Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site godot.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!whuxle!mit-eddie!godot!bradley From: bradley@godot.UUCP (Bradley C. Kuszmaul) Newsgroups: net.sources,net.followup,net.flame Subject: Re: A Simple Bubble Sort Function, glass houses Message-ID: <131@godot.UUCP> Date: Mon, 11-Jun-84 06:12:28 EDT Article-I.D.: godot.131 Posted: Mon Jun 11 06:12:28 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 12-Jun-84 00:35:44 EDT References: <965@ihuxq.UUCP> <165@callan.UUCP> Organization: Thinking Machines, Waltham, MA Lines: 27 Not nice to call someone an idiot, especially when you show your own ... er ... failure to keep up with the field. The selection sort that you described is really no better than the bubble sort under most conditions: bubble sort: best time: n steps worst time: n^2 steps selection sort: best time = worst time = 0.5*(n^2) steps The selection sort is only better by a factor of two under the conditions most favorable to it, and is sometimes worse by a factor of 0.5*n. The conditions under which bubble sort will win are when a file is "partly sorted" already (i.e. the farthest a given element will have to travel is small) For good sorting algorithms, try quicksort (n^2 at worst n*log n at best, with the "best" conditions much less restrictive than for bubble sort), or something else. (Quicksort and other sorting algorithms are discussed in "Software Tools" by Kernighan and Plaugher (Excuse the spelling and possibly incorrect name of the book) and "The Art of Computer Programming, vol II Sorting and Searching" by Knuth. --Bradley C. Kuszmaul {decvax!cca,ihnp4!mit-eddie,allegra!ias}!godot!bradley, "godot!bradley@mit-eddie"@MIT-XX.ARPA -- {decvax!cca,ihnp4!mit-eddie,allegra!ias}!godot!bradley, "godot!bradley@mit-eddie"@MIT-XX.ARPA