frasette

frasette

A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, Second Edition: Are Selection Sort steps wrong? (page 71)

Hi @jaywengrow,

I think the table of Selection Sort shows wrong Max number of steps.
For example, for N = 5 we sould have:

  • Comparsions: 10 + Swaps: 2

and not:

  • Comparsions: 10 + Swaps: 4

In the following code, edit size variable to the number of element you want (5,10,20,40,80), run it to print comparsions and steps, and their sum, for a worst case scenario with a descending order array:
fiddle url: JsFiddle

function selectionSort(array) {
  let comparsions = 0;
  let swaps = 0;
  for(let i = 0; i < array.length - 1; i++) {    
    let lowestNumberIndex = i;
    for(let j = i + 1; j < array.length; j++) {
      if(array[j] < array[lowestNumberIndex]) {
        lowestNumberIndex = j;
      }
      comparsions++;
    }
 
    if(lowestNumberIndex != i) {
      swaps++;
      let temp = array[i];
      array[i] = array[lowestNumberIndex];
      array[lowestNumberIndex] = temp;
    }
  }
  let steps = "Comparsions: " + comparsions + " Swaps: " + swaps;
  console.log(steps);
  return array;
}

// code to create a sample of array size = 5,10,20,40,80
let size    = 80;
let counter = size;
let sample  = new Array(size);

for (i = 0; i < size; i++) {
   sample[i] = counter;
   counter--;
}

console.log(selectionSort(sample))

What do you think? Thanks.

Marked As Solved

jaywengrow

jaywengrow

Author of A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms

Hi,

This is a really good catch! I think that for Selection Sort, the worst case scenario is still 4 swaps, but you’re right that an array in perfect descending order happens not to be the worst case scenario for Selection Sort.

An array like this: [5, 3, 1, 2, 4] - will still give you 4 swaps in Selection Sort.

I’ll have to clarify this in the next version. Thank you!

-Jay

Where Next?

Popular Pragmatic Bookshelf topics Top

abtin
page 20: … protoc command… I had to additionally run the following go get commands in order to be able to compile protobuf code using go...
New
jon
Some minor things in the paper edition that says “3 2020” on the title page verso, not mentioned in the book’s errata online: p. 186 But...
New
ianwillie
Hello Brian, I have some problems with running the code in your book. I like the style of the book very much and I have learnt a lot as...
New
jamis
The following is cross-posted from the original Ray Tracer Challenge forum, from a post by garfieldnate. I’m cross-posting it so that the...
New
fynn
This is as much a suggestion as a question, as a note for others. Locally the SGP30 wasn’t available, so I ordered a SGP40. On page 53, ...
New
nicoatridge
Hi, I have just acquired Michael Fazio’s “Kotlin and Android Development” to learn about game programming for Android. I have a game in p...
New
brunogirin
When running tox for the first time, I got the following error: ERROR: InterpreterNotFound: python3.10 I realised that I was running ...
New
rainforest
Hi, I’ve got a question about the implementation of PubSub when using a Phoenix.Socket.Transport behaviour rather than channels. Before ...
New
EdBorn
Title: Agile Web Development with Rails 7: (page 70) I am running windows 11 pro with rails 7.0.3 and ruby 3.1.2p20 (2022-04-12 revision...
New
redconfetti
Docker-Machine became part of the Docker Toolbox, which was deprecated in 2020, long after Docker Desktop supported Docker Engine nativel...
New

Other popular topics Top

Exadra37
Please tell us what is your preferred monitor setup for programming(not gaming) and why you have chosen it. Does your monitor have eye p...
New
AstonJ
Just done a fresh install of macOS Big Sur and on installing Erlang I am getting: asdf install erlang 23.1.2 Configure failed. checking ...
New
Exadra37
Oh just spent so much time on this to discover now that RancherOS is in end of life but Rancher is refusing to mark the Github repo as su...
New
AstonJ
Continuing the discussion from Thinking about learning Crystal, let’s discuss - I was wondering which languages don’t GC - maybe we can c...
New
Margaret
Hello everyone! This thread is to tell you about what authors from The Pragmatic Bookshelf are writing on Medium.
1147 29994 760
New
AstonJ
Saw this on TikTok of all places! :lol: Anyone heard of them before? Lite:
New
AstonJ
Biggest jackpot ever apparently! :upside_down_face: I don’t (usually) gamble/play the lottery, but working on a program to predict the...
New
New
First poster: AstonJ
Jan | Rethink the Computer. Jan turns your computer into an AI machine by running LLMs locally on your computer. It’s a privacy-focus, l...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Use advanced functional programming principles, practical Domain-Driven Design techniques, and production-ready Elixir code to build scal...
New

Sub Categories: