Algorithms in a Nutshell

Rate of Growth of Functions | 17

AlgorithmsThe Math of

regression analysis. The “fitness” of a trend line to the actual data is based on a

value between 0 and 1, known as the R^2 value. Values near 1 indicate a high

fitness. For example, if R^2 = 0.9948, there is only a 0.52% chance that the fitness

of the trend line is due to random variations in the data.

SORT-4 is clearly the worst performing of these sort algorithms. Given the 512

data points as plotted in a spreadsheet, the trend line to which the data conforms

is:

y = 0.0053*n^2 –0.3601*n+39.212

R^2 = 0.9948

Figure 2-2. Comparing four sort algorithms on small data sets

Algorithms in a Nutshell
Algorithms in a Nutshell By Gary Pollice, George T. Heineman, Stanley Selkow ISBN:
9780596516246 Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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