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See the example algorithm below from my course notes, I don't follow the operation counting in the inner loop. Can someone walk me through this step-by-step?

Here's the algorithm:

Algorithm PrefixAverages1(A, n):
    Input: An integer array A of size n.
    Output: An array X of size n such that X[j] is the average of A[0] to A[j]

    Let X be an integer array of size n         1
    for j=1 to n-1 do                           2
        a <- 0                                  3
        for k=1 to j do                         4
            a <- a + A[k]                       5
        X[j] <- a/(j+1)                         6
    return X                                    7

The solution provided to this sample question uses the following steps to calculate the total cost (in primitive operations*) of the running time of the algorithm:

Operation counting for main body and outer loop:

  • $1 + op(outerLoop) + 1$
  • $2 + op(outerLoop)$
  • $2 + (1 + (B-A + 2)op(j>n-1) + (B-A + 1) * 2 + op(innerLoop))$ where $B = (n-1)$ and $A = 1$
  • $2 + 1 + 2n + (n-1) * 2 + op(innerLoop)$
  • $1 + 4n + op(innerLoop)$

Operation counting for inner loop:

  1. $innerLoop = \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} 5j + 7$
  2. $innerLoop = \left(\sum_{j=0}^{n-1} 5j + 7 \right) - 7$
  3. $innerLoop = \left(5\sum_{j=0}^{n-1} j + \sum_{j=0}^{n-1}7 \right) - 7$
  4. $innerLoop = \left(5\sum_{j=0}^{n-1} j + 7n \right) - 7$
  5. $innerLoop = \frac{5n^2}{2} + 7n - 7$

Then putting the cost of the inner loop and the main body together, the total cost is shown as:

  • $\frac{5n^2}{2} + 11n -6$

Specifically I don't follow the operation counting for the inner loop, I understand why there's a $- 7$ added when the sum is changed from $j=1$ to $j=0$. But I don't quite understand the subsequent steps that manipulate the equation.

Source: This is a previous exam paper from my University course.

* List of primitive operations:

  • Indexing into an array
  • Assignment
  • Arithmetic
  • Method call
  • Following an object reference
  • Comparison
  • Returning a value
conorgriffin
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1 Answers1

3

I'll list the arithmetic rules used in each step. In the following $f$ and $g$ are terms that possibly depend on $i$, while $a$ doesn't depend on $i$.

  1. has no operations.
  2. you explained in the question.
  3. $$\sum_{i=x}^y f+g = \sum_{i=x}^y f + \sum_{i=x}^y g$$ and $$\sum_{i=x}^y af = a\sum_{i=x}^y f.$$
  4. $$\sum_{i=x}^y a = (y-x+1)a.$$
  5. is wrong. The correct formula to apply would be $$\sum_{i=0}^y i = \frac{y(y+1)}2,$$ making the result from the question $$x = \frac{5n(n-1)}2 + 7n - 7 = \frac 52 n^2 + \frac 92 n -7.$$
FrankW
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