Heapify Down Method in Min Heap - data-structures

Currently trying to grasp the Min Heap with Repl here: https://repl.it/#Stylebender/Minheap#index.js
Min Heap has a capacity of 5.
Once I insert the 6th element (50) we swap the positions of the elements at index 0 and index 5 and eject the smallest element from the heap leaving the heap as:
[ 50, 10, 20, 40, 30]
My specific query has to deal with Lines 39-40.
As you can see from the console log, the first time we call the trickeDown() method, min (0) which represents the index position of 50 becomes leftChild and ends up swapping positions with index 1 with the following result:
[ 50, 10, 20, 40, 30]
However, on the second call of the trickleDown() method, 50 which is at index 1 assumes the position of rightChild and swaps positions with index 4 to form the final heap as below:
[ 10, 30, 20, 40, 50]
Maybe I'm just missing something but I'm not sure why min decided to become leftChild in the first run and rightChild in the second run since wouldn't 50, as the largest element within the min heap satisfy both the For Loops every time the method is invoked?

In the first call, we comparing 50, 10 and 20.
min begins at 0, indicating the 50.
10 is less than 50, so min becomes 1.
20 is not less than 10, so min does not change.
We have found the minimum: 10.
In the second call, we compare 50, 40 and 30.
min begins at 1, indicating the 50.
40 is less than 50, so min becomes 3.
30 is less than 40, so min becomes 4.
We have found the minimum: 30.
It is not sufficient to find an element less than 50; we must find the minimum. To swap 50 and 20 would not produce a valid min-heap.

Related

Finding largest difference in array of compass headings

I'm trying to have the "range" of compass headings over the last X seconds. Example: Over the last minute, my heading has been between 120deg and 140deg on the compass. Easy enough right? I have an array with the compass headings over the time period, say 1 reading every second.
[ 125, 122, 120, 125, 130, 139, 140, 138 ]
I can take the minimum and maximum values and there you go. My range is from 120 to 140.
Except it's not that simple. Take for example if my heading has shifted from 10 degrees, to 350 degrees (ie it "passed" through North, changing -20deg.
Now my array might look something like this:
[ 9, 10, 6, 3, 358, 355, 350, 353 ]
Now the Min is 3 and max 358, which is not what I need :( I'm looking for the most "right hand" (clockwise) value, and most "left hand" (counter-clockwise) value.
Only way I can think of, is finding the largest arc along the circle that includes none of the values in my array, but I don't even know how I would do that.
Would really appreciate any help!
Problem Analysis
To summarize the problem, it sounds like you want to find both of the following:
The two readings that are closest together (for simplicity: in a clockwise direction) AND
Contain all of the other readings between them.
So in your second example, 9 and 10 are only 1° apart, but they do not contain all the other readings. Conversely, traveling clockwise from 10 to 9 would contain all of the other readings, but they are 359° apart in that direction, so they are not closest.
In this case, I'm not sure if using the minimum and maximum readings will help. Instead, I'd recommend sorting all of the readings. Then you can more easily check the two criteria specified above.
Here's the second example you provided, sorted in ascending order:
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
If we start from the beginning, we know that traveling from reading 3 to reading 358 will encompass all of the other readings, but they are 358 - 3 = 355° apart. We can continue scanning the results progressively. Note that once we circle around, we have to add 360 to properly calculate the degrees of separation.
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
*--------------------------> 358 - 3 = 355° separation
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
-> *----------------------------- (360 + 3) - 6 = 357° separation
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
----> *-------------------------- (360 + 6) - 9 = 357° separation
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
-------> *----------------------- (360 + 9) - 10 = 359° separation
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
----------> *------------------- (360 + 10) - 350 = 20° separation
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
--------------> *-------------- (360 + 350) - 353 = 357° separation
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
-------------------> *--------- (360 + 353) - 355 = 358° separation
[ 3, 6, 9, 10, 350, 353, 355, 358 ]
------------------------> *---- (360 + 355) - 358 = 357° separation
Pseudocode Solution
Here's a pseudocode algorithm for determining the minimum degree range of reading values. There are definitely ways it could be optimized if performance is a concern.
// Somehow, we need to get our reading data into the program, sorted
// in ascending order.
// If readings are always whole numbers, you can use an int[] array
// instead of a double[] array. If we use an int[] array here, change
// the "minimumInclusiveReadingRange" variable below to be an int too.
double[] readings = populateAndSortReadingsArray();
if (readings.length == 0)
{
// Handle case where no readings are provided. Show a warning,
// throw an error, or whatever the requirement is.
}
else
{
// We want to track the endpoints of the smallest inclusive range.
// These values will be overwritten each time a better range is found.
int minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex1;
int minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex2;
double minimumInclusiveReadingRange; // This is convenient, but not necessary.
// We could determine it using the
// endpoint indices instead.
// Check the range of the greatest and least readings first. Since
// the readings are sorted, the greatest reading is the last element.
// The least reading is the first element.
minimumInclusiveReadingRange = readings[array.length - 1] - readings[0];
minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex1 = 0;
minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex2 = array.length - 1;
// Potential to skip some processing. If the ends are 180 or less
// degrees apart, they represent the minimum inclusive reading range.
// The for loop below could be skipped.
for (int i = 1; i < array.length; i++)
{
if ((360.0 + readings[i-1]) - readings[i] < minimumInclusiveReadingRange)
{
minimumInclusiveReadingRange = (360.0 + readings[i-1]) - readings[i];
minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex1 = i;
minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex2 = i - 1;
}
}
// Most likely, there will be some different readings, but there is an
// edge case of all readings being the same:
if (minimumInclusiveReadingRange == 0.0)
{
print("All readings were the same: " + readings[0]);
}
else
{
print("The range of compass readings was: " + minimumInclusiveReadingRange +
" spanning from " + readings[minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex1] +
" to " + readings[minimumInclusiveEndpointIndex2]);
}
}
There is one additional edge case that this pseudocode algorithm does not cover, and that is the case where there are multiple minimum inclusive ranges...
Example 1: [0, 90, 180, 270] which has a range of 270 (90 to 0/360, 180 to 90, 270 to 180, and 0 to 270).
Example 2: [85, 95, 265, 275] which has a range of 190 (85 to 275 and 265 to 95)
If it's necessary to report each possible pair of endpoints that create the minimum inclusive range, this edge case would increase the complexity of the logic a bit. If all that matters is determining the value of the minimum inclusive range or it is sufficient to report just one pair that represents the minimum inclusive range, the provided algorithm should suffice.

