I was going through a question where it asks you to find the rank of the string amongst its permutations sorted lexicographically.
O(N^2) is pretty clear.
Some websites have O(n) solution also. The part that is optimized is basically pre-populating a count array such that
count[i] contains count of characters which are present in str and are smaller than i.
I understand that this'd reduce the complexity but can't fit my head around how we are calculating this array. This is the function that does this (taken from the link):
// Construct a count array where value at every index
// contains count of smaller characters in whole string
void populateAndIncreaseCount (int* count, char* str)
{
int i;
for( i = 0; str[i]; ++i )
++count[ str[i] ];
for( i = 1; i < 256; ++i )
count[i] += count[i-1];
}
Can someone please provide an intuitive explanation of this function?
That solution is doing a Bucket Sort and then sorting the output.
A bucket sort is O(items + number_of_possible_distinct_inputs) which for a fixed alphabet can be advertised as O(n).
However in practice UTF makes for a pretty large alphabet. I would therefore suggest a quicksort instead. Because a quicksort that divides into the three buckets of <, > and = is efficient for a large character set, but still takes advantage of a small one.
Understood after going through it again. Got confused due to wrong syntax in c++. It's actually doing a pretty simple thing (Here's the java version :
void populateAndIncreaseCount(int[] count, String str) {
// count is initialized to zero for all indices
for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); ++i) {
count[str.charAt(i)]++;
}
for (int i = 1; i < 256; ++i)
count[i] += count[i - 1];
}
After first step, indices whose character are present in string are non-zero. Then, for each index in count array, it'd be the sum of all the counts till index-1 since array represents lexicographically sorted characters. And, after each search, we udate the count array also:
// Removes a character ch from count[] array
// constructed by populateAndIncreaseCount()
void updatecount (int* count, char ch)
{
int i;
for( i = ch; i < MAX_CHAR; ++i )
--count[i];
}
How do you print numbers of form 2^i * 5^j in increasing order.
For eg:
1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20
This is actually a very interesting question, especially if you don't want this to be N^2 or NlogN complexity.
What I would do is the following:
Define a data structure containing 2 values (i and j) and the result of the formula.
Define a collection (e.g. std::vector) containing this data structures
Initialize the collection with the value (0,0) (the result is 1 in this case)
Now in a loop do the following:
Look in the collection and take the instance with the smallest value
Remove it from the collection
Print this out
Create 2 new instances based on the instance you just processed
In the first instance increment i
In the second instance increment j
Add both instances to the collection (if they aren't in the collection yet)
Loop until you had enough of it
The performance can be easily tweaked by choosing the right data structure and collection.
E.g. in C++, you could use an std::map, where the key is the result of the formula, and the value is the pair (i,j). Taking the smallest value is then just taking the first instance in the map (*map.begin()).
I quickly wrote the following application to illustrate it (it works!, but contains no further comments, sorry):
#include <math.h>
#include <map>
#include <iostream>
typedef __int64 Integer;
typedef std::pair<Integer,Integer> MyPair;
typedef std::map<Integer,MyPair> MyMap;
Integer result(const MyPair &myPair)
{
return pow((double)2,(double)myPair.first) * pow((double)5,(double)myPair.second);
}
int main()
{
MyMap myMap;
MyPair firstValue(0,0);
myMap[result(firstValue)] = firstValue;
while (true)
{
auto it=myMap.begin();
if (it->first < 0) break; // overflow
MyPair myPair = it->second;
std::cout << it->first << "= 2^" << myPair.first << "*5^" << myPair.second << std::endl;
myMap.erase(it);
MyPair pair1 = myPair;
++pair1.first;
myMap[result(pair1)] = pair1;
MyPair pair2 = myPair;
++pair2.second;
myMap[result(pair2)] = pair2;
}
}
This is well suited to a functional programming style. In F#:
let min (a,b)= if(a<b)then a else b;;
type stream (current, next)=
member this.current = current
member this.next():stream = next();;
let rec merge(a:stream,b:stream)=
if(a.current<b.current) then new stream(a.current, fun()->merge(a.next(),b))
else new stream(b.current, fun()->merge(a,b.next()));;
let rec Squares(start) = new stream(start,fun()->Squares(start*2));;
let rec AllPowers(start) = new stream(start,fun()->merge(Squares(start*2),AllPowers(start*5)));;
let Results = AllPowers(1);;
Works well with Results then being a stream type with current value and a next method.
Walking through it:
I define min for completenes.
I define a stream type to have a current value and a method to return a new string, essentially head and tail of a stream of numbers.
I define the function merge, which takes the smaller of the current values of two streams and then increments that stream. It then recurses to provide the rest of the stream. Essentially, given two streams which are in order, it will produce a new stream which is in order.
I define squares to be a stream increasing in powers of 2.
AllPowers takes the start value and merges the stream resulting from all squares at this number of powers of 5. it with the stream resulting from multiplying it by 5, since these are your only two options. You effectively are left with a tree of results
The result is merging more and more streams, so you merge the following streams
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32...
5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160...
25, 50, 100, 200, 400...
.
.
.
Merging all of these turns out to be fairly efficient with tail recursio and compiler optimisations etc.
These could be printed to the console like this:
let rec PrintAll(s:stream)=
if (s.current > 0) then
do System.Console.WriteLine(s.current)
PrintAll(s.next());;
PrintAll(Results);
let v = System.Console.ReadLine();
Similar things could be done in any language which allows for recursion and passing functions as values (it's only a little more complex if you can't pass functions as variables).
For an O(N) solution, you can use a list of numbers found so far and two indexes: one representing the next number to be multiplied by 2, and the other the next number to be multiplied by 5. Then in each iteration you have two candidate values to choose the smaller one from.
In Python:
numbers = [1]
next_2 = 0
next_5 = 0
for i in xrange(100):
mult_2 = numbers[next_2]*2
mult_5 = numbers[next_5]*5
if mult_2 < mult_5:
next = mult_2
next_2 += 1
else:
next = mult_5
next_5 += 1
# The comparison here is to avoid appending duplicates
if next > numbers[-1]:
numbers.append(next)
print numbers
So we have two loops, one incrementing i and second one incrementing j starting both from zero, right? (multiply symbol is confusing in the title of the question)
You can do something very straightforward:
Add all items in an array
Sort the array
Or you need an other solution with more math analysys?
EDIT: More smart solution by leveraging similarity with Merge Sort problem
If we imagine infinite set of numbers of 2^i and 5^j as two independent streams/lists this problem looks very the same as well known Merge Sort problem.
So solution steps are:
Get two numbers one from the each of streams (of 2 and of 5)
Compare
Return smallest
get next number from the stream of the previously returned smallest
and that's it! ;)
PS: Complexity of Merge Sort always is O(n*log(n))
I visualize this problem as a matrix M where M(i,j) = 2^i * 5^j. This means that both the rows and columns are increasing.
Think about drawing a line through the entries in increasing order, clearly beginning at entry (1,1). As you visit entries, the row and column increasing conditions ensure that the shape formed by those cells will always be an integer partition (in English notation). Keep track of this partition (mu = (m1, m2, m3, ...) where mi is the number of smaller entries in row i -- hence m1 >= m2 >= ...). Then the only entries that you need to compare are those entries which can be added to the partition.
Here's a crude example. Suppose you've visited all the xs (mu = (5,3,3,1)), then you need only check the #s:
x x x x x #
x x x #
x x x
x #
#
Therefore the number of checks is the number of addable cells (equivalently the number of ways to go up in Bruhat order if you're of a mind to think in terms of posets).
Given a partition mu, it's easy to determine what the addable states are. Image an infinite string of 0s following the last positive entry. Then you can increase mi by 1 if and only if m(i-1) > mi.
Back to the example, for mu = (5,3,3,1) we can increase m1 (6,3,3,1) or m2 (5,4,3,1) or m4 (5,3,3,2) or m5 (5,3,3,1,1).
