Algorithm Introduction

Things To Be Discussed In This Unit
• Program Design
• Concept and Definition
• Design of algorithm
• Characteristic of algorithm
• Big O notation
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Learning Objectives
• Understand the type of problem that will be covered in this class
• Recognize some problems for which sophisticated algorithms might not be
necessary.
• Question if your solution technique is an efficient one? Any room for
optimization?
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Program Design
• Involves taking the specification and designing solutions, the designer needs to
adopt a design strategy.
• Solution Strategy should work correctly in all conditions
• A large program should be divided into small modules and sub modules.
• Other important criteria by which a program can be judged are execution time and
storage requirement
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Algorithms
• The term ’algorithm’ refers to the sequence of instructions that must be followed
to solve a problem.
• Logical representation of the instructions which should be executed to perform a
meaningful task.
• Algorithms are generally created independent of underlying languages, i.e. an
algorithm can be implemented in more than one programming language.
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An algorithm has certain characteristics
• Each instruction should be unique and concise.
• Each instruction should be relative in nature and should not be repeated infinitely
• Repetition of same task(s) should be avoided.
• The result should be available to the user after algorithm terminates.
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NOTE:
• After an algorithm has been designed, its efficiency must be analyzed. i.e CPU time
and memory
• Memory space and running time should be taken care of.
• The importance of efficiency of an algorithm is in the correctness, i.e does it
always produce the correct result, and program complexity which considers
both the difficulty of implementing an algorithm along with its efficiency
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Properties of an Algorithm
• Input: A number of quantities are provided to an algorithm initially before the algorithm
begins. These quantities are inputs which are processed by the algorithm.
• Definiteness: Each step must be clear and unambiguous.
• Effectiveness: Each step must be carried out in finite time.
• Finiteness: Algorithms must terminate after finite time or step
• Output: An algorithm must have output.
• Correctness: Correct set of output values must be produced from the each set of inputs.
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Write an algorithm to find the greatest number among three numbers
Step 1: Read three numbers and store them in X, Y and Z
Step 2: Compare X and Y. if X is greater than Y then go to step 5 else go to step 3
Step 3: Compare Y and Z. if Y is greater than Z then print “Y is greatest” and go to step 7
otherwise go to step 4
Step 4: Print “Z is greatest” and go to step 7
Step 5: Compare X and Z. if X is greater than Z then print “X is greatest” and go to step 7
otherwise go to step 6
Step 6: Print “Z is greatest” and go to step 7
Step 7: Stop
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Different Approaches To Designing An Algorithm
• A complex system may be divided into smaller units called modules.
• The advantage of modularity is that it focuses on specific module.
• Modularity enhances design clarity, which in turn eases implementation,
debugging, testing, documenting and maintenance of the project.
• To design a hierarchy of a system there are two possible approaches
• Top-down approach
• Bottom-up approach
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Top-Down Approach
• How it is done?
• Identify the major components of the system,
• decompose them into their lower-level components and
• Iterate until the desired level of module complexity is achieved.
• It basically starts with the big picture. It breaks down from there into smaller
segments.
• Top-down design method takes the form of stepwise refinement.
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Bottom-Up Approach
• A bottom-up approach is the piecing together of systems to give rise to more
complex systems
• Bottom-up method works with layers of abstraction.
• Elements are then linked together to form larger subsystems, which then in turn
are linked, sometimes in many levels, until a complete top-level system is formed.
• This strategy often resembles a "seed" model, by which the beginnings are small
but eventually grow in complexity and completeness.
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Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Approach
• The top-down approach, however, is often useful way to better document a
design.
• The design activity should not be constrained to proceed according to a fixed
pattern but should be a blend of top-down and bottom-up approaches
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Complexity
• When we talk of complexity in context of computers, we call it computational
complexity.
• Computational complexity is a characterization of the time or space requirements
for solving a problem by a particular algorithm.
• Lesser the complexity better an algorithm.
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Complexity
• Given a particular problem, let ’n’ denote its size. The time required of a specific
algorithm for solving this problem is expressed by a function:
f : R->R
• Such that, f(n) is the largest amount of time needed by the algorithm to solve the
problem of size n.
• Function ‘f’ is usually called the time complexity function.
• Thus we conclude that the analysis of the program requires two main
considerations:
• Time Complexity (time required for completion)
• Space Complexity (memory required for completion)
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Time Complexity
• While measuring the time complexity of an algorithm, we concentrate on
developing only the frequency count for all key statements
(statements that are important and are the basic instructions of an algorithm)
• This is because, it is often difficult to get reliable timing figure because of clock
limitations and the multiprogramming or the sharing environment.
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Algorithm A
• In an algorithm A we may find that the statement a=a+1 is
independent and is not contained within any loop.
• Therefore, the number of times this shall be executed is 1.
• We say that the frequency count of an algorithm A is 1.
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Algorithm B
• In this algorithm, i.e. B, the key statement is the assignment operation a=a+1.
• Because this statement is contained within a loop, the number of times it is
executed is n, as the loop runs for n times.
• The frequency count for this algorithm is n.
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Algorithm C
• The frequency count for the statement a=a+1 is n2 as the inner loop runs n times,
each time the outer loop runs, the inner loop also runs for n times.
• If an algorithm perform f(n) basic operations when the size of its input is n, then its
total running time will be cf(n), where c is a constant that depends upon the
algorithm, on the way it is programmed, and on the way the
computer is used, but c does not depend on the size of the input
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Space Complexity
• Space complexity is essentially the number of memory cells which an algorithm needs.
• A good algorithm keeps this number as small as possible, too.
• There is often a time-space-tradeoff involved in a problem, that is, it cannot be solved with few
computing time and low memory consumption.
• Space complexity is measured with respect to the input size for a given instance of a problem.
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Naïve Algorithm Vs Efficient Algorithm
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Ex 1: Greatest Common Divisor
• DEFINITION:
• For integers, a and b, their greatest common divisor or gcd(a,b) is the largest integer d so
that d divides both a and b
• Compute GCD
• Input: Integers a,b ≥0
• Output: gcd(a,b)
• Ex: Run on large numbers like
gcd(3198848,1653264)
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Function NaiveGCD(a,b)
• PROBLEMS:
• Takes too much time to complete
• Not an optimal solution
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Best=0
For d from 1 to a+b:
if d/a and d/b:
best=d
return best

Function efficientGCD(a,b)
• Lemma
• Let a’ be the remainder when a is divided by b, then
gcd(a,b)=gcd(a’,b)=gcd(b,a’)
• So what is gcd(357,234)?
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If b=0:
return a
a’ = the remainder when a is divided by b
return efficientGCD(b,a’)
Example

Summary of naïve vs efficient algorithms
• Naïve algorithm is too slow
• The correct algorithm is much better
• Finding the correct algorithm requires knowing something interesting about the
problem
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Big O notation
• To be continued on next slide…
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Algorithm Introduction

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Algorithm Introduction