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Visualization of Quick sort

20 May

This video was created for www.zutopedia.com It demonstrates two comparison sorting algorithms Bubble sort and Quick sort. Comparison sorting algorithms are only allowed to ‘see’ the data through a sequence of pair-wise comparisons, therefore they are applicable to any type of comparable objects: numbers, strings, colored balls, etc Bubble sort is very simple but has poor performance. A comparison sorting algorithm’s performance is usually measured by the number of comparisons it makes. Bubble sort performs on the order of n^2 comparisons to sort n elements. Quick sort is only slightly more complicated but usually performs much better (as demonstrated in the video). It performs on average an order of n log(n) comparisons to sort n elements. This is much lower than n^2 for large values of n. However, if the algorithm makes some ‘unlucky’ choices it might require n^2 comparisons after all. Other algorithms exist that guarantee the number of comparisons will not exceed n log(n), however, in practice Quick sort usually out-performs all other comparison sorting algorithms due to its simplicity. If other operations other than pair-wise comparisons are allowed, then a broader range of algorithms can be used. Some of them can perform much faster than Quick sort, but they are limited to a particular type of elements, eg, numbers is a certain range.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 

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