Big O Complexity – Understanding the ‘O’ in Big O Notation

big ocomplexity

What is Big and O in Big O notation? I've read the definitions and it doesn't tell what is O pronounced as 'oh'. For example – I understand that O(n) is complexity of a linear algorithm where n could be the number of operations. but what is an O?

Best Answer

Well, my guess would be order, which coincides with wikipedia.

Edit: (my own (any improvements appreciated)) translation from the German wikipedia article

The capital letter O (actually a capital omicron at the time) as a symbol for the order of (German: "Ordnung von") was first used by the German number theorist Paul Bachman in the second issue of his book on analytic number theory appeared in 1894. The notation gained popularity due to the work of Edmund Landau, another German number theorist, whom this nomenclature is widely associated with today, especially in the German terminology.

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