Design and Analysis of Algorihms

LECTURE 1

Introduction

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 Introduction and History

Algorithm : Means to solve a problem

Antiquity : Euclid described how to find the Greatest
Common Divisor of two numbers. Archimede computed π
with an arbitrary precision.
Muhamed Ibn Al Khou Warizmi: Decimal representation and
computation rules .
Exercise : Give some examples of algorithm in your daily life.

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 Human vs Computer

Tedious execution of algorithm by a human being

⇒ repetitive rules
⇒ large number of steps
Computers have boost the development of algorithmics. At
the same time we have to worry about:
Running time of the algorithm
The efficiency of the algorithm
difficulty of the problem to be solve.

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 Specification of an Algorithm

An algorithm constructs a solution from input data.

There is an automatic execution. No Ambiguity of rules
(⇒Semantics).
The input of an algorithm has to be well defined and finite.
an algorithm can be considered as a sequence of operations on
a string of symbols (Turing Machine). Automata.
There is No particular language attached to an algorithm.

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 Algorithms vs Programs

A program is written in a particular programming language (

C++, C, Java, LISP, Pascal,ADA etc.) and is executed on a
computer which has a memory.
Are all algorithm computable?
The answer is unknown. . .

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 Partial vs Total Correction

⇒ Partial Correction: Verifies if the algorithm solves the

problem
⇒ Total correction: verifies if the algorithms solves the problem
and if it ends in finite time.

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 What is this course about?

Find ways to organize information in order to enable efficient

computation.
Which are those ways?
what do we mean by efficient?

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 What is an efficient algorithm?

easy to read and to understand .

use reasonable space for storage.
spend as little as possible time for its execution.

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 Why this course?

Efficient algorithms lead to efficient programs

Efficient programs are well marketable
With efficient program there is optimal use of hardware.

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 Factors that influence program efficiency are

Problem being solved

Programming language
Compiler
Computer hardware
Programmer ability
Algorithm.

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 Specific Goals of the course

Become familiar with some fundamental algorithms.

Improve ability to solve problem abstractly
Improve ability to analyze your algorithms
prove of correctness
gauge (and improve ) time complexity.

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 Algorithm Analysis

To predict the amount of resource required in respect to the size of

the input, we have to evaluate some quantity.
time ( more often)- counting of elementary operations.
storage
There are different types of Analysis:
Given an algorithm on data of size n:
Worst-case cost : is the the maximum of costs, on all the
data with size n.
Average-case cost : is the average of costs, on all the data
with size n.
best-case cost : is the minimum of costs, on all the data
with size n.

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 Your To do List

Read pages 5 to 24 of the following book

Wilf H.S, Algorithms and Complexity.

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