So happy to be back! The last two week I was running around seeing doctors, lab technicians, etc because I had a mysterious lump on my neck. It’s still there, but they figured out that it’s nothing worrisome. I’m so grateful! I’ve always been healthy so this was really shocking. I realized that when I’m…
Merge Sort and the Divide and Conquer Approach
Algorithm Design Techniques In earlier posts, I went through the insertion sort and the selection sort algorithms. They both use the incremental approach. Each step of the algorithms sorts one element, and thus the algorithms solve the problem incrementally. The divide-and-conquer is another approach. It includes 3 steps that are executed recursively until the problem…
Functional Style Selection Sort in OCaml
In this post I talk about what I have tried and learnt in the process of writing the functional correspondence of the imperative selection sort I wrote earlier in OCaml. I learnt a lot in this practice because functional selection sort is not straight forward! The First Attempt At the beginning, I thought functional selection…
Imperative Style Selection Sort in OCaml
Exercise 2.2-2 of the book Introduction to Algorithms introduced the selection sort algorithm. I decided to write it in OCaml in imperative style. The selection sort algorithm sorts a list first by switching places of the smallest element of a given list with the first element of the list. Then, it selects the smallest element…
The Efficiency of an Algorithm
We need to analyze algorithms to choose the most efficient algorithm to implement. One important aspect we look at is the running time of an algorithm, which often depends on the size of input. (See Chapter 2-2 of Introduction to Algorithms.) Size of Input Examples in measuring the input size of a problem: The number…
Imperative and Functional Insertion Sort in OCaml
I wrote the insertion algorithm in both imperative and functional styles in OCaml! I talk about the fun and challenges of each style below: Imperative Insertion Sort I strictly follow the pseudocode on p.18 of the book Introduction to Algorithms. The pseudocode is in imperative style so all I need to do is to translate…
Pseudocode, Insertion Sort and Loop Invariant
Pseudocode In Chapter 2 of Introduction to Algorithms, the authors introduce pseudocode. Pseudocode is a way to describe algorithms. Pseudocode is not computer code and is not typically concerned with issues of software engineering (e.g., data abstraction, modularity, and error handling). The pseudocode conventions in this book are: Syntax/format: Indentation indicates block structure. The body…
Introduction to Algorithms
What is an algorithms? From chapter 1 of Introduction to Algorithms, an algorithm is any well-defined procedure that transforms a set of input to a set of output with desired properties. It is a tool for solving a computational problem, which specifies the desired input/output relationship. Input → Algorithms → Output The input is organized in a…
Implementing Communication Styles for Effective Discussions
I came across this great article on dev.to titled ‘Communication styles – Working effectively as a team’, which is inspired by this tweet . I recommend reading both sources but I offer a summary below. Then I explain how to use this information to increase effectiveness of most discussions. Communication Styles The two styles of…
Imperative Programming in OCaml
Imperative Vs Functional Programming So far, what I’ve done in OCaml is functional, i.e., I declare functions and the output value of a function depends only on the arguments that are passed to the function. The data structures covered are mostly immutable (not able to change). In contrast, with imperative programming, computations are structured as…