Transform and Conquer

This group of techniques solves a problem by a

transformation to

 a simpler/more convenient instance of the same problem

(instance simplification)

 a different representation of the same instance

(representation change)

 a different problem for which an algorithm is already

available (problem reduction)

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Instance simplification - Presorting
Solve a problem’s instance by transforming it into
another simpler/easier instance of the same problem

Presorting
Many problems involving lists are easier when list is sorted, e.g.
 searching
 computing the median (selection problem)
 checking if all elements are distinct (element uniqueness)

Also:
 Topological sorting helps solving some problems for dags.
 Presorting is used in many geometric algorithms.

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How fast can we sort ?

Efficiency of algorithms involving sorting depends on

efficiency of sorting.

Theorem (see Sec. 11.2): log2 n!  n log2 n comparisons are

necessary in the worst case to sort a list of size n by any
comparison-based algorithm.

Note: About nlog2 n comparisons are also sufficient to sort array

of size n (by mergesort).

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Searching with presorting

Problem: Search for a given K in A[0..n-1]

Presorting-based algorithm:
Stage 1 Sort the array by an efficient sorting algorithm
Stage 2 Apply binary search

Efficiency: Θ(nlog n) + O(log n) = Θ(nlog n)

Good or bad?
Why do we have our dictionaries, telephone directories, etc.
sorted?
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Element Uniqueness with presorting
 Presorting-based algorithm
Stage 1: sort by efficient sorting algorithm (e.g. mergesort)
Stage 2: scan array to check pairs of adjacent elements

Efficiency: Θ(nlog n) + O(n) = Θ(nlog n)

 Brute force algorithm

Compare all pairs of elements

Efficiency: O(n2)

 Another algorithm? Hashing

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Instance simplification – Gaussian Elimination

Given: A system of n linear equations in n unknowns with an

arbitrary coefficient matrix.

Transform to: An equivalent system of n linear equations in n

unknowns with an upper triangular coefficient matrix.

Solve the latter by substitutions starting with the last equation

and moving up to the first one.

a11x1 + a12x2 + … + a1nxn = b1 a1,1x1+ a12x2 + … + a1nxn = b1

a21x1 + a22x2 + … + a2nxn = b2 a22x2 + … + a2nxn = b2

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Gaussian Elimination (cont.)
The transformation is accomplished by a sequence of elementary
operations on the system’s coefficient matrix (which don’t
change the system’s solution):

for i ←1 to n-1 do
replace each of the subsequent rows (i.e., rows i+1, …, n) by
a difference between that row and an appropriate multiple
of the i-th row to make the new coefficient in the i-th column

of that row 0

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Example of Gaussian Elimination
Solve 2x1 - 4x2 + x3 = 6
3x1 - x2 + x3 = 11
x1 + x2 - x3 = -3
Gaussian elimination
2 -4 1 6 2 -4 1 6
3 -1 1 11 row2 – (3/2)*row1 0 5 -1/2 2
1 1 -1 -3 row3 – (1/2)*row1 0 3 -3/2 -6 row3–(3/5)*row2

2 -4 1 6
0 5 -1/2 2
0 0 -6/5 -36/5
Backward substitution
x3 = (-36/5) / (-6/5) = 6
x2 = (2+(1/2)*6) / 5 = 1
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Reserved.
Pseudocode and Efficiency of Gaussian Elimination

Stage 1: Reduction to an upper-triangular matrix

for i ← 1 to n-1 do
for j ← i+1 to n do
for k ← i to n+1 do
A[j, k] ← A[j, k] - A[i, k] * A[j, i] / A[i, i] //improve!

