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## Depedencies

Quicksort (sometimes called partition-exchange sort) is an efficient sorting algorithm based on a divide and conquer approach. Quicksort first divides a large array into two smaller sub-arrays: the low elements and the high elements; it can then recursively sort the sub-arrays.

## Steps

• 1. Pick an element, called a pivot, from the array.
• 2. Partition: divide array into two partitions such that:
• All elements less than the pivot must be in the first partition.
• All elements greater than the pivot must be in the second partition.
• 3. Recurse on both sub-arrays resulting from the partition until part contains only a single element.

## Pseudo-Code

void QuickSort (Iterator begin, Iterator end)
{
const auto size = distance(begin, end);
if (size < 2)
return;

// Pick Pivot € [begin, end] e.g { begin + (rand() % size); }
// Proceed partition
auto pivot = PickPivot(begin, end);
auto newPivot = Partition(begin, pivot, end);

QuickSort(begin, newPivot);   // Recurse on first partition
QuickSort(newPivot + 1, end); // Recurse on second partition
}

As seen above, Quick Sort picks an element as pivot and partitions the given array around the picked pivot. The pivot selection can be done in several different ways and the choice of specific implementation schemes greatly affects the algorithm's performance. Here is some strategies:

• Always pick first element.
• Always pick last element.
• Always pick middle element.
• Pick a random element.
• Pick median (based on three value) as pivot.

Let's visualy compare thoses strategies under two different initial conditions. A reversed sequence and a random one:

## Reminder

The in-place version of a Partition has a time complexity of O(n) in all case and a space compllexity of O(1).

Usefull mathematical theorems:

Math Sums Master Theorem for Divide and Conquer Recurrences
$$\sum_{i=0}^{n-1} n = n(n-1)$$ $$T(n) = O(n) + 2T(\frac{n}{2}) --> O(n log n)$$
$$\sum_{i=0}^{n-1} i = \frac{n(n + 1)}{2} - n = \frac{n(n - 1)}{2}$$ $$T(n) = O(1) + T(\frac{n}{2}) --> O(log n)$$
$$\sum_{i=0}^{n-1} (n+i) = \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} n + \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} i$$

## Time

### Best

The best situation occurs when each Partition divides the sequence into two equal pieces (median is picked). This means that after the first Partition, each recursive call processes a sequencce of half the size. Let's put this into a recurrence relation: $$T(n) = O(n) + T(\frac{n}{2}) + T(\frac{n}{2})$$ $$T(n) = O(n) + 2T(\frac{n}{2})$$ Using the master theorem for divide-and-conquer recurrences: T(n) = O(n log n).

### Average

As the formal mathematical demonstration is a bit long, we invite you to follow this link for further explanations.

### Worst

The worst situation occurs when each Partition-Exchange divides the sequence into two sublists of sizes 0 and n − 1 (smallest or biggest value is picked). Consequently, there is n − 1 nested calls:

### Sequences

$$a_0 = n$$ $$a_1 = n - 1$$ $$a_2 = n - 2$$ $$...$$ $$a_i = n - i$$

### Computation

$$S(n) = \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} (n-i)$$ $$S(n) = \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} n - \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} i$$ $$S(n) = n(n - 1) - \frac{n(n - 1)}{2}$$ $$S(n) = \frac{n(n - 1)}{2}$$ $$S(n) = k(n^2 - n)$$ $$S(n) \approx O(n^2)$$

This occurs for example using the last element as the pivot each time while having reverse order data.

## Space

As a reminder:
- In-place partitioning requires O(1) space.
- One partition is recursively made one after on other. This is called a tail recursion, meaning the right operates after the left has fininshed recursion. It implies that the right computation does not add to the left computation call stack.

Best: As seen on time complexity each recursive call processes a list of half the size. Let's put this into a recurrence relation for the call stack usage and use again the master theorem for divide-and-conquer recurrences: $$T(n) = O(1) + T(\frac{n}{2})$$ --> O(ln n) space complexity (stack).

Average: Cf. best case --> O(ln n) space complexity (stack).

Worst: As seeen in time computation there is n − 1 nested calls --> O(n) space complxity (stack).

## Parallelization

Quicksort's divide-and-conquer formulation makes it amenable to parallelization using task parallelism. After the array has been partitioned first, the two sub-partitions can be sorted recursively in parallel.

Quicksort has some disadvantages when compared to alternative sorting algorithms, like merge sort, which complicate its efficient parallelization. The depth of quicksort's divide-and-conquer tree directly impacts the algorithm's scalability, and this depth is highly dependent on the algorithm's choice of pivot.
Additionally, it is difficult to parallelize the partitioning step efficiently in-place. The use of scratch space simplifies the partitioning step, but increases the algorithm's memory footprint and constant overheads.