The solution to the problem then finds the correct sequence of partitions (saturated chain). In pseudocode:
mu = [1,0,0,...,0];
while (/* some terminate condition or go on forever */) {
minNext = 0;
nextCell = [];
// look through all addable cells
for (int i=0; i<mu.length; ++i) {
if (i==0 or mu[i-1]>mu[i]) {
// check for new minimum value
if (minNext == 0 or 2^i * 5^(mu[i]+1) < minNext) {
nextCell = i;
minNext = 2^i * 5^(mu[i]+1)
}
}
}
// print next largest entry and update mu
print(minNext);
mu[i]++;
}
I wrote this in Maple stopping after 12 iterations:
1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40, 50
and the outputted sequence of cells added and got this:
1 2 3 5 7 10
4 6 8 11
9 12
corresponding to this matrix representation:
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32...
5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160...
25, 50, 100, 200, 400...
First of all, (as others mentioned already) this question is very vague!!!
Nevertheless, I am going to give a shot based on your vague equation and the pattern as your expected result. So I am not sure the following will be true for what you are trying to do, however it may give you some idea about java collections!
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.SortedSet;
import java.util.TreeSet;
public class IncreasingNumbers {
private static List<Integer> findIncreasingNumbers(int maxIteration) {
SortedSet<Integer> numbers = new TreeSet<Integer>();
SortedSet<Integer> numbers2 = new TreeSet<Integer>();
for (int i=0;i < maxIteration;i++) {
int n1 = (int)Math.pow(2, i);
numbers.add(n1);
for (int j=0;j < maxIteration;j++) {
int n2 = (int)Math.pow(5, i);
numbers.add(n2);
for (Integer n: numbers) {
int n3 = n*n1;
numbers2.add(n3);
}
}
}
numbers.addAll(numbers2);
return new ArrayList<Integer>(numbers);
}
/**
* Based on the following fuzzy question # StackOverflow
* http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7571934/printing-numbers-of-the-form-2i-5j-in-increasing-order
*
*
* Result:
* 1 2 4 5 8 10 16 20 25 32 40 64 80 100 125 128 200 256 400 625 1000 2000 10000
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Integer> numbers = findIncreasingNumbers(5);
for (Integer i: numbers) {
System.out.print(i + " ");
}
}
}
If you can do it in O(nlogn), here's a simple solution:
Get an empty min-heap
Put 1 in the heap
while (you want to continue)
Get num from heap
print num
put num*2 and num*5 in the heap
There you have it. By min-heap, I mean min-heap
As a mathematician the first thing I always think about when looking at something like this is "will logarithms help?".
In this case it might.
If our series A is increasing then the series log(A) is also increasing. Since all terms of A are of the form 2^i.5^j then all members of the series log(A) are of the form i.log(2) + j.log(5)
We can then look at the series log(A)/log(2) which is also increasing and its elements are of the form i+j.(log(5)/log(2))
If we work out the i and j that generates the full ordered list for this last series (call it B) then that i and j will also generate the series A correctly.
This is just changing the nature of the problem but hopefully to one where it becomes easier to solve. At each step you can either increase i and decrease j or vice versa.
Looking at a few of the early changes you can make (which I will possibly refer to as transforms of i,j or just transorms) gives us some clues of where we are going.
Clearly increasing i by 1 will increase B by 1. However, given that log(5)/log(2) is approx 2.3 then increasing j by 1 while decreasing i by 2 will given an increase of just 0.3 . The problem then is at each stage finding the minimum possible increase in B for changes of i and j.
To do this I just kept a record as I increased of the most efficient transforms of i and j (ie what to add and subtract from each) to get the smallest possible increase in the series. Then applied whichever one was valid (ie making sure i and j don't go negative).
Since at each stage you can either decrease i or decrease j there are effectively two classes of transforms that can be checked individually. A new transform doesn't have to have the best overall score to be included in our future checks, just better than any other in its class.
To test my thougths I wrote a sort of program in LinqPad. Key things to note are that the Dump() method just outputs the object to screen and that the syntax/structure isn't valid for a real c# file. Converting it if you want to run it should be easy though.
