/slow-sort-submission

may the *worst* algorithm win!

Primary LanguagePython

My approach

in a nutshell

  • Let S be the array that collects sorted numbers
  • Let A be the original, unsorted array
  • Find smallest number in the list
  • Check if the number is already in S
    • if so, remove it from the A
    • otherwise put it into S
  • an extra flag is used to keep duplicate numbers

extra slowdowns

  • when checking if a number is already in S, iteration isn't stopped when found
  • the position of the already sorted number is checked in a separate iteration
  • removal of sorted numbers is achieved by shifting required numbers to the left
    • the original size is kept, meaning empty spaces are moved from the end of the array
    • iteration starts at the beginning of the array and shift instructions are skipped, isntead of starting at the number that needs to be removed
  • the first empty space in S is always found by iterating through from start
  • by the nature of this approach, if duplicate numbers take an extra cycle to be sorted

Complexity

~ O(2N * 5N) = O(10N2)