I want to find the time complexity for this below code. Here's my understanding-
The outer for loop will loop 2n times and in the worst case when i==n, we will enter the if block where the nested for loops have complexity of O(n^2), counting the outer for loop, the time complexity for the code block will be O(n^3).
In best case when i!=n, else has complexity of O(n) and the outer for loop is O(n) which makes the complexity, in best case as O(n^2).
Am I correct or am I missing something here?
for (int i = 0; i < 2*n; i++)
{
if (i == n)
{
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
for (int k = 0; k < i; k++)
O(1)
}
else
{
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
O(1)
}
}
No.
The question "what is T(n)?".
What you are saying is "if i=n, then O(n^3), else O(n^2)".
But there is no i in the question, only n.
Think of a similar question:
"During a week, Pete works 10 hours on Wednesday, and 1 hour on every other day, what is the total time Pete works in a week?".
You don't really answer "if the week is Wednesday, then X, otherwise Y".
Your answer has to include the work time on Wednesday and on every other day as well.
Back in your original question, Wednesday is the case when i=n, and all other days are the case when i!=n.
We have to sum them all up to find the answer.
This is a question of how many times O(1) is executed per loop. The time complexity is a function of n, not i. That is, "How many times is O(1) executed at n?"
There is one run of a O(n^2) loop when i == n.
There are (2n - 2) instances of the O(n) loop in all other cases.
Therefore, the time complexity is O((2n - 2) * n + 1 * n^2) = O(3n^2 - 2*n) = O(n^2).
I've written a C program to spit out the first few values of n^2, the actual value, and n^3 to illustrate the difference:
#include <stdio.h>
int count(int n){
int ctr = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < 2*n; i++){
if (i == n)
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
for (int k = 0; k < i; k++)
ctr++;
else
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
ctr++;
}
return ctr;
}
int main(){
for (int i = 1; i <= 20; i++){
printf(
"%d\t%d\t%d\t%d\n",
i*i, count(i), 3*i*i - 2*i, i*i*i
);
}
}
Try it online!
(You can paste it into Excel to plot the values.)
The First loop is repeated 2*n times:
for (int i = 0; i < 2*n; i++)
{
// some code
}
This part Just occur once, when i == n and time complexity is : O(n^2):
if (i == n)
{
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
for (int k = 0; k < i; k++)
O(1)
}
And this part is depends on i.
else
{
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
O(1)
}
Consider i when:
i = 0 the loop is repeated 0 times
i = 1 the loop is repeated 1 times
i = 2 the loop is repeated 2 times
.
.
i = n the loop is repeated n times. (n here is 2*n)
So the loop repeated (n*(n+1)) / 2 times But when i == n else part is not working so (n*(n+1)) / 2 - n and time complexity is O(n^2).
Now we sum all of these parts: O(n^2) (first part) + O(n^2) (second part) because the first part occurs once so it's not O(n^3). Time complaxity is: O(n^2).
Based on #Gassa answer lets sum up all:
O(n^3) + O((2n)^2) = O(n^3) + O(4n^2) = O(n^3) + 4*O(n^2) = O(n^3)
Big O notation allows us throw out 4*O(n^2) because O(n^3) "eats" it
Related
I have some trouble finding the time complexity of the code below. I figured that the if statement will run for approximately n times; however, I could not manage to describe it mathematically. Thanks in advance.
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 1; i < n; i++) {
for (int j = 1 ; j < i*i; j++) {
if (j % i == 0) {
for (int k = 0; k < j; k++) {
sum++;
}
}
}
}
Outer loop
Well, it's clear that it's O(n) because i is bounded by n.
Inner loops
If we take a look at the second loop alone, then it looks as follows:
...
for (int j = 1 ; j < i*i; j++){
...
j is bounded by i*i or simply n^2.
However, the innermost loop won't be executed for every j, but only for js that are divisible by i because that's what the constraint j % i == 0 means. Since j ~ i*i, there will be only i cases, when the innermost loop is executed. So, the number of iterations in the inner loops is bounded by i^3 or simply n^3.
Result
Hence, the overall time complexity is O(n4).
How does the if-statement of this code affect the time complexity of this code?
Based off of this question: Runtime analysis, the for loop in the if statement would run n*n times. But in this code, j outpaces i so that once the second loop is run j = i^2. What does this make the time complexity of the third for loop then? I understand that the first for loop runs n times, the second runs n^2 times, and the third runs n^2 times for a certain amount of times when triggered. So the complexity would be given by n*n^2(xn^2) for which n is the number of times the if statement is true. The complexity is not simply O(n^6) because the if-statement is not true n times right?
int n;
int sum;
for (int i = 1; i < n; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < i*i; j++)
{
if (j % i == 0)
{
for (int k = 0; k < j; k++)
{
sum++;
}
}
}
}
The if condition will be true when j is a multiple of i; this happens i times as j goes from 0 to i * i, so the third for loop runs only i times. The overall complexity is O(n^4).
for (int i = 1; i < n; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < i*i; j++) // Runs O(n) times
{
if (j % i == 0) // Runs O(n) × O(n^2) = O(n^3) times
{
for (int k = 0; k < j; k++) // Runs O(n) × O(n) = O(n^2) times
{
sum++; // Runs O(n^2) × O(n^2) = O(n^4) times
}
}
}
}
The complexity is not simply O(n^6) because the if-statement is not true n times right?