How to Find All Overlapping Intervals summed weight?

Possible Interview Question: How to Find All Overlapping Intervals => provide us a solution to find all the overlapping intervals. On top of this problem, imagine each interval has a weight. I am aiming to find those overlap intervals summed weight, when a new interval is inserted.
Condition: Newly inserted interval's end value is always larger than the previously inserted interval's end point, this will lead us to have already sorted end points.
When a new interval and its weight is inserted, all the overlapped intervals summed weight should be checked that does it exceeds the limit or not. For example when we insert [15, 70] 2, [15, 20] 's summed weight will be 130 and it should give an error since it exceed the limit=128, if not the newly inserted interval will be append to the list.
int limit = 128;
Inserted itervals in order:
order_come | start | end | weight
0 [10, 20] 32
1 [15, 25] 32
2 [5, 30] 32
3 [30, 40] 64
4 [1, 50] 16
5 [1, 60] 16
6 [15, 70] 2 <=should not append to the list.
Final overall summed weight view of the List after `[15, 70] 2` is inserted:
[60, 70, 2]
[50, 60, 18]
[40, 50, 34]
[30, 40, 98]
[25, 30, 66]
[20, 25, 98]
[15, 20, 130] <= exceeds the limit=128, throw an error.
[10, 15, 96]
[5, 10, 64]
[1, 5, 32]
[0, 0, 0]
Thank you for your valuable time and help.
O(log n)-time inserts are doable with an augmented binary search tree. To store
order_come | start | end | weight
0 [10, 20] 32
1 [15, 25] 32
2 [5, 30] 32
3 [30, 40] 64
4 [1, 50] 16
5 [1, 60] 16
we have a tree shaped like
25
/ \
/ \
10 50
/ \ / \
5 20 40 60
/ / /
1 15 30 ,
where each number represents the interval from it to its successor. Associated with each tree node are two numbers. The first we call ∆weight, defined to be the weight of the node's interval minus the weight of the node's parent's interval, if extent (otherwise zero). The second we call ∆max, defined to be the maximum weight of an interval corresponding to a descendant of the node, minus the node's weight.
For the above example,
interval | tree node | total weight | ∆weight | ∆max
[1, 5) 1 32 -32 0
[5, 10) 5 64 -32 0
[10, 15) 10 96 32 32
[15, 20) 15 128 32 0
[20, 25) 20 96 0 32
[25, 30) 25 64 64 64
[30, 40) 30 96 64 0
[40, 50) 40 32 16 64
[50, 60) 50 16 -48 80
[60, ∞) 60 0 -16 0
Binary search tree operations almost invariably require rotations. When we rotate a tree like
p c
/ \ / \
c r => l p
/ \ / \
l g g r
we modify
c.∆weight += p.∆weight
g.∆weight += c.∆weight
g.∆weight -= p.∆weight
p.∆weight -= c.∆weight
p.∆max = max(0, g.∆max + g.∆weight, r.∆max + r.∆weight)
c.∆max = max(0, l.∆max + l.∆weight, p.∆max + p.∆weight).
The point of the augmentations is as follows. To find the max weight in the tree, compute r.∆max + r.∆value where r is the root. To increase every weight in a subtree by a given quantity ∂, increase the subtree root's ∆weight by ∂. By changing O(log n) nodes with inclusion-exclusion, we can increase a whole interval. Together, these operations allow us to evaluate an insertion in time O(log n).
To find the total weight of an interval, search for that interval as normal while also adding up the ∆weight values of that interval's ancestors. For example, to find the weight of [15, 30], we look for 15, traversing 25 (∆weight = 64), 10 (∆weight = 32), 20 (∆weight = 0), and 15 (∆weight = 32), for a total weight of 64 + 32 + 0 + 32 = 128.