Hopefully anything not explicitly explained will be understandable from the code.
void Main()
{
double C = Math.Log(5)/Math.Log(2);
int i = 0;
int j = 0;
int maxi = i;
int maxj = j;
List<int> outputList = new List<int>();
List<Transform> transforms = new List<Transform>();
outputList.Add(1);
while (outputList.Count<500)
{
Transform tr;
if (i==maxi)
{
//We haven't considered i this big before. Lets see if we can find an efficient transform by getting this many i and taking away some j.
maxi++;
tr = new Transform(maxi, (int)(-(maxi-maxi%C)/C), maxi%C);
AddIfWorthwhile(transforms, tr);
}
if (j==maxj)
{
//We haven't considered j this big before. Lets see if we can find an efficient transform by getting this many j and taking away some i.
maxj++;
tr = new Transform((int)(-(maxj*C)), maxj, (maxj*C)%1);
AddIfWorthwhile(transforms, tr);
}
//We have a set of transforms. We first find ones that are valid then order them by score and take the first (smallest) one.
Transform bestTransform = transforms.Where(x=>x.I>=-i && x.J >=-j).OrderBy(x=>x.Score).First();
//Apply transform
i+=bestTransform.I;
j+=bestTransform.J;
//output the next number in out list.
int value = GetValue(i,j);
//This line just gets it to stop when it overflows. I would have expected an exception but maybe LinqPad does magic with them?
if (value<0) break;
outputList.Add(value);
}
outputList.Dump();
}
public int GetValue(int i, int j)
{
return (int)(Math.Pow(2,i)*Math.Pow(5,j));
}
public void AddIfWorthwhile(List<Transform> list, Transform tr)
{
if (list.Where(x=>(x.Score<tr.Score && x.IncreaseI == tr.IncreaseI)).Count()==0)
{
list.Add(tr);
}
}
// Define other methods and classes here
public class Transform
{
public int I;
public int J;
public double Score;
public bool IncreaseI
{
get {return I>0;}
}
public Transform(int i, int j, double score)
{
I=i;
J=j;
Score=score;
}
}
I've not bothered looking at the efficiency of this but I strongly suspect its better than some other solutions because at each stage all I need to do is check my set of transforms - working out how many of these there are compared to "n" is non-trivial. It is clearly related since the further you go the more transforms there are but the number of new transforms becomes vanishingly small at higher numbers so maybe its just O(1). This O stuff always confused me though. ;-)
One advantage over other solutions is that it allows you to calculate i,j without needing to calculate the product allowing me to work out what the sequence would be without needing to calculate the actual number itself.
For what its worth after the first 230 nunmbers (when int runs out of space) I had 9 transforms to check each time. And given its only my total that overflowed I ran if for the first million results and got to i=5191 and j=354. The number of transforms was 23. The size of this number in the list is approximately 10^1810. Runtime to get to this level was approx 5 seconds.
P.S. If you like this answer please feel free to tell your friends since I spent ages on this and a few +1s would be nice compensation. Or in fact just comment to tell me what you think. :)
I'm sure everyone one's might have got the answer by now, but just wanted to give a direction to this solution..
It's a Ctrl C + Ctrl V from
http://www.careercup.com/question?id=16378662
void print(int N)
{
int arr[N];
arr[0] = 1;
int i = 0, j = 0, k = 1;
int numJ, numI;
int num;
for(int count = 1; count < N; )
{
numI = arr[i] * 2;
numJ = arr[j] * 5;
if(numI < numJ)
{
num = numI;
i++;
}
else
{
num = numJ;
j++;
}
if(num > arr[k-1])
{
arr[k] = num;
k++;
count++;
}
}
for(int counter = 0; counter < N; counter++)
{
printf("%d ", arr[counter]);
}
}
The question as put to me was to return an infinite set of solutions. I pondered the use of trees, but felt there was a problem with figuring out when to harvest and prune the tree, given an infinite number of values for i & j. I realized that a sieve algorithm could be used. Starting from zero, determine whether each positive integer had values for i and j. This was facilitated by turning answer = (2^i)*(2^j) around and solving for i instead. That gave me i = log2 (answer/ (5^j)). Here is the code:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var startTime = DateTime.Now;
int potential = 0;
do
{
if (ExistsIandJ(potential))
Console.WriteLine("{0}", potential);
potential++;
} while (potential < 100000);
Console.WriteLine("Took {0} seconds", DateTime.Now.Subtract(startTime).TotalSeconds);
}
private static bool ExistsIandJ(int potential)
{
// potential = (2^i)*(5^j)
// 1 = (2^i)*(5^j)/potential
// 1/(2^1) = (5^j)/potential or (2^i) = potential / (5^j)
// i = log2 (potential / (5^j))
for (var j = 0; Math.Pow(5,j) <= potential; j++)
{
var i = Math.Log(potential / Math.Pow(5, j), 2);
if (i == Math.Truncate(i))
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
How can we find a repeated number in array in O(n) time and O(1) complexity?
