Space Complexity

Kind: metric

Layer: Performance Core

Record: architecture:space-complexity

Severity: contextual

Scope: algorithm, process

Canonical: Ontology

A measure of how an algorithm's memory use grows as its input grows.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Time Complexity and before Big O Notation.

Requires

• Memory Model

Reinforces

• Resource Utilization

Enables

• Memory Scalability

Conflicts with

• Unbounded Memory Growth

In tension with

• Time Complexity

Tensions

• Space Complexity / Time Complexity

Violated by

• Unbounded Memory Growth

Refactored by

• Sequential Access
• Iterator Pattern
• Chunked Processing

Severity

• contextual

Category

• Scalability / Performance / Optimization

Linked from

• Scalability / Performance / Optimization
• Scalability / Performance / Optimization
• Severity levels
• The resolutions