A Comprehensive Study of the Efficiency of Type-Reduction Algorithms

Improving the efficiency of type-reduction algorithms continues to attract research interest. Recently, there has been some new type-reduction approaches claiming that they are more efficient than the well-known algorithms such as the enhanced Karnik–Mendel (EKM) and the enhanced iterative algorithm with stopping condition (EIASC). In a previous paper, we found that the computational efficiency of an algorithm is closely related to the platform, and how it is implemented. In computer science, the dependence on languages is usually avoided by focusing on the complexity of algorithms (using big O notation). In this article, the main contribution is the proposal of two novel type-reduction algorithms. Also, for the first time, a comprehensive study on both existing and new type-reduction approaches is made based on both algorithm complexity and practical computational time under a variety of programming languages. Based on the results, suggestions are given for the preferred algorithms in different scenarios depending on implementation platform and application context.