Efficiency Comparison of Some Selected Programming Languages

Abstract

The choice of an algorithm comes down to a question of efficiency, which is a measure of complexity of an algorithm. This paper addresses the questions of how to measure and compare the complexities of different algorithms. The aim of the study was to analyze and to comparing the complexities of tree search algorithms using software metrics approach to discover the most efficient programming language for implementing the tree search algorithms. Implementations of the algorithms were carried out using C, C++, Pascal, Visual BASIC, and Java programming languages. Complexity appraisals of the algorithms were carried out after the analyses and it was discovered that the choice of programming language affects the complexity of the tree search algorithms. The results showed that Pascal is the most efficient language for implementing Breadth-first algorithm, Java is the best for Depth-first, Java or Pascal is the best for Depth-limited while C is the best programming language for implementing A-star tree search algorithm. Visual BASIC is the worst language for implementing the entire search algorithm. It was further revealed that the entire codes are structurally and logically simple.