This lesson continues our exploration of sorting by examining a new approach. We’ll start with a simple but powerful observation, and then examine how to build on it to create a complete sorting algorithm. This will also represent our first sorting algorithm that achieves best-case sorting performance! What are we waiting for?
merge
merge
We’ll begin with an observation.
Next, let’s implement merge
on two int
arrays and confirm our hunch about its performance.
Next let’s consider how to design a sorting algorithm that utilize our merge
method.
We’ll also use this as a chance to point out how we can apply recursive algorithms on arrays, rather than trees, which we’ve used in the past.
Finally, let’s analyze the performance of Mergesort. This is an interesting case! Let’s walk through it carefully.
Create a public class named Mergesort
that provides a single instance method (this is required for testing)
named mergesort
. mergesort
accepts an IntArray
and returns a sorted (ascending) IntArray
. You should not
modify the passed array.
Mergesort
should extend Merge
, and its parent provides several helpful methods:
fun merge(first: IntArray, second: IntArray): IntArray
: this merges two sorted arrays into a second sorted
array.fun copyOfRange(original: IntArray, from: Int, to: Int): IntArray
: this acts as a wrapper on
java.util.Arrays.copyOfRange
, accepting the same arguments and using them in the same way.(You can't use java.util.Arrays
in this problem for reasons that will become obvious if you inspect the rest of
the documentation...)
Note that you do need to use merge
and call it the correct number of times.
This will be tested during grading.
You should use an array of size 1 or 0 as your base case.
Need more practice? Head over to the practice page.