Applications of Merge Sort

Software Development
#1

Like QuickSort, Merge Sort is a Divide and Conquer algorithm. It divides the input array into two halves, calls itself for the two halves, and then merges the two sorted halves. The merge() function is used for merging two halves. The merge(arr, l, m, r) is a key process that assumes that arr[l…m] and arr[m+1…r] are sorted and merges the two sorted sub-arrays into one.

  1. Merge Sort is useful for sorting linked lists in O(nLogn) time. In the case of linked lists, the case is different mainly due to the difference in memory allocation of arrays and linked lists. Unlike arrays, linked list nodes may not be adjacent in memory. Unlike an array, in the linked list, we can insert items in the middle in O(1) extra space and O(1) time. Therefore, the merge operation of merge sort can be implemented without extra space for linked lists.
    In arrays, we can do random access as elements are contiguous in memory. Let us say we have an integer (4-byte) array A and let the address of A[0] be x then to access A[i], we can directly access the memory at (x + i*4). Unlike arrays, we can not do random access in the linked list. Quick Sort requires a lot of this kind of access. In a linked list to access i’th index, we have to travel each and every node from the head to i’th node as we don’t have a continuous block of memory. Therefore, the overhead increases for quicksort. Merge sort accesses data sequentially and the need of random access is low.
  2. Inversion Count Problem
  3. Used in External Sorting

Drawbacks of Merge Sort

  • Slower comparative to the other sort algorithms for smaller tasks.
  • Merge sort algorithm requires an additional memory space of 0(n) for the temporary array.
  • It goes through the whole process even if the array is sorted.