The NIST ''Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures'' is a reference work maintained by the U.S.

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

. It defines a large number of terms relating to algorithms and data structures. For algorithms and data structures not necessarily mentioned here, see list of algorithms and list of data structures. This list of terms was originally derived from the index of that document, and is in the public domain, as it was compiled by a Federal Government employee as part of a Federal Government work. Some of the terms defined are: __NOTOC__

A

absolute performance guarantee In computer science and operations research, approximation algorithms are efficient algorithms that find approximate solutions to optimization problems (in particular NP-hard problems) with provable guarantees on the distance of the returned solut ...

abstract data type In computer science, an abstract data type (ADT) is a mathematical model for data types. An abstract data type is defined by its behavior (semantics) from the point of view of a '' user'', of the data, specifically in terms of possible values, po ...

(ADT) *

(a,b)-tree In computer science, an (a,b) tree is a kind of balanced search tree. An (a,b)-tree has all of its leaves at the same depth, and all internal nodes except for the root have between and children, where and are integers such that . The root has, ...

* accepting state * Ackermann's function *

active data structure In computer science, a data structure is a data organization, management, and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, a ...

* acyclic directed graph * adaptive heap sort * adaptive Huffman coding *

adaptive k-d tree An adaptive k-d tree is a tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with sec ...

* adaptive sort *

address-calculation sort In computing, a hash table, also known as hash map, is a data structure that implements an associative array or dictionary. It is an abstract data type that maps keys to values. A hash table uses a hash function to compute an ''index'', also ...

adjacency list In graph theory and computer science, an adjacency list is a collection of unordered lists used to represent a finite graph. Each unordered list within an adjacency list describes the set of neighbors of a particular vertex in the graph. This i ...

representation *

adjacency matrix In graph theory and computer science, an adjacency matrix is a square matrix used to represent a finite graph. The elements of the matrix indicate whether pairs of vertices are adjacent or not in the graph. In the special case of a finite simple ...

representation *

adversary An adversary is generally considered to be a person, group, or force that opposes and/or attacks. Adversary may also refer to: * Satan ("adversary" in Hebrew), in Judeo-Christian religion Entertainment Fiction * Adversary (comics), villain fr ...

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

algorithm BSTW The Algorithm BSTW is a data compression algorithm, named after its designers, Bentley, Sleator, Tarjan and Wei in 1986. BSTW is a dictionary-based algorithm that uses a move-to-front transform to keep recently seen dictionary entries at the fro ...

* algorithm FGK *

algorithmic efficiency In computer science, algorithmic efficiency is a property of an algorithm which relates to the amount of computational resources used by the algorithm. An algorithm must be analyzed to determine its resource usage, and the efficiency of an al ...

* algorithmically solvable *

algorithm V Adaptive Huffman coding (also called Dynamic Huffman coding) is an adaptive coding technique based on Huffman coding. It permits building the code as the symbols are being transmitted, having no initial knowledge of source distribution, that allows ...

all pairs shortest path In graph theory, the shortest path problem is the problem of finding a path between two vertices (or nodes) in a graph such that the sum of the weights of its constituent edges is minimized. The problem of finding the shortest path between tw ...

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a s ...

Alpha Skip Search algorithm Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

alternating path Alternating may refer to: Mathematics * Alternating algebra, an algebra in which odd-grade elements square to zero * Alternating form, a function formula in algebra * Alternating group, the group of even permutations of a finite set * Alternati ...

alternating Turing machine In computational complexity theory, an alternating Turing machine (ATM) is a non-deterministic Turing machine (NTM) with a rule for accepting computations that generalizes the rules used in the definition of the complexity classes NP and co-NP. ...

* alternation *

American flag sort An American flag sort is an efficient, in-place variant of radix sort that distributes items into buckets. Non-comparative sorting algorithms such as radix sort and American flag sort are typically used to sort large objects such as strings, for ...

amortized cost In accounting, an economic item's historical cost is the original nominal monetary value of that item. Historical cost accounting involves reporting assets and liabilities at their historical costs, which are not updated for changes in the items' ...

* ancestor * and *

American National Standards Institute The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organ ...

(ANSI) *

antichain In mathematics, in the area of order theory, an antichain is a subset of a partially ordered set such that any two distinct elements in the subset are incomparable. The size of the largest antichain in a partially ordered set is known as its w ...

antisymmetric relation In mathematics, a binary relation R on a set X is antisymmetric if there is no pair of ''distinct'' elements of X each of which is related by R to the other. More formally, R is antisymmetric precisely if for all a, b \in X, \text \,aRb\, \te ...

