Divide-And-Conquer Sorting

• Small instance.
 n <= 1 elements.
 n <= 10 elements.
 We’ll use n <= 1 for now.
• Large instance.
 Divide into k >= 2 smaller instances.
 k = 2, 3, 4, … ?
 What does each smaller instance look like?
 Sort smaller instances recursively.
 How do you combine the sorted smaller instances?
 Insertion Sort
a[0] a[n-2] a[n-1]

• k=2
• First n - 1 elements (a[0:n-2]) define one of the
smaller instances; last element (a[n-1]) defines
the second smaller instance.
• a[0:n-2] is sorted recursively.
• a[n-1] is a small instance.
 Insertion Sort
a[0] a[n-2] a[n-1]

• Combining is done by inserting a[n-1] into the

sorted a[0:n-2] .
• Complexity is O(n2).
• Usually implemented nonrecursively.
 Divide And Conquer
• Divide-and-conquer algorithms generally have
best complexity when a large instance is divided
into smaller instances of approximately the same
size.
• When k = 2 and n = 24, divide into two smaller
instances of size 12 each.
• When k = 2 and n = 25, divide into two smaller
instances of size 13 and 12, respectively.
 Merge Sort
• k=2
• First ceil(n/2) elements define one of the smaller
instances; remaining floor(n/2) elements define
the second smaller instance.
• Each of the two smaller instances is sorted
recursively.
• The sorted smaller instances are combined using
a process called merge.
• Complexity is O(n log n).
• Usually implemented nonrecursively.
 Merge Two Sorted Lists
• A = (2, 5, 6)
B = (1, 3, 8, 9, 10)
C = ()
• Compare smallest elements of A and B and
merge smaller into C.
• A = (2, 5, 6)
B = (3, 8, 9, 10)
C = (1)
 Merge Two Sorted Lists
• A = (5, 6)
B = (3, 8, 9, 10)
C = (1, 2)
• A = (5, 6)
B = (8, 9, 10)
C = (1, 2, 3)
• A = (6)
B = (8, 9, 10)
C = (1, 2, 3, 5)
 Merge Two Sorted Lists
• A = ()
B = (8, 9, 10)
C = (1, 2, 3, 5, 6)
• When one of A and B becomes empty, append the
other list to C.
• O(1) time needed to move an element into C.
• Total time is O(n + m), where n and m are,
respectively, the number of elements initially in A
and B.
 Merge Sort

[8, 3, 13, 6, 2, 14, 5, 9, 10, 1, 7, 12, 4]

[8, 3, 13, 6, 2, 14, 5] [9, 10, 1, 7, 12, 4]

[8, 3, 13, 6] [2, 14, 5] [9, 10, [7, 12, 4]

1]
[8, [13, 6] [2, 14] [5] [9, 10] [1] [7, 12] [4]
3]
[8] [3] [13] [6] [2] [14] [9] [10] [7] [12]
 Merge Sort

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13,14]

[2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 13, 14] [1, 4, 7, 9, 10,12]

[3, 6, 8, 13] [2, 5, 14] [1, 9, [4, 7, 12]

10]
[3, [6, 13] [2, 14] [5] [9, 10] [1] [7, 12] [4]
8]
[8] [3] [13] [6] [2] [14] [9] [10] [7] [12]
 Time Complexity
• Let t(n) be the time required to sort n elements.
• t(0) = t(1) = c, where c is a constant.
• When n > 1,
t(n) = t(ceil(n/2)) + t(floor(n/2)) + dn,
where d is a constant.
• To solve the recurrence, assume n is a power of 2
and use repeated substitution.
• t(n) = O(n log n).
 Nonrecursive Version

• Eliminate downward pass.

• Start with sorted lists of size 1 and do
pairwise merging of these sorted lists as in
the upward pass.
 Nonrecursive Merge Sort

[8] [3] [13] [6] [2] [14] [5] [9] [10] [1] [7] [12] [4]

[3, [6, 13] [2, 14] [5, [1, 10] [7, 12] [4]
8] 9]
[3, 6, 8, 13] [2, 5, 9, 14] [1, 7, 10, [4]
12]
[2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14] [1, 4, 7, 10, 12]

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14]

