Held: Monday, 11 October 2004
Summary:
Today we conclude our initial explorations of algorithm analysis with some
further explorations of the notation.
Related Pages:
Notes:
- Security Occifer Motta says "Oh shit, what did we do wrong now?"
- Security Occifer Motta also says "Good luck, I'm thinking about you."
- Math/CS table, Cowles, noon.
Overview:
- Review
- The role of experimentation
- Using the notation: Eliminating constants
- Using the notation: Simplifying running times
- Analyzing recursive procedures
- f(n) is in O(g(n)) iff
- there exists a number n0
- there exists a number d > 0
- for all but finitely many n > n0,
abs(f(n)) <= abs(d*g(n))
- This notation provides a convenient mechanism for talking about
running time without worrying about too many potentially useless
details.
- Particularly as you start to analyze algorithms, it may be helpful
to analyze them experimentally as well as abstractly.
- What do I mean when I say
analyze them experimentally
? I mean
that we can time them on a variety of inputs and graph the results.
- If the experimental and the abstract results match, we can be fairly
confident in the abstract results.
- If they don't, we may need to reflect and try again.
- Our analysis may be correct and our implementation incorrect.
- Our analysis may be correct and our data may all be outliers.
- Our analysis may be incorrect.
- ...
- Note that some analyses can be very difficult.
- One of the nice things about asymptotic analysis is that it makes
constants
unimportant
because they can be hidden
in the d.
- If f(n) is 100n seconds and g(n)
is 0.5n seconds, then
- f(n) is in O(g(n))
[let d be 200]
- g(n) is in f(n)
[let d be 1]
- If f(n) is 100n seconds and g(n) is
n2 seconds, then
f(n) is in O(g(n))
[let n0 be 100 and d be 1]
- However, g(n) is not in O(f(n)).
Why not?
- Suppose there were an n0 and a d.
- Consider what happens for n = 101d.
- d*f(n) = d*100*101*d =
d*d*100*101.
- However, g(n) = d*d*101*101, which is
even larger.
- If n0 is greater than 101d, we'll still have
this problem [proof left to reader].
- Since constants can be eliminated, we normally don't write them.
- That is, we say that the running time of an algorithm is
O(n) or O(n2) or ....
- Note that some of the counting can be hard, so we may also need to
estimate throughout the process.
- We can often express the running time of an algorithm as a composition of
other functions.
- For example, we might have a primary control structure which repeats
its contents O(h(n)) times and within that control
structure, we have a subalgorithm that takes O(g(n)) time.
- Similarly, we might break our algorithm up into two independent
algorithms, one of which takes O(h(n)) time and one of
which takes O(g(n)) time.
- We might also look at other relationships.
- Here are some questions we might ask ourselves about composition of functions.
- If f(n) is in O(h(n)) and g(n) is
O(k(n)), then what can we say about f(n) +
g(n)?
- If f(n) is in O(h(n)) and g(n) is
O(k(n)), then what can we say about
f(n) * g(n)?
- We might also ask more general questions about Big-O notation.
- If f(n) is in O(g(n)) and g(n) is
O(h(n)) then what can we say about f(n) and
h(n)?
- If f(n) is in O(kg(n)) and k
is a
constant
, then what else can we say about
f(n) and g(n)?
- If f(n) is in O(g(n) + h(n)) and
g(n) is in O(h(n)), then what simpler thing
can we say about f(n)?
- Unfortunately, the techniques for analyzing algorithms we discussed
above focuse primarily on iterative algorithms. What about
recursive algorithms?
- The process seems inherently more difficult.
- However, we can use a similar strategy.
- Count the number of recursive calls.
- Count the time spent during each recursive call (except for the time
spent in subsequent recursive calls).
- How do you count the number of recursive calls? Often, the
shrink
function gives you a sense of how many recursive calls you need to do
- That is, how many calls to
shrink
does it take to reduce the
argument to the base case.
- It is also possible to use the concept of recurrence relations to
determine the running time of an algorithm.
- For example, if a recursive algorithm takes c steps and reduces the
parameter by one, we might express the running time as a function,
time(n) which represents the running time on input of
n elements:
- time(n) = c + time(n-1)
- time(1) = c
- This equation is relatively easy to solve "intuitively".
- time(n) = c + time(n-1)
- = c + c + time(n-2)
- = ...
- = c + c + ... + time(1)
- = c + c + ... + c [n times]
- = c*n
- Other interesting recurrence relations:
- time(n) = n + time(n-1)
- time(n) = c n + time(n-1)
- time(n) = c + time(n/2)
- time(n) = n + time(n/2)
- time(n) = c * time(n-1)
- time(n) = c * time(n/2)