Is big-O notation a tool to do best, worst, & average case analysis of an algorithm?
Or is big-O only for worst case analysis, since it is an upper bounding function?
Is big-O notation a tool to do best, worst, & average case analysis of
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Is big-O notation a tool to do best, worst, & average case analysis of an algorithm?
Or is big-O only for worst case analysis, since it is an upper bounding function?
It is Big O, because orders of magnitude are expressed like O(n), O(logN), etc.
The best, worst, and average cases of an algorithm can all be expressed with Big O notation.
For an example of this applied to sorting algorithms, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm#Comparison_of_algorithms
Note that an algorithm can be classified according to multiple, independent criteria such as memory use or CPU use. Often, there is a tradeoff between two or more criteria (e.g. an algorithm that uses little CPU may use quite a bit of memory).