No, it is not.
At worst, it is going to be O(n^5). It is less than that since j % i is equal to 0 only i times.
The first loop is run n times.
The second loop is run O(n^2) times.
The third loop is run at most O(n) times.
The worst combined complexity of the loop is going to be O(n) x O(n^2) x O(n), which is O(n^4).
I understand that the innermost for loop is Θ(logn)
and the two outermost for loops is Θ(n^2) because it's an arithmetic sum. The if-statement is my main problem. Does anyone know how to solve this?
int tally=0;
for (int i = 1; i < n; i ++)
{
for (int j = i; j < n; j ++)
{
if (j % i == 0)
{
for (int k = 1; k < n; k *= 2)
{
tally++;
}
}
}
}
Edit:
Now I noticed loop order: i before j.
In this case for given i value j varies from i to n and there are (n/i) successful if-conditions.
So program will call then most inner loop
n/1 +n/2+n/3+..+n/n
times. This is sum of harmonic series, it converges to n*ln(n)
So inner loop will be executed n*log^2(n) times.
As you wrote, two outermost loops provide O(n^2) complexity, so overall complexity is O(n^2 + n*log^2(n)), the first term overrides the second one, loop, and finally overall complexity is quadratic.
int tally=0;
for (int i = 1; i < n; i ++)
{
// N TIMES
for (int j = i; j < n; j ++)
{
//N*N/2 TIMES
if (j % i == 0)
{
//NlogN TIMES
for (int k = 1; k < n; k *= 2)
{
//N*logN*logN
tally++;
}
}
}
}
Old answer (wrong)
This complexity is linked with sum of sigma0(n) function (number of divisors) and represented as sequence A006218 (Dirichlet Divisor problem)
We can see that approximation for sum of divisors for values up to n is
n * ( log(n) + 2*gamma - 1 ) + O(sqrt(n))
so average number of successful if-conditions for loop counter j is ~log(j)
I have seen that in some cases the complexity of nested loops is O(n^2), but I was wondering in which cases we can have the following complexities of nested loops:
O(n)
O(log n) I have seen somewhere a case like this, but I do not recall the exact example.
I mean is there any kind of formulae or trick to calculate the complexity of nested loops? Sometimes when I apply summation formulas I do not get the right answer.
Some examples would be great, thanks.
Here is an example for you where the time complexity is O(n), but you have a double loop:
int cnt = 0;
for (int i = N; i > 0; i /= 2) {
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) {
cnt += 1;
}
}
You can prove the complexity in the following way:
The first iteration, the j loop runs N times. The second iteration, the j loop runs N / 2 times. i-th iteration, the j loop runs N / 2^i times.
So in total: N * ( 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + … ) < 2 * N = O(N)
It would be tempting to say that something like this runs in O(log(n)):
int cnt = 0;
for (int i = 1; i < N; i *= 2) {
for (int j = 1; j < i; j*= 2) {
cnt += 1;
}
}
But I believe that this runs in O(log^2(N)) which is polylogarithmic
Can someone please explain how the worst case running time is O(N) and not O(N^2)in the following excercise. There is double for loop, where for every i we need to compare j to i , sum++ and then increment and again repeat the operation until reach N.
What is the order of growth of the worst case running time of the following code fragment
as a function of N?
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 1; i <= N; i = i*2)
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++)
sum++;
Question Explanation
The answer is : N
The body of the inner loop is executed 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ... + N ~ 2N times.
I think you already stated the answer in your question -- the inner loop is executed 2N times, which is O(N). In asymptotic (or big-O) notation any multiples are dropped because for very, very large values, the graph of 2N looks just like N, so it isn't considered significant. In this case, the complexity of the problem is equal to the number of times "sum++" is called, because the algorithm is so simple. Does that make sense?
Complexity doesn't depends upon number of nested loops
it is O(Nc):
Time complexity of nested loops is equal to the number of times theinnermost statement is executed.For example the following sample loops have O(N2) time complexity
for (int i = 1; i <=n; i += c) {
for (int j = 1; j <=n; j += c) {
// some O(1) expressions
}
}
for (int i = n; i > 0; i += c) {
for (int j = i+1; j <=n; j += c) {
// some O(1) expressions
}