Efficiency
Adding one item to a binary search tree is on average an O(log(n)) process, so adding n items is an O(n log(n)) process, making tree sort a so-called 'fast sort'. But adding an item to an unbalanced binary tree needs O(n) time in the worst-case, when the tree resembles a linked list (degenerate tree), causing a worst case of O(n2) for this sorting algorithm. The worst case scenario then is triggered by handing a Tree Sort algorithm an already sorted set. This would make the time needed to insert all elements into the binary tree O(n2). The dominant process in the Tree Sort algorithm is the "insertion" into the binary tree, assuming that the time needed for retrieval is O(n).
The worst-case behaviour can be improved upon by using a self-balancing binary search tree. Using such a tree, the algorithm has an O(n log(n)) worst-case performance, thus being degree-optimal.
Read more about this topic: Tree Sort
Famous quotes containing the word efficiency:
“Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same and everywhere one and the same in her efficiency and power of action; that is, nature’s laws and ordinances whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature’s universal laws and rules.”
—Baruch (Benedict)
“I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”
—Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)