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Algorithm Efficiency

At design stage, two possible ways to consider efficiency:
  • complexity results ⇒ algorithms and data structures

    (theoretical approach ... complexity theory .... O(n), O(logn), ...)

  • "back of the envelope" calculations ⇒ likely performance

    (practical/heuristic approach ... requires knowledge of operation costs)

Both methods use a similar underlying strategy:
  • first, identify the critical/expensive/frequent operations
  • determine a measure of cost in terms of these