* AP * Apostolico–Crochemore * Apostolico–Giancarlo algorithm *

approximate string matching In computer science, approximate string matching (often colloquially referred to as fuzzy string searching) is the technique of finding strings that match a pattern approximately (rather than exactly). The problem of approximate string matching ...

approximation algorithm In computer science and operations research, approximation algorithms are efficient algorithms that find approximate solutions to optimization problems (in particular NP-hard problems) with provable guarantees on the distance of the returned solu ...

* arborescence *

arithmetic coding Arithmetic coding (AC) is a form of entropy encoding used in lossless data compression. Normally, a string of characters is represented using a fixed number of bits per character, as in the ASCII code. When a string is converted to arithmetic ...

array An array is a systematic arrangement of similar objects, usually in rows and columns. Things called an array include: {{TOC right Music * In twelve-tone and serial composition, the presentation of simultaneous twelve-tone sets such that the ...

array index In computer science, an array is a data structure consisting of a collection of ''elements'' (values or variables), each identified by at least one ''array index'' or ''key''. An array is stored such that the position of each element can be co ...

array merging In computer science, merge sort (also commonly spelled as mergesort) is an efficient, general-purpose, and comparison-based sorting algorithm. Most implementations produce a stable sort, which means that the order of equal elements is the same i ...

array search In computer science, a search algorithm is an algorithm designed to solve a search problem. Search algorithms work to retrieve information stored within particular data structure, or calculated in the search space of a problem domain, with eith ...

articulation point Articulation may refer to: Linguistics * Articulatory phonetics, the study of how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of physiological structures ** Manner of articulation, how speech organs involved in making a sound make contact * ...

A* search algorithm A* (pronounced "A-star") is a graph traversal and path search algorithm, which is used in many fields of computer science due to its completeness, optimality, and optimal efficiency. One major practical drawback is its O(b^d) space complexity, ...

assignment problem The assignment problem is a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem. In its most general form, the problem is as follows: :The problem instance has a number of ''agents'' and a number of ''tasks''. Any agent can be assigned to perform any t ...

* association list *

associative In mathematics, the associative property is a property of some binary operations, which means that rearranging the parentheses in an expression will not change the result. In propositional logic, associativity is a valid rule of replacement ...

associative array In computer science, an associative array, map, symbol table, or dictionary is an abstract data type that stores a collection of (key, value) pairs, such that each possible key appears at most once in the collection. In mathematical terms an ...

* asymptotically tight bound * asymptotic bound * asymptotic lower bound * asymptotic space complexity *

asymptotic time complexity In computational complexity theory, asymptotic computational complexity is the usage of asymptotic analysis for the estimation of computational complexity of algorithms and computational problems, commonly associated with the usage of the big O nota ...

* asymptotic upper bound *

augmenting path In graph theory, a flow network (also known as a transportation network) is a directed graph where each edge has a capacity and each edge receives a flow. The amount of flow on an edge cannot exceed the capacity of the edge. Often in operations res ...

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

* average case *

average-case cost In computer science, best, worst, and average cases of a given algorithm express what the resource usage is ''at least'', ''at most'' and ''on average'', respectively. Usually the resource being considered is running time, i.e. time complexity, b ...

* AVL tree * axiomatic semantics

B

backtracking Backtracking is a class of algorithms for finding solutions to some computational problems, notably constraint satisfaction problems, that incrementally builds candidates to the solutions, and abandons a candidate ("backtracks") as soon as it de ...

* bag *

Baillie–PSW primality test The Baillie–PSW primality test is a probabilistic primality testing algorithm that determines whether a number is composite or is a probable prime. It is named after Robert Baillie, Carl Pomerance, John Selfridge, and Samuel Wagstaff. The Bailli ...

* balanced binary search tree *

balanced binary tree In computer science, a self-balancing binary search tree (BST) is any node-based binary search tree that automatically keeps its height (maximal number of levels below the root) small in the face of arbitrary item insertions and deletions.Donald ...

* balanced k-way merge sort * balanced merge sort * balanced multiway merge * balanced multiway tree *

balanced quicksort Quicksort is an efficient, general-purpose sorting algorithm. Quicksort was developed by British computer scientist Tony Hoare in 1959 and published in 1961, it is still a commonly used algorithm for sorting. Overall, it is slightly faster than ...

