Plain English explanation of Big O
- Kind
- Message Posted to Online Forum/Discussion Group
- Date
- 01/19/2013
- Retrieved
- May 29, 2013
2 memes from this reference
Simple Explanation of Big O Notation
The simplest definition I can give for Big-O notation is this: Big-O notation is a relative representation of the complexity of an algorithm. There are some important and deliberately chosen words in that sentence: relative: you can only compare apples to apples. You can't compare an algorithm to do arithmetic…
Simple Explanation of Big O Part II
So if you want to find a name in a phone book of a million names you can actually find any name by doing this at most 20 times. In comparing search algorithms we decide that this comparison is our 'n'. For a phone book of 3 names it takes 2 comparisons (at most). For 7 it takes at most 3. For 15 it takes 4. ... For…