Divide-and-Conquer

The most-well known algorithm design strategy:

1. Divide instance of problem into two or more
smaller instances

2. Solve smaller instances recursively

3. Obtain solution to original (larger) instance by

combining these solutions

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 1
Divide-and-Conquer Technique (cont.)

a problem of size n

subproblem 1 subproblem 2
of size n/2 of size n/2

a solution to a solution to
subproblem 1 subproblem 2

a solution to
the original problem

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 2
 Divide-and-Conquer Examples
 Sorting: mergesort and quicksort

 Binary tree traversals

 Multiplication of large integers

 Matrix multiplication: Strassen’s algorithm

 Closest-pair and convex-hull algorithms

 Binary search: decrease-by-half (or degenerate divide&conq.)

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 3
General Divide-and-Conquer Recurrence

T(n) = aT(n/b) + f (n) where f(n)  (nd), d  0

Master Theorem: If a < bd, T(n)  (nd)

If a = bd, T(n)  (nd log n)
If a > bd, T(n)  (nlog b a )

Note: The same results hold with O instead of .

Examples: T(n) = 4T(n/2) + n  T(n)  ?

T(n) = 4T(n/2) + n2  T(n)  ?
T(n) = 4T(n/2) + n3  T(n)  ?

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 4
General Divide-and-Conquer Recurrence

T(n) = 4T(n/2) + n  T(n)  ?

T(n) = 4T(n/2) + n2  T(n)  ?
T(n) = 4T(n/2) + n3  T(n)  ?

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 5
Mergesort
 Split array A[0..n-1] in two about equal halves and make
copies of each half in arrays B and C
 Sort arrays B and C recursively
 Merge sorted arrays B and C into array A as follows:
• Repeat the following until no elements remain in one of
the arrays:
– compare the first elements in the remaining
unprocessed portions of the arrays
– copy the smaller of the two into A, while
incrementing the index indicating the unprocessed
portion of that array
• Once all elements in one of the arrays are processed,
copy the remaining unprocessed elements from the
other array into A.
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 6
Pseudocode of Mergesort

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 7
Pseudocode of Merge

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 8
Mergesort Example
8 3 2 9 7 1 5 4

8 3 2 9 7 1 5 4

8 3 2 9 71 5 4

8 3 2 9 7 1 5 4

3 8 2 9 1 7 4 5

2 3 8 9 1 4 5 7

1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 9
Analysis of Mergesort
 All cases have same efficiency: Θ(n log n)

 Number of comparisons in the worst case is close to

theoretical minimum for comparison-based sorting:
log2 n! ≈ n log2 n - 1.44n

 Space requirement: Θ(n) (not in-place)

 Can be implemented without recursion (bottom-up)

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 10
 A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of
Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. 11
Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved.
Quicksort
 Select a pivot (partitioning element) – here, the first element
 Rearrange the list so that all the elements in the first s
positions are smaller than or equal to the pivot and all the
elements in the remaining n-s positions are larger than or
equal to the pivot (see next slide for an algorithm)

A[i]p A[i]p
 Exchange the pivot with the last element in the first (i.e., )
subarray — the pivot is now in its final position
 Sort the two subarrays recursively
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 12
Hoare’s Partitioning Algorithm

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 13
Quicksort Example

5 3 1 9 8 2 4 7

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 14
Analysis of Quicksort
 Best case: split in the middle — Θ(n log n)
 Worst case: sorted array! — Θ(n2)
 Average case: random arrays — Θ(n log n)

 Improvements:
• better pivot selection: median of three partitioning
• switch to insertion sort on small subfiles
• elimination of recursion
These combine to 20-25% improvement

 Considered the method of choice for internal sorting of large

files (n ≥ 10000)
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 15
Analysis of Quicksort

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 16
Binary Tree Algorithms

Binary tree is a divide-and-conquer ready structure!

Ex. 1: Classic traversals (preorder, inorder, postorder)

Algorithm Inorder(T)
if T   a a
Inorder(Tleft) b c b c
print(root of T) d e   d e
Inorder(Tright) 

Efficiency: Θ(n)
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 17
Binary Tree Algorithms (cont.)

