Course: Programming Techniques (CSC10002)
21CLC03 – 21CLC06 – 21CLC08
SEARCH AND SORTING ALGORITHMS
Short Answer
1. * Discuss the efficiency and inefficiency of linear search. Repeat the question for binary search.
2. * What are the best case and worst case of linear search. Repeat the question for binary search.
3. * Identify the key difference(s) between linear search and binary search.
4. * Identify the best case and worst case of bubble sort. Repeat the question for selection sort,
insertion sort, and interchange sort.
5. ** What is the major difference between insertion sort and the other sorting algorithms?
6. ** Identify the key difference(s) between bubble sort and interchange sort.
7. ** Describe the idea shared by both selection sort and interchange sort.
8. ** Linear search must examine, on average, half of the N elements of an array while binary search
needs to only check log2N. Thus, binary search is a great deal more efficient than linear search.
Why, then, should we still study and use linear search?
9. ** The efficiency of linear search could be improved by adding a sentinel. Explain why.
10. ** Why is selection sort more efficient than bubble sort on large arrays?
11. ** If you want to sort an array in descending order, which part of the bubble sort algorithm should
be modified? Repeat the question for selection sort, insertion sort, and interchange sort.
12. ** Consider the following array of integers, {1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14}. For linear search, which
elements will be examined to determine that 9 is in the array, and which elements will be
examined to determine that 11 is not in the array? Repeat the question for binary search.
13. ** Consider the following array of integers, {26, 48, 12, 92, 28, 6, 33}. For bubble sort,
show the resulting array for each of the first three iterations of the outer loop. Repeat the
question for selection sort, insertion sort, and interchange sort.
14. ** Consider an array of 5 integers. What is the maximum number of data moves if the array is
sorted by bubble sort? Justify your answer. Repeat the question for selection sort, insertion sort,
and interchange sort.
15. ** Consider an array of 5 integers. What is the maximum number of comparisons if the array is
sorted by bubble sort? Justify your answer. Repeat the question for selection sort, insertion sort,
and interchange sort.
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16. ** This C++ fragment implements bubble sort for for (i = 1; i < n; i++)
ascending order. Is the code valid? If no, suggest for (j = n – 1; j <= i; j--)
if (a[j] > a[j - 1])
how to fix the errors. a[j] = a[j - 1]);
a[j-1] = a[j];
17. ** Which sorting algorithm is demonstrated int s, t, numItems = 10;
by this C++ code segment? Explain. for (s = (numItems - 1); s >= 0; s--){
for (t = 1; t <= s; t++){
if (arr[t - 1] > arr[t]) {
int temp = arr[t - 1];
arr[t - 1] = arr[t];
arr[t] = temp;
}
}
}
18. ** Consider the following array of strings, [“Imogen”, “Fletcher”, “Kirstie”, “Zoe”,
“Gavin”]. Is the given array could be searched using binary search? Justify your answer.
19. ** Selection sort compares each pair of keys at most once. Is the given statement TRUE or FALSE?
Justify your answer.
20. ** Given the following array, {1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 9}. Which sorting algorithm(s) might you
choose for the given array? Justify your answer.
21. ** Consider a situation where swap operation is very costly. Which sorting algorithm(s) should
be preferred so that the number of swaps are minimized in general? Justify your answer.
22. *** Assume that the following timings were taken of three algorithms as they processed lists of
integers. Which of these algorithms is most likely to be selection sort? What characteristics of
the sort (and its performance) led you to your choice?
23. *** We could improve the efficiency of bubble sort by early termination using only an additional
Boolean variable. Describe how to do that with your pseudo-code.
24. *** Consider a situation when all elements of the input array are identical. Which sorting algorithm
will take least time?
25. *** If a linear search is performed on an array, and it is known that some items are searched for
more frequently than others, how can the contents of the array be reordered to improve the
average performance of the search?
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Fill-in-the-Blank
1. * Fill in each of the following blanks with an appropriate word.
• Linear search starts with the _____________ element while binary search starts with the
_____________ element.
• The processing of reversing the positions of two variables is called __________________.
