Lecture 04:

EEB435: Computer Programming II

Algorithm Analysis
Dr Ditshego

adapted from
Upenn cmpe391 slides
and other sources
Complexity Analysis (Part I)

 Data Structure ,Algorithm and Complexity Definitions

 Motivations for Complexity Analysis.

 Example of Basic Operations

 Average, Best, and Worst Cases.

 Simple Complexity Analysis Examples.

Definitions

• Data Structure: is the way in which the data of the program is stored.

• Algorithm: is a well defined sequence of computational steps to solve

a problem. It often accepts a set of values as input & produces a set of
values as output.

• Algorithm Analysis: is the number of steps or instructions and memory

locations needed to perform a certain problem for any input of a
particular size
Motivations for Complexity Analysis
• There are often many different algorithms which can be used to
solve the same problem. Thus, it makes sense to develop techniques
that allow us to:
o compare different algorithms with respect to their “efficiency”
o choose the most efficient algorithm for the problem

• The efficiency of any algorithmic solution to a problem is a measure

of the:
o Time efficiency: the time it takes to execute.
o Space efficiency: the space (primary or secondary memory) it uses.

• We will focus on an algorithm’s efficiency with respect to time.

 Machine independence
• The evaluation of efficiency should be as machine
independent as possible.
• It is not useful to measure how fast the algorithm runs as this
depends on which particular computer, OS, programming
language, compiler, and kind of inputs are used in testing
• Instead,
o we count the number of basic operations the algorithm performs.
o we calculate how this number depends on the size of the input.
• A basic operation is an operation which takes a constant
amount of time to execute.
• Hence, the efficiency of an algorithm is the number of basic
operations it performs. This number is a function of the input
size n.
 Example of Basic Operations:
• Arithmetic operations: *, /, %, +, -
• Assignment statements of simple data types.
• Reading of primitive types
• writing of a primitive types
• Simple conditional tests: if (x < 12) ...
• method call (Note: the execution time of the method itself may depend on
the value of parameter and it may not be constant)
• a method's return statement
• Memory Access
• We consider an operation such as ++ , += , and *= as consisting of two basic
operations.
• Note: To simplify complexity analysis we will not consider memory access
(fetch or store) operations.
Best, Average, and Worst case complexities

• We are usually interested in the worst case complexity: what are the
most operations that might be performed for a given problem size. We
will not discuss the other cases -- best and average case.

• Best case depends on the input

• Average case is difficult to compute
• So we usually focus on worst case analysis
• Easier to compute
• Usually close to the actual running time
• Crucial to real-time systems (e.g. air-traffic control)
Best, Average, and Worst case complexities
• Example: Linear Search Complexity
• Best Case : Item found at the beginning: One comparison
• Worst Case : Item found at the end: n comparisons
• Average Case :Item may be found at index 0, or 1, or 2, . . . or n - 1
• Average number of comparisons is: (1 + 2 + . . . + n) / n = (n+1) / 2

• Worst and Average complexities of common sorting algorithms

Method Worst Case Average Case

Selection sort N2 n2
Insertion sort n2 n2
Merge sort n log n n log n
Quick sort n2 n log n
The Big O notation: Worse Case Scenario
Simple Complexity Analysis: Loops

• We start by considering how to count operations in

for-loops.
• We use integer division throughout.

• First of all, we should know the number of iterations

of the loop; say it is x.
• Then the loop condition is executed x + 1 times.

• Each of the statements in the loop body is executed x times.

• The loop-index update statement is executed x times.

Simple Complexity Analysis: Loops (with <)
• In the following for-loop:

for (int i = k; i < n; i = i + m){

statement1;
statement2;
}

• The number of iterations is: (n – k ) / m

• The initialization statement, i = k, is executed one time.

• The condition, i < n, is executed (n – k ) / m + 1 times.

• The update statement, i = i + m, is executed (n – k ) / m times.

• Each of statement1 and statement2 is executed (n – k ) / m times.

Simple Complexity Analysis : Loops (with <=)
• In the following for-loop:

for (int i = k; i <= n; i = i + m){

statement1;
statement2;
}

• The number of iterations is: (n – k) / m + 1

• The initialization statement, i = k, is executed one time.

• The condition, i <= n, is executed (n – k) / m + 1 + 1 times.

• The update statement, i = i + m, is executed (n – k) / m + 1 times.

• Each of statement1 and statement2 is executed (n – k) / m + 1 times.

