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I have n different numbers and I want to sort them into k groups, such that any number in group 1 is smaller than any number in group 2, and anyone in group 2 smaller than anyone in group 3 and so on until group k (the numbers do not have to be sorted inside each group). I'm asked to design an algorithm that runs in O(n log k), but I can only come up with O(n^2) ones.
How can I do this?
You could achieve this by modifying the Bucket sort algorithm, below I have included a JavaScript implementation, see Github for further details on the source code. This implementation uses 16 buckets, you will have to modify it to allow for k buckets and you can omit the sorting of buckets itself. One approach would be to use 2^p buckets where p is the smallest integer that satisfies 2^p < n. This algorithm will run in O(n log k)
// Copyright 2011, Tom Switzer
// Under terms of ISC License: http://www.isc.org/software/license
/**
* Sorts an array of integers in linear time using bucket sort.
* This gives a good speed up vs. built-in sort in new JS engines
* (eg. V8). If a key function is given, then the result of
* key(a[i]) is used as the integer value to sort on instead a[i].
*
* #param a A JavaScript array.
* #param key A function that maps values of a to integers.
* #return The array a.
*/
function bsort(a, key) {
key = key || function(x) {
return x
};
var len = a.length,
buckets = [],
i, j, b, d = 0;
for (; d < 32; d += 4) {
for (i = 16; i--;)
buckets[i] = [];
for (i = len; i--;)
buckets[(key(a[i]) >> d) & 15].push(a[i]);
//This implementation uses 16 buckets, you will need to modify this
for (b = 0; b < 16; b++)
//The next two lines sort each bucket, you can leave it out
for (j = buckets[b].length; j--;)
a[++i] = buckets[b][j];
}
return a;
}
var array = [2, 4, 1, 5, 3];
$('#result').text(bsort(array, function(x) {
return x
}));
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="result"></div>
Note that the problem statement is to separate n different numbers into k groups. This would get more complicated if there were duplicates as noted in the wiki links below.
Any process that can determine the kth smallest element with less than O(n log(k)) complexity could be used k-1 times to produce an array of the elements corresponding to the boundaries between k groups. Then a single pass could be made on the array, doing a binary search of the boundary array to split up the array into k groups with O(n log(k)) complexity. However, it seems that at least one algorithm to find the kth smallest element also partitions the array, so that alone could be used to create the k groups.
A unordered partial sort using a selection algorithm with worst case time O(n) is possible. Wiki links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_algorithm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_algorithm#Unordered_partial_sorting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickselect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_of_medians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_heap#Applications
Use K-selection algorithm with partition function from QuickSort - QuickSelect.
Let's K is power of 2 for simplicity.
At the first stage we make partition of N elements, it takes O(N) ~ p* N time, where p is some constant
At the second stage we recursively make 2 partitions of N/2 elements, it takes 2* p* N/2 = p*N time.
At the third stage we make 4 partitions of N/4 elements, it takes 4*pN/4 = pN time.
...
At the last stage we make K partitions of N/K elements, it takes K* p* N/K = p*N time.
Note there are Log(K) stages, so overall time is Log(K) * p * N = O(N*Log(K)
Thank you for all your help, basically a quickselect (or any linear time sorting algorithm that finds the k-th statistic in linear time is enough) and, after running it k-1 times, we make a binary search over the original array to split the elements into groups, getting O(nlog k).
Also, if you don't want to make a binary search, in the quickselect, you can also separate the elements and find the statistic in each subset! #rcgldr, #MBo thank you for your ideas!
Given an array A with N elements I need to find pair (i,j) such that i is not equal to j and if we write the sum A[i]+A[j] for all pairs of (i,j) then it comes at the kth position.
Example : Let N=4 and arrays A=[1 2 3 4] and if K=3 then answer is 5 as we can see it clearly that sum array becomes like this : [3,4,5,5,6,7]
I can't go for all pair of i and j as N can go up to 100000. Please help how to solve this problem
I mean something like this :
int len=N*(N+1)/2;
int sum[len];
int count=0;
for(int i=0;i<N;i++){
for(int j=i+1;j<N;j++){
sum[count]=A[i]+A[j];
count++;
}
}
//Then just find kth element.