• A ______________ algorithm is a method of locating a specific item of information in a larger
collection of data.
2. * Fill in each of the following blanks with an appropriate algorithm name.
• ________________ will not work properly unless the values in the array are sorted.
• ________________ repeatedly compares adjacent pairs and swaps them if they are in the wrong
order.
• ________________ iteratively chooses the smallest element of the unsorted array and swaps it with
the left-most element of the unsorted array.
• ________________ iteratively picks up the left-most element of the unsorted array and finds an
appropriate position in the sorted array for this element.
• ________________ repeatedly compares an element with every other elements of the array and
swaps them if they are in the wrong order.
3. ** Consider the following array of integers, {15,20,10,18}, and a sequence showing the array
after each elements swap operation.
• If the sequence is 15,10,20,18 -- 15,10,18,20 -- 10,15,18,20, then the array is being sorted by
_______________________________________________.
• If the sequence is 10,20,15,18 -- 10,15,20,18 -- 10,15,18,20, then the array is being sorted by
_______________________________________________.
• If the sequence is 15,20,10,18 -- 10,15,20,18 -- 10,15,18,20 -- 10,15,18,20, then the array is
being sorted by _______________________________________________.
4. ** Fill in each of the following blanks with appropriate indexical values.
• You are using binary search to look for the number 28 in the array {5, 11, 25, 28, 45, 78, 100,
120, 125}. When the algorithm stops, the value of the variable first (or left) is ______________
and the value of the variable last (or right) is _____________.
• You are using binary search to look for the number 50 in the array {11, 12, 16, 18, 23, 29, 33,
48, 54, 57, 68, 77, 84, 98}. When the algorithm stops, the value of the variable first (or left) is
______________ and the value of the variable last (or right) is _____________.
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5. ** Fill in each of the following blanks with an appropriate number.
• 32 teams qualified for the 2018 World Cup. If the names of the teams were arranged in sorted
order (an array), the binary search would have to examine at most __________ items to find the
location of a particular team in the array.
• In 2013, there were 193 member states in the United Nations. If the names of these states were
sorted alphabetically in an array, the binary search would have to examine at most ___________
names to locate a particular name in the array.
• Given an array of prime numbers that are from 2 to 311 in sorted order: {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, ...,
307, 311}. There are 64 items in the array. The binary search would have to examine about
________ items before concluding that 52 is not in the array, and therefore not prime.
• The 2014 "Catalogue of Life" contains about 1,580,000 names of species. If these names were
sorted in an array, in the worst case, how long would it take to use binary search to find the
name of a particular species in the array? ___________.
6. ** For each of the following situations, choose the sorting algorithm that will perform the best.
(Some questions might have more than one answer, but you only need to list one.)
• I am sorting data that is stored over a network connection. Based on the properties of that
connection, it is extremely expensive to "swap" two elements. But looping over the elements
and looking at their values is very inexpensive. I want to minimize swaps above all other
factors. A good choice would be: ______________________.
• I have an array that is already sorted. Periodically, some new data comes in and is added to
the array at random indexes, messing up the ordering. I need to re-sort the array to get it back
to being fully ordered. I do not want to use very much additional memory during the sort. A
good choice would be: ______________________.
• Instead of sorting the entire data set, you only need the k smallest elements where k is an
input to the algorithm but is likely to be much smaller than the size of the entire data set. A
good choice would be: ______________________.
• You are the county clerk. You receive birth records from the towns in the county in batches
throughout the year. You need to sort these records by date and up to now you are having
1,000,000 records. A good choice of sorting algorithm would be: _____________________.
7. ** Fill in the blanks with appropriate numbers. Consider the following lists of partially sorted
numbers, [1 3 4 8 9 || 5 2]. The double bars represent the sort marker. The insertion sort needs
_____________ comparisons and ________________ elements needed to be moved to sort the next number.
8. ** Suppose that you have an array of length 2N consisting of N B’s followed by N A’s.
