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Computer Science Introduction to Algorithms Recursion and Space Complexity Space Complexity

Posted by Robert Tyree
Robert Tyree
370 Points

Logarithmic space referred to as logarithmic time?

Around 5:02 "Because of this, we say that the recursive version of the binary search algorithm runs in logarithmic time with a big O of log N."

Should this be "runs in logarithmic space"?

I think that's what the example is illustrating.

Paul Brubaker
Paul Brubaker
14,290 Points

I think he just misspoke, but yeah I noticed the same thing.

2 Answers

Jordan Kittle
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Jordan Kittle
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 20,148 Points
Jordan Kittle
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Jordan Kittle
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 20,148 Points

I also noticed this. I think it should have been talking about space complexity too. The subject he was talking about was space complexity and the video was showing extra memory requirements at the time.

Victor Mercier
Victor Mercier
14,667 Points
Victor Mercier
Victor Mercier
14,667 Points

Hi, as you noticed and learned the time complexity for a recursive binary search is O(log(n)) and its space complexity is also O(log(n)), because you will have to keep log(n) times right, left and array in the computer memory.

Hope this helped!