Tools Used to Define Algorithms

• Pseudocode – an English-like representation

of a code required for an algorithm
• Abstract data type – consists of data and a
set of operations that can be performed on
that data
• Algo. Efficiency Analysis – 2 alg. will have
different solutions to same problem

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 Pseudocode
• Made up of :
– Algorithm header – describes alg’s parameters
– Purpose –short stmt about what alg does
– Pre condition – list of any requirements needed before
processing
– Post condition – outcome of the processing
– Body – made up of stmt constructs (seq, selection &
loop) to be executed
– Return – value returned by alg

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 Example of Pseudocode

algorithm add (val n1, val n2)

Adds 2 numbers
Pre: n1, n2, exist
Post: sum is printed
Return: nothing
1. Sum = n1 + n2
2. Print sum
end add

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 Definations
• Atomic – data that are single, nondecomposable entities.
• Atomic data type – set of atomic data with identical
properties
• Atomic data types – set of values and set of operations
that act on the values
• Data structure – a collection of atomic and composite
data types into a set with defined relationships
• Abstract data type(ADT) – data declaration packaged
together with the operations meaningful for the data type.
The implementation is hiden
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Abstract Data Type Model

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 Algorithm Efficiency
• On single algorithm for any problem
• One often finds one algorithm more
efficient than the other
• Defined as a function of the number of
elements being processed and the type of
loop being used.
• Format: f(n) = efficiency

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 Algorithm Efficiency
• Linear loops have efficiency of f(n) = n
• Logarithmic loops f(n) = log2 n (Upper bound)
• Nested Loops – 1st determine how many iterations
each loop completes, then find the find the
product.
– Linear logarithmic f(n) = nlog2 n
– Dependent Quadratic f(n) = n(n+1)/2
– Quadratic f(n) = n2

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 Big-O Notation
• Simplification of efficiency sometimes
known as big-O analysis
• Considers the dominant factor in the
derived function as factor determining the
magnitude, expressed as O(n)
• Hence quadratic alg. has efficiency of
O(f(n)) = O(n2 )

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 Big – O Notation
• Can be derived from f(n) using following
steps:
1. Set coefficient of each term to 1
2. Keep largest term in the function and discard
the rest with terms ranked from lowest to
highest.

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Big – O Ranges

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