Algorithms and Data

Structures
Simonas Šaltenis
Nykredit Center for Database Research
Aalborg University
simas@cs.auc.dk

September 10, 2001

 Administration
 People
 Simonas Šaltenis
 Anders B. Christensen
 Daniel Povlsen
 Home page http://www.cs.auc.dk/~simas/ad01
 Check the homepage frequently!
 Course book “ Introduction to Algorithms”, 2.ed
Cormen et al.
 Lectures, Fib 15, A, 8:15-10:00, Mondays and
Thursdays

September 10, 2001 2

 Administration (2)
 Exercises: every week after the lecture
 Exam: SE course, written
 Troubles
 Simonas Šaltenis
 E1-215
 simas@cs.auc.dk

September 10, 2001 3

 Syllabus
 Introduction (1)
 Correctness, analysis of algorithms (2,3,4)
 Sorting (1,6,7)
 Elementary data structures, ADTs (10)
 Searching, advanced data structures (11,12,13,18)
 Dynamic programming (15)
 Graph algorithms (22,23,24)
 Computational Geometry (33)
 NP-Completeness (34)

September 10, 2001 4

 What is it all about?
 Solving problems
 Get me from home to work
 Balance my checkbook
 Simulate a jet engine
 Graduate from SPU
 Using a computer to help solve problems
 Designing programs (architecture, algorithms)
 Writing programs
 Verifying programs
 Documenting programs

September 10, 2001 5

 Data Structures and Algorithms
 Algorithm
 Outline, the essence of a computational
procedure, step-by-step instructions
 Program – an implementation of an
algorithm in some programming language
 Data structure
 Organization of data needed to solve the
problem

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 Overall Picture
Data Structure and Implementation
Algorithm Design Goals Goals

Correctness Robustness
Adaptability
Efficiency

Reusability

September 10, 2001 7

 Overall Picture (2)
 This course is not about:
 Programming languages
 Computer architecture
 Software architecture
 Software design and implementation principles
 Issues concerning small and large scale
programming
 We will only touch upon the theory of
complexity and computability

September 10, 2001 8

 History
 Name: Persian mathematician Mohammed
al-Khowarizmi, in Latin became Algorismus
 First algorithm: Euclidean Algorithm,
greatest common divisor, 400-300 B.C.
 19th century – Charles Babbage, Ada
Lovelace.
 20th century – Alan Turing, Alonzo Church,
John von Neumann

September 10, 2001 9

 Algorithmic problem
Specification
Specification ? of output as
of input a function of
input

 Infinite number of input instances satisfying the

specification. For example:
 A sorted, non-decreasing sequence of natural
numbers. The sequence is of non-zero, finite length:
 1, 20, 908, 909, 100000, 1000000000.
 3.

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 Algorithmic Solution

Input instance, Algorithm Output

adhering to related to
the the input as
specification required

 Algorithm describes actions on the input

instance
 Infinitely many correct algorithms for the same
algorithmic problem
September 10, 2001 11
 Example: Sorting
INPUT OUTPUT
sequence of numbers a permutation of the
sequence of numbers

a1, a2, a3,….,an b1,b2,b3,….,bn

Sort
2 5 4 10 7 2 4 5 7 10

Correctness Running time

For any given input the algorithm Depends on
halts with the output: • number of elements (n)
• b1 < b2 < b3 < …. < bn • how (partially) sorted
• b1, b2, b3, …., bn is a they are
permutation of a1, a2, a3,….,an • algorithm

September 10, 2001 12

 Insertion Sort
A 3 4 6 8 9 7 2 5 1
1 j n
i

Strategy for j=2 to length(A)

do key=A[j]
• Start “empty handed” “insert A[j] into the
• Insert a card in the right sorted sequence A[1..j-1]”
position of the already sorted i=j-1
hand while i>0 and A[i]>key
• Continue until all cards are do A[i+1]=A[i]
inserted/sorted i--
A[i+1]:=key

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 Analysis of Algorithms
 Efficiency:
 Running time
 Space used
 Efficiency as a function of input size:
 Number of data elements (numbers, points)
 A number of bits in an input number

