Overview of Sorting

1. Overview of Sorting by Ron Peterson

2. Variety of Algorithms • There are a lot of different approaches to sorting, not just different programs that use similar methods. • Donald Knuth’s, The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 3, documents dozens of algorithmic methods for sorting. • Examples: bubble, insertion, selection, Shell, merge, heap, quick, & radix are all prefixes of names of sorts.

3. More Sort Names • Bubble sort · Cocktail sort · Odd-even sort · Comb sort · Gnome sort · Quicksort · Selection sort · Heapsort · Smoothsort · Cartesian tree sort · Tournament sort · Cycle sort · Insertion sort · Shell sort · Tree sort · Library sort · Patience sorting · Monkey-puzzle sort · Merge sort · Polyphase merge sort · Strand sort · American flag sort · Bead sort · Bucket sort · Burstsort · Counting sort · Pigeonhole sort · Proxmap sort · Radix sort · Flashsort · Bitonic sorter · Batcher odd-even mergesort · Timsort · Introsort · Spreadsort · UnShuffle sort · JSort · Spaghetti sort · Pancake sort

4. Categories by Efficiency • Simple sorts – O(N^2) • Bubble, selection, insertion sorts • Intermediate sorts • Shell – O(N*log^2 N) • Efficient sorts – O(N*log N) • Quicksort, merge sort, Heap sort • Specialty sorts • Radix – O(C) (* # of digits per value)

5. What you should know • For each sort discussed: • The name • Its efficiency • Average, best, and worst • How it works • Study the individual sorts in the book and look at the videos on the syllabus link

6. 2 more topics • Stable sorts: • Used for multi-key sorts like First/Last name • Does not change order within key group • Merge sort is typically a “stable” sort • STL sort algorithms: • Same interface for each (begin-it, end-it, [opl]) • Main approaches: • sort(..); stable_sort(..); make_heap(..), sort_heap(..); {plus a few tools to build others}