We can't go with this approach
A solution that is based on a fact that K <= 50: Let's take the first K + 1 elements of the array in a sorted order. Now we can just try all their combinations. Proof of correctness: let's assume that a pair (i, j) is the answer, where j > K + 1. But there are K pairs with the same or smaller sum: (1, 2), (1, 3), ..., (1, K + 1). Thus, it cannot be the K-th pair.
It is possible to achieve an O(N + K ^ 2) time complexity by choosing the K + 1 smallest numbers using a quickselect algorithm(it is possible to do even better, but it is not required). You can also just the array and get an O(N * log N + K ^ 2 * log K) complexity.
I assume that you got this question from http://www.careercup.com/question?id=7457663.
If k is close to 0 then the accepted answer to How to find kth largest number in pairwise sums like setA + setB? can be adapted quite easily to this problem and be quite efficient. You need O(n log(n)) to sort the array, O(n) to set up a priority queue, and then O(k log(k)) to iterate through the elements. The reversed solution is also efficient if k is near n*n - n.
If k is close to n*n/2 then that won't be very good. But you can adapt the pivot approach of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickselect to this problem. First in time O(n log(n)) you can sort the array. In time O(n) you can set up a data structure representing the various contiguous ranges of columns. Then you'll need to select pivots O(log(n)) times. (Remember, log(n*n) = O(log(n)).) For each pivot, you can do a binary search of each column to figure out where it split it in time O(log(n)) per column, and total cost of O(n log(n)) for all columns.
The resulting algorithm will be O(n log(n) log(n)).
Update: I do not have time to do the finger exercise of supplying code. But I can outline some of the classes you might have in an implementation.
The implementation will be a bit verbose, but that is sometimes the cost of a good general-purpose algorithm.
ArrayRangeWithAddend. This represents a range of an array, summed with one value.with has an array (reference or pointer so the underlying data can be shared between objects), a start and an end to the range, and a shiftValue for the value to add to every element in the range.
It should have a constructor. A method to give the size. A method to partition(n) it into a range less than n, the count equal to n, and a range greater than n. And value(i) to give the i'th value.
ArrayRangeCollection. This is a collection of ArrayRangeWithAddend objects. It should have methods to give its size, pick a random element, and a method to partition(n) it into an ArrayRangeCollection that is below n, count of those equal to n, and an ArrayRangeCollection that is larger than n. In the partition method it will be good to not include ArrayRangeWithAddend objects that have size 0.
Now your main program can sort the array, and create an ArrayRangeCollection covering all pairs of sums that you are interested in. Then the random and partition method can be used to implement the standard quickselect algorithm that you will find in the link I provided.
Here is how to do it (in pseudo-code). I have now confirmed that it works correctly.
//A is the original array, such as A=[1,2,3,4]
//k (an integer) is the element in the 'sum' array to find
N = A.length
//first we find i
i = -1
nl = N
k2 = k
while (k2 >= 0) {
i++
nl--
k2 -= nl
}
//then we find j
j = k2 + nl + i + 1
//now compute the sum at index position k
kSum = A[i] + A[j]
EDIT:
I have now tested this works. I had to fix some parts... basically the k input argument should use 0-based indexing. (The OP seems to use 1-based indexing.)
EDIT 2:
I'll try to explain my theory then. I began with the concept that the sum array should be visualised as a 2D jagged array (diminishing in width as the height increases), with the coordinates (as mentioned in the OP) being i and j. So for an array such as [1,2,3,4,5] the sum array would be conceived as this:
3,4,5,6,
5,6,7,
7,8,
9.
The top row are all values where i would equal 0. The second row is where i equals 1. To find the value of 'j' we do the same but in the column direction.
... Sorry I cannot explain this any better!
