Sorting in Linear Time: Counting-Sort

Practical Session #11 Sorting in Linear Time
Practical Session #11

Sorting in Linear Time
Counting-Sort
A sort algorithm that is not based on comparisons, and supports duplicate keys.
A is an input array of length n.
B is the output array of length n too.
C is an auxiliary array of size k.
Assumption: the input array A consists of elements with integer keys in the
range [1..k].
Counting-Sort (A, B, k)
for i 1 to k
C[i] = 0
for j 1 to n
C[A[j]] C[A[j]] + 1
// C[i] = the number of appearances of i in A.
for i 2 to k
C[i] C[i] + C[i-1]
// C[i] = the number of elements in A that are i
for j n downto 1
B[C[A[j]]] A[j]
C[A[j]] C[A[j]] - 1
return B
Example:
n=6, k=3
Index 1 2 3 4 5 6
A= 3 2 3 1 3 1
C 213
C 236
j=6, A[6]=1, C[1]=2, B[2] 1
B 1
C 136
j=5, A[5]=3, C[3]=6, B[6]3
B 1 3
C 135
j=4, A[4]=1, C[1]=1, B[1]1
B 11 3
C 035
j=3, A[3]=3, C[3]=5, B[5]3
B 11 33
C 034
j=2, A[2]=2, C[2]=3, B[3]2
B 112 33
C 024
j=1, A[1]=3, C[3]=4, B[4]3
B 112333
C 023
For more examples you can use the following Counting-Sort animation.
Run-time Complexity: O(n+k)

This is an improvement on comparison-based sorts, which need at least n*logn time in
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the worst-case.
Counting sort is stable, two elements with the same key value will appear in the output
in the same order as they appeared in the input. Stability is important when there is
additional data besides the key.
Radix-Sort
A stable sort algorithm for sorting elements with d digits, where digits are in base b,
i.e., in range [0,b-1]. The algorithm uses a stable sort algorithm to sort the keys by each
digit, starting with the least significant digit (the rightmost one) marked in the
algorithm as the 1th digit.
Radix-Sort(A[1..n], d)
for i 1 to d
Use stable sort to sort A on digit i (like counting-sort)
Run-time Complexity:
Assuming the stable sort runs in O(n+b) (such as counting sort) the running time is
O(d(n+b)) = O(dn+db).
If d is constant and b=O(n), the running time is O(n).
Example
7 numbers with 3 digits. n=7, d=3,b=10 (decimal)
329, 457, 657, 839, 436, 720, 355
720, 355, 436, 457, 657, 329, 839 sorted by digit 1
720, 329, 436, 839, 355, 457, 657 sorted by digit 2 (and 1)
329, 355, 436, 457, 657, 720, 839 sorted
For more examples you can use the following Radix-Sort animation.
Bucket-Sort
Assumption: Input array elements are uniformly distributed over the interval
[0,1).
The idea of bucket-sort is to divide the interval [0,1) into n equal-sized subintervals
(buckets), and then distribute the n input numbers into the buckets. To produce the
output we simply sort the elements in each bucket and then creating a sorted list by
going through the buckets in order.
Bucket-sort (A)
n length(A)
for i 1 to n do
B nA[i ] A[i ]
for i 1 to n do
sort B[i] with insertion sort
concatenate the lists B[0], B[1] ,, B[n-1] together in order
Run-time Complexity:
Assuming the inputs are uniformly distributed over [0,1), we expect O(1) elements in
each bucket (average case), thus sorting them takes O(1) expected time.
We insert n elements into n buckets in O(n) and we concatenate the
Lists in O(n) Total expected run time: O(n).
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Sort Algorithms Review

Keys Average Worst case Extra In Place Stable
Type run-time run-time Space
Insertion Sort any O(n2) O(n2) O(1)
Merge Sort any O(nlogn) O(nlogn) O(n) X
Heap Sort any O(nlogn) O(nlogn) O(1) X
Quick Sort any O(nlogn) O(n2) O(1) X
Counting Sort integers O(n+k) O(n+k) O(n+k) X
[1..k]
Radix Sort d digits in O(d(b+n)) O(d(b+n)) Depends Depends
base b on the on the
stable sort stable sort
used used
Bucket sort [0,1) O(n) O(n2) O(n) X
Question 1: Size of ranges using Counting-Sort

There are n integers in range [1...k]. Suggest an algorithm that preprocesses the input in
O(n+k) time, and then can return how many numbers there are in the range [a...b] in
O(1) time for any given a>=1 and b<=k.
Solution
The algorithm is based on counting-sort:
Preprocess(A, k)
for i 1 to k
C[i] 0
for j 1 to n
C[A[j]] C[A[j]] + 1 // C[i] = the number of appearances of i in A.
for i 2 to k
C[i] C[i] + C[i-1] // C[i] = the number of elements in A that are i
return(C)
end
Range(C,a,b)
return(C[b]-C[a-1])
end
Question 2: An improved Bucket-Sort algorithm
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Design an algorithm for sorting n data items with keys in the range [x,x+d) that runs in
expected O(n) time if the items are uniformly distributed over [x,x+d], and runs in O(nlogn)
in the worst distribution case.
Solution 1:
Use bucket sort over the range [x,x+d) with the following changes:
1. The elements in each bucket are stored in a AVL tree (instead of a linked list)
2. In the last stage, concatenate all the inorder visits of all the buckets one after another.
Note: bucket distribution function will be B n(( A[i ] x) / d ) A[i ]
Time Complexity:
Let ni be the number of elements in the tree in bucket i.
1. Inserting the n elements into the buckets takes O(n1logn1 + n2logn2 + ... + nnlognn)
When the keys are uniformly distributed ni = O(1) for every i, hence
O(n1logn1 + n2logn2 + ... + nnlognn) c(n1 + n2 + ... + nn) = cn, where c is a constant.
In the worst distribution cases:
O(n1logn1 + n2logn2 + ... + nnlognn) O(n1logn + n2logn + ... + nnlogn) =
O((n1 + n2 + ... + nn )(logn)) = O(nlogn)
2. Inorder traversals of all buckets takes O(n1 + n2 + ... + nn) = O(n)
3. Concatenation of all inorder traversal lists takes O(n)
The algorithm runs in O(n) time for uniformly distributed keys and runs in O(nlogn) in the
worst distribution case.
Solution 2:
Execute in parallel the following two algorithms:
1. Original bucket sort
2. Any sort algorithm that takes O(nlogn)
Stop when one of the algorithms has stopped and return the sorted elements.
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Question 3: Choosing sorting algorithm efficiently