To find the maximum total weight along a hypothetical interval, we do a modified search something like this. Using another modified search, compute the greatest tree value less than or equal to start (predstart; let predstart = -∞ if start is all tree values are greater than start) and pass it to this maxtotalweight.
maxtotalweight(root, predstart, end):
if root is nil:
return -∞
if end <= root.value:
return maxtotalweight(root.leftchild, predstart, end) + root.∆weight
if predstart > root.value:
return maxtotalweight(root.rightchild, predstart, end) + root.∆weight
lmtw = maxtotalweight1a(root.leftchild, predstart)
rmtw = maxtotalweight1b(root.rightchild, end)
return max(lmtw, 0, rmtw) + root.∆weight
maxtotalweight1a(root, predstart):
if root is nil:
return -∞
if predstart > root.value:
return maxtotalweight1a(root.rightchild, predstart) + root.∆weight
lmtw = maxtotalweight1a(root.leftchild, predstart)
return max(lmtw, 0, root.rightchild.∆max + root.rightchild.∆weight) + root.∆weight
maxtotalweight1b(root, end):
if root is nil:
return -∞
if end <= root.value:
return maxtotalweight1b(root.leftchild, end) + root.∆weight
rmtw = maxtotalweight1b(root.rightchild, end)
return max(root.leftchild.∆max + root.leftchild.∆weight, 0, rmtw) + root.∆weight
We assume that nil has ∆weight = 0 and ∆max = -∞. Sorry for all of the missing details.
Using the terminology of original answer when you have
'1E 2E 3E ... (n-1)E nE'
end-points already sorted and your (n+1)st end-point is grater than all previous end-points you only need to find intervals with end-point value greater then (n+1)st start-point (greater or equal in case of closed intervals).
In other words - iterate over intervals starting from most-right end-point to the left until you reach the interval with end-point lesser or equal than (n+1)st start-point and keep track of sum of weights. Then check if the sum fits into the limit. Worst case time-complexity is O(n) when all previous intervals have end-point grater then (n+1)st start-point.

Print the row and column wise sorted 2 D matrix in a sorted order

Given an n x n matrix, where every row and column is sorted in non-decreasing order. Print all elements of matrix in sorted order.
Example:
Input:
mat[][] = { {10, 20, 30, 40},
{15, 25, 35, 45},
{27, 29, 37, 48},
{32, 33, 39, 50},
};
Output:
(Elements of matrix in sorted order)
10 15 20 25 27 29 30 32 33 35 37 39 40 45 48 50
I am unable to figure out how to do this.But according to me we can put the 2 D matrix in one matrix and apply the sort function.But i am in a need of space optimized code.
Using a Heap would be a good idea here.
Please refer to the following for a very similar question:
http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/kth-smallest-element-in-a-row-wise-and-column-wise-sorted-2d-array-set-1/
Thought the problem in the link above is different, the same approach could be used for the problem you specify. Instead of looping k times as the link explains, you need to visit all elements in the matrix i.e you should loop till the heap is empty.