* balanced tree *

balanced two-way merge sort In telecommunications and professional audio, a balanced line or balanced signal pair is a circuit consisting of two conductors of the same type, both of which have equal impedances along their lengths and equal impedances to ground and to other ci ...

* BANG file *

Batcher sort Bitonic mergesort is a parallel algorithm for sorting. It is also used as a construction method for building a sorting network. The algorithm was devised by Ken Batcher. The resulting sorting networks consist of O(n\log^2(n)) comparators and have ...

Baum Welch algorithm Baum is a German surname meaning "tree" (not to be confused with the French surname Baume). Notable people with this surname include: * Bernie Baum (1929–1993), American songwriter * Carol Baum, American film producer * Christina Baum (bor ...

* BB α tree * BDD * BD-tree *

Bellman–Ford algorithm The Bellman–Ford algorithm is an algorithm that computes shortest paths from a single source vertex to all of the other vertices in a weighted digraph. It is slower than Dijkstra's algorithm for the same problem, but more versatile, as it i ...

Benford's law Benford's law, also known as the Newcomb–Benford law, the law of anomalous numbers, or the first-digit law, is an observation that in many real-life sets of numerical data, the leading digit is likely to be small.Arno Berger and Theodore P ...

* best case * best-case cost *

best-first search Best-first search is a class of search algorithms, which explore a graph by expanding the most promising node chosen according to a specified rule. Judea Pearl described the best-first search as estimating the promise of node ''n'' by a "heuristic ...

biconnected component In graph theory, a biconnected component (sometimes known as a 2-connected component) is a maximal biconnected subgraph. Any connected graph decomposes into a tree of biconnected components called the block-cut tree of the graph. The blocks ...

biconnected graph In graph theory, a biconnected graph is a connected and "nonseparable" graph, meaning that if any one vertex were to be removed, the graph will remain connected. Therefore a biconnected graph has no articulation vertices. The property of being ...

bidirectional bubble sort Cocktail shaker sort, also known as bidirectional bubble sort, cocktail sort, shaker sort (which can also refer to a variant of selection sort), ripple sort, shuffle sort, or shuttle sort, is an extension of bubble sort. The algorithm extends bub ...

big-O notation Big ''O'' notation is a mathematical notation that describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity. Big O is a member of a family of notations invented by Paul Bachmann, Edmund Land ...

binary function In mathematics, a binary function (also called bivariate function, or function of two variables) is a function that takes two inputs. Precisely stated, a function f is binary if there exists sets X, Y, Z such that :\,f \colon X \times Y \rightar ...

binary GCD algorithm The binary GCD algorithm, also known as Stein's algorithm or the binary Euclidean algorithm, is an algorithm that computes the greatest common divisor of two nonnegative integers. Stein's algorithm uses simpler arithmetic operations than the conv ...

binary heap A binary heap is a heap data structure that takes the form of a binary tree. Binary heaps are a common way of implementing priority queues. The binary heap was introduced by J. W. J. Williams in 1964, as a data structure for heapsort. A binary ...

binary insertion sort Insertion sort is a simple sorting algorithm that builds the final sorted array (or list) one item at a time by comparisons. It is much less efficient on large lists than more advanced algorithms such as quicksort, heapsort, or merge sort. Howev ...

binary knapsack problem The knapsack problem is a problem in combinatorial optimization: Given a set of items, each with a weight and a value, determine the number of each item to include in a collection so that the total weight is less than or equal to a given limit an ...

* binary priority queue *

binary relation In mathematics, a binary relation associates elements of one set, called the ''domain'', with elements of another set, called the ''codomain''. A binary relation over Set (mathematics), sets and is a new set of ordered pairs consisting of ele ...

binary search In computer science, binary search, also known as half-interval search, logarithmic search, or binary chop, is a search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted array. Binary search compares the target value to the m ...

binary search tree In computer science, a binary search tree (BST), also called an ordered or sorted binary tree, is a rooted binary tree data structure with the key of each internal node being greater than all the keys in the respective node's left subtree and ...

binary tree In computer science, a binary tree is a k-ary k = 2 tree data structure in which each node has at most two children, which are referred to as the ' and the '. A recursive definition using just set theory notions is that a (non-empty) binar ...

* binary tree representation of trees *

bingo sort In computer science, selection sort is an in-place comparison sorting algorithm. It has an O(''n''2) time complexity, which makes it inefficient on large lists, and generally performs worse than the similar insertion sort. Selection sort is not ...

