Big-O for Eight Year Olds?

Posted by Jason Baker on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Jason Baker
Published on 2008-09-20T04:59:59Z Indexed on 2010/05/24 21:31 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 223

Filed under:

algorithm

|

theory

|

big-o

|

metrics

I'm asking more about what this means to my code. I understand the concepts mathematically, I just have a hard time wrapping my head around what they mean conceptually. For example, if one were to perform an O(1) operation on a data structure, I understand that the amount of operations it has to perform won't grow because there are more items. And an O(n) operation would mean that you would perform a set of operations on each element. Could somebody fill in the blanks here?

Like what exactly would an O(n^2) operation do?
And what the heck does it mean if an operation is O(n log(n))?
And does somebody have to smoke crack to write an O(x!)?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about algorithm

Jpeg Algorithm vs BMP Algorithm?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm just wonder, what the differences are between creating a BMP file algorithm and JPG file algorithm ? If you know the others images' format algorithm, please post them. Thanks. >>> More
word disambiguation algorithm (Lesk algorithm)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hii.. Can anybody help me to find an algorithm in Java code to find synonyms of a search word based on the context and I want to implement the algorithm with WordNet database. For example, "I am running a Java program". From the context, I want to find the synonyms for the word "running", but the… >>> More
Search algorithm (with a sort algorithm already implemented)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, Im doing a Java application and Im facing some doubts in which concerns performance. I have a PriorityQueue which guarantees me the element removed is the one with greater priority. That PriorityQueue has instances of class Event (which implements Comparable interface). Each Event is associated… >>> More
Is there any algorithm for finding LINES by PIXEL COLORS on picture?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
So I have Image like this I want to get something like this (I hevent drawn all lines I want but I hope you can get my idea) I need algorithm for finding all straight lines on it by just reading colors of pixels. No hard math, no Haar, no Hough. Some algorithm which would be based on points… >>> More
collsion issues with quadtree [on hold]

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
So i implemented a Quad tree in Java for my 2D game and everything works fine except for when i run my collision detection algorithm, which checks if a object has hit another object and which side it hit.My problem is 80% of the time the collision algorithm works but sometimes the objects just go… >>> More

Related posts about theory

Why does NUnit ignore datapoints when using generics in a theory

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm trying to make use of the TheoryAttribute, introduced in NUnit 2.5. Everything works fine as long as the arguments are of a defined type: [Datapoint] public double[,] Array2X2 = new double[,] { { 1, 0 }, { 0, 1 } }; [Theory] public void TestForArbitraryArray(double[,] array) { // ... } It… >>> More
How do you deal with translating theory into practice?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Hello all! Being a computer scientist in a research field I am often tasked with working alongside professionals outside of the software domain (think math people, electrical engineer etc), and then translating their theories and ideas into real-world implementations. I often find it difficult when… >>> More
Title Tag Optimization - Common Grounds Between Raw SEO Theory & Search Engine Marketing Priorities

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
All you have to know about how to properly optimize title tag if you're just starting an onpage optimization campaign. Plus some easy to implement marketing tips to attract endless visitors to your content. >>> More
Database theory - relationship between two tables

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a database with two tables - let's call them Foo and Bar. Each foo may be related to any number of bars, and each bar may be related to any number of foos. I want to be able to retrieve, with one query, the foos that are associated with a certain bar, and the bars that are associated with a… >>> More
Recommended book about parallel programming - theory & best practice?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm looking for a book or books about multicore, multithreaded programming. The perfect book should focus on best practices and maybe include a bit of theory background. I'm not interested in a book which only describes a single library and focuses on its API. OS actually doesn't matter. >>> More