eg
array 2,1,4,3,3,10
output is 3
EDIT:
I tried in following way.
i found that if no is oddly repeated then we can achieve the result by doing xor . so i thought to make the element which is odd no repeating to even no and every evenly repeating no to odd.but for that i need to find out unique element array from input array in O(n) but couldn't find the way.
Assuming that there is an upped bound for the values of the numbers in the array (which is the case with all built-in integer types in all programming languages I 've ever used -- for example, let's say they are 32-bit integers) there is a solution that uses constant space:
Create an array of N elements, where N is the upper bound for the integer values in the input array and initialize all elements to 0 or false or some equivalent. I 'll call this the lookup array.
Loop over the input array, and use each number to index into the lookup array. If the value you find is 1 or true (etc), the current number in the input array is a duplicate.
Otherwise, set the corresponding value in the lookup array to 1 or true to remember that we have seen this particular input number.
Technically, this is O(n) time and O(1) space, and it does not destroy the input array. Practically, you would need things to be going your way to have such a program actually run (e.g. it's out of the question if talking about 64-bit integers in the input).
Without knowing more about the possible values in the array you can't.
With O(1) space requirement the fastest way is to sort the array so it's going to be at least O(n*log(n)).
Use Bit manipulation ... traverse the list in one loop.
Check if the mask is 1 by shifting the value from i.
If so print out repeated value i.
If the value is unset, set it.
*If you only want to show one repeated values once, add another integer show and set its bits as well like in the example below.
**This is in java, I'm not sure we will reach it, but you might want to also add a check using Integer.MAX_VALUE.
public static void repeated( int[] vals ) {
int mask = 0;
int show = 0;
for( int i : vals ) {
// get bit in mask
if( (( mask >> i ) & 1) == 1 &&
(( show >> i ) & 1) == 0 )
{
System.out.println( "\n\tfound: " + i );
show = show | (1 << i);
}
// set mask if not found
else
{
mask = mask | (1 << i);
System.out.println( "new: " + i );
}
System.out.println( "mask: " + mask );
}
}
This is impossible without knowing any restricted rules about the input array, either that the Memory complexity would have some dependency on the input size or that the time complexity is gonna be higher.
The 2 answers above are infact the best answers for getting near what you have asked, one's trade off is Time where the second trade off is in Memory, but you cant have it run in O(n) time and O(1) complexity in SOME UNKNOWN INPUT ARRAY.
I met the problem too and my solution is using hashMap .The python version is the following:
def findRepeatNumber(lists):
hashMap = {}
for i in xrange(len(lists)):
if lists[i] in hashMap:
return lists[i]
else:
hashMap[lists[i]]=i+1
return
It is possible only if you have a specific data. Eg all numbers are of a small range. Then you could store repeat info in the source array not affecting the whole scanning and analyzing process.
Simplified example: You know that all the numbers are smaller than 100, then you can mark repeat count for a number using extra zeroes, like put 900 instead of 9 when 9 is occurred twice.
It is easy when NumMax-NumMin
http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-the-maximum-repeating-number-in-ok-time/
public static string RepeatedNumber()
{
int[] input = {66, 23, 34, 0, 5, 4};
int[] indexer = {0,0,0,0,0,0}
var found = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
{
var toFind = input[i];
for (int j = 0; j < input.Length; j++)
{
if (input[j] == toFind && (indexer[j] == 1))
{
found = input[j];
}
else if (input[j] == toFind)
{
indexer[j] = 1;
}
}
}
return $"most repeated item in the array is {found}";
}
You can do this
#include<iostream.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<stdio.h>
void main ()
{
clrscr();
int array[5],rep=0;
for(int i=1; i<=5; i++)
{
cout<<"enter elements"<<endl;
cin>>array[i];
}
for(i=1; i<=5; i++)
{
if(array[i]==array[i+1])
{
rep=array[i];
}
}
cout<<" repeat value is"<<rep;
getch();
}
I got answer for the question, counting number of sets bits from here.