Here is an example array when N = 10: B B B B B B B B B B A A A A A A A A A A
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How many comparisons does it take to insertion sort the array as a function of N? Use tilde
notation to simplify your answer. _________________________________________________
9. ** Choose the best answer for each of the following single-choice questions about selection sort.
• Through experiment, you determine that selection sort performs 5000 comparisons when
sorting an array of some size k. If you doubled the size of the array to 2k, approximately how
many comparisons would you expect it to perform?
a) 5000 b) 10000 c) 20000
d) 40000 e) The value would depend on the contents of the array
• Through experiment, you determine that selection sort performs 5000 data moves when
sorting an array of some size k. If you doubled the size of the array to 2k, approximately how
many moves would you expect it to perform?
a) 5000 b) 10000 c) 20000
d) 40000 e) The value would depend on the contents of the array
• A selection sort of 100 items has completed 42 iterations of the main loop. How many items
are now guaranteed to be in their final spots (never to be moved again)?
a) 21 b) 41 c) 42 d) 43
10. ** Consider the following array, {32, 33, 5, 2, 14, -4, 22, 39, 34, -9}.
Each of the following is a view of a sort in progress of the given array, i.e., the array is shown
after a few of passes of the outermost loop has completed.
• {2, 5, 32, 33, 14, -4, 22, 39, 34, -9}
Sorting algorithm: ______________________________________________________
• {2, 5, -4, 14, 22, 32, -9, 33, 34, 39}
Sorting Algorithm: ______________________________________________________
• {-9, -4, 2, 5, 14, 33, 22, 39, 34, 32}
Sorting algorithm: ______________________________________________________
Which sort is which? Choose between bubble sort, selection sort, and insertion sort. Each sort is
used exactly once.
11. ** Fill in the blanks in the following code segment to implement sequential search on the given
array. If the number is found, the function should return its array subscript. Otherwise, −1 is
returned indicating the value did not appear in the array.
int searchList(const int list[], int numElems, int value) {
int index = ________; // Used as a subscript to search array
int position = −1; // To record position of search value
bool found = false; // Flag to indicate if the value was found
while ( ______________________ && ____________________) {
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if (__________________) { // If the value is found
found = true; // Set the flag
position = index; // Record the value's subscript
}
index++; // Go to the next element
}
return ___________________;
}
12. ** Fill in the blanks in the following pseudo-code segment to implement a search algorithm of the
given array. Which search algorithm is it?
array people[5]
people = [“Imogen”, “Fletcher”, “Kirstie”, “Zoe”, “Gavin”]
found = False
x = 0
searchfor = inputName()
while found = False ………… x < 5
if people[x] = searchfor then
found = ……………
print “found at position” + …………
else
x = x + 1
endif
endwhile
13. *** Suppose we want to sort a collection of sticks according to heights.
Each of the following diagrams show the state of the sticks part way through sorting using a
different sorting algorithm. For each diagram, say which algorithm is being used, and give a
brief explanation for your choice.
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The algorithm above is _________________________ because __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The algorithm above is _________________________ because __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
14. *** The column on the left is the original input of strings to be sorted; the column on the right are
the strings in sorted order; the other columns are the contents at some intermediate step
during one of the five sorting algorithms.
Which columns demonstrate the selection sort and insertion sort?
0 prim heap flip edge flip miss edge
1 left left heap find left load find
2 load load java flip load loop flip
3 push lazy left hash loop list hash
4 sink node load heap miss left heap
5 time hash loop java null lazy java
6 loop loop miss lazy prim heap lazy
7 flip flip null left push java left
8 null null prim list sink flip list
9 miss miss push load swim hash load
10 trie edge rank loop time edge loop
11 swim find sink miss trie find miss
12 java java sort time find node node
13 sort list swim sort heap null null
14 rank prim time rank java prim prim
15 heap rank trie sink list push push
16 list sort list null rank rank rank
17 find swim find swim sort sink sink
18 tree tree tree tree tree sort sort
19 edge trie edge prim edge swim swim
20 hash time hash push hash time time
21 node sink node node node tree tree
22 lazy push lazy trie lazy trie trie
23 type type type type type type type
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15. *** The column on the left is the original array of 24 integers to be sorted; the rightmost column
contains the integers in sorted order; the other columns are the contents of the array at some
intermediate step during one of the five sorting algorithms listed below. Match each algorithm
by writing its number in the box under the corresponding column. Use each number once.