Sort array by pairwise difference

For example we have the array X[n] = {X0, X1, X2, ... Xn}
The goal is to sort this array that the difference between every pair is in ascending order.
For example X[] = {10, 2, 7, 4}
Answers are:
2 7 10 4
4 10 7 2
I have some code but it's brute force :)
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int array[] = { 10, 2, 7, 4 };
int a[4];
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++){
a[0] = array[i];
for(int j = 0; j < 4; j++){
a[1] = array[j];
if(a[0] == a[1])
continue;
for(int k = 0; k < 4; k++){
a[2] = array[k];
if(a[0] == a[2] || a[1] == a[2])
continue;
for(int l = 0; l < 4; l++){
a[3] = array[l];
if(a[0] == a[3] || a[1] == a[3] || a[2] == a[3])
continue;
if(a[0] - a[1] < a[1] - a[2] && a[1] - a[2] < a[2] - a[3])
printf("%d %d %d %d\n", a[0], a[1], a[2], a[3]);
}
}
}
}
return 0;
}
Any idea for "pretty" algorithm ? :)
DISCLAIMER This solution will arrange items to difference grow by absolute value. Thx to #Will Ness
One solutions according to the difference between every pair is in ascending order requirement.
You just sort array in ascending order O(n)*log(n) and then start in the middle. And the you arrange elements like this :
[n/2, n/2+1, n/2-1, n/2+2, n/2-2, n/2+3 ...] you go to +1 first if more element are on the right side of (n/2)th element
[n/2, n/2-1, n/2+1, n/2-2, n/2+2, n/2-3 ...] you go to -1 first otherwise.
Here you get ascending pairwise difference.
NOTE!!! It is not guaranteed that this algo will find the smallest difference and start with it, but I do not see this is requirements.
Example
Sorted array: {1, 2, 10, 15, 40, 50, 60, 61, 100, 101}
Then, you pick 50 (as 10/2 = 5th), 60 (10/2+1 = 6), 40 and so on...
You'll get: {40, 50, 15, 60, 10, 61, 2, 100, 1, 101}
Which got you diffs: 10, 35, 45, 50, 51, 59, 88, 99, 100
Let's see. Your example array is {10,2,7,4} and the answers you show are:
2 7 10 4
5 3 -6 differences, a[i+1] - a[i]
4 10 7 2
6 -3 -5
I show the flipped differences here, it's easier to analyze that way.
So, the goal is to have the differences a[i+1] - a[i] in descending order. Obviously some positive difference values will go first, then some negative. This means the maximal element of the array will appear somewhere in the middle. The positive differences to the left of it must be in descending order of absolute value, and the negatives to the right - in ascending order of absolute value.
Let's take another array as an example: {4,8,20,15,16,1,3}. We start by sorting it:
1 3 4 8 15 16 20
2 1 4 7 1 4 differences, a[i+1] - a[i]
Now, 20 goes in the middle, and after it to the right must go values progressively further apart. Since the differences to the left of 20 in the solution are positive, the values themselves are ascending, i.e. sorted. So whatever's left after we pick some of them to move to the right of the maximal element, stays as is, and the (positive) differences must be in descending order. If they are, the solution is found.
Here there are no solutions. The possibilities are:
... 20 16 8 (no more) left: 1 3 4 15 (diffs: 2 1 11 5)
... 20 16 4 (no more) left: 1 3 8 15 (diffs: 2 5 7 5)
... 20 16 3 (no more) left: 1 4 8 15 (diffs: 3 4 7 5)
... 20 16 1 (no more) left: 3 4 8 15 ....................
... 20 15 8 (no more) left: 1 3 4 16
... 20 15 4 (no more) left: 1 3 8 16
... 20 15 3 (no more) left: 1 4 8 16
... 20 15 1 (no more) left: 3 4 8 16
... 20 8 (no more) left: 1 3 4 15 16
... 20 4 (no more) left: 1 3 8 15 16
