Lecture 34

Learning objectives

After this class, you should be able to:

1. Given data to be sorted, show the data after each step of mergesort.
2. Derive the time complexity for mergesort.
3. Analyze the characteristics of mergesort and suggest improvements to its implementation.

Reading assignment

1. Section 7, section 7.6.
2. Lecture: Sorting.

Exercises and review questions

• Exercises and review questions on current lecture's material
  1. Show the steps involved in sorting the following data using mergesort: 16 14 10 8 7 9 3 2.
  2. Improve the best case time for mergesort. If the data is almost sorted, then does this modification help?
  3. Can mergesort be implemented without the additional copying of data from the temporary array to the original array in each step?
  4. Can mergesort be implemented without a temporary array?

• Questions on next lecture's material
  1. None.

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Last modified: 22 Nov 2011