Ex. 2: Computing the height of a binary tree

TL TR

h(T) = max{h(TL), h(TR)} + 1 if T   and h() = -1

Efficiency: Θ(n)

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 18
Multiplication of Large Integers
Consider the problem of multiplying two (large) n-digit integers
represented by arrays of their digits such as:

A = 12345678901357986429 B = 87654321284820912836

The grade-school algorithm:

a1 a2 … an
b1 b2 … bn
(d10) d11d12 … d1n
(d20) d21d22 … d2n
…………………
(dn0) dn1dn2 … dnn

Efficiency: n 2
one-digit multiplications
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 19
First Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm
A small example: A  B where A = 2135 and B = 4014
A = (21·102 + 35), B = (40 ·102 + 14)
So, A  B = (21 ·102 + 35)  (40 ·102 + 14)
= 21  40 ·104 + (21  14 + 35  40) ·102 + 35  14

In general, if A = A1A2 and B = B1B2 (where A and B are n-digit,

A1, A2, B1, B2 are n/2-digit numbers),
A  B = A1  B1·10n + (A1  B2 + A2  B1) ·10n/2 + A2  B2

Recurrence for the number of one-digit multiplications M( n):

M(n) = 4M(n/2), M(1) = 1
Solution: M(n) = n2
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 20
Second Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm

A  B = A1  B1·10n + (A1  B2 + A2  B1) ·10n/2 + A2  B2

The idea is to decrease the number of multiplications from 4 to 3:

(A1 + A2 )  (B1 + B2 ) = A1  B1 + (A1  B2 + A2  B1) + A2  B2,

I.e., (A1  B2 + A2  B1) = (A1 + A2 )  (B1 + B2 ) - A1  B1 - A2  B2,

which requires only 3 multiplications at the expense of (4-1) extra
add/sub.

Recurrence for the number of multiplications M(n):

M(n) = 3M(n/2), M(1) = 1
Solution: M(n) = 3log 2n = nlog 23 ≈ n1.585
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 21
Example of Large-Integer Multiplication

2135  4014

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 22
Strassen’s Matrix Multiplication

Strassen observed [1969] that the product of two matrices can

be computed as follows:

C00 C01 A00 A01 B00 B01

= *
C10 C11 A10 A11 B10 B11

M1 + M 4 - M 5 + M7 M 3 + M5
=
M2 + M4 M1 + M 3 - M 2 + M6

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 23
Formulas for Strassen’s Algorithm
M1 = (A00 + A11)  (B00 + B11)

M2 = (A10 + A11)  B00

M3 = A00  (B01 - B11)

M4 = A11  (B10 - B00)

M5 = (A00 + A01)  B11

M6 = (A10 - A00)  (B00 + B01)

M7 = A.(ALevitin A11) to(B

01 -“Introduction the 10 +B
Design 11) of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
& Analysis
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 24
Analysis of Strassen’s Algorithm

If n is not a power of 2, matrices can be padded with zeros.

Number of multiplications:
M(n) = 7M(n/2), M(1) = 1
Solution: M(n) = 7log 2n = nlog 27 ≈ n2.807 vs. n3 of brute-force alg.

Algorithms with better asymptotic efficiency are known but they

are even more complex.

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 25
 Closest-Pair Problem by Divide-and-Conquer
Step 1 Divide the points given into two subsets Pl and Pr by a
vertical line x = m so that half the points lie to the left or on
the line and half the points lie to the right or on the line.
x=m

dl
d
r

d d
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 26
Closest Pair by Divide-and-Conquer (cont.)
Step 2 Find recursively the closest pairs for the left and right
subsets.
Step 3 Set d = min{dl, dr}
We can limit our attention to the points in the symmetric
vertical strip S of width 2d as possible closest pair. (The
points are stored and processed in increasing order of
their y coordinates.)
Step 4 Scan the points in the vertical strip S from the lowest up.
For every point p(x,y) in the strip, inspect points in
in the strip that may be closer to p than d. There can be
no more than 5 such points following p on the strip list!

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 27
Efficiency of the Closest-Pair Algorithm

Running time of the algorithm is described by

T(n) = 2T(n/2) + M(n), where M(n)  O(n)

By the Master Theorem (with a = 2, b = 2, d = 1)

T(n)  O(n log n)

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 28
Quickhull Algorithm
Convex hull: smallest convex set that includes given points
 Assume points are sorted by x-coordinate values

 Identify extreme points P and P (leftmost and rightmost)

1 2
 Compute upper hull recursively:
• find point Pmax that is farthest away from line P1P2
• compute the upper hull of the points to the left of line P1Pmax
• compute the upper hull of the points to the left of line PmaxP2
 Compute lower hull in a similar manner
Pmax
P2

P1
A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 29
Efficiency of Quickhull Algorithm
 Finding point farthest away from line P1P2 can be done in
linear time
 Time efficiency:
• worst case: Θ(n2) (as quicksort)
• average case: Θ(n) (under reasonable assumptions about
distribution of points given)

 If points are not initially sorted by x-coordinate value, this

can be accomplished in O(n log n) time

 Several O(n log n) algorithms for convex hull are known

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 5 ©2012 Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved. 30