* binomial heap * binomial tree * bin packing problem * bin sort *

bintree Bintree is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England, about nine miles (14 km) south-east of Fakenham. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 300, increasing to 329 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government ...

bipartite graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a bipartite graph (or bigraph) is a graph whose vertices can be divided into two disjoint and independent sets U and V, that is every edge connects a vertex in U to one in V. Vertex sets U and V ar ...

bipartite matching In the mathematical discipline of graph theory, a matching or independent edge set in an undirected graph is a set of edges without common vertices. Finding a matching in a bipartite graph can be treated as a network flow problem. Definit ...

* bisector *

bitonic sort Bitonic mergesort is a parallel algorithm for sorting. It is also used as a construction method for building a sorting network. The algorithm was devised by Ken Batcher. The resulting sorting networks consist of O(n\log^2(n)) comparators and have ...

bit vector A bit array (also known as bitmask, bit map, bit set, bit string, or bit vector) is an array data structure that compactly stores bits. It can be used to implement a simple set data structure. A bit array is effective at exploiting bit-level p ...

Bk tree A BK-tree is a metric tree suggested by Walter Austin Burkhard and Robert M. Keller specifically adapted to discrete metric spaces. For simplicity, consider integer discrete metric d(x,y). Then, BK-tree is defined in the following way. An arbitrar ...

* bdk tree (not to be confused with k-d-B-tree) *

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

block addressing index Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

blocking flow Dinic's algorithm or Dinitz's algorithm is a strongly polynomial algorithm for computing the maximum flow in a flow network, conceived in 1970 by Israeli (formerly Soviet) computer scientist Yefim (Chaim) A. Dinitz. The algorithm runs in O(V^2 E) ti ...

block search In computer science, a jump search or block search refers to a search algorithm for ordered lists. It works by first checking all items ''L'km'', where k \in \mathbb and ''m'' is the block size, until an item is found that is larger than the sea ...

Bloom filter A Bloom filter is a space-efficient probabilistic data structure, conceived by Burton Howard Bloom in 1970, that is used to test whether an element is a member of a set. False positive matches are possible, but false negatives are not – in ...

blossom (graph theory) In graph theory, a mathematical discipline, a factor-critical graph (or hypomatchable graph.) is a Graph (discrete mathematics), graph with vertices in which every subgraph of vertices has a perfect matching. (A perfect matching in a graph is a ...

bogosort In computer science, bogosort (also known as permutation sort, stupid sort, slowsort or bozosort) is a sorting algorithm based on the generate and test paradigm. The function successively generates permutations of its input until it finds one t ...

* boogol *

boolean Any kind of logic, function, expression, or theory based on the work of George Boole is considered Boolean. Related to this, "Boolean" may refer to: * Boolean data type, a form of data with only two possible values (usually "true" and "false" ...

boolean expression In computer science, a Boolean expression is an expression used in programming languages that produces a Boolean value when evaluated. A Boolean value is either true or false. A Boolean expression may be composed of a combination of the Boolean con ...

boolean function In mathematics, a Boolean function is a function whose arguments and result assume values from a two-element set (usually , or ). Alternative names are switching function, used especially in older computer science literature, and truth function ...

bottleneck traveling salesman The Bottleneck traveling salesman problem (bottleneck TSP) is a problem in discrete or combinatorial optimization. The problem is to find the Hamiltonian cycle (visiting each node exactly once) in a weighted graph which minimizes the weight of t ...

* bottom-up tree automaton * boundary-based representation * bounded error probability in polynomial time *

bounded queue In computer science, a queue is a collection of entities that are maintained in a sequence and can be modified by the addition of entities at one end of the sequence and the removal of entities from the other end of the sequence. By convention, ...

bounded stack In computer science, a stack is an abstract data type that serves as a collection of elements, with two main operations: * Push, which adds an element to the collection, and * Pop, which removes the most recently added element that was not y ...

Bounding volume hierarchy A bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) is a tree structure on a set of geometric objects. All geometric objects, that form the leaf nodes of the tree, are wrapped in bounding volumes. These nodes are then grouped as small sets and enclosed within larg ...

, also referred to as bounding volume tree (BV-tree, BVT) *

Boyer–Moore string-search algorithm In computer science, the Boyer–Moore string-search algorithm is an efficient string-searching algorithm that is the standard benchmark for practical string-search literature. It was developed by Robert S. Boyer and J Strother Moore in 1977. ...

