function appears less frequently in the context of algorithm analysis than the constantlinearand quadratic functions previously mentionedbut it does appear from time to time polynomials interestinglythe functions we have listed so far can be viewed as all being part of larger class of functionsthe polynomials polynomial function is function of the formf(na ndwhere , , are constantscalled the coefficients of the polynomialand integer dwhich indicates the highest power in the polynomialis called the degree of the polynomial for examplethe following functions are all polynomialsf( ( ( (nn (nn thereforewe could argue that this book presents just four important functions used in algorithm analysisbut we will stick to saying that there are sevensince the constantlinearand quadratic functions are too important to be lumped in with other polynomials running times that are polynomials with degreedare generally better than polynomial running times with large degree summations notation that appears again and again in the analysis of data structures and algorithms is the summationwhich is defined as follows