 Complexity
• Sorted segment size is 1, 2, 4, 8, …
• Number of merge passes is ceil(log2n).
• Each merge pass takes O(n) time.
• Total time is O(n log n).
• Need O(n) additional space for the merge.
• Merge sort is slower than insertion sort when n <= 15
(approximately). So define a small instance to be an
instance with n <= 15.
• Sort small instances using insertion sort.
• Start with segment size = 15.
 Natural Merge Sort
• Initial sorted segments are the naturally ocurring
sorted segments in the input.
• Input = [8, 9, 10, 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 6, 12, 14].
• Initial segments are:
[8, 9, 10] [2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15] [6, 12, 14]
• 2 (instead of 4) merge passes suffice.
• Segment boundaries have a[i] > a[i+1].
 Quick Sort
• Small instance has n <= 1. Every small instance is a
sorted instance.
• To sort a large instance, select a pivot element from out
of the n elements.
• Partition the n elements into 3 groups left, middle and
right.
• The middle group contains only the pivot element.
• All elements in the left group are <= pivot.
• All elements in the right group are >= pivot.
• Sort left and right groups recursively.
• Answer is sorted left group, followed by middle group
followed by sorted right group.
 Example

6 2 8 5 11 10 4 1 9 7 3

Use 6 as the pivot.

10 11

Sort left and right groups recursively.

 Choice Of Pivot

• Pivot is leftmost element in list that is to be sorted.

 When sorting a[6:20], use a[6] as the pivot.
 Text implementation does this.
• Randomly select one of the elements to be sorted
as the pivot.
 When sorting a[6:20], generate a random number r in
the range [6, 20]. Use a[r] as the pivot.
 Choice Of Pivot
• Median-of-Three rule. From the leftmost, middle,
and rightmost elements of the list to be sorted,
select the one with median key as the pivot.
 When sorting a[6:20], examine a[6], a[13] ((6+20)/2),
and a[20]. Select the element with median (i.e., middle)
key.
 If a[6].key = 30, a[13].key = 2, and a[20].key = 10,
a[20] becomes the pivot.
 If a[6].key = 3, a[13].key = 2, and a[20].key = 10, a[6]
becomes the pivot.
 Choice Of Pivot
 If a[6].key = 30, a[13].key = 25, and a[20].key = 10,
a[13] becomes the pivot.
• When the pivot is picked at random or when the
median-of-three rule is used, we can use the quick
sort code of the text provided we first swap the
leftmost element and the chosen pivot.
swap

pivot
 Partitioning Example Using
Additional Array
a 6 2 8 5 11 10 4 1 9 7 3

b 10 11

Sort left and right groups recursively.

 In-Place Partitioning Example
a 6 2 8 5 11 10 4 1 9 7 3

a 6 2 3 5 11 10 4 1 9 7 8

a 6 2 3 5 1 10 4 11 9 7 8

a 6 2 3 5 1 4 10
10 11 9 7 8

bigElement is not to left of smallElement,

terminate process. Swap pivot and smallElement.
a 4 2 3 5 1 46 10 11 9 7 8
 Complexity
• O(n) time to partition an array of n elements.
• Let t(n) be the time needed to sort n elements.
• t(0) = t(1) = c, where c is a constant.
• When t > 1,
t(n) = t(|left|) + t(|right|) + dn,
where d is a constant.
• t(n) is maximum when either |left| = 0 or |right| =
0 following each partitioning.
 Complexity
• This happens, for example, when the pivot is
always the smallest element.
• For the worst-case time,
t(n) = t(n-1) + dn, n > 1
• Use repeated substitution to get t(n) = O(n2).
• The best case arises when |left| and |right| are
equal (or differ by 1) following each partitioning.
• For the best case, the recurrence is the same as
for merge sort.
 Complexity Of Quick Sort
• So the best-case complexity is O(n log n).
• Average complexity is also O(n log n).
• To help get partitions with almost equal size,
change in-place swap rule to:
 Find leftmost element (bigElement) >= pivot.
 Find rightmost element (smallElement) <= pivot.
 Swap bigElement and smallElement provided
bigElement is to the left of smallElement.
• O(n) space is needed for the recursion stack.
May be reduced to O(log n) (see Exercise 19.22).
 Complexity Of Quick Sort

• To improve performance, define a small instance

to be one with n <= 15 (say) and sort small
instances using insertion sort.
 java.util.arrays.sort

• Arrays of a primitive data type are sorted using

quick sort.
 n < 7 => insertion sort
 7 <= n <= 40 => median of three
 n > 40 => pseudo median of 9 equally spaced elements
• divide the 9 elements into 3 groups
• find the median of each group
• pivot is median of the 3 group medians
 java.util.arrays.sort

• Arrays of a nonprimitive data type are sorted

using merge sort.
 n < 7 => insertion sort
 skip merge when last element of left segment is <=
first element of right segment
• Merge sort is stable (relative order of elements
with equal keys is not changed).
• Quick sort is not stable.