Searching & Sorting Algorithms

Searching & Sorting
Algorithms

Content
1. Linear Search
2. Binary Search
3. Selection Sort
4. Bubble Sort
5. Quick Sort
6. Merge Sort

Linear Search
In linear search, we look at each item in the list in turn, quitting once we find an item that
matches the search term or once we’ve reached the end of the list. Our “return value” is the
index at which the search term was found, or some indicator that the search term was not
found in the list.
Algorithm for linear search
for (each item in list)
{
compare search term to current item
if match,
save index of matching item
break
}
return index of matching item, or -1 if item not found
Performance of linear search
• Best case O(1): The best case occurs when the
search term is in the first slot in the array. The number
of comparisons in this case is 1.
• Worst case O(N) : The worst case occurs when the
search term is in the last slot in the array, or is not in
the array. The number of comparisons in this case is
equal to the size of the array. If our array has N items,
then it takes N comparisons in the worst case.
• Average case O(N/2): On average, the search term
will be somewhere in the middle of the array. The
number of comparisons in this case is approximately
N/2.

Binary Search
Binary search algorithm works on sorted arrays and uses divide and conquer technique. The
binary search begins by comparing the middle element of the array with the target value. If
the target value matches the middle element, its position in the array is returned. If the target
value is less than or greater than the middle element, the search continues in the lower or
upper half of the array, respectively, eliminating the other half from consideration.
Algorithm for binary search
set first = 1, last = N, mid = N/2
while (item not found and first < last)
{
compare search term to item at mid
if match , save index
break
else if search term is less than item at mid,
set last = mid-1
else
set first = mid+1
set mid = (first+last)/2
}
return index of matching item, or -1 if item not found

Binary Search (cont.)
Performance of linear search
• Best case O(1) : The best case occurs when the search term is in the middle slot in the array. The
number of comparisons in this case is 1O(1).
• Worst or Average Case O(log N) : The worst/average case occurs when the search term is in the
other that middle slot in the array, or is not in the array. The number of comparisons in this case is
equal to the size of the array. If our array has N items, then it takes N comparisons in the worst case.

Selection Sort
The idea behind selection sort is that we put a list in order by placing each item in
turn. In other words, we put the smallest item at the start of the list, then the next
smallest item at the second position in the list, and so on until the list is in order.
Algorithm for selection sort
for i=0 to N-2
{
set smallest = i
for j=i+1 to N-1
{
compare list[smallest] to list[j]
if list[smallest] == list[j]
smallest = j
}
swap list[i] and list[smallest]
}
O(N) in swaps and O(N^2) in comparisons

Bubble Sort
Bubble sort is similar to selection sort, on each pass through the algorithm, we place at
least one item in its proper location. The differences between bubble sort and selection
sort lie in how many times data is swapped and when the algorithm terminates.
Algorithm for bubble sort
for i=N-1 to 2
{
set swap flag to false
for j=1 to i
{
if list[j-1] > list[j]
swap list[j-1] and list[j]
set swap flag to true
}
if swap flag is false,
break.
}
O(N^2) in swaps and O(N^2) in comparisons

Quick Sort
Quicksort is a divide and conquer algorithm which relies on a partition operation: to
partition an array an element called a pivot is selected. All elements smaller than the pivot
are moved before it and all greater elements are moved after it. This can be done
efficiently in linear time and in-place. The lesser and greater sub-lists are then recursively
sorted.
O(N^2) in swaps and O(N^2) in
comparisons
Algorithm Steps for Quicksort
1. Pick an arbitrary element of the array
(the pivot).
2. Divide the array into two sub arrays,
those that are smaller and those that are
greater (the partition phase).
3. Recursively sort the sub arrays.
4. Put the pivot in the middle, between the
two sorted sub arrays to obtain the final
sorted array.

Merge Sort
Merge sort divides the array into two halves, sort each of those halves and then merges
them back together. For each half, it uses the same algorithm to divide and merge smaller
halves back. The smallest halves will just have one element each which is already sorted.
O(N log N) in swaps and O(N log N) in
comparisons
Algorithm Steps for Quicksort
1. divides the list into two smaller sub-lists
of approximately equal size
2. Recursively repeat this procedure till
only one element is left in the sub-list.
3. After this, various sorted sub-lists are
merged to form sorted parent list.
4. It will continue recursively until the
original sorted list created.

Summary
1. Selection sort’s advantage is that the number of swaps is O(N), since we perform at most
one data swap per pass through the algorithm. Its disadvantage is that it does not stop
early if the list is sorted; it looks at every element in the list in turn.
2. Bubble sort’s advantage is that it stops once it determines that the list is sorted. Its
disadvantage is that it is O(N^2) in both swaps and comparisons. For this reason, bubble
sort is actually the least efficient sorting method.
3. Quicksort is the fastest sort: it is O(N log N) in both the number of comparisons and the
number of swaps. The disadvantages of quicksort are that the algorithm is a bit tricky to
understand, and if we continually select poor pivots then the algorithm can approach
O(N^2) in the worst case.
4. Merge sort is as fast as quicksort: it is O(N log N) in both swaps and comparisons. The
disadvantage of merge sort is that it requires more copying of data from temporary lists
back to the “full” list, which slows down the algorithm a bit.

Searching & Sorting Algorithms

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