Generic Array Initialization in MergeSort

Sayantan Paul :

Here's my code, to implement a generic Mergesort.

import java.util.Arrays;
public class MergeSort<T extends Comparable<T>> {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Integer[] int_arr = { 10, 20, 35, 40, 13, 42 };
        MergeSort<Integer> IntegerSort = new MergeSort<>();
        IntegerSort.Merge_Sort(int_arr, 0, int_arr.length - 1);
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(int_arr));
    }
    private void Merge_Sort(T[] A, int low, int high) {
        if (low < high) {
            int mid = (low + high) / 2;
            Merge_Sort(A, low, mid);
            Merge_Sort(A, mid + 1, high);
            Merge(A, low, mid, high);
        }
    }
    private void Merge(T[] A, int low, int mid, int high) {
        int n1 = mid - low + 1;
        int n2 = high - mid;

        T[] Left_sub = (T[]) new Object[n1];
        T[] Right_sub = (T[]) new Object[n2];

        for (int i = 0; i < n1; ++i) {
            Left_sub[i] = A[low + i];
        }
        for (int j = 0; j < n2; ++j) {
            Right_sub[j] = A[mid + j + 1];
        }

        int i = 0, j = 0;
        for (int k = low; k < high; k++) {
            if (less(Left_sub[i], Right_sub[j])) {
                A[k] = Left_sub[i];
                i = i + 1;
            } else {
                A[k] = Right_sub[j];
                j = j + 1;
            }
        }
    }
    private boolean less(T v, T w) {
        return v.compareTo(w) < 0;
    }
}

I ran into this runtime error

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: class [Ljava.lang.Object; cannot be cast to class [Ljava.lang.Comparable; ([Ljava.lang.Object; and [Ljava.lang.Comparable; are in module java.base of loader 'bootstrap')

I am wrong at

T[] Left_sub = (T[]) new Object[n1];
T[] Right_sub = (T[]) new Object[n2];

I tried other ways like Arrays.copyofrange(), ArrayList<T> Are there any other ways to initialize generic Arrays. Please suggest ways to perform the Merging process in the Merge() function.

chqrlie :

To make a copy of range of the array, you should use Arrays.copyRangeOf:

    T[] Left_sub = Arrays.copyOfRange(A, low, mid + 1);
    T[] Right_sub = Arrays.copyOfRange(A, mid, high + 1);

Note these remarks:

it is error prone to use the index of the last element of the slice as the high argument, you should use the index of the next element so the length of the slice is simply high - low.
you can simplify the merge method and only copy the left portion of the slice since the elements in the right portion are not overwritten before they are copied.
you should modify the loop to avoid reading non existent elements from the subarrays.

Here is a modified version:

import java.util.Arrays;

public class MergeSort<T extends Comparable<T>> {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Integer[] int_arr = { 10, 20, 35, 40, 13, 42 };
        MergeSort<Integer> IntegerSort = new MergeSort<>();
        IntegerSort.Merge_Sort(int_arr, 0, int_arr.length);
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(int_arr));
    }
    private void Merge_Sort(T[] A, int low, int high) {
        if (high - low >= 2) {
            int mid = low + (high - low) / 2;  // avoid overfow or large values
            Merge_Sort(A, low, mid);
            Merge_Sort(A, mid, high);
            Merge(A, low, mid, high);
        }
    }
    private void Merge(T[] A, int low, int mid, int high) {
        T[] Left_sub = Arrays.copyOfRange(A, low, mid);
        int i = 0, j = mid, n1 = mid - low;
        for (int k = low; k < high; k++) {
            if (i < n1 && (j > high || Left_sub[i].compareTo(A[j]) <= 0)) {
                A[k] = Left_sub[i++];
            } else {
                A[k] = A[j++];
            }
        }
    }
}

Generic Array Initialization in MergeSort

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