Write a linear-time sorting algorithm that sorts a list of values of a given ordinal type

Short Answer

Expert verified
The Counting Sort algorithm is a suitable solution for this problem. It works by counting the occurrence of each value in the original input, then placing the values in a new output array based on these counts. It achieves linear time complexity in cases where the range of input values is relatively small.

Step by step solution

01

- Determine the range of the input values

To perform counting sort, the first thing to know is the range of the data that needs to be sorted. In other words, find the minimum and maximum values from the list.
02

- Initialize the Count array and Output array

Create a 'count' array with size equal to the range of input values. Initialize each value in this array to 0. The count array is used to store the count of each individual input value. Also create an 'output' array of the same size as the input data.
03

- Count the occurrence of each value

Iterate through the original data, increase the count of the corresponding index in the count array by 1 for each value in the input data.
04

- Calculate the cumulative count

Update the count array to reflect the actual position of each element in the output array. Iterate through the count array, such that the value at each index i will be the cumulative sum of the values at the previous indices.
05

- Place the elements in the Output array

Iterate through the original data again. For each element, go to the corresponding index in the Count array, decrement that value by 1, and then place the element at that index of the Output array.
06

- Copy the Output array to the original data

Finally, copy the sorted elements from the Output array back to the original data array. Now the original data array is sorted in increasing order.

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