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Quick Sort Algorithm
Quick sort is a highly efficient sorting algorithm and is based on partitioning of array of data into
smaller arrays. A large array is partitioned into two arrays one of which holds values smaller than the
specified value, say pivot, based on which the partition is made and another array holds values greater
than the pivot value.
Quicksort partitions an array and then calls itself recursively twice to sort the two resulting subarrays.
This algorithm is quite efficient for large-sized data sets as its average and worst-case complexity are
O(n2), respectively.
Partition in Quick Sort
Following animated representation explains how to find the pivot value in an array.
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The pivot value divides the list into two parts. And recursively, we find the pivot for each sub-lists until
all lists contains only one element.
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Quick Sort Pivot Algorithm
Based on our understanding of partitioning in quick sort, we will now try to write an algorithm for it,
which is as follows.
1. Choose the highest index value has pivot
2. Take two variables to point left and right of the list
excluding pivot
3. Left points to the low index
4. Right points to the high
5. While value at left is less than pivot move right
6. While value at right is greater than pivot move left
7. If both step 5 and step 6 does not match swap left and right
8. If left ≥ right, the point where they met is new pivot
Quick Sort Pivot Pseudocode
The pseudocode for the above algorithm can be derived as −
function partitionFunc(left, right, pivot)
leftPointer = left
rightPointer = right - 1
while True do
while A[++leftPointer] < pivot do
//do-nothing
end while
while rightPointer > 0 && A[--rightPointer] > pivot do
//do-nothing
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end while
if leftPointer >= rightPointer
break
else
swap leftPointer,rightPointer
end if
end while
swap leftPointer,right
return leftPointer
end function
Quick Sort Algorithm
Using pivot algorithm recursively, we end up with smaller possible partitions. Each partition is then
processed for quick sort. We define recursive algorithm for quicksort as follows −
1. Make the right-most index value pivot
2. Partition the array using pivot value
3. Quicksort left partition recursively
4. Quicksort right partition recursively
Quick Sort Pseudocode
To get more into it, let see the pseudocode for quick sort algorithm −
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procedure quickSort(left, right)
if right-left <= 0
return
else
pivot = A[right]
partition = partitionFunc(left, right, pivot)
quickSort(left,partition-1)
quickSort(partition+1,right)
end if
end procedure
Analysis
The worst case complexity of Quick-Sort algorithm is O(n2). However, using this technique, in average
cases generally we get the output in O (n log n) time.
Implementation
Following are the implementations of Quick Sort algorithm in various programming languages −
C C++ Java Python
Open Compiler
import [Link];
public class QuickSortExample {
int[] intArray = {4,6,3,2,1,9,7};
void swap(int num1, int num2) {
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int temp = intArray[num1];
intArray[num1] = intArray[num2];
intArray[num2] = temp;
}
int partition(int left, int right, int pivot) {
int leftPointer = left - 1;
int rightPointer = right;
while (true) {
while (intArray[++leftPointer] < pivot) {
// do nothing
}
while (rightPointer > 0 && intArray[--rightPointer] > pivot)
{
// do nothing
}
if (leftPointer >= rightPointer) {
break;
} else {
swap(leftPointer, rightPointer);
}
}
swap(leftPointer, right);
// [Link]("Updated Array: ");
return leftPointer;
}
void quickSort(int left, int right) {
if (right - left <= 0) {
return;
} else {
int pivot = intArray[right];
int partitionPoint = partition(left, right, pivot);
quickSort(left, partitionPoint - 1);
quickSort(partitionPoint + 1, right);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
QuickSortExample sort = new QuickSortExample();
int max = [Link];
[Link]("Contents of the array :");
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[Link]([Link]([Link]));
[Link](0, max - 1);
[Link]("Contents of the array after sorting :");
[Link]([Link]([Link]));
}
}
Output
Contents of the array :
[4, 6, 3, 2, 1, 9, 7]
Contents of the array after sorting :
[1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9]
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