Given a set of n integers in the range [1,n3], suggest an efficient sorting algorithm .
Solution:
Comparison-based algorithm takes O(nlogn) .
Counting-sort: k= n3 O(n+ n3)=O(n3)
Radix-sort: b=n, d =4, d(b+n)=O( 4 (n+n))=O(n)
Why is that ?
Use radix-sort after preprocessing:
1. Convert all numbers to base n in O(n) total time using mod and div operations.
x/ni mod n )
x = [x3,x2,x1,x0] (x0= x mod n, xi =
2. Call radix-sort on the transformed numbers. O(n)
All the numbers are in range 1 to n3, therefore, we have at most 4 digits for each
number. The running time for the suggest algorithm: d=4, b=n O(4(n+n))=O(n).
Question 4: Sorting a collection of sets efficiently

There are m sets S1, S2,...,Sm.
Each set contains integers in the range [1..n] and m =O(n).
ni = |Si| = number of elements in Si. |S1| + |S2| + ... + |Sm| = O(n)
Suggest an algorithm for sorting all sets S1, S2,...,Sm in O(n) time complexity and O(n) space
(memory) complexity.
Note: The output is m sorted sets and not one merged sorted set.
Solution:
If we sort each set using O(nlogn) run time algorithm we get :

T(n) = O(n1logn1 + n2logn2 + ... + nmlognm) logn*O(n1 + n2 + ... + nm) = nlogn
If we sort each set with counting sort we get:
T(n) = O((n1+n) + (n2+n) + ... + (nm+n)) = O(n+mn) = O(n2).
The space complexity is O(n).
The following algorithm runs in O(n) time and space complexity:

1. Add a new variable set-num to each element O(n)
2. Build an array A of all the elements in all the sets - O(n)
3. Sort A using counting-sort on the keys - O(n+n)=O(n)
4. Split A into the original k sets according to the set field O(n)
(Counting sort by set-num)
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Question 5: Sorting lexicographically
Given n words in English (assume they are all in lower case). The words are not of the same
length. Suggest an algorithm for sorting the words in a lexicographic order in O(n) time.
Solution:
Reduction:
Assume you have two problems P1 and P2 and the algorithm for solving P2 is known.
A reduction from P1 to P2 is a way to solve problem P1 by using the algorithm for solving P2.
P1
x f(x) P2 y f-1(y)
In our question the reduction is from lexicographical-sort to radix-sort:
1. Translate Input of P1 to input for P2:

a. Let m be the maximal length of word in the input, m is constant.
b. Represent each letter as a digit in base 27, i.e., in range [0..26],
where a=1, b=2,, z=26 - O(nm)=O(n)
c. Words with k < m letters will have succeeding zeros added - O(nm)=O(n)
2. Solve P2 on the transformed input:
a. Execute radix sort where d=m and b=27 - O(d(n+b))=O(n)
3. Translate output of P2 to output of P1:
a. Change the numbers sequences back to words - O(nm)=O(n)
Total run time is O(n).
Example:
Lexicographical-sort input: {blue, red, green}
Radix-sort input: { (2,12, 21,5,0), (18,5,4,0,0), (7, 18,5,5,14) }
Radix-sort output: { (2,12, 21,5,0), (7, 18,5,5,14) , (18,5,4,0,0) }
Lexicographical-sort output: {blue, green, red}
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Question 6: Sorting input with anomalies
Given an array A of n positive integer numbers. All the numbers except for ten are in the
range [10, 10n]. Design an algorithm to sort an array A in O(n) time in the worst case.
Solution:
1. Traverse the array and remove 10 numbers that are not in the range into a help array B.
//O(n) time
2. Counting sort on the array A. //O( n-10 +10n)=O(n) time
3. Some sort on the array B. //O(1) time
4. Merge A and B. //O(n) time
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Practical Session #11 Sorting in Linear Time

Practical Session #11

Run-time Complexity: O(n+k)

Sort Algorithms Review

Question 1: Size of ranges using Counting-Sort

The algorithm is based on counting-sort:

Question 2: An improved Bucket-Sort algorithm

Question 3: Choosing sorting algorithm efficiently

Question 4: Sorting a collection of sets efficiently

If we sort each set using O(nlogn) run time algorithm we get :

The following algorithm runs in O(n) time and space complexity:

Question 5: Sorting lexicographically

In our question the reduction is from lexicographical-sort to radix-sort:

1. Translate Input of P1 to input for P2:

Total run time is O(n).

Question 6: Sorting input with anomalies

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