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I want to determine the space complexity of the go to example of a simple streaming algorithm.

If you get a permutation of n-1 different numbers and have to detect the one missing number, you calculate the sum of all numbers 1 to n using the formula n (n + 1) / 2 and then you subtract each incoming number. The result is your missing number. I found a german wikipedia article stating that the space complexity of this algorithm is O(log n). (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datenstromalgorithmus)

What I do not understand is: The amount of bits needed to store a number n is log2(n). ok.. but I do have to calculate the sum, tough. So n (n + 1) / 2 is larger than n and therefore needs more space than just log (n) right?

Can someone help me with this? Thanks in advance!

Ipsider
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1 Answers1

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If integer A in binary coding requires Na bits and integer B requires Nb bits then A*B requires no more than Na+Nb bits (not Na * Nb). So, expression n(n+1)/2 requires no more than log2(n) + log2(n+1) = O(2log2(n)) = O(log2(n)) bits.

Even more, you may raise n to any fixed power i and it still will use O(log2(n)) space. n itself, n10, n500, n10000000 all require O(log(n)) bits of storage.

gudok
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