NIST

little-o notation

(definition)

Definition: A theoretical measure of the execution of an algorithm, usually the time or memory needed, given the problem size n, which is usually the number of items. Informally, saying some equation f(n) = o(g(n)) means f(n) becomes insignificant relative to g(n) as n approaches infinity. The notation is read, "f of n is little oh of g of n".

Formal Definition: f(n) = o(g(n)) means for all c > 0 there exists some k > 0 such that 0 ≤ f(n) < cg(n) for all n ≥ k. The value of k must not depend on n, but may depend on c.

Generalization (I am a kind of ...)
big-O notation.

See also ω(n).

Note: As an example, 3n + 4 is o(n²) since for any c we can choose k > (3+ √(9+16c))/2c. 3n + 4 is not o(n). o(f(n)) is an upper bound, but is not an asymptotically tight bound.

This is lower case "o", not the lower case Greek letter omicron. See the note at big-O notation.

Author: PEB

More information

Little o is a Landau Symbol.


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Entry modified 6 September 2019.
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Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "little-o notation", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed. 6 September 2019. (accessed TODAY) Available from: https://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/littleOnotation.html