Sorting Algorithms

Sorting a group of data values is an operation

that is routinely used when analyzing massive
amounts of data.

CS1010E Lecture 9
Problem Solving With
One Dimensional Arrays

Sorting is typically used as a pre-processing

step for the following tasks:
Counting occurrences of similar data.
Finding duplicate values.
Efficient search for a particular data.

Henry Chia
hchia@comp.nus.edu.sg

Semester 1 2011 / 2012

We will present the selection sort algorithm.

Department of Computer Science

School Of Computing
National University Of Singapore

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.1/29

Lecture Outline

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.3/29

Selection Sort

Selection sort

Find the minimum value and exchange it with

the value in the first position in the array.

Searching
Linear search
Binary search

Find the minimum value beginning with the

second element, and exchange with the
second element.

Random number generation

Integer sequences
Floating-point sequences

This process continues until reaching the

next-to-last element.
At this point, the entire array of values will be
in ascending order.

Array of Structures

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.2/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.4/29

Selection Sort
Original order:
5 3 12 8 1

Selection Sort
void selectionSort(int list[],int numElem)
{
int i, j, minIndex, temp;

Exchange the minimum with the value in the

first position:
1 3 12 8 5 9

for (i = 0; i < numElem-1; i++)

{
minIndex = i;
for (j = i+1; j < numElem; j++)
if (list[j] < list[minIndex])
minIndex = j;

Exchange the minimum with the value in the

second position:
1 3 12 8 5 9

if (minIndex != i) // to avoid redundant swaps

{
temp = list[minIndex];
list[minIndex] = list[i];
list[i] = temp;
}

Exchange the minimum with the value in the

third position:
1 3 5 8 12 9

}
return;
}

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.5/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.7/29

Selection Sort

Selection Sort

Exchange the minimum with the value in the

fourth position:
1 3 5 8 12 9

In general, a selection sort technique requires

locating an extremum (maximum or minimum
value) and exchanging it with a value at an
extreme (rightmost or leftmost) end.

Exchange the minimum with the value in the

fifth position:
1 3 5 8 9 12
Array values are now in ascending order!

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.6/29

A selection sort algorithm can be written for

Ascending or descending arrangement.
Extremum as minimum or maximum value.
Finding the extremum in a left-to-right, or
right-to-left traversal of the array.

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.8/29

Search Algorithms

Linear Search

Another common operation performed with

arrays is searching for a specific value, e.g.
Finding first/last occurrence
Counting occurrences
Searching algorithms fall into two groups:
those for searching an unordered array and
those for searching an ordered array.

Consider searching an ordered list of values.

Example: searching for the value 25 in:
-7 2 14 38 52 77 105
As soon as the value 38 is reached, conclude
that 25 is not in the list.
int linearSearch(int list[], int numElem, int value)
{
int i=0;

A search function either returns the position

of the desired value in the array or returns a
value of 1 if the desired value is not in the
array.

while (i < numElem && list[i] < value)

i++;
if (i < numElem && list[i] == value)
return i;
else
return -1;
}

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.9/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.11/29

Binary Search

Linear Search
Consider searching an unordered list of
values.
int linearSearch(int list[], int numElem,
int value)
{
int i=0, index=-1;
while (i < numElem && list[i] != value)
i++;
if (i < numElem)
index = i;
return index;
}

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.10/29

More efficient algorithm for searching an

ordered list.
Check the middle of the array and
determine if the value is in the first half or
second half of the array.
Within the half array, check the middle and
determine if the value is in the first quarter
or the second quarter of the array.
The process of dividing the array into
smaller and smaller pieces continues until
the value is found or further division is no
longer possible.
CS1010E Lecture 9 p.12/29

Binary Search

Binary Search

Search for value 14 in the following list:

-7 2 14 38 52 77 105
l
m
r
38 > 14 so choose top half:
-7 2 14 38 52 77
l m
r
2 < 14:
-7 2

14
lr
m

38

52

77

14 < 25:
-7 2 14
r
m

38
l

52

77

105

l > r so item is not found!