* Boyer–Moore–Horspool algorithm * bozo sort *

B+ tree A B+ tree is an m-ary tree with a variable but often large number of children per node. A B+ tree consists of a root, internal nodes and leaves. The root may be either a leaf or a node with two or more children. A B+ tree can be viewed as a B ...

BPP (complexity) In computational complexity theory, a branch of computer science, bounded-error probabilistic polynomial time (BPP) is the class of decision problems solvable by a probabilistic Turing machine in polynomial time with an error probability bounded by ...

* Bradford's law *

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' twig'' usually ...

(as in control flow) *

(as in revision control) *

branch and bound Branch and bound (BB, B&B, or BnB) is an algorithm design paradigm for discrete and combinatorial optimization problems, as well as mathematical optimization. A branch-and-bound algorithm consists of a systematic enumeration of candidate solutio ...

breadth-first search Breadth-first search (BFS) is an algorithm for searching a tree data structure for a node that satisfies a given property. It starts at the tree root and explores all nodes at the present depth prior to moving on to the nodes at the next d ...

Bresenham's line algorithm Bresenham's line algorithm is a line drawing algorithm that determines the points of an ''n''-dimensional raster that should be selected in order to form a close approximation to a straight line between two points. It is commonly used to draw li ...

* brick sort *

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

* British Museum algorithm *

brute-force attack In cryptography, a brute-force attack consists of an attacker submitting many passwords or passphrases with the hope of eventually guessing correctly. The attacker systematically checks all possible passwords and passphrases until the correct ...

brute-force search In computer science, brute-force search or exhaustive search, also known as generate and test, is a very general problem-solving technique and algorithmic paradigm that consists of systematically enumerating all possible candidates for the soluti ...

brute-force string search In computer science, brute-force search or exhaustive search, also known as generate and test, is a very general problem-solving technique and algorithmic paradigm that consists of systematically enumerating all possible candidates for the soluti ...

* brute-force string search with mismatches *

BSP-tree In computer science, binary space partitioning (BSP) is a method for space partitioning which recursively subdivides a Euclidean space into two convex sets by using hyperplanes as partitions. This process of subdividing gives rise to a represent ...

* B*-tree *

B-tree In computer science, a B-tree is a self-balancing tree data structure that maintains sorted data and allows searches, sequential access, insertions, and deletions in logarithmic time. The B-tree generalizes the binary search tree, allowing for ...

bubble sort Bubble sort, sometimes referred to as sinking sort, is a simple sorting algorithm that repeatedly steps through the input list element by element, comparing the current element with the one after it, swapping their values if needed. These passes ...

bucket A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the ''bail''. A bucket is usually an open-top container. In contrast, a p ...

bucket array Bucket sort, or bin sort, is a sorting algorithm that works by distributing the elements of an array into a number of buckets. Each bucket is then sorted individually, either using a different sorting algorithm, or by recursively applying the b ...

bucketing method A bucket shop is a business that allows gambling based on the prices of stocks or commodities. A 1906 U.S. Supreme Court ruling defined a ''bucket shop'' as "an establishment, nominally for the transaction of a stock exchange business, or business ...

bucket sort Bucket sort, or bin sort, is a sorting algorithm that works by distributing the elements of an array into a number of buckets. Each bucket is then sorted individually, either using a different sorting algorithm, or by recursively applying the b ...

bucket trie In computer science, radix sort is a non-comparative sorting algorithm. It avoids comparison by creating and distributing elements into buckets according to their radix. For elements with more than one significant digit, this bucketing process i ...

buddy system The buddy system is a procedure in which two individuals, the "buddies", operate together as a single unit so that they are able to monitor and help each other. As per Merriam-Webster, the first known use of the phrase "buddy system" goes as far ...

buddy tree Buddy may refer to: People *Buddy (nickname) *Buddy (rapper), real name Simmie Sims III (1993–Present) *Buddy Rogers (wrestler), ring name of American professional wrestler Herman Gustav Rohde, Jr. (1921–1992) *Buddy Boeheim (born 1999), Amer ...

* build-heap *

Burrows–Wheeler transform The Burrows–Wheeler transform (BWT, also called block-sorting compression) rearranges a character string into runs of similar characters. This is useful for compression, since it tends to be easy to compress a string that has runs of repeated c ...

