Merge sort (also commonly spelled mergesort) is an O(n log n) comparison-based sorting algorithm. Most implementations produce a stable sort, which means that the implementation preserves the input order of equal elements in the sorted output. Merge sort is a divide and conquer algorithm that was invented by John von Neumann in 1945. A detailed description and analysis of bottom-up mergesort appeared in a report by Goldstine and Neumann as early as 1948.
Read more about Merge Sort: Algorithm, Natural Merge Sort, Analysis, Use With Tape Drives, Optimizing Merge Sort, Parallel Processing, Comparison With Other Sort Algorithms, Utility in Online Sorting
Famous quotes containing the words merge and/or sort:
“We dont know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We dont understand our name at all, we dont know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“His moving impulse is no flabby yearning to teach, to expound, to make simple; it is that obscure inner necessity of which Conrad tells us, the irresistible creative passion of a genuine artist, standing spell-bound before the impenetrable enigma that is life, enamoured by the strange beauty that plays over its sordidness, challenged to a wondering and half-terrified sort of representation of what passes understanding.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)