Stage 2: Back substitutions

for j ← n downto 1 do
t←0
for k ← j +1 to n do
t ← t + A[j, k] * x[k]
x[j] ← (A[j, n+1] - t) / A[j, j]

Efficiency: Θ(n3) + Θ(n2) = Θ(n3)

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 6 ©2012 Pearson
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Searching Problem

Problem: Given a (multi)set S of keys and a search

key K, find an occurrence of K in S, if any

 Searching must be considered in the context of:

• file size (internal vs. external)
• dynamics of data (static vs. dynamic)

 Dictionary operations (dynamic data):

• find (search)
• insert
• delete

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Taxonomy of Searching Algorithms
 List searching
• sequential search
• binary search
• interpolation search

 Tree searching
• binary search tree
• binary balanced trees: AVL trees, red-black trees
• multiway balanced trees: 2-3 trees, 2-3-4 trees, B trees

 Hashing
• open hashing (separate chaining)
• closed hashing (open addressing)
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Binary Search Tree

Arrange keys in a binary tree with the binary search

tree property:
K

<K >K

Example: 5, 3, 1, 10, 12, 7, 9

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 Dictionary Operations on Binary Search Trees

Searching – straightforward
Insertion – search for key, insert at leaf where search terminated
Deletion – 3 cases:
deleting key at a leaf
deleting key at node with single child
deleting key at node with two children

Efficiency depends of the tree’s height: log2 n  h  n-1,

with height average (random files) be about 3log2 n

Thus all three operations have

• worst case efficiency: (n)
• average case efficiency: (log n)

BonusA.: Levitin
inorder traversal
“Introduction to the Design & produces sorted
Analysis of Algorithms,” list
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Balanced Search Trees
Attractiveness of binary search tree is marred by the bad (linear)
worst-case efficiency. Two ideas to overcome it are:

 to rebalance binary search tree when a new insertion

makes the tree “too unbalanced”
• AVL trees
• red-black trees

 to allow more than one key per node of a search tree

• 2-3 trees
• 2-3-4 trees
• B-trees
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Balanced trees: AVL trees
Definition An AVL tree is a binary search tree in which, for
every node, the difference between the heights of its left and
right subtrees, called the balance factor, is at most 1 (with
the height of an empty tree defined as -1)
1 2

10 10
0 1 0 0
5 20 5 20

1 -1 0 1 -1

4 7 12 4 7

0 0 0 0
2 8 2 8

(a) (b)

Tree (a) is an AVL tree; tree (b) is not an AVL tree

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Rotations
If a key insertion violates the balance requirement at some
node, the subtree rooted at that node is transformed via one of
the four rotations. (The rotation is always performed for a
subtree rooted at an “unbalanced” node closest to the new leaf.)
2 0 2 0
3 2 3 2

1 0 0 -1 0 0
R LR
2 > 1 3 1 > 1 3

0 0
1 2
(a) (c)

Single R-rotation Double LR-rotation

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General case: Single R-rotation

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General case: Double LR-rotation

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AVL tree construction - an example

Construct an AVL tree for the list 5, 6, 8, 3, 2, 4, 7

0 -1 -2 0
L(5)
5 5 5 6
0 -1 > 0 0
6 6 5 8

0
8

1 2 1
6 6 6
1 0 2 0 R (5) 0 0
5 8 5 8 > 3 8

0 1 0 0
3 3 2 5

0
2

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AVL tree construction - an example (cont.)
2 0
6 5
-1 0 LR (6) 0 -1
3 8 > 3 6

0 1 0 0 0
2 5 2 4 8

0
4

-1 0
5 5
0 -2 0 0
3 6 3 7
RL (6)
0 0 1 > 0 0 0 0
2 4 8 2 4 6 8

0
7
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Analysis of AVL trees
 h  1.4404 log2 (n + 2) - 1.3277
average height: 1.01 log2n + 0.1 for large n (found empirically)

 Search and insertion are O(log n)

 Deletion is more complicated but is also O(log n)

 Disadvantages:
• frequent rotations
• complexity

 A similar idea: red-black trees (height of subtrees is allowed to

differ by“Introduction
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Design & Analysis
21
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Multiway Search Trees
Definition A multiway search tree is a search tree that allows
more than one key in the same node of the tree.

Definition A node of a search tree is called an n-node if it

contains n-1 ordered keys (which divide the entire key range
into n intervals pointed to by the node’s n links to its children):

k1 < k2 < … < kn-1

< k1 [k1, k2 )  kn-1

Note: Every node in a classical binary search tree is a 2-node

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2-3 Tree
Definition A 2-3 tree is a search tree that
 may have 2-nodes and 3-nodes
 height-balanced (all leaves are on the same level)

2-node 3-node

K K1, K 2

<K >K < K1 (K1 , K 2 ) > K2

A 2-3 tree is constructed by successive insertions of keys given,

with a new key always inserted into a leaf of the tree. If the leaf
is a 3-node, it’s split into two with the middle key promoted to
the parent.
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2-3 tree construction – an example

Construct a 2-3 tree the list 9, 5, 8, 3, 2, 4, 7

8 8
>
9 5, 9 5, 8, 9 5 9 3, 5 9

8 3, 8 3, 8
>
2, 3, 5 9 2 5 9 2 4, 5 9

3, 8 > 3, 5, 8 >
3 8

2 4, 5, 7 9 2 4 7 9 2 4 7 9

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Analysis of 2-3 trees
 log3 (n + 1) - 1  h  log2 (n + 1) - 1

 Search, insertion, and deletion are in (log n)

 The idea of 2-3 tree can be generalized by allowing more

keys per node
• 2-3-4 trees
• B-trees

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Heaps and Heapsort

Definition A heap is a binary tree with keys at its nodes (one

key per node) such that:
 It is essentially complete, i.e., all its levels are full except
possibly the last level, where only some rightmost keys may
be missing

 The key at each node is ≥ keys at its children

A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 6 ©2012 Pearson
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Illustration of the heap’s definition

10 10 10

5 7 5 7 5 7

4 2 1 2 1 6 2 1

a heap not a heap not a heap

Note: Heap’s elements are ordered top down (along any path
down from its root), but they are not ordered left to right

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Some Important Properties of a Heap
 Given n, there exists a unique binary tree with n nodes that
is essentially complete, with h = log2 n

 The root contains the largest key

 The subtree rooted at any node of a heap is also a heap

 A heap can be represented as an array

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Heap’s Array Representation
Store heap’s elements in an array (whose elements indexed,
for convenience, 1 to n) in top-down left-to-right order
Example:
9
1 2 3 4 5 6
5 3 9 5 3 1 4 2

1 4 2

 Left child of node j is at 2j

 Right child of node j is at 2j+1
 Parent of node j is at j/2
 Parental nodes are represented in the first n/2 locations
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Heap Construction (bottom-up)

Step 0: Initialize the structure with keys in the order given

Step 1: Starting with the last (rightmost) parental node, fix

the heap rooted at it, if it doesn’t satisfy the heap
condition: keep exchanging it with its largest child
until the heap condition holds

Step 2: Repeat Step 1 for the preceding parental node

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 Example of Heap Construction

Construct a heap for the list 2, 9, 7, 6, 5, 8

2 2 2

9 7 > 9 8 9 8

6 5 8 6 5 7 6 5 7

2 9 9

9 8 > 2 8 > 6 8

6 5 7 6 5 7 2 5 7

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Pseudopodia of bottom-up heap construction

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Heapsort

Stage 1: Construct a heap for a given list of n keys

Stage 2: Repeat operation of root removal n-1 times:

– Exchange keys in the root and in the last
(rightmost) leaf
– Decrease heap size by 1
– If necessary, swap new root with larger child until
the heap condition holds

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Example of Sorting by Heapsort
Sort the list 2, 9, 7, 6, 5, 8 by heapsort

Stage 1 (heap construction) Stage 2 (root/max

removal)
1 9 7 6 5 8 9 6 8 2 5 7
2 9 8 6 5 7 7 6 8 2 5|9
2 9 8 6 5 7 8 6 7 2 5|9
9 2 8 6 5 7 5 6 7 2|8 9
9 6 8 2 5 7 7 6 5 2|8 9
2 6 5|7 8 9
6 2 5|7 8 9
5 2|6 7 8 9
5 2|6 7 8 9
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Analysis of Heapsort

