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Radix Sort

Radix sort is a sorting algorithm that sorts data by digitizing the key associated with each data item and sorting by place value. It works by performing digit-by-digit sorting starting from the least significant digit to the most significant digit using a binning process. The document provides examples of radix sort working on numbers and discusses how it can be applied to other data types like strings by sorting characters. Induction is used to prove that radix sort works by ensuring the sorting is stable at each pass.

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C-1962 Anwesha Barua
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35 views

Radix Sort

Radix sort is a sorting algorithm that sorts data by digitizing the key associated with each data item and sorting by place value. It works by performing digit-by-digit sorting starting from the least significant digit to the most significant digit using a binning process. The document provides examples of radix sort working on numbers and discusses how it can be applied to other data types like strings by sorting characters. Induction is used to prove that radix sort works by ensuring the sorting is stable at each pass.

Uploaded by

C-1962 Anwesha Barua
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RadixSort

• Radix = “The base of a number system”


(Webster’s dictionary)
• History: used in 1890 U.S. census by
Hollerith*
• Idea: BinSort on each digit, bottom up.

* Thanks to Richard Ladner for this fact, taken from Winter 1999 CSE 326 course web.

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RadixSort – magic! It works.
• Input list:
126, 328, 636, 341, 416, 131, 328
• BinSort on lower digit:
341, 131, 126, 636, 416, 328, 328
• BinSort result on next-higher digit:
416, 126, 328, 328, 131, 636, 341
• BinSort that result on highest digit:
126, 131, 328, 328, 341, 416, 636
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Not magic. It provably works.
• Keys
– N-digit numbers
– base B
• Claim: after ith BinSort, least significant i
digits are sorted.
– e.g. B=10, i=3, keys are 1776 and 8234. 8234
comes before 1776 for last 3 digits.

3
Induction to the rescue!!!
• base case:
– i=0. 0 digits are sorted (that wasn’t hard!)

4
Induction is rescuing us…
• Induction step
– assume for i, prove for i+1.
– consider two numbers: X, Y. Say Xi is ith digit
of X (from the right)
• Xi+1 < Yi+1 then i+1th BinSort will put them in order
• Xi+1 > Yi+1 , same thing
• Xi+1 = Yi+1 , order depends on last i digits. Induction
hypothesis says already sorted for these digits.
(Careful about ensuring that your BinSort preserves
order aka “stable”…)

5
Running time of Radixsort
• How many passes?
• How much work per pass?
• Total time?

• Conclusion
– Not truly linear if K is large.
• In practice
– RadixSort only good for large number of items, relatively
small keys
– Hard on the cache, vs. MergeSort/QuickSort

6
What data types can you
RadixSort?
• Any type T that can be BinSorted
• Any type T that can be broken into parts A
and B,
– You can reconstruct T from A and B
– A can be RadixSorted
– B can be RadixSorted
– A is always more significant than B, in ordering

7
Example:
• 1-digit numbers can be BinSorted
• 2 to 5-digit numbers can be BinSorted
without using too much memory
• 6-digit numbers, broken up into A=first 3
digits, B=last 3 digits.
– A and B can reconstruct original 6-digits
– A and B each RadixSortable as above
– A more significant than B

8
RadixSorting Strings
• 1 Character can be BinSorted
• Break strings into characters
• Need to know length of biggest string (or
calculate this on the fly).

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RadixSorting Strings example
5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st
pass pass pass pass pass
String 1 z i p p y
String 2 z a p NULLs are
just like fake
String 3 a n t s characters

String 4 f l a p s
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