3 ms·

Sorting algorithms compared and animated

87 points by nreece 18y ago

gruseom 18y ago
This is one of the best things I've seen on HN in a long time. What a great idea! (Doesn't work when I increase the size to 50 though.)
- tomsaffell 18y ago
  Whole heartedly agree. That this article can make front page is the reason HN gets the majority of my reading time each day.
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  No offense, but "long time" is the operative phrase. It's old.
  - gruseom 18y ago
    That's ok by me. I tend not to consume the entire output of the internet every year.
    - ojbyrne 18y ago
      But you hang out on HN. The N stands for News.
      - eru 18y ago
        New to me suffices.
cnlwsu 18y ago
wonderful, I want to email this to some of my old professors.
qiemem 18y ago
Here's another page with more algorithms: http://home.westman.wave.ca/~rhenry/sort/ http://home.westman.wave.ca/~rhenry/sort/ Has some fun ones like Stooge sort and Several Unique sort.
zealog 18y ago
This is great. I wish I could upvote again and again.
saikat 18y ago
Another page with sorting algorithms animated (with some other algorithms): http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~harrison/Java/sorting-demo.html http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~harrison/Java/sorting-demo.html
cortesi 18y ago
I've always thought that sorting algorithm visualisation could be done better in static images than animation. Here's a blog post on the topic I prepared earlier... ;) http://www.hatfulofhollow.com/posts/code/visualisingsorting/index.html http://www.hatfulofhollow.com/posts/code/visualisingsorting/...
- slackenerny 18y ago
  This is so much good of an idea. I remember seeing the exact same animations original poster linked to, no less than ten years ago. I recognize their visual form distincly, because of how they've set back my understanding when I was learning this stuff. There is no limit to pagerank you should receive for preparing this.
  - Retric 18y ago
    What I like about the animated approach is showing insertion and bubble sorting beating the others on a nearly sorted set. It's not just a question of what's the best in average or worst case situations but also what format is your data starting out as. Edit: It's not that the other approach can't show the same information rather it takes up more space so it's harder to notice new relationships other than those directly shown.
- silentbicycle 18y ago
  Fantastic post! Thanks for including the source you used to generate those, too. :)
kurtosis 18y ago
This would make an awesome test question - show the animation and name the algorithm.
kenver 18y ago
Thanks for the link it was a good read, this is a good one too, it shows some stats as the sorting operation is happening: http://coderaptors.com/?Sorting_algorithms http://coderaptors.com/?Sorting_algorithms
access_denied 18y ago
This is also a great page to explain to normal people how computers actually work.

87 points by nreece 18y ago

This is one of the best things I've seen on HN in a long time. What a great idea! (Doesn't work when I increase the size to 50 though.)

tomsaffell 18y ago
Whole heartedly agree. That this article can make front page is the reason HN gets the majority of my reading time each day.
ojbyrne 18y ago
No offense, but "long time" is the operative phrase. It's old.
- gruseom 18y ago
  That's ok by me. I tend not to consume the entire output of the internet every year.
  - ojbyrne 18y ago
    But you hang out on HN. The N stands for News.
    - eru 18y ago
      New to me suffices.

cnlwsu 18y ago

wonderful, I want to email this to some of my old professors.

qiemem 18y ago

Here's another page with more algorithms: http://home.westman.wave.ca/~rhenry/sort/ http://home.westman.wave.ca/~rhenry/sort/ Has some fun ones like Stooge sort and Several Unique sort.

zealog 18y ago

This is great. I wish I could upvote again and again.

saikat 18y ago

Another page with sorting algorithms animated (with some other algorithms): http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~harrison/Java/sorting-demo.html http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~harrison/Java/sorting-demo.html

cortesi 18y ago

I've always thought that sorting algorithm visualisation could be done better in static images than animation. Here's a blog post on the topic I prepared earlier... ;) http://www.hatfulofhollow.com/posts/code/visualisingsorting/index.html http://www.hatfulofhollow.com/posts/code/visualisingsorting/...

slackenerny 18y ago
This is so much good of an idea. I remember seeing the exact same animations original poster linked to, no less than ten years ago. I recognize their visual form distincly, because of how they've set back my understanding when I was learning this stuff. There is no limit to pagerank you should receive for preparing this.
- Retric 18y ago
  What I like about the animated approach is showing insertion and bubble sorting beating the others on a nearly sorted set. It's not just a question of what's the best in average or worst case situations but also what format is your data starting out as. Edit: It's not that the other approach can't show the same information rather it takes up more space so it's harder to notice new relationships other than those directly shown.
silentbicycle 18y ago
Fantastic post! Thanks for including the source you used to generate those, too. :)

kurtosis 18y ago

This would make an awesome test question - show the animation and name the algorithm.

kenver 18y ago

Thanks for the link it was a good read, this is a good one too, it shows some stats as the sorting operation is happening: http://coderaptors.com/?Sorting_algorithms http://coderaptors.com/?Sorting_algorithms

access_denied 18y ago

This is also a great page to explain to normal people how computers actually work.