In the field of analysis of algorithms in computer science, the accounting method is a method of amortized analysis based on accounting. The accounting method often gives a more intuitive account of the amortized cost of an operation than either aggregate analysis or the potential method. Note, however, that this does not guarantee such analysis will be immediately obvious; often, choosing the correct parameters for the accounting method requires as much knowledge of the problem and the complexity bounds one is attempting to prove as the other two methods.
The accounting method is most naturally suited for proving an O(1) bound on time. The method as explained here is for proving such a bound.
Read more about Accounting Method: The Method
Famous quotes containing the words accounting and/or method:
“I, who am king of the matter I treat, and who owe an accounting for it to no one, do not for all that believe myself in all I write. I often hazard sallies of my mind which I mistrust.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“In child rearing it would unquestionably be easier if a child were to do something because we say so. The authoritarian method does expedite things, but it does not produce independent functioning. If a child has not mastered the underlying principles of human interactions and merely conforms out of coercion or conditioning, he has no tools to use, no resources to apply in the next situation that confronts him.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)