7.13. Glossary¶

bubble sort

sorting method that makes multiple passes through a collection, comparing adjacent items, and swaps items that are out of order

gap

an increment used to divide a collection into subsets without breaking apart the collection during a shell sort

insertion sort

sorting method that maintains a sorted and unsorted subset of a collection and inserts elements from the unsorted subset into the sorted subset

median of three

method of choosing the pivot value for a quick sort by taking the median of the first, middle, and last element of a collection

merge

part of merge sort that takes two smaller sorted subsets and combines them

merge sort

sorting method that uses recursion to split a collection in half until there is one item and then combines the smaller subsets back into larger sorted subsets

partition

process of quick sort that that finds the split point and moves items to the appropriate side of the collection, either less than or greater than the pivot value

pivot value

value selected in a collection during quick sort in order to split a collection

selection sort

sorting method that makes multiple passes through a collection, taking the largest (ascending) or smallest (descending) unsorted element and places it into its correct place by swapping places with the next largest or lowest element

shell sort

sorting method that divides the collection into subsets, sorts the subsets individually using insertion sort, then also sorts the combination of the sorted subsets using insertion sort

short bubble

a modified bubble sort that stops if there are no exchanges to do

sorting

the process of placing elements from a collection in some kind of order

split point

the position of the pivot value in the sorted collection; used to divide the collection for subsequent calls to quick sort

quick sort

sorting method that uses recursion to split a collection in half (without using extra space) and places elements on the proper side of the split point