 Simple Complexity Analysis: Loop Example
• Find the exact number of basic operations in the following program fragment:

double x, y;
x = 2.5 ; y = 3.0;
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
a[i] = x * y;
x = 2.5 * x;
y = y + a[i];
}
• There are 2 assignments outside the loop => 2 operations.
• The for loop actually comprises
• an assignment (i = 0) => 1 operation
• a test (i < n) => n + 1 operations
• an increment (i++) => 2 n operations
• the loop body that has three assignments, two multiplications, and an addition => 6
n operations
Thus the total number of basic operations is 6 * n + 2 * n + (n + 1) + 3
= 9n + 4
 Simple Complexity Analysis: Examples
• Suppose n is a multiple of 2. Determine the number of basic operations performed by
of the method myMethod():
static int myMethod(int n){ static int helper(int n){
int sum = 0; int sum = 0;
for(int i = 1; i < n; i = i * 2) for(int i = 1; i <= n; i++)
sum = sum + i + helper(i); sum = sum + i;
return sum; return sum;
} }

• Solution: The number of iterations of the loop:

for(int i = 1; i < n; i = i * 2)
sum = sum + i + helper(i);
is log2n (A Proof will be given later)
Hence the number of basic operations is:
1 + 1 + (1 + log2n) + log2n[2 + 4 + 1 + 1 + (n + 1) + n[2 + 2] + 1] + 1
= 3 + log2n + log2n[10 + 5n] + 1
= 5 n log2n + 11 log2n + 4
 Simple Complexity Analysis:
Loops With Logarithmic Iterations
 In the following for-loop: (with <)

for (int i = k; i < n; i = i * m){

statement1;
statement2;
}
◦ The number of iterations is: (Logm (n / k) )

 In the following for-loop: (with <=)

for (int i = k; i <= n; i = i * m){

statement1;
statement2;
}
◦ The number of iterations is:  (Logm (n / k) + 1) 
Complexity Analysis (Part II)

• Asymptotic Complexity

• Big-O (asymptotic) Notation

• Big-O Computation Rules

• Proving Big-O Complexity

• How to determine complexity of code structures

164.
 Asymptotic Complexity
• Finding the exact complexity, f(n) = number of basic
operations, of an algorithm is difficult.
• We approximate f(n) by a function g(n) in a way that does not
substantially change the magnitude of f(n). --the function g(n)
is sufficiently close to f(n) for large values of the input size n.
• This "approximate" measure of efficiency is called asymptotic
complexity.
• Thus the asymptotic complexity measure does not give the
exact number of operations of an algorithm, but it shows how
that number grows with the size of the input.
• This gives us a measure that will work for different operating
systems, compilers and CPUs.

174.
Big-O (asymptotic) Notation
 A big-O Analysis: is a technique for estimating the time and space
requirements of an algorithm in terms of order of magnitude.

 The most commonly used notation for specifying asymptotic complexity

is the big-O notation.
 The Big-O notation, O(g(n)), is used to give an upper bound (worst-case)
on a positive runtime function f(n) where n is the input size.

Definition of Big-O:
 Consider a function f(n) that is non-negative  n  0. We say that “f(n) is
Big-O of g(n)” i.e., f(n) = O(g(n)), if  n0  0 and a constant c > 0 such
that f(n)  cg(n),  n  n0

184.
 Big-O (asymptotic) Notation
Implication of the definition:
• For all sufficiently large n, c *g(n) is an upper bound of f(n)
Note: By the definition of Big-O:
f(n) = 3n + 4 is O(n)
it is also O(n2),
it is also O(n3),
...
it is also O(nn)
• However when Big-O notation is used, the function g in the
relationship f(n) is O(g(n)) is CHOOSEN TO BE AS SMALL AS
POSSIBLE.
• We call such a function g a tight asymptotic bound of f(n)

194.
 Big-O (asymptotic) Notation
Some Big-O complexity classes in order of magnitude from smallest to highest:

O(1) Constant
O(log(n)) Logarithmic
O(n) Linear
O(n log(n)) n log n
O(nx) {e.g., O(n2), O(n3), etc} Polynomial

O(an) {e.g., O(1.6n), O(2n), etc} Exponential

O(n!) Factorial
O(nn)

204.
 Examples of Algorithms and their big-O complexity

Big-O Notation Examples of Algorithms

O(1) Push, Pop, Enqueue (if there is a tail reference),

Dequeue, Accessing an array element
O(log(n)) Binary search
O(n) Linear search
O(n log(n)) Heap sort, Quick sort (average), Merge sort
O(n2) Selection sort, Insertion sort, Bubble sort

O(n3) Matrix multiplication

O(2n) Towers of Hanoi

214.
Warnings about O-Notation
• Big-O notation cannot compare algorithms in the same complexity
class.
• Big-O notation only gives sensible comparisons of algorithms in
different complexity classes when n is large .
• Consider two algorithms for same task:
Linear: f(n) = 1000 n
Quadratic: f'(n) = n2/1000
The quadratic one is faster for n < 1000000.

224.
 Rules for using big-O
• For large values of input n , the constants and terms with lower degree of n
are ignored.

[Link] Constants Rule: Ignoring constant factors.