(0) Original array (2) Selection sort (4) Insertion sort
(1) Sorted array (3) Bubble sort (5) Exchange sort
0 63 11 11 11 11 11
1 21 19 19 19 19 19
2 19 21 21 21 21 21
3 32 29 25 25 25 25
4 45 31 29 29 29 29
5 60 32 31 31 31 31
6 31 44 32 32 32 32
7 79 45 44 44 44 44
8 48 48 45 45 45 45
9 11 60 48 48 48 48
10 71 63 63 50 50 50
11 88 71 50 52 52 52
12 29 79 52 63 60 60
13 99 88 60 99 63 63
14 89 89 67 89 99 67
15 44 99 71 79 89 71
16 86 86 79 86 88 79
17 52 52 81 88 86 81
18 92 92 86 92 92 86
19 50 50 88 71 79 88
20 25 25 89 60 71 89
21 67 67 92 67 67 92
22 93 93 93 93 93 93
23 81 81 99 81 81 99
0 1
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True or False
Choose T (True) or F (False) for each of the following statements and then briefly explain in one or
two sentences.
1. T F The maximum number of comparisons that linear search performs in searching a value
in an array of size N is always N.
2. T F Binary search does not work unless the array is sorted.
3. T F For binary search, the successful search requires only log2N comparisons, but the
unsuccessful search requires N comparisons.
4. T F Binary search terminates when the variables first becomes equal to last.
5. T F Linear search will be more efficient if the array is sorted.
6. T F Insertion sort works best to sort data as it arrives, one piece at a time, perhaps from a
network.
7. T F Selection sort makes the same number of comparisons regardless of the input array.
8. T F Bubble sort is an easy way to arrange data into ascending order, but it cannot arrange
data into descending order.
9. T F Interchange sort compares adjacent elements and swaps them if they are in wrong
order.
10. T F There is no difference between the best case and worst case of selection sort.
11. T F All sorting algorithms (i.e., bubble sort, selection sort, insertion sort and exchange sort)
requires two nested loops in their implementation.
12. T F All sorting algorithms (i.e., bubble sort, selection sort, insertion sort and exchange sort)
requires the same number of comparisons when considering a given array of N integers.
13. T F Selection sort makes one data exchange at the end of every pass.
14. T F The first swap that insertion sort would make on the list, (5, 3, 4, 9, 1), is 5 and 3.
15. T F Bubble sort gains efficiency by splitting the data in half.
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Algorithm Workbench
1. * Provide appropriate modifications to selection sort so that it can be used for descending order.
Repeat the question for selection sort, insertion sort, and interchange sort.
For each of the following requirements, consider both cases: the array is unsorted, and the array is
already sorted.
2. ** Write the function, remove, to take three parameters: an array of integers, the number of
elements in the array, and an integer (say, removeItem). The function should find and delete
the first occurrence of removeItem in the array. If the value does not exist or the array is
empty, output an appropriate message. (Note that after deleting the element, the number of
elements in the array is reduced by 1.)
3. ** Write the function, removeAt, to take three parameters: an array of integers, the number of
elements in the array, and an integer (say, index). The function should delete the array
element indicated by index. If index is out of range or the array is empty, output an
appropriate message. (Note that after deleting the element the number of elements in the array
is reduced by 1.).
4. ** Write the function, removeAll, to take three parameters: an array of integers, the number of
elements in the array, and an integer (say, removeItem). The function should find and delete
all the occurrences of removeItem in the array. If the value does not exist or the array is empty,
output an appropriate message. (Note that after deleting the element, the number of elements
in the array is reduced.)
