Basic Algoritm

Data Structures
& Algorithm Analysis

Problem Solving: Main Steps
1. Problem definition
2. Algorithm design / Algorithm specification
3. Algorithm analysis
4. Implementation
5. Testing
6. [Maintenance]
1. Problem Definition
• What is the task to be accomplished?
 Calculate the average of the grades for a given student
 Understand the talks given out by politicians and translate them in
Chinese
• What are the time / space / speed / performance requirements ?

2. Algorithm Design /
Specifications
• Algorithm: Finite set of instructions that, if followed,
accomplishes a particular task.
• Describe: in natural language / pseudo-code / diagrams / etc.
• Criteria to follow:
 Input: Zero or more quantities (externally produced)
 Output: One or more quantities
 Definiteness: Clarity, correctness of each instruction
 Finiteness: The algorithm has to stop after a finite (may be very
large) number of steps
 Effectiveness: Each instruction has to be basic enough and feasible
4,5,6: Implementation, Testing,
Maintainance
• Implementation
 Decide on the programming language to use
 C, C++, Lisp, Java, Perl, Prolog, assembly, etc. , etc.
 Write clean, well documented code
• Test, test, test
• Integrate feedback from users, fix bugs, ensure

compatibility across different versions 
Maintenance
3. Algorithm Analysis
• Complexity Analysis
 The complexity of an algorithm is a function describing the efficiency of the algorithm
in terms of the amount of data the algorithm must process.
3. Algorithm Analysis (Cont)
• There are two main complexity measures of the efficiency of an algorithm:
 Space complexity
 How much space is required
 Time Complexity
 How much time does it take to run the algorithm
Space Complexity
• Function describing the amount of memory (space) an
algorithm takes in terms of the amount of input to the
algorithm.
• This is essentially the number of memory cells which

an algorithm needs. A good algorithm keeps this
number as small as possible, too.
• We often speak of "extra" memory needed, not

counting the memory needed to store the input itself
Space Complexity (cont’d)
1. Fixed part: The size required to store certain
data/variables, that is independent of the size
of the problem:
- e.g. name of the data collection
- same size for classifying 2GB or 1MB of texts
2. Variable part: Space needed by variables,

whose size is dependent on the size of the
problem:
- e.g. actual text
- load 2GB of text VS. load 1MB of text
Time Complexity
• The number of (machine) instructions which a program executes
during its running time is called its time complexity in computer
science. This number depends primarily on the size of the
program's input
• Often more important than space complexity

 space available (for computer programs!) tends to be larger and larger
 time is still a problem for all of us
• Algorithms running time is an important issue

Experimental Approach
• Write a program that implements the algorithm
• Run the program with data sets of varying size.
• Determine the actual running time using a system call to measure
time (e.g. system (date) );
• Problems?
Experimental Approach
• It is necessary to implement and test the algorithm in order to
determine its running time.
• Experiments can be done only on a limited set of inputs, and may
not be indicative of the running time for other inputs.
• The same hardware and software should be used in order to
compare two algorithms. – condition very hard to achieve!
Algorithm Description
• How to describe algorithms independent of a programming
language
• Pseudo-Code = a description of an algorithm that is
 more structured than usual prose but
 less formal than a programming language
• (Or diagrams)
• Example: find the maximum element of an array.
Algorithm arrayMax(A, n):
Input: An array A storing n integers.
Output: The maximum element in A.
currentMax  A[0]
for i 1 to n -1 do
if currentMax < A[i] then currentMax  A[i]
return currentMax
Pseudo Code
• Expressions: use standard mathematical symbols
 use  for assignment ( ? in C/C++)
 use = for the equality relationship (? in C/C++)
• Method Declarations: -Algorithm name(param1, param2)

• Programming Constructs:
 decision structures: if ... then ... [else ..]
 while-loops while ... do
 repeat-loops: repeat ... until ...
 for-loop: for ... do
 array indexing: A[i]
• Methods
 calls: object method(args)
 returns: return value
• Use comments
• Instructions have to be basic enough and feasible!
Example
Algorithm arrayMax(A, n):
Input: An array A storing n integers.
Output: The maximum element in A.
currentMax A[0]
for i  1 to n -1 do
if currentMax < A[i] then
currentMax  A[i]
return currentMax
How many operations ?

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Data Structures

& Algorithm Analysis

2. Algorithm design / Algorithm specification

• What are the time / space / speed / performance requirements ?

• Test, test, test

• Integrate feedback from users, fix bugs, ensure

• This is essentially the number of memory cells which

• We often speak of "extra" memory needed, not

2. Variable part: Space needed by variables,

• Often more important than space complexity

• Algorithms running time is an important issue

• Method Declarations: -Algorithm name(param1, param2)

How many operations ?

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