O(c f(n)) = O(f(n)), where c is a constant;
Example:
O(20 n3) = O(n3)
2. Addition Rule: Ignoring smaller terms.
If O(f(n)) < O(h(n)) then O(f(n) + h(n)) = O(h(n)).
Example:
O(n2 log n + n3) = O(n3)
O(2000 n3 + 2n ! + n800 + 10n + 27n log n + 5) = O(n !)

3. Multiplication Rule: O(f(n) * h(n)) = O(f(n)) * O(h(n))

Example:
O((n3 + 2n 2 + 3n log n + 7)(8n 2 + 5n + 2)) = O(n 5)

234.
 Proving Big-O Complexity
To prove that f(n) is O(g(n)) we find any pair of values n0 and c that satisfy:
f(n) ≤ c * g(n) for  n  n0
Note: The pair (n0, c) is not unique. If such a pair exists then there is an
infinite number of such pairs.

Example: Prove that f(n) = 3n2 + 5 is O(n2)

We try to find some values of n and c by solving the following inequality:
3n2 + 5  cn2 OR 3 + 5/n2  c
(By putting different values for n, we get corresponding values for c)

n0 1 2 3 4 
c 8 4.25 3.55 3.3125 3
244.
 Proving Big-O Complexity

Example:
Prove that f(n) = 3n2 + 4n log n + 10 is O(n2) by finding appropriate values
for c and n0
We try to find some values of n and c by solving the following inequality
3n2 + 4n log n + 10  cn2
OR 3 + 4 log n / n+ 10/n2  c

( We used Log of base 2, but another base can be used as well)

n0 1 2 3 4 

c 13 7.5 6.22 5.62 3

254.
How to determine complexity of code structures

Loops: for, while, and do-while:

Complexity is determined by the number of iterations in the
loop times the complexity of the body of the loop.
Examples:

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)

sum = sum - i; O(n)

for (int i = 0; i < n * n; i++)

O(n2)
sum = sum + i;

i=1;
while (i < n) {
sum = sum + i; O(log n)
i = i*2
}
264.
 How to determine complexity of code structures

Nested Loops: Complexity of inner loop * complexity of outer loop.

Examples:

sum = 0
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
for(int j = 0; j < n; j++) O(n2)
sum += i * j ;

i = 1;
while(i <= n) {
j = 1;
while(j <= n){
statements of constant complexity O(n log n)
j = j*2;
}
i = i+1;
}
274.
How to determine complexity of code structures

Sequence of statements: Use Addition rule

O(s1; s2; s3; … sk) = O(s1) + O(s2) + O(s3) + … + O(sk)
= O(max(s1, s2, s3, . . . , sk))

Example:
for (int j = 0; j < n * n; j++)
sum = sum + j;
for (int k = 0; k < n; k++)
sum = sum - l;
[Link]("sum is now ” + sum);

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

284.
 How to determine complexity of code structures
Switch: Take the complexity of the most expensive case

char key;
int[] X = new int[n];
int[][] Y = new int[n][n];
........
switch(key) {
case 'a':
for(int i = 0; i < [Link]; i++) o(n)
sum += X[i];
break;
case 'b':
for(int i = 0; i < [Link]; j++) o(n2)
for(int j = 0; j < Y[0].length; j++)
sum += Y[i][j];
break;
} // End of switch block

Overall Complexity: O(n2) 294.

How to determine complexity of code structures

If Statement: Take the complexity of the most expensive case :

char key;
int[][] A = new int[n][n];
int[][] B = new int[n][n];
int[][] C = new int[n][n];
........
if(key == '+') {
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
for(int j = 0; j < n; j++)
C[i][j] = A[i][j] + B[i][j];
} // End of if block O(n2) Overall
complexity
else if(key == 'x') O(n3)
C = matrixMult(A, B); O(n3)
else
[Link]("Error! Enter '+' or 'x'!");

O(1)
304.
How to determine complexity of code structures

• Sometimes if-else statements must carefully be checked:

O(if-else) = O(Condition)+ Max[O(if), O(else)]

int[] integers = new int[n];

........
if(hasPrimes(integers) == true)
integers[0] = 20; O(1)
else
integers[0] = -20; O(1)

public boolean hasPrimes(int[] arr) {

for(int i = 0; i < [Link]; i++)
..........
.......... O(n)
} // End of hasPrimes()

O(if-else) = O(Condition) = O(n) 314.

How to determine complexity of code structures
• Note: Sometimes a loop may cause the if-else rule not to be applicable.
Consider the following loop:

while (n > 0) {
if (n % 2 = = 0) {
[Link](n);
n = n / 2;
} else{
[Link](n);
[Link](n);
n = n – 1;
}
}

The else-branch has more basic operations; therefore one may conclude
that the loop is O(n). However the if-branch dominates. For example if n is
60, then the sequence of n is: 60, 30, 15, 14, 7, 6, 3, 2, 1, and 0. Hence the
loop is logarithmic and its complexity is O(log n)

324.