CMPSC 122 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Algorithmic Efficiency, Logarithm, Linear Function
21 Sep 2016
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Data structure: systematic way of organizing and accessing data. Algorithm: a step by step procedure for performing some task in a finite amount of time. Based on running time and space usage. Computer programs should run as fast as possible. Running time affected by size of input, hardware environment, and software environment. Relate running time of algorithm to size of input. Time() can report the time from a benchmark known as the epoch. Epoch doesn"t matter, record start time, run algorithm, record end time. Cpu performance depends on other processes running. Plot a graph of function t(n) where n is the size of the input and t is the running time. Experimental running times must be gathered from the same hardware and software environment. Experiments can only test a finite number of test inputs, hence they leave some inputs out. An algorithm must be fully implemented in order to study it.