Given two sorted arrays of numbers, we want to find the pair with the kth largest possible sum. (A pair is one element from the first array and one element from the second array). For example, with arrays
[2, 3, 5, 8, 13]
[4, 8, 12, 16]
The pairs with largest sums are
13 + 16 = 29
13 + 12 = 25
8 + 16 = 24
13 + 8 = 21
8 + 12 = 20
So the pair with the 4th largest sum is (13, 8). How to find the pair with the kth largest possible sum?
Also, what is the fastest algorithm? The arrays are already sorted and sizes M and N.
I am already aware of the O(Klogk) solution , using Max-Heap given here .
It also is one of the favorite Google interview question , and they demand a O(k) solution .
I've also read somewhere that there exists a O(k) solution, which i am unable to figure out .
Can someone explain the correct solution with a pseudocode .
P.S.
Please DON'T post this link as answer/comment.It DOESN'T contain the answer.
I start with a simple but not quite linear-time algorithm. We choose some value between array1[0]+array2[0] and array1[N-1]+array2[N-1]. Then we determine how many pair sums are greater than this value and how many of them are less. This may be done by iterating the arrays with two pointers: pointer to the first array incremented when sum is too large and pointer to the second array decremented when sum is too small. Repeating this procedure for different values and using binary search (or one-sided binary search) we could find Kth largest sum in O(N log R) time, where N is size of the largest array and R is number of possible values between array1[N-1]+array2[N-1] and array1[0]+array2[0]. This algorithm has linear time complexity only when the array elements are integers bounded by small constant.
Previous algorithm may be improved if we stop binary search as soon as number of pair sums in binary search range decreases from O(N2) to O(N). Then we fill auxiliary array with these pair sums (this may be done with slightly modified two-pointers algorithm). And then we use quickselect algorithm to find Kth largest sum in this auxiliary array. All this does not improve worst-case complexity because we still need O(log R) binary search steps. What if we keep the quickselect part of this algorithm but (to get proper value range) we use something better than binary search?
We could estimate value range with the following trick: get every second element from each array and try to find the pair sum with rank k/4 for these half-arrays (using the same algorithm recursively). Obviously this should give some approximation for needed value range. And in fact slightly improved variant of this trick gives range containing only O(N) elements. This is proven in following paper: "Selection in X + Y and matrices with sorted rows and columns" by A. Mirzaian and E. Arjomandi. This paper contains detailed explanation of the algorithm, proof, complexity analysis, and pseudo-code for all parts of the algorithm except Quickselect. If linear worst-case complexity is required, Quickselect may be augmented with Median of medians algorithm.
This algorithm has complexity O(N). If one of the arrays is shorter than other array (M < N) we could assume that this shorter array is extended to size N with some very small elements so that all calculations in the algorithm use size of the largest array. We don't actually need to extract pairs with these "added" elements and feed them to quickselect, which makes algorithm a little bit faster but does not improve asymptotic complexity.
If k < N we could ignore all the array elements with index greater than k. In this case complexity is equal to O(k). If N < k < N(N-1) we just have better complexity than requested in OP. If k > N(N-1), we'd better solve the opposite problem: k'th smallest sum.
I uploaded simple C++11 implementation to ideone. Code is not optimized and not thoroughly tested. I tried to make it as close as possible to pseudo-code in linked paper. This implementation uses std::nth_element, which allows linear complexity only on average (not worst-case).
A completely different approach to find K'th sum in linear time is based on priority queue (PQ). One variation is to insert largest pair to PQ, then repeatedly remove top of PQ and instead insert up to two pairs (one with decremented index in one array, other with decremented index in other array). And take some measures to prevent inserting duplicate pairs. Other variation is to insert all possible pairs containing largest element of first array, then repeatedly remove top of PQ and instead insert pair with decremented index in first array and same index in second array. In this case there is no need to bother about duplicates.
OP mentions O(K log K) solution where PQ is implemented as max-heap. But in some cases (when array elements are evenly distributed integers with limited range and linear complexity is needed only on average, not worst-case) we could use O(1) time priority queue, for example, as described in this paper: "A Complexity O(1) Priority Queue for Event Driven Molecular Dynamics Simulations" by Gerald Paul. This allows O(K) expected time complexity.
