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Lecture 01 - Introduction To Algorithms

The document discusses algorithms and problem solving. It defines what an algorithm is, provides examples of algorithms like making tea and sorting numbers, and discusses the characteristics and history of algorithms. It also covers topics like computational problems, data structures, designing algorithms and analyzing their efficiency.

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waheedgx
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9 views

Lecture 01 - Introduction To Algorithms

The document discusses algorithms and problem solving. It defines what an algorithm is, provides examples of algorithms like making tea and sorting numbers, and discusses the characteristics and history of algorithms. It also covers topics like computational problems, data structures, designing algorithms and analyzing their efficiency.

Uploaded by

waheedgx
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Algorithms and Problem

Solving
Lecture 01 – Introduction to
Algorithms

AL-Zaiem AL-Azhari University


Faculty of Computer Sciences and Information
Technology
Mohammed Mahmoud
Overview
• Computer Algorithm: ‘’ a set of steps to
accomplish or complete a task that is described
precisely enough that a computer can run it’’.
• Described precisely: very difficult for a machine
to know how much water, milk to be added etc. in
the above tea making algorithm. These algorithms
run on computers or computational devices.
• For example, GPS in our smartphones, Google
hangouts. GPS uses shortest path algorithm.
• Online shopping uses cryptography which uses RSA
algorithm.
What is algorithms ?
• Algorithm is a set of steps to complete a
task. For example, Task: to make a cup of
tea.
• Algorithm:
• add water and milk to the kettle,
• Boil it, add tea leaves,
• Add sugar, and then serve it in cup.
• An algorithm is a sequence of unambiguous
instructions for solving a problem, i.e., for
obtaining a required output for any
legitimate input in a finite amount of time.
What is algorithms ?

problem

algorithm

input “computer” output


History
• The word algorithm comes from the name of a Persian
mathematician Abu Ja’far Mohammed ibn-i Musa al
Khowarizmi - 9th century mathematician.
• Euclid’s algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor
• www.lib.virginia.edu/science/parshall/khwariz.html

• In computer science, this word refers to a special method


useable by a computer for solution of a problem.
• For example, sorting a given sequence of numbers into
nondecreasing order provides fertile ground for
introducing many standard design techniques and
analysis tools.
Algorithms’ Characteristics
• Algorithm is recipe, process, method,
technique, procedure, routine, with the
following characteristics:
• Clearly Specified Input - Must take an input.
• Clearly specified/expected Output - Must
give some output (yes/no, value etc.)
• Definiteness (Unambiguity/clearness) - each
instruction is clear and unambiguous.
• Finiteness –algorithm terminates after a
finite number of steps.
• Effectiveness - every instruction must be
basic i.e. simple instruction.
Some Well-known
Computational Problems
• Common Computational Problems
• Sorting
• Searching
• Shortest paths in a graph
• Minimum spanning tree
• Primality testing
• Traveling salesman problem
• Knapsack problem
• Chess
• Towers of Hanoi
• Program termination
• Some of these problems don’t have efficient
algorithms, or algorithms at all!
Fundamental data
structures
• List
• array
• linked list
• string
• stack
• queue, priority queue/heap
• graph
• tree and binary tree
• set and dictionary
Example of computational
problem: sorting
• Statement of problem:
• Input: A sequence of n numbers <a1, a2, …, an>
• Output: A reordering of the input sequence <a´1, a´2, …, a
n> so that a i ≤ a j whenever i < j
´ ´ ´

• Instance: The sequence <5, 3, 2, 8, 3>


• Algorithms:
• Selection sort
• Insertion sort
• Merge sort
• (many others)
Selection Sort
• Input: array a[1],…,a[n]
• Output: array a sorted in non-decreasing order
• Algorithm:

for i=1 to n
swap a[i] with smallest of a[i],…,a[n]
Basic Issues Related to
Algorithms
• How to design algorithms
• How to express algorithms
• Proving correctness
• Efficiency (or complexity) analysis
• Theoretical analysis
• Empirical analysis
• Optimality
Algorithm design
strategies
• Brute force • Greedy approach

• Divide and conquer • Dynamic


programming
• Decrease and
conquer • Backtracking and
branch-and-bound

• Transform and
conquer • Space and time
tradeoffs
Good Algorithm
• How good is the algorithm?
• Correctness
• Time efficiency
• Space efficiency
• Does there exist a better algorithm?
• Lower bounds
• Optimality
Euclid’s Algorithm
• Problem: Find gcd(m,n), the greatest common
divisor of two nonnegative, not both zero integers
m and n
• Examples:
• gcd(60,24) = 12, gcd(60,0) = 60, gcd(0,0) = ?
• Euclid’s algorithm is based on repeated application
of equality
• gcd(m,n) = gcd(n, m mod n)
• until the second number becomes 0, which makes
the problem trivial.
• Example:
• gcd(60,24) = gcd(24,12) = gcd(12,0) = 12
Two descriptions of Euclid’s
algorithm
Two Method to express algorithm
• Algorithm Description
• Step 1 If n = 0, return m and stop; otherwise go to Step
2
• Step 2 Divide m by n and assign the value of the
remainder to r
• Step 3 Assign the value of n to m and the value of r to n.
Go to Step 1.
• Pseudo code:
while n ≠ 0 do
r ← m mod n
m← n
n ← r
return m
Other methods for
computing gcd(m,n)

• Consecutive integer checking algorithm


• Step 1 Assign the value of min{m,n} to t
• Step 2 Divide m by t. If the remainder is 0,
go to Step 3; otherwise, go to Step 4
• Step 3 Divide n by t. If the remainder is 0,
return t and stop; otherwise, go to Step 4
• Step 4 Decrease t by 1 and go to Step 2
• Is this slower than Euclid’s algorithm?
How much slower?
Other methods for
computing gcd(m,n)

• Middle-school procedure
• Step 1 Find the prime factorization of m
• Step 2 Find the prime factorization of n
• Step 3 Find all the common prime factors
• Step 4 Compute the product of all the
common prime factors and return it as
gcd(m,n)
• Is this an algorithm? How efficient is it?
Sieve of Eratosthenes

Input: Integer n ≥ 2
Output: List of primes less than or equal to n
for p ← 2 to n do A[p] ← p
for p ← 2 to n do
if A[p] ≠ 0
//p hasn’t been previously eliminated from
the list
j ← p* p
while j ≤ n do
A[j] ← 0 //mark element as eliminated

Example: j←j+p
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
END!

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