\input zb-basic \input zb-ioport \iteman{io-port 05826940} \itemau{Grasedyck, Lars; Hackbusch, Wolfgang} \itemti{Construction and complexity of hierarchical matrices.} \itemso{PAMM, Proc. Appl. Math. Mech. 2, No. 1, 29-32 (2003).} \itemab Summary: In previous papers, a class of $\cal H$-matrices was introduced which are data-sparse and allow an approximate matrix arithmetic of nearly optimal complexity. The complexity analysis for the (approximate) matrix arithmetics in the class of $\cal H$-matrices is based on two criteria, the sparsity and the idempotency. We describe a general strategy for the construction of the $\cal H$-matrices where the two criteria are fulfilled. \itemrv{~} \itemcc{} \itemut{} \itemli{doi:10.1002/pamm.200310008} \end