Data Structures - Divide and
Conquer
To understand the divide and conquer design strategy of
algorithms, let us use a simple real world example. Consider an
instance where we need to brush a type C curly hair and remove
all the knots from it. To do that, the first step is to section the hair
in smaller strands to make the combing easier than combing the
hair altogether. The same technique is applied on algorithms.
Divide and conquer approach breaks down a problem into
multiple sub-problems recursively until it cannot be divided
further. These sub-problems are solved first and the solutions are
merged together to form the final solution.
The common procedure for the divide and conquer design
technique is as follows −
Divide − We divide the original problem into multiple sub-
problems until they cannot be divided further.
Conquer − Then these subproblems are solved separately
with the help of recursion
Combine − Once solved, all the subproblems are
merged/combined together to form the final solution of the
original problem.
There are several ways to give input to the divide and conquer
algorithm design pattern. Two major data structures used are
− arrays and linked lists. Their usage is explained as
Arrays as Input
There are various ways in which various algorithms can take input
such that they can be solved using the divide and conquer
technique. Arrays are one of them. In algorithms that require
input to be in the form of a list, like various sorting algorithms,
array data structures are most commonly used.
In the input for a sorting algorithm below, the array input is
divided into subproblems until they cannot be divided further.
Then, the subproblems are sorted (the conquer step) and are
merged to form the solution of the original array back (the
combine step).
Since arrays are indexed and linear data structures, sorting
algorithms most popularly use array data structures to receive
input.
Linked Lists as Input
Another data structure that can be used to take input for divide
and conquer algorithms is a linked list (for example, merge sort
using linked lists). Like arrays, linked lists are also linear data
structures that store data sequentially.
Consider the merge sort algorithm on linked list; following the
very popular tortoise and hare algorithm, the list is divided until it
cannot be divided further.
Then, the nodes in the list are sorted (conquered). These nodes
are then combined (or merged) in recursively until the final
solution is achieved.
Various searching algorithms can also be performed on the linked
list data structures with a slightly different technique as linked
lists are not indexed linear data structures. They must be handled
using the pointers available in the nodes of the list.
Examples
The following computer algorithms are based on divide-and-
conquer programming approach −
Merge Sort
Quick Sort
Binary Search
Strassen's Matrix Multiplication
Closest Pair
There are various ways available to solve any computer problem,
but the mentioned are a good example of divide and conquer
approach.
