What is the time complexity and tilde for the loop below?
for (int i = N/2; i < N; i++) {
for (int j = i; j < N; j++) {
doSomething(i, j);
}
}
I think that it runs N/2 + (N/2 + 1) + (N/2 + 2) + ... + (N-1) times, but how do I get it's time complexity and tilde?
For example - if N = 100, the loop will run 50 + 51 + 52 + 53 + ... + 99 times.
I am assuming doSomething(i, j); is not iterating all the elements between i and j; if this is the case, the complexity of this algorithm is O(N^2).
The outer loop for (int i = N/2; i < N; i++) { will execute O(N) times, cause N/2 is actually constant value.
The inner loop in worst case will execute N times (or N - i times) too, this will also merge with previous O(N).
Therefore, overall time complexity will be O(N^2) in worst case scenario.
The inner loop is executed:
N/2-1 times for i = N/2,
N/2-2 times for i = N/2+1
....
1 time for i = N-2
therefore the total time for the inner loop is :
(N/2-1) + (N/2-2) + .... (N/2-k) where k = N/2 - 1
= N/2*k - (1 + 2 + ... + k)
= N/2*(N/2-1) - (N/2-1)(N/2)/2
= N/2(N/2 - 1 - N/4 + 1/2)
= N/2(N/4 - 1/2)
= N^2/8 - N/4
Hence the order of growth of the code is of N^2
If you consider tilde notation which is defined as :
"∼g(n) to represent any quantity that, when divided by f(n), approaches 1 as n grows" from here, you can see that ~g(n) = ~N^2/8 because as N grows (N^2/8)/(N^2/8-N/4) approaches 1.
Related
Question 1
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
for (j = 0; j < i * i ; j++){
}
}
Answer: O(n^3)
At first glance, O(n^3) made sense to me, but I remember a previous problem I did:
Question 2
for (int i = n; i > 0; i /= 2) {
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) {
//statement
}
}
Answer: O(n)
For Question 2, the outer loop is O(log n) and the inner loop is O(2n / log n) resulting in O(n). The inner loop is O(2n / log n) because - see explanation here: Big O of Nested Loop (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
Why we don't do Question 1 like Question 2 since in Question 1, j also depends on i which means we should really be taking the average of how many iterations will occur in the inner loop (as we do in Question 2).
My answer would be: O(n) for the outer loop and O(n^2 / n) for the inner loop which results in O(n^2) for Question 1.
Your answer is wrong. The code is Θ(n³).
To see that note that the inner loop takes i² steps which is at most n² but for half of the outer loop iterations is at least (n/2)² = n²/4.
Therefore the number of total inner iterations is at most n * n² = n³ but at least n/2 * n²/4 = n³/8.
Your consideration is wrong in that the inner loop takes on average proportional to n² many iterations, not n² / n.
What your inner for loop is doing, in combination with the outer for loop, is calculating the sum of i^2. If you write it out you are adding the following terms:
1 + 4 + 9 + 16 + ...
The result of that is (2n^3+3n^2+n)/6. If you want to calculate the average of the number of iterations of the inner for loop, you divide it by n as this is the number of iterations of the outer for loop. So you get (2n^2+3n+1)/6, in terms of Big O notation this will be O(n^2). And having that gives you... nothing. You have not gain any new information as you already knew the complexity of the inner for loop is O(n^2). Having O(n^2) running n times gives you O(n^3) of total complexity, that you already knew...
So, you can calculate the average number of iterations of the inner for loop, but you will not gain any new information. There were no cuts in the number of iteration steps as there were in your previous question (the i /= 2 stuff).
void fun(int n, int k)
{
for (int i=1; i<=n; i++)
{
int p = pow(i, k);
for (int j=1; j<=p; j++)
{
// Some O(1) work
}
}
}
Time complexity of above function can be written as 1k + 2k + 3k + … n1k.
In your case k = 2
Sum = 12 + 22 + 32 + ... n12.
= n(n+1)(2n+1)/6
= n3/3 + n2/2 + n/6
I stumbled upon a loop for which I am not sure what the time complexity is. It is the following loop:
for(i = 1; i <= n^2; i++){
for(j = 1; j <= i; j++) {
//some elementary operation
}
}
I would have argued that the outer for-loop runs in n^2 and the inner for loop would also run in n^2 as for every iteration of the outer-loop we do n^2 - (n^2 - 1), n^2 - (n^2 - 2),..., n^2. Am I totally going in the wrong direction here?
So the time complexity would be in n^4
The number of operation will be :
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... + n²
Which is equal to (n² * (n² - 1)) / 2.
The Big O notation is O(n^4). You are correct.
It's a simple arithmetic progression happening here.
Every new iteration is bigger by 1.
Outer loop will do n^2 operations which will result for following sequence:
1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n + ... + n^2 = n^2 (n^2+1) / 2 = O(n^4)
I've been trying to understand Big-O notation. Earlier today, I was given a function to practice with and told that it has a O(n^5). I've tried calculating it on my own but don't know if I've calculated T(n) correctly.
Here are my two questions:
1) Did I calculate T(n) correctly and if not then what did I do wrong?
2) Why do we only concern ourselves with the variable to the highest power?
1 sum = 0; //1 = 1
2 for( i=0; i < n; i++) //1 + n + 2(n-1) = 1+n+2n-2 = 3n-1
3 for (j=0; j < i*i; j++) //n + n*n + 2n(n-1))= n+ n^2 + 2n^2-2n = 3n^2 -n
4 for (k=0; k < j; k++) //n + n*n + 4n(n-1))= n + n*n +4n*n-4n = 5n^2 -3n
5 sum++;
6 k++;
7 j++;
8 i++;
// so now that I have simplified everything I multiplied the equations on lines 2-4 and added line 1
// T(n) = 1 + (3n-1)(3n^2-n)(5n^2 -3n) = 45n^5 -57n^4 +23n^3 -3n^2 + 1
Innermost loop runs j times.
Second loop runs for j = 0 to i^2 -> sum of integers.
Outer loop runs to n -> sum of squares and 4th powers of integers.
We only take the highest power because as n approaches infinity, the highest power of n (or order) will always dominate, irrespective of its coefficient.
I thought the time complexity of the following code is O(log N), but the answer says it's O(N). I wonder why:
int count = 0;
for (int i = N; i > 0; i /= 2) {
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) {
count += 1;
}
}
For the inners for-loop, it runs for this many times:
N + N/2 + N/4 ...
it seems to be logN to me. Please help me understand why here. Thanks
1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8... 1/2 ** n is a geometric sequence with a = 1, r = 1/2 (a is the first term, and r is the common ratio).
Its sum can be calculated using the following formula:
In this case, the limit of the sum is 2, so:
n + n/2 + n/4 ... = n(1 + 1/2 + 1/4...) -> n * 2
Thus the complicity is O(N)
Proceeding step by step, based on the code fragment, we obtain:
What is the time complexity of the following code snippet and how to calculate it.
function(int n){
for(int i = 1 ; i<=n ; i++){
for(int j=1 ; j<=n; j+=i){
System.out.println("*");
}
}
Let's think about the total work that's done. As you noted in your comment, the inner loop runs n times when i = 1, then n / 2 times when i = 2, then n / 3 times when i = 3, etc. (ignoring rounding errors). This means that the total work done is
n + n/2 + n/3 + n/4 + ... + n/n
= n(1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + ... + 1/n)
The term in parentheses is the nth harmonic number, denoted Hn, so the work done overall is roughly nHn. It's known that Hn = Θ(log n), so the total work is Θ(n log n).