CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaalgorithmsorting
Jordan Levin
Jordan Levin

Reputation: 101

How does this bubblesort variation effectively carry out a sort?

// A strange variation on a bubblesort I created inadvertently. I omitted the usual if a[j] >a[j+1] by mistake yet the code was still able to function perfectly. Would there be any advantage to using a bubblesort of this kind over a normal bubblesort.

public int[] bubbleSort(int[] a)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < a.length - 1; i++)
    {
        for (int j = i + 1; j < a.length - 1; j++)
        {
            if (a[i] > a[j])
            {
                int temp = a[i];
                a[i] = a[j];
                a[j] = temp;

            }
        }
    }
    return a;
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 78

Answers (1)

templatetypedef
templatetypedef

Reputation: 372972

Notice that at the end of the first iteration of the outer loop, the first value in the array will necessarily be the minimum value in the array (do you see why?) After the second iteration, the second value will be the second-smallest value, and after the third iteration the third value will be the third-smallest value, etc.

(That said, I think there's a bug in your logic. The upper bound on j should be a.length rather than a.length - 1, since otherwise the last value in the array is never compared to anything else or moved.)

You might want to look into selection sort, which works by moving the smallest value in the array to the front, then the second-smallest, etc. The algorithm you've come up with is (essentially) a modified version of selection sort rather than a modified bubble sort.

Hope this helps!

Upvotes: 3

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