Advantage of this approach is a possibility to provide first K elements in sorted order. Disadvantages are limited choice of array element type, more complex and slower algorithm, worse asymptotic complexity: O(K) > O(N).
EDIT: This does not work. I leave the answer, since apparently I am not the only one who could have this kind of idea; see the discussion below.
A counter-example is x = (2, 3, 6), y = (1, 4, 5) and k=3, where the algorithm gives 7 (3+4) instead of 8 (3+5).
Let x and y be the two arrays, sorted in decreasing order; we want to construct the K-th largest sum.
The variables are: i the index in the first array (element x[i]), j the index in the second array (element y[j]), and k the "order" of the sum (k in 1..K), in the sense that S(k)=x[i]+y[j] will be the k-th greater sum satisfying your conditions (this is the loop invariant).
Start from (i, j) equal to (0, 0): clearly, S(1) = x[0]+y[0].
for k from 1 to K-1, do:
if x[i+1]+ y[j] > x[i] + y[j+1], then i := i+1 (and j does not change) ; else j:=j+1
To see that it works, consider you have S(k) = x[i] + y[j]. Then, S(k+1) is the greatest sum which is lower (or equal) to S(k), and such as at least one element (i or j) changes. It is not difficult to see that exactly one of i or j should change.
If i changes, the greater sum you can construct which is lower than S(k) is by setting i=i+1, because x is decreasing and all the x[i'] + y[j] with i' < i are greater than S(k). The same holds for j, showing that S(k+1) is either x[i+1] + y[j] or x[i] + y[j+1].
Therefore, at the end of the loop you found the K-th greater sum.
tl;dr: If you look ahead and look behind at each iteration, you can start with the end (which is highest) and work back in O(K) time.
Although the insight underlying this approach is, I believe, sound, the code below is not quite correct at present (see comments).
Let's see: first of all, the arrays are sorted. So, if the arrays are a and b with lengths M and N, and as you have arranged them, the largest items are in slots M and N respectively, the largest pair will always be a[M]+b[N].
Now, what's the second largest pair? It's going to have perhaps one of {a[M],b[N]} (it can't have both, because that's just the largest pair again), and at least one of {a[M-1],b[N-1]}. BUT, we also know that if we choose a[M-1]+b[N-1], we can make one of the operands larger by choosing the higher number from the same list, so it will have exactly one number from the last column, and one from the penultimate column.
Consider the following two arrays: a = [1, 2, 53]; b = [66, 67, 68]. Our highest pair is 53+68. If we lose the smaller of those two, our pair is 68+2; if we lose the larger, it's 53+67. So, we have to look ahead to decide what our next pair will be. The simplest lookahead strategy is simply to calculate the sum of both possible pairs. That will always cost two additions, and two comparisons for each transition (three because we need to deal with the case where the sums are equal);let's call that cost Q).
At first, I was tempted to repeat that K-1 times. BUT there's a hitch: the next largest pair might actually be the other pair we can validly make from {{a[M],b[N]}, {a[M-1],b[N-1]}. So, we also need to look behind.
