Memoisitioituminen

Memoisitioituminen is a Finnish term that translates to "memoization" in English. It is a computational optimization technique used to speed up computer programs by storing the results of expensive function calls and returning the cached result when the same inputs occur again. Essentially, it's a way of remembering previously computed results to avoid redundant calculations.

The concept of memoization is particularly useful for functions that are called repeatedly with the same arguments. Instead of re-executing the entire function body each time, the program can simply retrieve the previously computed output from a cache, which is often implemented as a hash map or dictionary. This can lead to significant performance improvements, especially in recursive functions or when dealing with complex data structures.

Memoization can be applied to various programming paradigms. In functional programming, it is a common technique for optimizing pure functions, which always produce the same output for the same input and have no side effects. In object-oriented programming, methods can be memoized to cache their return values.

The effectiveness of memoization depends on several factors, including the cost of the function's computation, the frequency of repeated calls with the same arguments, and the memory overhead associated with storing the cached results. When implemented correctly, memoization can be a powerful tool for enhancing the efficiency of software.