Consider a situation where swap operation is very costly. Which of the...
Selection sort makes O(n) swaps which is minimum among all sorting algorithms mentioned above.
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Consider a situation where swap operation is very costly. Which of the...
Introduction:
In some scenarios, swap operations may be very expensive. Therefore, it is important to choose the appropriate sorting algorithm that minimizes the number of swap operations needed.
Selection Sort:
Selection Sort is an algorithm that sorts an array by repeatedly finding the minimum element from the unsorted part of the array and placing it at the beginning. Selection Sort has the following characteristics that make it ideal when swap operations are expensive:
- It requires only n-1 swaps, where n is the number of elements in the array.
- It is simple to implement and understand.
- It has a time complexity of O(n^2), which is not the best, but it can be efficient for small arrays.
Other sorting algorithms:
- Heap Sort: Heap Sort is not ideal when swap operations are expensive because it requires many swaps to maintain the heap property. Therefore, it is not efficient for this scenario.
- Insertion Sort: Insertion Sort is efficient when the input is almost sorted, but it is not the best when it comes to minimizing swap operations.
- Merge Sort: Merge Sort requires a lot of memory space, and it is not the best option when swap operations are expensive.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Selection Sort is the best sorting algorithm to choose when swap operations are expensive because it requires only n-1 swaps, it is simple to implement and understand, and it has a time complexity of O(n^2), which is efficient for small arrays.
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