So, let's code (python, should be 2/3 compatible):
def kth(a,b,k):
M = len(a)
N = len(b)
if k > M*N:
raise ValueError("There are only %s possible pairs; you asked for the %sth largest, which is impossible" % M*N,k)
(ia,ib) = M-1,N-1 #0 based arrays
# we need this for lookback
nottakenindices = (0,0) # could be any value
nottakensum = float('-inf')
for i in range(k-1):
optionone = a[ia]+b[ib-1]
optiontwo = a[ia-1]+b[ib]
biggest = max((optionone,optiontwo))
#first deal with look behind
if nottakensum > biggest:
if optionone == biggest:
newnottakenindices = (ia,ib-1)
else: newnottakenindices = (ia-1,ib)
ia,ib = nottakenindices
nottakensum = biggest
nottakenindices = newnottakenindices
#deal with case where indices hit 0
elif ia <= 0 and ib <= 0:
ia = ib = 0
elif ia <= 0:
ib-=1
ia = 0
nottakensum = float('-inf')
elif ib <= 0:
ia-=1
ib = 0
nottakensum = float('-inf')
#lookahead cases
elif optionone > optiontwo:
#then choose the first option as our next pair
nottakensum,nottakenindices = optiontwo,(ia-1,ib)
ib-=1
elif optionone < optiontwo: # choose the second
nottakensum,nottakenindices = optionone,(ia,ib-1)
ia-=1
#next two cases apply if options are equal
elif a[ia] > b[ib]:# drop the smallest
nottakensum,nottakenindices = optiontwo,(ia-1,ib)
ib-=1
else: # might be equal or not - we can choose arbitrarily if equal
nottakensum,nottakenindices = optionone,(ia,ib-1)
ia-=1
#+2 - one for zero-based, one for skipping the 1st largest
data = (i+2,a[ia],b[ib],a[ia]+b[ib],ia,ib)
narrative = "%sth largest pair is %s+%s=%s, with indices (%s,%s)" % data
print (narrative) #this will work in both versions of python
if ia <= 0 and ib <= 0:
raise ValueError("Both arrays exhausted before Kth (%sth) pair reached"%data[0])
return data, narrative
For those without python, here's an ideone: http://ideone.com/tfm2MA
At worst, we have 5 comparisons in each iteration, and K-1 iterations, which means that this is an O(K) algorithm.
Now, it might be possible to exploit information about differences between values to optimise this a little bit, but this accomplishes the goal.
Here's a reference implementation (not O(K), but will always work, unless there's a corner case with cases where pairs have equal sums):
import itertools
def refkth(a,b,k):
(rightia,righta),(rightib,rightb) = sorted(itertools.product(enumerate(a),enumerate(b)), key=lamba((ia,ea),(ib,eb):ea+eb)[k-1]
data = k,righta,rightb,righta+rightb,rightia,rightib
narrative = "%sth largest pair is %s+%s=%s, with indices (%s,%s)" % data
print (narrative) #this will work in both versions of python
return data, narrative
This calculates the cartesian product of the two arrays (i.e. all possible pairs), sorts them by sum, and takes the kth element. The enumerate function decorates each item with its index.
The max-heap algorithm in the other question is simple, fast and correct. Don't knock it. It's really well explained too. https://stackoverflow.com/a/5212618/284795
Might be there isn't any O(k) algorithm. That's okay, O(k log k) is almost as fast.
If the last two solutions were at (a1, b1), (a2, b2), then it seems to me there are only four candidate solutions (a1-1, b1) (a1, b1-1) (a2-1, b2) (a2, b2-1). This intuition could be wrong. Surely there are at most four candidates for each coordinate, and the next highest is among the 16 pairs (a in {a1,a2,a1-1,a2-1}, b in {b1,b2,b1-1,b2-1}). That's O(k).
(No it's not, still not sure whether that's possible.)
[2, 3, 5, 8, 13]
[4, 8, 12, 16]
Merge the 2 arrays and note down the indexes in the sorted array. Here is the index array looks like (starting from 1 not 0)
[1, 2, 4, 6, 8]
[3, 5, 7, 9]
Now start from end and make tuples. sum the elements in the tuple and pick the kth largest sum.