105

105

14 = 14 so it is found!
CS1010E Lecture 9 p.13/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.15/29

Binary Search

Binary Search

Search for value 25 in the following list:

-7 2 14 38 52 77 105
l
m
r
38 > 25 so choose top half:
-7 2 14 38 52 77
l m
r
2 < 25:
-7 2

14
lr
m

38

52

77

int binarySearch(int list[], int numElem, int value)

{
int left=0, right=numElem-1, mid, index=-1;
while ((left <= right) && (index == -1))
{
mid = (left + right)/2;

105

if (list[mid] == value)
index = mid;
else
if (list[mid] > value)
right = mid - 1;
else
left = mid + 1;

105
}

return index;
}

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.14/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.16/29

Random Numbers

Random Numbers

Many simulation applications often require

random numbers distributed between
specified values.
For example, we may want to generate
random integers between 1 and 500, or we
may want to generate random floating-point
values between 5 and 5.
The random numbers generated are equally
likely to occur; if the random number is
supposed to be an integer between 1 and 5,
each of the integers in the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} is
equally likely to occur.

int main(void)
{
int i, r, list[10];
for (i=0; i<10; i++)
list[i] = rand();

void printArray(int t[],

int numElem)
{
int i;
for (i=0; i<numElem; i++)
printf("%d ", t[i]);
printf("\n");

printArray(list,10);
return 0;
}

return;
}

What happens each time the program is run?

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.17/29

Random Numbers

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.19/29

Random-Number Seed

The Standard C library contains a function

rand that generates a random integer
between 0 and RAND_MAX, where RAND_MAX
is a system-dependent integer defined in
stdlib.h.
The rand function has no input arguments
and is referenced by the expression rand().

Different sequences of random values are generated

with a different random-number seed using the
function srand (from stdlib.h).
The argument of the srand function is an (unsigned)
integer that is used in computations that initialize the
sequence; the seed value is not the first value in the
sequence.
The seed value is typically defined as a constant.
srand is generally executed once throughout the
execution of the program in the main function.

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.18/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.20/29

Integer Sequences

Random-Number Seed

Generating random integers over a specified

range is simple with the rand function.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define SEED 100

Suppose we want to generate random

integers between 0 and 7.
x = rand()%8;

void printArray(int t[], int numElem);

int main(void)
{
int i, r, list[10];

Suppose we want to generate a random

integer between 25 and 25.
The total number of possible integers is 51.
x = rand()%51 - 25;

srand(SEED);
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
list[i] = rand();
printArray(list,10);
return 0;
}

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.21/29

Time-based Seeding

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.23/29

Integer Sequences

Using the current time (in seconds) to seed

the random number generator.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h> // header file for time function
#define SEED (unsigned int)time(NULL) // current tim
void printArray(int t[], int numElem);

Function to generate and return an integer

between two specified integers, a and b.
int rand_int(int a,int b)
{
return rand()%(b-a+1) + a;
}

Seeding with srand must be done once in

main function first.

int main(void)
{
int i, r, list[10];
srand(SEED);
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
list[i] = rand();
printArray(list,10);
return 0;
}
CS1010E Lecture 9 p.22/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.24/29

Floating-Point Sequences

Array of Structures

The computation to convert an integer

between 0 and RAND_MAX to a floating-point
value between a and b has three steps.

An array of fractions:
struct Fraction
{
int num, den;
};

The value from the rand function is first divided by

RAND_MAX to generate a floating-point value
between 0 and 1, i.e. 1.0*rand()/RAND_MAX

...
struct Fraction fracArray[3] = {{1,4},{5,12}};
(fracArray[2]).num = 2;
(fracArray[2]).den = 1;

The value between 0 and 1 is then multiplied by

(b a) (the width of the interval [a, b]) to give a value
between 0 and (b a).
The value between 0 and (b a) is then added to a
to adjust it so that it will be between a and b.

fracArray :

12

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.25/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.27/29

Floating-Point Sequences

Problem Solving

Function to generate and return a

floating-point number between a and b.
double rand_float(double a,double b)
{
return (1.0*rand()/RAND_MAX)*(b-a) + a;
}

The value of rand() needs to be converted

to a double value so that the result of the
division would be a double value.
Seeding with srand must be done once in
main function first.

A Farey Sequence of order n, denoted Fn , is the

sequence of reduced fractions between 0 and 1 having
denominators less than or equal to n, arranged in order
of increasing size. For example, F8 is the sequence


0 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 2 3 1 4 3 5 2 5 3 4 5 6 7 1
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 8 7 6 5 4 7 3 8 5 7 2 7 5 8 3 7 4 5 6 7 8 1

Main tasks:
Enumerate all possible fractions based on n.
Sort the sequence of fractions.
Remove duplicate fractions within the sequence.
Reduce fractions within the sequence.

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.26/29

CS1010E Lecture 9 p.28/29

Lecture Summary
Understand the technique of selection sort.
Application of sorting in a problem requires:
The type of the parameter (as well as temp
variable) to be modified.
The if condition to be altered.
Understand the techniques of search algorithms.
Random number generation
Integer/Floating-point sequences.
Expressions to scale and shift.
Since a structure behaves like a primitive, an array of
structures would behave like an array of primitives.
CS1010E Lecture 9 p.29/29