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Sorting refers to ordering data in an increasing or decreasing manner according to some linear relationship among the data items. ordering : arranging items in a sequence ordered by some criterion; categorizing : grouping items with similar properties.
Sorting small arrays optimally (in the fewest comparisons and swaps) or fast (i.e. taking into account machine-specific details) is still an open research problem, with solutions only known for very small arrays (<20 elements). Similarly optimal (by various definitions) sorting on a parallel machine is an open research topic.
Insertion sort is a simple sorting algorithm that builds the final sorted array (or list) one item at a time by comparisons.It is much less efficient on large lists than more advanced algorithms such as quicksort, heapsort, or merge sort.
Selection sort is not difficult to analyze compared to other sorting algorithms, since none of the loops depend on the data in the array. Selecting the minimum requires scanning n {\displaystyle n} elements (taking n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} comparisons) and then swapping it into the first position.
Radix sort is a sorting algorithm that works for larger keys than pigeonhole sort or counting sort by performing multiple passes over the data. Each pass sorts the input using only part of the keys, by using a different sorting algorithm (such as pigeonhole sort or counting sort) that is suited only for small keys.
Sorted arrays are the most space-efficient data structure with the best locality of reference for sequentially stored data. [citation needed]Elements within a sorted array are found using a binary search, in O(log n); thus sorted arrays are suited for cases when one needs to be able to look up elements quickly, e.g. as a set or multiset data structure.
Merge sort is also the algorithm of choice for external sorting of very large data sets stored on slow-to-access media such as disk storage or network-attached storage. Bucket sort with two buckets is very similar to quicksort; the pivot in this case is effectively the value in the middle of the value range, which does well on average for ...
The shuffle sort [6] is a variant of bucket sort that begins by removing the first 1/8 of the n items to be sorted, sorts them recursively, and puts them in an array. This creates n/8 "buckets" to which the remaining 7/8 of the items are distributed. Each "bucket" is then sorted, and the "buckets" are concatenated into a sorted array.