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 The RAM model
 Very important to choose the level of
detail.
 The RAM model:
 Instructions (each taking constant time):
 Arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply, etc.)
 Data movement (assign)
 Control (branch, subroutine call, return)
 Data types – integers and floats

September 10, 2001 15

 Analysis of Insertion Sort
 Time to compute the running time as a
function of the input size
cost times
for j=2 to length(A) c1 n
do key=A[j] c2 n-1
“insert A[j] into the 0 n-1
sorted sequence A[1..j-1]”
i=j-1 c3 n-1

n
while i>0 and A[i]>key c4 t
nj  2
j

do A[i+1]=A[i] c5  nj  2
(t j  1)
i-- c6  j 2 j
(t  1)
A[i+1]:=key c7 n-1

September 10, 2001 16

 Best/Worst/Average Case
 Best case: elements already sorted 
tj=1, running time = f(n), i.e., linear time.
 Worst case: elements are sorted in
inverse order
 tj=j, running time = f(n2), i.e., quadratic
time
 Average case: tj=j/2, running time =
f(n2), i.e., quadratic time

September 10, 2001 17

 Best/Worst/Average Case (2)
 For a specific size of input n, investigate
running times for different input instances:

6n

5n

4n

3n

2n

1n

September 10, 2001 18

 Best/Worst/Average Case (3)
 For inputs of all sizes:

worst-case

6n average-case
Running time

5n
best-case
4n

3n

2n

1n

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 …..
Input instance size
September 10, 2001 19
 Best/Worst/Average Case (4)
 Worst case is usually used:
 It is an upper-bound and in certain application
domains (e.g., air traffic control, surgery)
knowing the worst-case time complexity is of
crucial importance
 For some algorithms worst case occurs fairly
often
 The average case is often as bad as the
worst case
 Finding the average case can be very difficult

September 10, 2001 20

 Growth Functions
1,00E+10

1,00E+09

1,00E+08
n
log n
1,00E+07
sqrt n
n log n
1,00E+06
100n
n^2
1,00E+05
T(n)

n^3
1,00E+04

1,00E+03

1,00E+02

1,00E+01

1,00E+00

1,00E-01
2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
n

September 10, 2001 21

 Growth Functions (2)
1,00E+155

1,00E+143

1,00E+131

1,00E+119 n
log n
1,00E+107
sqrt n
1,00E+95 n log n
100n
1,00E+83 n^2
T(n)

n^3
1,00E+71
2^n
1,00E+59

1,00E+47

1,00E+35

1,00E+23

1,00E+11

1,00E-01
2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
n

September 10, 2001 22

 That’s it?
 Is insertion sort the best approach to
sorting?
 Alternative strategy based on divide and
conquer
 MergeSort
 sorting the numbers <4, 1, 3, 9> is split into
 sorting <4, 1> and <3, 9> and
 merging the results
 Running time f(n log n)

September 10, 2001 23

 Example 2: Searching
INPUT OUTPUT
• sequence of numbers (database) • an index of the found
• a single number (query) number or NIL

a1, a2, a3,….,an; q j

2 5 4 10 7; 5 2

2 5 4 10 7; 9 NIL

September 10, 2001 24

 Searching (2)
j=1
while j<=length(A) and A[j]!=q
do j++
if j<=length(A) then return j
else return NIL

 Worst-case running time: f(n), average-case:

f(n/2)
 We can’t do better. This is a lower bound for the
problem of searching in an arbitrary sequence.

September 10, 2001 25

 Example 3: Searching
INPUT OUTPUT
• sorted non-descending sequence • an index of the found
of numbers (database) number or NIL
• a single number (query)

a1, a2, a3,….,an; q j

2 4 5 7 10; 5 2

2 4 5 7 10; 9 NIL

September 10, 2001 26

 Binary search
 Idea: Divide and conquer, one of the key design
techniques

left=1
right=length(A)
do
j=(left+right)/2
if A[j]==q then return j
else if A[j]>q then right=j-1
else left=j+1
while left<=right
return NIL

September 10, 2001 27

 Binary search – analysis
 How many times the loop is executed:
 With each execution its length is cult in half
 How many times do you have to cut n in half
to get 1?
 lg n

September 10, 2001 28

 Next Week
 Correctness of algorithms
 Asymptotic analysis, big O notation.

September 10, 2001 29