What do we mean by algorithm? What are the characteristics of a good and relevant algorithm?

An algorithm is "a step-by-step procedure for finishing some task'' An algorithm can be specified in many ways. For example, it can be written down in English (or French, or any other language). However, we are interested in algorithms which have been specifically specified using an appropriate mathematical formalism--such as a programming language.

Each and Every algorithm should have the following five characteristics:

1.Input characteristics: The algorithm should be taking zero or more input.

2. Output characteristics: The algorithm should be producing one or more outputs.

3. Definiteness characteristics: All the steps of algorithm should be defined unambiguously.

4. Effectiveness characteristics: A person should be able to calculate the values involved in the process of the algorithm using paper and pencil.

5. Termination characteristics: An algorithm must terminate after a finite number of steps which means it should not be infinite.

 

Posted Date: 7/9/2012 9:47:44 PM | Location : United States

Ask an Expert

Related Discussions:- Characteristics of good algorithms, Assignment Help, Ask Question on Characteristics of good algorithms, Get Answer, Expert's Help, Characteristics of good algorithms Discussions

Write discussion on Characteristics of good algorithms
Your posts are moderated

Write your message here..

Related Questions

Standard ways of traversing a graph, Q. Which are the two standard ways of ... Q. Which are the two standard ways of traversing a graph?  Explain them with an example of each.  Ans:   T he two ways of traversing a graph are written below

How to improve my 69 algorithm, How can i decrease my latency for 69 moves How can i decrease my latency for 69 moves

Define min-heap, Define min-heap A min-heap is a complete binary tree i... Define min-heap A min-heap is a complete binary tree in which each element is less than or equal to its children. All the principal properties of heaps remain valid for min-hea

Sort list of distinct numbers in ascending order - quicksort, (1) Sort a li... (1) Sort a list of distinct numbers in ascending order, using the following divide- and-conquer strategy (Quicksort): divide the list of numbers into two lists: one that contains a

Dijkstras algorithm, Djikstra's algorithm (named after it is discovered by ... Djikstra's algorithm (named after it is discovered by Dutch computer scientist E.W. Dijkstra) resolves the problem of finding the shortest path through a point in a graph (the sour

Define big theta notation, Define Big Theta notation Big Theta notati... Define Big Theta notation Big Theta notation (θ) : The upper and lower bound for the function 'f' is given by the big oh notation (θ). Considering 'g' to be a function from t

Total weight of minimum spanning tree, a) Run your program for α = 0.05, 0... a) Run your program for α = 0.05, 0.5, and 0.95. You can use n = 30, and W = 10. What is impact of increasing value of α on connectivity of G'? To answer this question, for each v

Java code and algorythem, Suppose that you want to develop a program that a... Suppose that you want to develop a program that accepts a postfix expression and asks values for variables in the expression. Then you need to calculate the answer for the expressi

Er diagram, Ask queConsider the following functional dependencies: Applican... Ask queConsider the following functional dependencies: Applicant_ID -> Applicant_Name Applicant_ID -> Applicant_Address Position_ID -> Positoin_Title Position_ID -> Date_Position_O

State about the pseudocode, State the Introduction to pseudocode No spe... State the Introduction to pseudocode No specific programming language is referred to; development of algorithms by using pseudocode uses generic descriptions of branching, loop