Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät

Institut für Informatik, Anja Rey

Exercise Sheet 2
for the lecture on

Advanced Programming and Algorithms

Submission until Monday, 31st October, 12:30 pm.
Discussion in the exercise classes on 7th and 11th November, 2022.

Problem 1 to hand in: Running Time

The following pseudocode describes the selection_sort algorithm which solves the
Sorting computation problem: Given a finite sequence A of distinct integers (and its
length), return A sorted ascendingly.
selection_sort(A[0..n − 1], n):
1 for j ← 0 to n − 1 do
2 min ← j
3 for i ← j + 1 to n − 1 do
4 if A[i] < A[min] then
5 min ← i
6 key = A[j]
7 A[j] = A[min]
8 A[min] = key
9 return A

a) How does selection_sort work in comparison to insertion_sort? Describe it

intuitively in one or two sentences.
b) Analyse the asymptotic worst-case running time of selection_sort:

• For each line of code, write down the number of running steps (dependent on
the input size) in the worst case.
• Sum up the total number T (n) of steps the algorithm needs in the worst case
for an input of size n.
• Provide a function f (n) as a representative upper bound in O-notation.
• Proof formally that T (n) ∈ O(f (n)) holds.
Problem 2 for discussion: Refactoring
Take a look at the following Python implementation of selection_sort.
1 def selection_sort ( A ):
2 for j in range ( len ( A )):
3 m=j
4 for i in range ( j +1 , len ( A )):
5 if A [ i ] < A [ m ]:
6 m = i
7 key = A [ j ]; A [ j ] = A [ m ]
8 A [ m ] = key
9 return A

How can we optimise the readability and reusability of this code with respect to the
following criteria?
• consistency (e.g. spacing)
• expressivity (e.g. variable names)
• function extendability (unique purpose, brevity, testability)
• avoiding redundancy
Discuss: How do these changes affect the running time of the algorithm?

Problem 3 for discussion: Space Complexity

Similar to the running time of an algorithm, the memory space required by an algorithm
can be analysed theoretically.
a) Define a formal notion of space complexity.
b) Analyse the space complexity of selection_sort

Problem 4 for discussion: Correctness

The following algorithm returns the maximum element within a given sequence.
maximum(A[0..n − 1], n):
1 max_index = 0
2 for i ← 1 to n − 1 do
3 if A[i] > A[max_index] then
4 max_index ← i
5 return A[max_index]
a) State a loop invariant that holds at the beginning of each iteration of the for loop
(lines 2 to 4).
b) Proof the loop invariant.
c) Use the loop invariant to show that indeed the algorithm returns the maximum of
the input sequence.