume
while it runs
– It enables us to compare between two algorithms
• What do we mean by running time analysis?
– Also referred to as time-complexity analysis
– To determine how running time increases as the size of
the problem increases.
 Analysis of Algorithms
What is the goal?
• Analyze time requirements - predict how
running time increases as the size of the
problem increases:

time = f(size)
Why is it useful?
• To compare different algorithms.
 Defining “problem size”
• Typically, it is straightforward to identify the size of
a problem, e.g.:
– size of array
– size of stack, queue, list etc.
– vertices and edges in a graph

• But not always …

 Time Analysis
• Provides upper and lower bounds of running time.

Lower Bound Running Time Upper Bound

• Different types of analysis:

- Worst case
- Best case
- Average case
 Worst Case

• Provides an upper bound on running time.

• An absolute guarantee that the algorithm would not
run longer, no matter what the inputs are.

Lower Bound Running Time Upper Bound

 Best Case

• Provides a lower bound on running time.

• Input is the one for which the algorithm runs the
fastest.

Lower Bound Running Time Upper Bound

 Average Case

• Provides an estimate of “average” running time.

• Assumes that the input is random.
• Useful when best/worst cases do not happen very
often (i.e., few input cases lead to best/worst cases).

Lower Bound Running Time Upper Bound

 Example: Searching
• Problem of searching an ordered list.
– Given a list L of n elements that are sorted into
a definite order (e.g., numeric, alphabetical),
– And given a particular element x,
– Determine whether x appears in the list, and if
so, return its index (i.e., position) in the list.
 Linear Search
procedure linear search
(x: integer, a1, a2, …, an: distinct integers)
i := 1
while (i  n  x  ai) NOT EFFICIENT!
i := i + 1
if i  n then location := i
else location := 0
return location
 How do we analyze an algorithm?

• Need to define objective measures.

(1) Compare execution times?
Not good: times are specific to a particular machine.

(2) Count the number of statements?

Not good: number of statements varies with
programming language and programming style.
 Example
Algorithm 1 Algorithm 2

arr[0] = 0; for(i=0; i<N; i++)

arr[1] = 0; arr[i] = 0;
arr[2] = 0;
...
arr[N-1] = 0;
 How do we analyze an algorithm?
(cont.)
(3) Express running time t as a function of
problem size n (i.e., t=f(n) ).

- Given two algorithms having running times f(n)

and g(n), find which functions grows faster.

- Such an analysis is independent of machine

time, programming style, etc.
 How do we find f(n)?
(1) Associate a "cost" with each statement.
(2) Find total number of times each statement is executed.
(3) Add up the costs.

Algorithm 1 Algorithm 2
Cost Cost
arr[0] = 0; c1 for(i=0; i<N; i++) c2
arr[1] = 0; c1 arr[i] = 0; c1
arr[2] = 0; c1
...
arr[N-1] = 0; c1
----------- -------------
c1+c1+...+c1 = c1 x N (N+1) x c2 + N x c1 =
(c2 + c1) x N + c2
 How do we find f(n)? (cont.)

Cost
sum = 0; c1
for(i=0; i<N; i++) c2
for(j=0; j<N; j++) c2
sum += arr[i][j]; c3
------------
c1 + c2 x (N+1) + c2 x N x (N+1) + c3 x N x N
 Comparing algorithms
• Given two algorithms having running times
f(n) and g(n), how do we decide which one
is faster?

• Compare “rates of growth” of f(n) and g(n)

 Understanding Rate of Growth

• Consider the example of buying elephants and

goldfish:

Cost: (cost_of_elephants) + (cost_of_goldfish)

Approximation:

Cost ~ cost_of_elephants
 Understanding Rate of Growth
(cont’d)

• The low order terms of a function are relatively

insignificant for large n

n4 + 100n2 + 10n + 50

Approximation:

n4

• Highest order term determines rate of growth!

 Example
• Suppose you are designing a website to process
user data (e.g., financial records).
• Suppose program A takes fA(n)=30n+8
microseconds to process any n records, while
program B takes fB(n)=n2+1 microseconds to
process the n records.
• Which program would you choose, knowing
you’ll want to support millions of users?

Compare rates of growth:

30n+8 ~ n and n2+1 ~ n2
 Visualizing Orders of Growth
• On a graph, as
you go to the

Value of function 
fA(n)=30n+8
right, a faster
growing
function
fB(n)=n2+1
eventually
becomes
larger... Increasing n 
 Rate of Growth ≡Asymptotic Analysis

• Using rate of growth as a measure to compare

different functions implies comparing them
asymptotically (i.e., as n  )

• If f(x) is faster growing than g(x), then f(x)

always eventually becomes larger than g(x) in
the limit (i.e., for large enough values of x).
 Types of Analysis
• Worst-case: (usually done)
– upper bound on running time
– maximum running time of algorithm on any input
of size n
• Average-case: (sometimes done)
– we take all possible inputs and calculate computing
time for all of the inputs
– sum all the calculated values and divide the sum by
total number of inputs
– we must know (or predict) distribution of cases
• Best-case: (bogus)
– lower bound on running time of an algorithm
– minimum running time of algorithm on any input of
size n
 Asymptotic Notation

• O notation: asymptotic “less than”:

f(n)=O(g(n)) implies: f(n) “≤” c g(n) in the limit*

c is a constant

(used in worst-case analysis)

 Asymptotic Notation

•  notation: asymptotic “greater than”:

f(n)=  (g(n)) implies: f(n) “≥” c g(n) in the limit*

c is a constant

(used in best-case analysis)

 Asymptotic Notation

•  notation: asymptotic “equality”:

f(n)=  (g(n)) implies: f(n) “=” c g(n) in the limit*

c is a constant

(provides a tight bound of running time)

(best and worst cases are same)
Big-O Notation - Examples

fA(n)=30n+8 is O(n)

fB(n)=n2+1 is O(n2)

10n3 + 2n2 is O(n3)

n3 - n2 is O(n3)

1273 is O(1)
Common orders of magnitude
Algorithm speed vs function growth
• An O(n ) algorithm will be slower than an O(n)
2

algorithm (for large n).

• But an O(n2) function will grow faster than an
O(n) function. Value of function 

fA(n)=30n+8

fB(n)=n2+1

Increasing n 
 Estimating running time
Algorithm 1 Algorithm 2
Cost Cost
arr[0] = 0; c1 for(i=0; i<N; i++) c2
arr[1] = 0; c1 arr[i] = 0; c1
arr[2] = 0; c1
...
arr[N-1] = 0; c1
----------- -------------
c1+c1+...+c1 = c1 x N (N+1) x c2 + N x c1 =
(c2 + c1) x N + c2

O(N)
 Estimate running time (cont.)
Cost
sum = 0; c1
for(i=0; i<N; i++) c2
for(j=0; j<N; j++) c2
sum += arr[i][j]; c3

------------
c1 + c2 x (N+1) + c2 x N2 x (N+1) + c3 x N x N
O(N )
Running time of various statements
while-loop for-loop
 Examples
i = 0;
while (i<N) {
X=X+Y; // O(1)
result = mystery(X); // O(N), just an example...
i++; // O(1)
}
• The body of the while loop: O(N)
• Loop is executed: N times
N x O(N) = O(N2)
 Examples (cont.’d)
if (i<j)
for ( i=0; i<N; i++ ) O(N)

X = X+i;
else
O(1)
X=0;

Max ( O(N), O(1) ) = O (N)

Examples (cont.’d)
Examples (cont.’d)
 Examples (cont.’d)
• Analyze the complexity of the following
code segments: