Simple Example

• Given 16 balls with one defective (say lighter)

• Identify the defective ball.
0
1 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• Solution 1:
• Compare 1 with 2 0 0
02 03
• Compare 1 with 3 1 1

• :
• Compare 1 with 16
• Time taken: 0
16
• 15 comparisons (worst case) 1
Simple Example
• Given 16 balls with one defective (say lighter)
• Identify the defective ball.
0
1 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• Solution 2:
• Compare 1 with 2 0 0
02 04
1 3
• Compare 3 with 4
• :
• Compare 15 with 16 k k+1
1
16
5
• Time taken:
• 8 comparisons (worst case)
Simple Example
• Given 16 balls with one defective (say lighter)
• Identify the defective ball.
0
1 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
• Soltion3: Divide and Conquer
• Divide into 2 sets, each of 8 balls 0 0
…08 …16
• Compare 1-8 with 9-16, and divide the 1 9
lighter set into two parts each of 4.
• :
• Continue the process till lighter ball is
found
• Time taken: 4 comparisons (log216)
Divide-and-Conquer
The most-well known algorithm design strategy:
1. Divide instance of problem into two or more smaller instances of
the same problem ,ideally of same size

2. Solve smaller instances recursively

3. Obtain solution to original (larger) instance by combining these

solutions of smaller instances
Divide and Conquer Algo
• Divide (break) the problem (size n) into similar sub problems
• Size of sub problems should be some factor of original e.g. n/c
• When small enough, solve by brute force

• Conquer (Solve) the sub-problem

• Use recursion to solve small problem

• Combine (Merge) the solution of sub-parts

• The cost is
• cost of breaking
• cost of solving subproblem
• cost of combining 6
Divide and Conquer Approach
Problem of
Size n

Subprob 1 Subprob 2 Subprob k

of Size n/k of Size n/k … of Size n/k

Solution to
Subprob 1
Solution to
Subprob 2
… Solution to
Subprob k

Solution to Original
Problem of Size n
7
Divide-and-Conquer Examples
• Sorting: merge sort and quicksort

• Binary tree traversals

• Binary search

• Multiplication of large integers

• Matrix multiplication: Strassen’s algorithm

Divide & Conquer: Control Abstraction

Type DAndC(P) {
if Small(P)
return S(P)
else {
Divide P into smaller sets P1, …,Pk, k>=1
Apply DAndC to each subproblems
return Combine(DAndC(P1)…,DAndC(Pk))
}
}

9
Mergesort Example
8 3 2 9 7 1 5 4

8 3 2 9 7 1 5 4

8 3 2 9 71 5 4

8 3 2 9 7 1 5 4
Mergesort Example

8 3 2 9 7 1 5 4

3 8 2 9 1 7 4 5

2 3 8 9 1 4 5 7

1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9
ALGORITHM Mergesort(A[0.. n -1])
//Sorts array A[0 .. n -1] by recursive merge sort
//Input: An array A[0 .. n -1] of orderable elements
//Output: Array A[0 .. n -1] sorted in nondecreasing order
if n > 1
copy A[0 .. ⌊n/2⌋ - 1] to B[0 .. ⌊n/2⌋ - 1]
copy A[⌊n/2⌋ .. n - 1] to C[0 .. ⌊n/2⌋ - 1]
Mergesort(B[0 .. ⌊n/2⌋ - 1])
Mergesort(C[0 .. ⌊n/2⌋ - 1])
Merge(B, C, A)
ALGORITHM Merge(B[0 .. p-1], C[0 .. q -1], A[0 .. p + q -1])
// Merges two sorted arrays into one sorted array
// Input: Arrays B[0 .. p -1] and C[0 .. q -1] both sorted
// Output: Sorted array A[0 .. p + q -1] of the elements of Band C
i <- 0; j <- 0; k <- 0
while i < p and j < q do
if B[i] ≤ C[j]
A[k] <- B[i];
i <- i + 1
else
A[k] <- C[j];
j <- j + 1
k <- k + 1
if i = p
copy C[j .. q -1] to A[k .. p + q -1]
else
copy B[i..p -1] to A[k .. p + q -1]