5. ** Print the elements of an array in the decreasing frequency. If two numbers have same
frequency, print the one which came first. For example,
Input Output
{2, 5, 2, 8, 5, 6, 8, 8} {8, 8, 8, 2, 2, 5, 5, 6}
{2, 5, 2, 6, -1, 9999999, 5, 8, 8, 8} {8, 8, 8, 2, 2, 5, 5, 6, -1, 9999999}
6. ** Count the number of inversions in an array of integers, indicating how far the array is from
being sorted. If array is already sorted, the inversion count is 0. If array is sorted in reverse
order, the inversion count is the maximum. Formally speaking, two elements a[i] and a[j]
form an inversion if a[i] > a[j] and i < j. For example,
Input Output Explanation
{8, 4, 2, 1} 6 (8,4), (4,2), (8,2), (8,1), (4,1), (2,1)
{3, 1, 2} 2 (3,1), (3,2)
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7. ** Write a function to receive an array of strings and arrange the strings in ascending order.
For example,
Input [Farm, Zoo, Car, Apple, Bee, Golf, Bee, Dog, Golf, Zoo, Zoo, Bee,
Bee, Apple]
Output [Apple, Apple, Bee, Bee, Bee, Bee, Car, Dog, Farm, Golf, Golf, Zoo,
Zoo, Zoo]
Then write another function that accepts the newly sorted array and outputs the set of distinct
strings, each of which associates with its number of occurrences. For example,
Input [Apple, Apple, Bee, Bee, Bee, Bee, Car, Dog, Farm, Golf, Golf, Zoo,
Zoo, Zoo]
Output Apple: 2, Bee:4, Car:1, Dog:1, Farm:1, Golf:2, Zoo:3
8. ** Write code to receive a set of positive integers, representing test scores for a class, and
output how many times a particular number appears in the list. You may assume that the data
set has at most 100 numbers and -999 marks the end of the input data. The numbers must be
output in increasing order.
For example, for the following data
55 80 78 92 95 55 78 53 92 65 78 95 85 92 85 95 95
the output is
Test Score 53 55 65 78 80 85 92 95
Count 1 2 1 3 1 2 3 4
9. ** Your state is in a process of creating a weekly lottery. Once a week, five distinct random
integers between 1 to 40 (inclusive) are drawn. If a player guesses all the numbers correctly,
the player wins a certain amount. Write a program that does the following:
a) Generate five distinct random lottery numbers between 1 to 40 (inclusive) and stores
them in an array.
b) Sort the array containing the lottery numbers.
c) Prompt the player to select five distinct integers between 1 and 40 (inclusive) and
stores the number in an array. The player can select the numbers in any order and the
array containing the numbers need not to be sorted.
d) Determine whether the player guessed the lottery numbers correctly. If the player
guessed the lottery number correctly, output the message “You win!”; otherwise, output
the message “You lose!”, as well as the lottery numbers.
Your program should allow a player to play the game as many times as he wants to play. Before
each play, generate a new set of lottery numbers.
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10. *** Given an array A containing 0s, 1s and 2s only. Write code to sort the given array such
that all 0s should come first, then all 1s and all 2s in last. This is a variation of famous Dutch
national flag problem or three-ways partitioning. Solve the task by implementing the following
given algorithm.
The problem was posed with three colours, 0, 1, and 2. The array is divided into four sections:
1. a[1..Lo-1] zeroes (red)
2. a[Lo..Mid-1] ones (white)
3. a[Mid..Hi] unknown
4. a[Hi+1..N] twos (blue)
The unknown region is shrunk while maintaining these conditions
1. Lo := 1; Mid := 1; Hi := N;
2. while Mid <= Hi do
i. Invariant: a[1..Lo-1]=0 and a[Lo..Mid-1]=1 and a[Hi+1..N]=2; a[Mid..Hi] are unknown.
ii. case a[Mid] in
• 0: swap a[Lo] and a[Mid]; Lo++; Mid++
• 1: Mid++
• 2: swap a[Mid] and a[Hi]; Hi--
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