In this article we will discuss complexity and Big O notation.
Complexity
The idea is to describe how many operations a process takes depending on the size of the problem. Typically, we are given a collection of data (array, List, etc) consisting of n elements. We refer to n as the size of the problem. An algorithim will perform (at most, depending on the stopping criteria) a number of operations as a function of n. If we call this function f(n), then we say an algorthim is O(f(n)). This is useful when comparing the efficiency of different algorithms. We summarize the common big O notation in the following table.
| Big-O Name | Big-O Notation |
|---|---|
| Constant Time | O(1) |
| Logarithmic Time | O(log n) |
| Linear Time | O(n) |
| Quasilinear Time | O(n Log n) |
| Quadratic Time | O(n²) |
We describe each case below.
Constant Time
A constant time process is independent of the size of the problem. We call such an algorithm O(1).
Example
Accessing an element in an array only requires a single operation regardless of the size of the array.
Logarithmic Time
The number of required operations as a function of the size of the problem in a logarithmic time process is on the order of a logarithmic function.
Example
Binary search a sorted array:
int search(int[] array, int value) {
// define the start index
int start = 0;
// define the end index
int end = array.length - 1;
// loop
while (start <= end) {
// compute the midpoint index between the start and end indices
int mid = (start + end) / 2;
// access the element at the midpoint index
int test = array[mid];
if (test == value) {
// we found the element -
// return the midpoint index
return mid;
} else if (test < value){
// the test element is smaller than the value -
// loop through the elements starting at the index mid + 1
start = mid + 1;
} else {
// the test element is greater than the value -
// loop through the elements ending at the index mid - 1
end = mid - 1;
}
}
// the value was not found -
// return -1
return -1;
}
Since the algorithm splits the problem into a new smaller problem with one half the size on each iteration, it is of order log(n). We call such an algorithm O(logn).
Linear Time
The number of required operations as a function of the size of the problem in a linear time process is on the order of a linear function. We call such an algorithm O(n).
Example
Summing the elements in an array:
int sum(int[] array) {
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
sum += array[i];
}
return sum;
}
Quasilinear Time
The number of required operations as a function of the size of the problem in a quasilinear time process is on the order of a linear function n times a logarithmic function log(n). We call such an algorithm O(nlogn). Any algorithm which iterates through the indices and, at each iteration utilizes an O(logn) algorithm is O(nlogn).
Example
Quicksort (Average case)
Quadratic Time
The number of required operations as a function of the size of the problem in a quadratic time process is on the order of a quadratic function. Any algorithim that involves a two deep nested iteration is O(n²).
Example
// loop through the indices
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
// do something
// loop through the indices again
for (int j = 0; j < N; j++) {
// do something else
}
}
Conclusion
In this article we learned about Big-O notation and complexity in programming with examples in Java