public static List<List<Integer>> optimization(int[] nums1, int[] nums2, int k) {
// 2 * O(n log(n))
Arrays.sort(nums1);
Arrays.sort(nums2);
List<List<Integer>> results = new ArrayList<>(k);
int endIndex = 0;
// Find the number whose square is the first one bigger than k
for (int i = 1; i <= k; i++) {
if (i * i >= k) {
endIndex = i;
break;
}
}
// The following Iteration provides at most endIndex^2 elements, and both arrays are in ascending order,
// so k smallest pairs must can be found in this iteration. To flatten the nested loop, refer
// 'https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7457879/algorithm-to-optimize-nested-loops'
for (int i = 0; i < endIndex * endIndex; i++) {
int m = i / endIndex;
int n = i % endIndex;
List<Integer> item = new ArrayList<>(2);
item.add(nums1[m]);
item.add(nums2[n]);
results.add(item);
}
results.sort(Comparator.comparing(pair->pair.get(0) + pair.get(1)));
return results.stream().limit(k).collect(Collectors.toList());
}
Key to eliminate O(n^2):
Avoid cartesian product(or 'cross join' like operation) of both arrays, which means flattening the nested loop.
Downsize iteration over the 2 arrays.
So:
Sort both arrays (Arrays.sort offers O(n log(n)) performance according to Java doc)
Limit the iteration range to the size which is just big enough to support k smallest pairs searching.
k-way merge is the algorithm that takes as input k sorted arrays, each of size n. It outputs a single sorted array of all the elements.
It does so by using the "merge" routine central to the merge sort algorithm to merge array 1 to array 2, and then array 3 to this merged array, and so on until all k arrays have merged.
I had thought that this algorithm is O(kn) because the algorithm traverses each of the k arrays (each of length n) once. Why is it O(nk^2)?
Because it doesn't traverse each of the k arrays once. The first array is traversed k-1 times, the first as merge(array-1,array-2), the second as merge(merge(array-1, array-2), array-3) ... and so on.
The result is k-1 merges with an average size of n*(k+1)/2 giving a complexity of O(n*(k^2-1)/2) which is O(nk^2).
The mistake you made was forgetting that the merges are done serially rather than in parallel, so the arrays are not all size n.
Actually in the worst case scenario,there will be n comparisons for the first array, 2n for the second, 3n for the third and soon till (k - 1)n.
So now the complexity becomes simply
n + 2n + 3n + 4n + ... + (k - 1)n
= n(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... + (k - 1))
= n((k - 1)*k) / 2
= n(k^2 - k) / 2
= O(nk ^ 2)
:-)
How about this:
Step 1:
Merge arrays (1 and 2), arrays (3 and 4), and so on. (k/2 array merges of 2n, total work kn).
Step 2:
Merge array (1,2 and 3,4), arrays (5,6 and 7,8), and so on (k/4 merges of 4n, total work kn).
Step 3:
Repeat...
There will be log(k) such "Steps", each with kn work. Hence total work done = O(k.n.log(k)).
Even otherwise, if we were to just sort all the elements of the array we could still merge everything in O(k.n.log(k.n)) time.
k-way merge is the algorithm that takes as input k sorted arrays, each of size n. It outputs a single sorted array of all the elements.
I had thought that this algorithm is O(kn)
We can disprove that by contradiction. Define a sorting algorithm for m items that uses your algorithm with k=m and n=1. By the hypothesis, the sorting algorithm succeeds in O(m) time. Contradiction, it's known that any sorting algorithm has worst case at least O(m log m).
You don't have to compare items 1 by 1 each time.
You should simply maintain the most recent K items in a sorted set.
You remove the smallest and relace it by its next element. This should be n.log(k)
Relevant article. Disclaimer: I participated in writing it
1) You have k sorted arrays, each of size n. Therefore total number of elements = k * n
2) Take the first element of all k arrays and create a sequence. Then find the minimum of this sequence. This min value is stored in the output array. Number of comparisons to find the minimum of k elements is k - 1.
3) Therefore the total number of comparisons
= (comparisons/element) * number of elements
= (k - 1) * k * n
= k^2 * n // approximately
A common implementation keeps an array of indexes for each one of the k sorted arrays {i_1, i_2, i__k}. On each iteration the algorithm finds the minimum next element from all k arrays and store it in the output array. Since you are doing kn iterations and scanning k arrays per iteration the total complexity is O(k^2 * n).
