MAIN QUESTION: When keeping track of comparisons, what actually counts as a comparison? Should I only count comparisons between array items since that's what the algorithm is meant for or is it more widely accepted to count every single comparison?
Currently, I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'm told that the theoretical number of comparisons for the worst case bubble sort algorithm is as follows:
Amount of comparisons:
(N-1) + (N-2) + (N-3) + ... + 2 + 1 = (N*(N-1))/2 = (N^2-N)/2 < N^2
So according to the formula (N^2-N)/2, with an input size (N) of 10, I would get a total of 45 comparisons. However, it is mentioned that this calculation only applies to the comparison operation in the inner loop of this pseudo code:
for i:=1 to N-1 do
{
for j:=0 to N-i do
{
if A[j] > A[j+1] // This is the comparison that's counted.
{
temp := A[j]
A[j] := A[j+1]
A[j+1] := temp
}
}
}
Now in Java, my code looks like this:
public int[] bubble(int[] array)
{
int comparisons = 0;
int exchanges = 0;
int temp;
int numberOfItems = array.length;
boolean cont = true;
comparisons++; // When pass == numberOfItems, a comparison will be made by the for loop that wouldn't otherwise be counted.
for (int pass=1; pass != numberOfItems; pass++)
{
comparisons = comparisons + 2; // Counts both the outer for loop comparison and the if statement comparison.
if (cont) // If any exchanges have taken place, cont will be true.
{
cont = false;
comparisons++; // Counts the inner for loop comparison
for (int index = 0; index != (numberOfItems - pass); index++)
{
comparisons++; // Counts the if statement comparison.
if (array[index] > array[index+1])
{
temp = array[index];
array[index] = array[index+1];
array[index+1] = temp;
cont = true;
exchanges++;
} // end inner if
} // end inner for
}
else
{
break; // end outer if
}
}
System.out.println("Comparisons = " + comparisons + "\tExchanges = " + exchanges);
return array;
}
After performing the worst case scenario on my code (using an array with 10 elements that are in the reverse order), I have gotten a total of 73 comparisons. This seems like a crazy high overshoot of the theoretical result which was 45 comparisons. This feels right to me though since I've accounted for all for loops and if statements.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
EDIT: I have noticed an error in my total comparison count for my inner loop. I wound up counting the inner loop twice before, but now it is fixed. Instead of getting 118 comparisons, I now get 73. However, the question still stands.
When measuring the number of comparisons in a sort, you only count comparisons between the array items. You count them whether or not they're actually in the array when you compare them.
The idea is that, instead of simple integers, the array might contain things that take a long time to compare. An array of of strings, for example, can be bubble-sorted using N(N-1)/2 string comparions, even though a single string comparison might require many other operations, including many comparisons of individual characters.
Measuring the performance of a sorting algorithm in terms of the number of comparisons makes the measurement independent of the type of things being sorted.