Stage 1: Build heap for a given list of n keys

worst-case h-1
C(n) =  2( h-i ) 2 i
= 2 ( n – log2(n + 1))  (n)
i=0
# nodes at
level i

Stage 2: Repeat operation of root removal n-1 times (fix heap)

worst-case n-1
C(n) = 2log2 i  (nlogn)
i=1
Both worst-case and average-case efficiency: (nlogn)
In-place: yes
Stability: no (e.g., 1 1)
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A. Levitin “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 6 ©2012 Pearson
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Priority Queue

A priority queue is the ADT of a set of elements with

numerical priorities with the following operations:
• find element with highest priority
• delete element with highest priority
• insert element with assigned priority (see below)

 Heap is a very efficient way for implementing priority queues

 Two ways to handle priority queue in which

highest priority = smallest number

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Insertion of a New Element into a Heap
 Insert the new element at last position in heap.
 Compare it with its parent and, if it violates heap condition,
exchange them
 Continue comparing the new element with nodes up the tree
until the heap condition is satisfied

Example: Insert key 10

9 9 10

6 8 > 6 10 > 6 9

2 5 7 10 2 5 7 8 2 5 7 8

Efficiency: O(log n)
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Horner’s Rule For Polynomial Evaluation

Given a polynomial of degree n

p(x) = anxn + an-1xn-1 + … + a1x + a0
and a specific value of x, find the value of p at that point.

Two brute-force algorithms:

p0 p  a0; power  1
for i  n downto 0 do for i  1 to n do
power  1 power  power * x
for j  1 to i do p  p + ai *
power
power  power * x return p
p  p + ai * power
return p “Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms,” 3rd ed., Ch. 6 ©2012 Pearson
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Horner’s Rule
Example: p(x) = 2x4 - x3 + 3x2 + x - 5 =
= x(2x3 - x2 + 3x + 1) - 5 =
= x(x(2x2 - x + 3) + 1) - 5 =
= x(x(x(2x - 1) + 3) + 1) - 5
Substitution into the last formula leads to a faster algorithm

Same sequence of computations are obtained by simply

arranging the coefficient in a table and proceeding as follows:

coefficients 2 -1 3 1 -5
x=3

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Horner’s Rule pseudocode

Efficiency of Horner’s Rule: # multiplications = # additions = n

Synthetic division of of p(x) by (x-x0)

Example: Let p(x) = 2x4 - x3 + 3x2 + x - 5. Find p(x):(x-3)
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Computing an (revisited)
Left-to-right binary exponentiation
Initialize product accumulator by 1.
Scan n’s binary expansion from left to right and do the
following:
If the current binary digit is 0, square the accumulator (S);
if the binary digit is 1, square the accumulator and multiply it
by a (SM).

Example: Compute a13. Here, n = 13 = 11012

binary rep. of 13: 1 1 0 1
SM SM S SM
accumulator: 1 12*a=a a2*a = a3 (a3)2 = a6 (a6)2*a= a13
(computed left-to-right)
Efficiency: b ≤ M(n) ≤ 2b where b = log2 n + 1
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 Computing an (cont.)
Right-to-left binary exponentiation
Scan n’s binary expansion from right to left and compute an as
the product of terms a2 i corresponding to 1’s in this expansion.

Example Compute a13 by the right-to-left binary exponentiation.

Here, n = 13 = 11012.

1 1 0 1
a8 a4 a2 a : a2 i terms
a8 * a4 * a : product
(computed right-to-left)

Efficiency: same as that of left-to-right binary exponentiation

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Problem Reduction

This variation of transform-and-conquer solves a problem by

a transforming it into different problem for which an
algorithm is already available.

To be of practical value, the combined time of the

transformation and solving the other problem should be
smaller than solving the problem as given by another
method.

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Examples of Solving Problems by Reduction

 computing lcm(m, n) via computing gcd(m, n)

 counting number of paths of length n in a graph by raising

the graph’s adjacency matrix to the n-th power

 transforming a maximization problem to a minimization

problem and vice versa (also, min-heap construction)

 linear programming

 reduction to graph problems (e.g., solving puzzles via state-

space graphs)

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