Design and Analysis of Algorithms
By
Arslan Anjum
Objective of This Course
Major objective of this course is:
• Design and analysis of modern algorithms
• Different variants
• Accuracy
• Efficiency
• Comparing efficiencies
• Motivation thinking new algorithms
• Advanced designing techniques
• Real world problems will be taken as examples
• To create feelings about usefulness of this course
Expected Results
On successful completion, students will be able to
• Argue and prove correctness of algorithms
• Derive and solve mathematical models of problems
• Reasoning when an algorithm calls certain approach
• Analyze average and worst-case running times
• Integrating approaches in dynamic and greedy algos.
• Use of graph theory in problems solving
• Several other algorithms such as
• String matching, NP completeness, approximate
algorithms etc.
Lecture No 1
Introduction
(What, Why and Where Algorithms . . .)
Today Covered
In this lecture we will cover the following
• What is Algorithm?
• Designing Techniques
• Model of Computation
• Algorithms as a technology
• Algorithms and other technologies
• Importance of algorithms
• Difference in Users and Developers
• Kinds of problems solved by algorithms
• Conclusion
What is Algorithm?
• A computer algorithm is a detailed step-by-step method
for solving a problem by using a computer.
• An algorithm is a sequence of unambiguous instructions
for solving a problem in a finite amount of time.
• An Algorithm is well defined computational procedure that
takes some value, or set of values, as input and produces
some value, or set of values as output.
Input output
Algorithm
What is Algorithm?
• More generally, an Algorithm is any well defined
computational procedure that takes collection of elements
as input and produces a collection of elements as output.
Why study algorithms and performance?
• Algorithms help us to understand scalability.
• Performance often draws the line between what is
feasible and what is impossible.
• Algorithmic mathematics provides a language for talking
about program behaviour.
• Performance is the currency of computing.
• The lessons of the program performance generalize to
other computing resources.
• Speed is fun!
Popular Algorithms, Factors of Dependence
• Most basic and popular algorithms are
– Sorting algorithms
– Searching algorithms
Which algorithm is best?
• Mainly, it depends upon various factors, for
example in case of sorting
– The number of items to be sorted
– The extent to which the items are already sorted
– Possible restrictions on the item values
– The kind of storage device to be used etc.
One Problem, Many Algorithms
Problem
• The statement of the problem specifies, in general
terms, the desired input/output relationship.
Algorithm
• The algorithm describes a specific computational
procedure for achieving input/output relationship.
Example
• One might need to sort a sequence of numbers into
non-decreasing order.
Algorithms
• Various algorithms e.g. merge sort, quick sort,
heap sorts etc.
[email protected] Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Important Designing Techniques
• Brute Force
– Straightforward, naive approach
– Mostly expensive
• Divide-and-Conquer
– Divide into smaller sub-problems
• Decrease-and-Conquer
– Decrease instance size
• Transform-and-Conquer
– Modify problem first and then solve it
• Space and Time Tradeoffs
– Use more space now to save time later
Some of the Important Designing Techniques
• Greedy Approach
– Locally optimal decisions, can not change once made.
– Efficient
– Easy to implement
– The solution is expected to be optimal
– Every problem may not have greedy solution
• Dynamic programming
– Decompose into sub-problems like divide and conquer
– Sub-problems are dependant
– Record results of smaller sub-problems
– Re-use it for further occurrence
– Mostly reduces complexity exponential to polynomial
Problem Solving Phases
• Analysis
– How does system work?
– Breaking a system down to known components
– How components (processes) relate to each other
– Breaking a process down to known functions
• Synthesis
– Building tools
– Building functions with supporting tools
– Composing functions to form a process
– How components should be put together?
– Final solution
Problem Solving Process
• Problem
• Strategy
• Algorithm
– Input
– Output
– Steps
• Analysis
– Correctness
– Time & Space
– Optimality
• Implementation
• Verification
[email protected] Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Model of Computation (Assumptions)
• Design assumption
– Level of abstraction which meets our requirements
– Neither more nor less
• Analysis independent of the variations in
– Machine
– Operating system
– Programming languages
– Compiler etc.
• Low-level details will not be considered
• Our model will be an abstraction of a standard
generic single-processor machine, called a random
access machine or RAM.
[email protected] Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Model of Computation (Assumptions)
• A RAM is assumed to be an idealized machine
– Infinitely large random-access memory
– Instructions execute sequentially
• Every instruction is in fact a basic operation on two
values in the machines memory which takes unit time.
• These might be characters or integers.
• Example of basic operations include
– Assigning a value to a variable
– Arithmetic operation (+, - , × , /) on integers
– Performing any comparison e.g. a < b
– Boolean operations
– Accessing an element of an array.
Model of Computation (Assumptions)
• In theoretical analysis, computational complexity
– Estimated in asymptotic sense
– Estimating for large inputs
• Big O, Omega, Theta etc. notations are used to
compute the complexity
• Asymptotic notations are used because different
implementations of algorithm may differ in efficiency
• Efficiencies of two given algorithm are related
– By a constant multiplicative factor
– Called hidden constant.
Drawbacks in Model of Computation
First poor assumption
• We assumed that each basic operation takes
constant time, i.e. model allows
– Adding
– Multiplying
– Comparing etc.
two numbers of any length in constant time
• Addition of two numbers takes a unit time!
– Not good because numbers may be arbitrarily
• Addition and multiplication both take unit time!
– Again very bad assumption
Model of Computation not so Bad
Finally what about Our Model?
• But with all these weaknesses, our model is not so
bad because we have to give the
– Comparison not the absolute analysis of any algorithm.
• Model seems to work well describing computational
power of modern nonparallel machines
Can we do Exact Measure of Efficiency ?
• Exact (not asymptotic) measure of efficiency can be
sometimes computed but it usually requires certain
assumptions concerning implementation
– Time efficiency
– Space efficiency
[email protected] Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Analysis : Computational Model
• Analysis will be performed with respect to this
computational model for comparison of algorithms
• We will give asymptotic analysis not detailed
comparison i.e. for large inputs
• We will use generic uniprocessor random-access
machine (RAM) in analysis
– All memory equally expensive to access
– No concurrent operations
– All reasonable instructions take unit time,
except, of course, function calls
Conclusion
• What, Why and Where Algorithms?
• Designing Techniques
• Problem solving Phases and Procedure
• Model of computations
– Major assumptions at design and analysis level
– Merits and demerits, justification of assumptions taken
• We proved that algorithm is a technology
• Compared algorithmic technology with others
• Discussed importance of algorithms
– In almost all areas of computer science and engineering
