In computer science, an online algorithm is one that can process its input piece-by-piece in a serial fashion, i.e., in the order that the input is fed to the algorithm, without having the entire input available from the start. In contrast, an offline algorithm is given the whole problem data from the beginning and is required to output an answer which solves the problem at hand. (For example, selection sort requires that the entire list be given before it can sort it, while insertion sort doesn't.)
online algorithm指可以序列化处理一段一段的input
offline指一次全局解决问题
