Quicksort

Definition

Quicksort, or partition-exchange sort, is a sorting algorithm developed by Tony Hoare that, on average, makes O(n log n) comparisons to sort n items. In the worst case, it makes O(n2) comparisons, though this behavior is rare. Quicksort is often faster in practice than other O(n log n) algorithms. Additionally, quicksort's sequential and localized memory references work well with a cache. Quicksort is a comparison sort and, in efficient implementations, is not a stable sort. Quicksort can be implemented with an in-place partitioning algorithm, so the entire sort can be done with only O(log n) additional space used by the stack during the recursion.

Algorithm

Quicksort is a divide and conquer algorithm. Quicksort first divides a large list into two smaller sub-lists: the low elements and the high elements. Quicksort can then recursively sort the sub-lists. The steps are:

1. Pick an element, called a pivot, from the list.

2. Reorder the list so that all elements with values less than the pivot come before the pivot, while all elements with values greater than the pivot come after it (equal values can go either way). After this partitioning, the pivot is in its final position. This is called the partition operation.

3. Recursively apply the above steps to the sub-list of elements with smaller values and separately the sub-list of elements with greater values. The base case of the recursion are lists of size zero or one, which never need to be sorted.

Source: Wikipedia

Code: https://github.com/felipernb/algorithms.js/blob/master/algorithms/sorting/quicksort.js

Test: https://github.com/felipernb/algorithms.js/blob/master/test/algorithms/sorting/quicksort.js

How to use

Import

var quicksort = require('algorithms').Sort.quicksort;

Calling

var a = [2,5,1,4,3,6,20,-10];
quicksort(a);
console.info(a); // [-10,1,3,4,5,6,20]

And in case a custom comparing function should be called, this Quicksort implementation uses a Comparator, that can be used like this:

var a = [2,5,1,4,3,6,20,-10];
// Comparator function
var reverseOrder = function (a, b) {
  if (a == b) return 0;
  return a > b ? -1 : 1;
};
quicksort(a, reverseOrder);
console.info(a); // [20,6,5,4,3,1,-10]