Here's some pseudo-code:
Input: A[j] j = 1..k : k sorted arrays each of length n
Output: B : Sorted array of length kn
// Initialize array of indexes
I[j] = 0 for j = 1..k
q = 0
while (q < kn):
p = argmin({A[j][I[j]]}) j = 1..k // Get the array for which the next unprocessed element is minimal (ignores arrays for which I[j] > n)
B[q] = A[p][I[p]]
I[p] = I[p] + 1
q = q + 1
You have k arrays each with n elements. This means total k*n elements.
Consider it a matrix of k*n. To add first element to the merged/ final array, you need to compare heads of k arrays. This means for one element in final array you need to do k comparisons.
So from 1 and 2, for Kn elements, total time taken is O(kk*n).
For those who want to know the details or need some help with this, I'm going expand on Recurse's answer and follow-up comment
We only need k-1 merges because the last array is not merged with anything
The formula for summing the terms of an arithmetic sequence is helpful; Sn=n(a1 + an)2
Stepping through the first 4 merges of k arrays with n elements
+-------+-------------------+-------------+
| Merge | Size of new array | Note |
+-------+-------------------+-------------+
| 1 | n+n = 2n | first merge |
| 2 | 2n+n = 3n | |
| 3 | 3n+n = 4n | |
| 4 | 4n+n = 5n | |
| k-1 | (k-1)n+n = kn | last merge |
+-------+-------------------+-------------+
To find the average size, we need to sum all the sizes and divide by the number of merges (k-1). Using the formula for summing the first n terms, Sn=n(a1 + an)2, we only need the first and last terms:
a1=2n (first term)
an=kn (last term)
We want to sum all the terms so n=k-1 (the number of terms we have). Plugging in the numbers we get a formula for the sum of all terms
Sn = ( (k-1)(2n+kn) )/2
However, to find the average size we must divide by the number of terms (k-1). This cancels out the k-1 in the numerator and we're left with an average of size of
(2n + kn)/2
Now we have the average size, we can multiply it by the number of merges, which is k-1. To make the multiplication easier, ignore the /2, and just multiply the numerators:
(k-1)(2n+kn)
= (k^2)n + kn - 2n
At this point you could reintroduce the /2, but there shouldn't be any need since it's clear the dominant term is (k^2)*n
To find the median of an unsorted array, we can make a min-heap in O(nlogn) time for n elements, and then we can extract one by one n/2 elements to get the median. But this approach would take O(nlogn) time.
Can we do the same by some method in O(n) time? If we can, then please tell or suggest some method.
You can use the Median of Medians algorithm to find median of an unsorted array in linear time.
I have already upvoted the #dasblinkenlight answer since the Median of Medians algorithm in fact solves this problem in O(n) time. I only want to add that this problem could be solved in O(n) time by using heaps also. Building a heap could be done in O(n) time by using the bottom-up. Take a look to the following article for a detailed explanation Heap sort
Supposing that your array has N elements, you have to build two heaps: A MaxHeap that contains the first N/2 elements (or (N/2)+1 if N is odd) and a MinHeap that contains the remaining elements. If N is odd then your median is the maximum element of MaxHeap (O(1) by getting the max). If N is even, then your median is (MaxHeap.max()+MinHeap.min())/2 this takes O(1) also. Thus, the real cost of the whole operation is the heaps building operation which is O(n).
BTW this MaxHeap/MinHeap algorithm works also when you don't know the number of the array elements beforehand (if you have to resolve the same problem for a stream of integers for e.g). You can see more details about how to resolve this problem in the following article Median Of integer streams
Quickselect works in O(n), this is also used in the partition step of Quicksort.
The quick select algorithm can find the k-th smallest element of an array in linear (O(n)) running time. Here is an implementation in python:
import random
def partition(L, v):
smaller = []
bigger = []
for val in L:
if val < v: smaller += [val]
if val > v: bigger += [val]
return (smaller, [v], bigger)
def top_k(L, k):
v = L[random.randrange(len(L))]
(left, middle, right) = partition(L, v)
# middle used below (in place of [v]) for clarity
if len(left) == k: return left
if len(left)+1 == k: return left + middle
if len(left) > k: return top_k(left, k)
return left + middle + top_k(right, k - len(left) - len(middle))
def median(L):
n = len(L)
l = top_k(L, n / 2 + 1)
return max(l)
No, there is no O(n) algorithm for finding the median of an arbitrary, unsorted dataset.