... 20 3 (no more) left: 1 4 8 15 16
... 20 1 (no more) left: 3 4 8 15 16
... 20 (no more) left: 1 3 4 8 15 16
Without 1 and 3, several solutions are possible.
Solution for this problem is not always possible. For example, array X[] = {0, 0, 0} cannot be "sorted" as required because both differences are always equal.
In case this problem has a solution, array values should be "sorted" as shown on the left diagram: some subset of the values in ascending order should form prefix of the resulting array, then all the remaining values in descending order should form its suffix. And "sorted" array should be convex.
This gives a hint for an algorithm: sort the array, then split its values into two convex subsets, then extract one of these subsets and append it (in reverse order) at the end.
A simple (partial) implementation would be: sort the array, find a subset of values that belong to convex hull, then check all the remaining values, and if they are convex, append them at the end. This algorithm works only if one of the subsets lies completely below the other one.
If the resulting subsets intersect (as shown on the right diagram), an improved version of this algorithm may be used: split sorted array into segments where one of the subsets lies completely below other one (A-B, B-C), then for each of these segments find convex hull and check convexity of the remaining subset. Note that X axis on the right diagram corresponds to the array indexes in a special way: for subset intersections (A, B, C) X corresponds to an index in ascending-sorted array; X coordinates for values between intersections are scaled according to their positions in the resulting array.
Sketch of an algorithm
Sort the array in ascending order.
Starting from the largest value, try adding convex hull values to the "top" subset (in a way similar to Graham scan algorithm). Also put all the values not belonging to convex hull to the "bottom" subset and check its convexity. Continue while all the values properly fit to either "top" or "bottom" subset. When the smallest value is processed, remove one of these subsets from the array, reverse the subset, and append at the and of the array.
If after adding some value to the "top" subset, the "bottom" subset is not convex anymore, rollback last addition and check if this value can be properly added to the "bottom" subset. If not, stop, because input array cannot be "sorted" as required. Otherwise, exchange "top" and "bottom" subsets and continue with step 2 (already processed values should not be moved between subsets, any attempt to move them should result in going to step 3).
In other words, we could process each value of sorted array, from largest to smallest, trying to append this value to one of two subsets in such a way that both subsets stay convex. At first, we try to place a new value to the subset where previous value was added. This may make several values, added earlier, unfit to this subset - then we check if they all fit to other subset. If they do - move them to other subset, if not - leave them in "top" subset but move current value to other subset.
Time complexity
Each value is added or removed from "top" subset at most once, also it may be added to "bottom" subset at most once. And for each operation on an element we need to inspect only two its nearest predecessors. This means worst-case time complexity of steps 2 and 3 is O(N). So overall time complexity is determined by the sorting algorithm on step 1.