(BWT) * busy beaver *

Byzantine generals A Byzantine fault (also Byzantine generals problem, interactive consistency, source congruency, error avalanche, Byzantine agreement problem, and Byzantine failure) is a condition of a computer system, particularly distributed computing systems, ...

C

cactus stack In computer science, an in-tree or parent pointer tree is an -ary tree data structure in which each node has a pointer to its parent node, but no pointers to child nodes. When used to implement a set of stacks, the structure is called a spaghetti ...

* Calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS) * calendar queue *

candidate consistency testing A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

candidate verification A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

canonical complexity class In computational complexity theory, a complexity class is a set of computational problems of related resource-based complexity. The two most commonly analyzed resources are time and memory. In general, a complexity class is defined in terms ...

capacitated facility location The study of facility location problems (FLP), also known as location analysis, is a branch of operations research and computational geometry concerned with the optimal placement of facilities to minimize transportation costs while considering fact ...

* capacity *

capacity constraint Capacity or capacities may refer to: Mathematics, science, and engineering * Capacity of a container, closely related to the volume of the container * Capacity of a set, in Euclidean space, the total charge a set can hold while maintaining a giv ...

Cartesian tree In computer science, a Cartesian tree is a binary tree derived from a sequence of numbers; it can be uniquely defined from the properties that it is heap-ordered and that a symmetric (in-order) traversal of the tree returns the original sequence. ...

cascade merge sort Cascade merge sort is similar to the polyphase merge sort A polyphase merge sort is a variation of a bottom-up merge sort that sorts a list using an initial uneven distribution of sub-lists (runs), primarily used for external sorting, and is more ...

* caverphone * Cayley–Purser algorithm *

C curve C, or c, is the third letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''cee'' (pronounced ), plural ''cees''. History "C" ...

cell probe model Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

cell tree Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

cellular automaton A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tess ...

centroid In mathematics and physics, the centroid, also known as geometric center or center of figure, of a plane figure or solid figure is the arithmetic mean position of all the points in the surface of the figure. The same definition extends to any ...

certificate Certificate may refer to: * Birth certificate * Marriage certificate * Death certificate * Gift certificate * Certificate of authenticity, a document or seal certifying the authenticity of something * Certificate of deposit, or CD, a financial pro ...

chain (order theory) In mathematics, a total or linear order is a partial order in which any two elements are comparable. That is, a total order is a binary relation \leq on some set X, which satisfies the following for all a, b and c in X: # a \leq a ( reflexiv ...

* chaining (algorithm) * child *

Chinese postman problem In graph theory, a branch of mathematics and computer science, Guan's route problem, the Chinese postman problem, postman tour or route inspection problem is to find a shortest closed path or circuit that visits every edge of an (connected) undi ...

Chinese remainder theorem In mathematics, the Chinese remainder theorem states that if one knows the remainders of the Euclidean division of an integer ''n'' by several integers, then one can determine uniquely the remainder of the division of ''n'' by the product of the ...

Christofides algorithm The Christofides algorithm or Christofides–Serdyukov algorithm is an algorithm for finding approximate solutions to the travelling salesman problem, on instances where the distances form a metric space (they are symmetric and obey the triangle ine ...

Christofides heuristic The Christofides algorithm or Christofides–Serdyukov algorithm is an algorithm for finding approximate solutions to the travelling salesman problem, on instances where the distances form a metric space (they are symmetric and obey the triangle ine ...

chromatic index In graph theory, an edge coloring of a graph is an assignment of "colors" to the edges of the graph so that no two incident edges have the same color. For example, the figure to the right shows an edge coloring of a graph by the colors red, blue ...

chromatic number In graph theory, graph coloring is a special case of graph labeling; it is an assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph subject to certain constraints. In its simplest form, it is a way of coloring the vertices o ...

Church–Turing thesis In computability theory, the Church–Turing thesis (also known as computability thesis, the Turing–Church thesis, the Church–Turing conjecture, Church's thesis, Church's conjecture, and Turing's thesis) is a thesis about the nature of co ...

circuit Circuit may refer to: Science and technology Electrical engineering * Electrical circuit, a complete electrical network with a closed-loop giving a return path for current ** Analog circuit, uses continuous signal levels ** Balanced circu ...

circuit complexity In theoretical computer science, circuit complexity is a branch of computational complexity theory in which Boolean functions are classified according to the size or depth of the Boolean circuits that compute them. A related notion is the ci ...

* circuit value problem * circular list *

circular queue In computer science, a circular buffer, circular queue, cyclic buffer or ring bu