At least none that I am aware of in 2022. All answers offered here are variations/combinations using heaps, Median of Medians, Quickselect, all of which are strictly O(nlogn).
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_of_medians and http://cs.indstate.edu/~spitla/abstract2.pdf.
The problem appears to be confusion about how algorithms are classified, which is according their limiting (worst case) behaviour. "On average" or "typically" O(n) with "worst case" O(f(n)) means (in textbook terms) "strictly O(f(n))". Quicksort for example, is often discussed as being O(nlogn) (which is how it typically performs), although it is in fact an O(n^2) algorithm because there is always some pathological ordering of inputs for which it can do no better than n^2 comparisons.
It can be done using Quickselect Algorithm in O(n), do refer to Kth order statistics (randomized algorithms).
As wikipedia says, Median-of-Medians is theoretically o(N), but it is not used in practice because the overhead of finding "good" pivots makes it too slow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_algorithm
Here is Java source for a Quickselect algorithm to find the k'th element in an array:
/**
* Returns position of k'th largest element of sub-list.
*
* #param list list to search, whose sub-list may be shuffled before
* returning
* #param lo first element of sub-list in list
* #param hi just after last element of sub-list in list
* #param k
* #return position of k'th largest element of (possibly shuffled) sub-list.
*/
static int select(double[] list, int lo, int hi, int k) {
int n = hi - lo;
if (n < 2)
return lo;
double pivot = list[lo + (k * 7919) % n]; // Pick a random pivot
// Triage list to [<pivot][=pivot][>pivot]
int nLess = 0, nSame = 0, nMore = 0;
int lo3 = lo;
int hi3 = hi;
while (lo3 < hi3) {
double e = list[lo3];
int cmp = compare(e, pivot);
if (cmp < 0) {
nLess++;
lo3++;
} else if (cmp > 0) {
swap(list, lo3, --hi3);
if (nSame > 0)
swap(list, hi3, hi3 + nSame);
nMore++;
} else {
nSame++;
swap(list, lo3, --hi3);
}
}
assert (nSame > 0);
assert (nLess + nSame + nMore == n);
assert (list[lo + nLess] == pivot);
assert (list[hi - nMore - 1] == pivot);
if (k >= n - nMore)
return select(list, hi - nMore, hi, k - nLess - nSame);
else if (k < nLess)
return select(list, lo, lo + nLess, k);
return lo + k;
}
I have not included the source of the compare and swap methods, so it's easy to change the code to work with Object[] instead of double[].
In practice, you can expect the above code to be o(N).
Let the problem be: finding the Kth largest element in an unsorted array.
Divide the array into n/5 groups where each group consisting of 5 elements.
Now a1,a2,a3....a(n/5) represent the medians of each group.
x = Median of the elements a1,a2,.....a(n/5).
Now if k<n/2 then we can remove the largets, 2nd largest and 3rd largest element of the groups whose median is greater than the x. We can now call the function again with 7n/10 elements and finding the kth largest value.
else if k>n/2 then we can remove the smallest ,2nd smallest and 3rd smallest element of the group whose median is smaller than the x. We can now call the function of again with 7n/10 elements and finding the (k-3n/10)th largest value.
Time Complexity Analysis:
T(n) time complexity to find the kth largest in an array of size n.
T(n) = T(n/5) + T(7n/10) + O(n)
if you solve this you will find out that T(n) is actually O(n)
n/5 + 7n/10 = 9n/10 < n
Notice that building a heap takes O(n) actually not O(nlogn), you can check this using amortized analysis or simply check in Youtube.
Extract-Min takes O(logn), therefore, extracting n/2 will take (nlogn/2) = O(nlogn) amortized time.
About your question, you can simply check at Median of Medians.