Overview of Sorting by Ron Peterson

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.

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

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)

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

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}