Reordering items with multiple order criteria

Scenario:
list of photos
every photo has the following properties
id
sequence_number
main_photo_bit
the first photo has the main_photo_bit set to 1 (all others are 0)
photos are ordered by sequence_number (which is arbitrary)
the main photo does not necessarily have the lowest sequence_number (before sorting)
See the following table:
id, sequence_number, main_photo_bit
1 10 1
2 5 0
3 20 0
Now you want to change the order by changing the sequence number and main photo bit.
Requirements after sorting:
the sequence_number of the first photo is not changed
the sequence_number of the first photo is the lowest
as less changes as possible
Examples:
Example #1 (second photo goes to the first position):
id, sequence_number, main_photo_bit
2 10 1
1 15 0
3 20 0
This is what happened:
id 1: new sequence_number and main_photo_bit set to 0
id 2: old first photo (id 2) sequence_number and main_photo_bit set to 1
id 3: nothing happens
Example #2 (third photo to first position):
id, sequence_number, main_photo_bit
3 10 1
1 20 0
2 30 0
This is what happened:
id 1: new sequence_number bigger than first photo and main_photo_bit to 0
id 2: new sequence_number bigger than newly generated second sequence_number
id 3: old first photo sequence_number and main_photo_bit set to 1
What is the best approach to calculate the steps needed to save the new order?
Edit:
The reason that I want as less updates as possible is because I want to sync it to an external service, which is a quite costly operation.
I already got a working prototype of the algorithm, but it fails in some edge cases. So instead of patching it up (which might work -- but it will become even more complex than it is already), I want to know if there are other (better) ways to do it.
In my version (in short) it orders the photos (changing sequence_number's), and swaps the main_photo_bit, but it isn't sufficient to solve every scenario.
From what I understood, a good solution would not only minimize changes (since updating is the costly operation), but also try to minimize future changes, as more and more photos are reordered. I'd start by adding a temporary field dirty, to indicate if the row must change or not:
id, sequence_number, main_photo_bit, dirty
1 10 1 false
2 5 0 false
3 20 0 false
4 30 0 false
5 31 0 false
6 33 0 false
If there are rows which sequence_number is smaller than the first, they will surely have to change (either to get a higher number, or to become the first). Let's mark them as dirty:
id, sequence_number, main_photo_bit, dirty
2 5 0 true
(skip this step if it's not really important that the first has the lowest sequence_number)
Now let's see the list of photos, as they should be in the result (as per the question, only one photo changed places, from anywhere to anywhere). Dirty ones in bold:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] # Original ordering
[2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6] # Example 1: 2nd to 1st place
[3, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6] # Example 2: 3rd to 1st place
[1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6] # Example 3: 3rd to 4th place
[1, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6] # Example 4: 3rd to 2nd place
The first thing to do is ensure the first element has the lowest sequence_number. If it hasn't changed places, then it has by definition, otherwise the old first should be marked as dirty, have its main_photo_bit cleared, and the new one should receive those values to itself.
At this point, the first element should have a fixed sequence_number, and every dirty element can have its value changed at will (since it will have to change anyway, so it's better to change for an useful value). Before proceeding, we must ensure that it's possible to solve it with only changing the dirty rows, or if more rows will have to be dirtied as well. This is simply a matter of determining if the interval between every pair of clean rows is big enough to fit the number of dirty rows between them:
[10, D, 20, 30, 31, 33] # Original ordering (the first is dirty, but fixed)
[10, D, 20, 30, 31, 33] # Example 1: 2nd to 1st place (ok: 10 < ? < 20)
[10, D, D, 30, 31, 33] # Example 2: 3rd to 1st place (ok: 10 < ? < ? < 30)
[10, D, 30, D, 31, 33] # Example 3: 3rd to 4th place (NOT OK: 30 < ? < 31)
[10, D, 30, D, D, 33] # must mark 5th as dirty too (ok: 30 < ? < ? < 33)
[10, D, D, 30, 31, 33] # Example 4: 3rd to 2nd place (ok)
Now it's just a matter of assigning new sequence_numbers to the dirty rows. A naïve solution would be to just increment the previous one, but a better approach would be setting them as equally spaced as possible. This way, there are better odds that a future reorder would require less changes (in other words, to avoid problems like Example 3, where more rows than necessary had to be updated since some sequence_numbers were too close to each other):
[10, 15, 20, 30, 31, 33] # Example 1: 2nd to 1st place
[10, 16, 23, 30, 31, 33] # Example 2: 3rd to 1st place
[10, 20, 30, 31, 32, 33] # Example 3: 3rd to 4th place
[10, 16, 23, 30, 31, 33] # Example 4: 3rd to 2nd place
Bonus: if you really want to push the solution to its limits, do the computation twice - one moving the photo, other having it fixed and moving the surrounding photos - and see which one resulted in less changes. Take example 3A, where instead of "3rd to 4th place" we treat it as "4th to 3rd place" (same sorting results, but different changes):
[1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6] # Example 3A: 4th to 3rd place
[10, D, D, 20, 31, 33] # (ok: 10 < ? < ? < 20)
[10, 13, 16, 20, 31, 33] # One less change
In most cases it can be done (ex.: 2nd to 4th position == 3rd/4th to 2nd/3rd position), whether or not the added complexity is worth the small gain, it's up to you to decide.
Use a linked list instead of sequence numbers. Then you can remove a picture from anywhere in the list and reinsert it anywhere in the list, and you only need to change 3 lines in your database file. Main photo bit should be unneccessary, the first photo being implicitly defined by not having any pointers to it.
id next
1 3
2 1
3
the order is: 2, 1, 3
user moves picture 3 to position 1:
id next
1
2 1
3 2
new order is: 3, 2, 1

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