Book Image

Practical Discrete Mathematics

By : Ryan T. White, Archana Tikayat Ray
Book Image

Practical Discrete Mathematics

By: Ryan T. White, Archana Tikayat Ray

Overview of this book

Discrete mathematics deals with studying countable, distinct elements, and its principles are widely used in building algorithms for computer science and data science. The knowledge of discrete math concepts will help you understand the algorithms, binary, and general mathematics that sit at the core of data-driven tasks. Practical Discrete Mathematics is a comprehensive introduction for those who are new to the mathematics of countable objects. This book will help you get up to speed with using discrete math principles to take your computer science skills to a more advanced level. As you learn the language of discrete mathematics, you’ll also cover methods crucial to studying and describing computer science and machine learning objects and algorithms. The chapters that follow will guide you through how memory and CPUs work. In addition to this, you’ll understand how to analyze data for useful patterns, before finally exploring how to apply math concepts in network routing, web searching, and data science. By the end of this book, you’ll have a deeper understanding of discrete math and its applications in computer science, and be ready to work on real-world algorithm development and machine learning.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Part I – Basic Concepts of Discrete Math
7
Part II – Implementing Discrete Mathematics in Data and Computer Science
12
Part III – Real-World Applications of Discrete Mathematics

Complexity of algorithms with fundamental control structures

In this section, we will learn about a crucial concept known as control structures. By the end of this chapter, you should have basic knowledge of control structures, their types, how they work, and their computational complexity.

Control structures are used to specify the direction of flow in programs. They are used to analyze and choose the direction in which the program flows, based on some parameters or conditions. In short, control structures are just the decision making that the computer makes. There are three basic types of fundamental control structures:

  • Sequential flow
  • Selection flow
  • Repetitive flow

Let's understand each of these in turn.

Sequential flow

In this kind of flow, the algorithm flow depends on the series of instructions given to the computer, and the steps are executed in an obvious sequence. The sequence might be given by means of numbered steps explicitly...