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The number of comparisons made by merge sort in the worst case is given by the sorting numbers. These numbers are equal to or slightly smaller than (n ⌈lg n⌉ − 2 ⌈lg n⌉ + 1), which is between (n lg n − n + 1) and (n lg n + n + O(lg n)). [6] Merge sort's best case takes about half as many iterations as its worst case. [7]
A graph exemplifying merge sort. Two red arrows starting from the same node indicate a split, while two green arrows ending at the same node correspond to an execution of the merge algorithm. The merge algorithm plays a critical role in the merge sort algorithm, a comparison-based sorting algorithm. Conceptually, the merge sort algorithm ...
An example of such is the classic merge that appears frequently in merge sort examples. The classic merge outputs the data item with the lowest key at each step; given some sorted lists, it produces a sorted list containing all the elements in any of the input lists, and it does so in time proportional to the sum of the lengths of the input lists.
An example of stable sort on playing cards. When the cards are sorted by rank with a stable sort, the two 5s must remain in the same order in the sorted output that they were originally in. When they are sorted with a non-stable sort, the 5s may end up in the opposite order in the sorted output.
Problems of sufficient simplicity are solved directly. For example, to sort a given list of n natural numbers, split it into two lists of about n/2 numbers each, sort each of them in turn, and interleave both results appropriately to obtain the sorted version of the given list (see the picture). This approach is known as the merge sort algorithm.
Batcher's odd–even mergesort [1] is a generic construction devised by Ken Batcher for sorting networks of size O(n (log n) 2) and depth O((log n) 2), where n is the number of items to be sorted. Although it is not asymptotically optimal, Knuth concluded in 1998, with respect to the AKS network that "Batcher's method is much better, unless n ...
The conjecture was disproved in 1959 by L. R. Ford Jr. and Selmer M. Johnson, who found a different sorting algorithm, the Ford–Johnson merge-insertion sort, using fewer comparisons. [1] The same sequence of sorting numbers also gives the worst-case number of comparisons used by merge sort to sort items. [2]
The following is a bitonic sorting network with 16 inputs: The 16 numbers enter as the inputs at the left end, slide along each of the 16 horizontal wires, and exit at the outputs at the right end. The network is designed to sort the elements, with the largest number at the bottom. The arrows are comparators.