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The Computer Journal 1988 31(3):276-278; doi:10.1093/comjnl/31.3.276
© 1988 by British Computer Society
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On the Worst-Possible Analysis of Weighted Comparison-Based Algorithms

D. Richards *

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA

A new model for evaluating comparison-based algorithms is discussed. Each key has an associated price, and the cost of a comparison is the sum of the prices of the two comparands. Three types of analysis of worst-case performance are presented which differ in the power given to an adversary: the Almighty version, the Just version, and the Merciful version. For example, in the Almighty version (the ‘worst-possible’ case) the adversary knows which algorithm will be used before assigning the prices to the keys and then chooses the worst-case assignments of values to the keys. We give a complete characterisation of optimal algorithms for the problem of finding the maximum key.

Received January 1986.

* University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA


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