How to count the number of set bits in a 32-bit integer?
long count_bits(long n) {
unsigned int c; // c accumulates the total bits set in v
for (c = 0; n; c++)
n &= n - 1; // clear the least significant bit set
return c;
}
It is simple to understand also. And found the best answer as Brian Kernighans method, posted by hoyhoy... and he adds the following at the end.
Note that this is an question used during interviews. The interviewer will add the caveat that you have "infinite memory". In that case, you basically create an array of size 232 and fill in the bit counts for the numbers at each location. Then, this function becomes O(1).
Can somebody explain how to do this ? If i have infinite memory ...
The fastest way I have ever seen to populate such an array is ...
array[0] = 0;
for (i = 1; i < NELEMENTS; i++) {
array[i] = array[i >> 1] + (i & 1);
}
Then to count the number of set bits in a given number (provided the given number is less than NELEMENTS) ...
numSetBits = array[givenNumber];
If your memory is not finite, I often see NELEMENTS set to 256 (for one byte's worth) and add the number of set bits in each byte in your integer.
int counts[MAX_LONG];
void init() {
for (int i= 0; i < MAX_LONG; i++)
{
counts[i] = count_bits[i]; // as given
}
}
int count_bits_o1(long number)
{
return counts[number];
}
You can probably pre-populate the array more wiseley, i.e. fill with zeros, then every second index add one, then every fourth index add 1, then every eighth index add 1 etc, which might be a bit faster, although I doubt it...
Also, you might account for unsigned values.
The environment: I am working in a proprietary scripting language where there is no such thing as a user-defined function. I have various loops and local variables of primitive types that I can create and use.
I have two related arrays, "times" and "values". They both contain floating point values. I want to numerically sort the "times" array but have to be sure that the same operations are applied on the "values" array. What's the most efficient way I can do this without the benefit of things like recursion?
You could maintain an index table and sort the index table instead.
This way you will not have to worry about times and values being consistent.
And whenever you need a sorted value, you can lookup on the sorted index.
And if in the future you decided there was going to be a third value, the sorting code will not need any changes.
Here's a sample in C#, but it shouldn't be hard to adapt to your scripting language:
static void Main() {
var r = new Random();
// initialize random data
var index = new int[10]; // the index table
var times = new double[10]; // times
var values = new double[10]; // values
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
index[i] = i;
times[i] = r.NextDouble();
values[i] = r.NextDouble();
}
// a naive bubble sort
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++)
// compare time value at current index
if (times[index[i]] < times[index[j]]) {
// swap index value (times and values remain unchanged)
var temp = index[i];
index[i] = index[j];
index[j] = temp;
}
// check if the result is correct
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
Console.WriteLine(times[index[i]]);
Console.ReadKey();
}
Note: I used a naive bubble sort there, watchout. In your case, an insertion sort is probably a good candidate. Since you don't want complex recursions.
Just take your favourite sorting algorithm (e.g. Quicksort or Mergesort) and use it to sort the "values" array. Whenever two values are swapped in "values", also swap the values with the same indices in the "times" array.
So basically you can take any fast sorting algorithm and modify the swap() operation so that elements in both arrays are swapped.
Take a look at the Bottom-Up mergesort at Algorithmist. It's a non-recursive way of performing a mergesort. The version presented there uses function calls, but that can be inlined easily enough.
Like martinus said, every time you change a value in one array, do the exact same thing in the parallel array.
Here's a C-like version of a stable-non-recursive mergesort that makes no function calls, and uses no recursion.
const int arrayLength = 40;
float times_array[arrayLength];
float values_array[arrayLength];
// Fill the two arrays....
// Allocate two buffers
float times_buffer[arrayLength];
float values_buffer[arrayLength];
int blockSize = 1;
while (blockSize <= arrayLength)
{
int i = 0;
while (i < arrayLength-blockSize)
{
int begin1 = i;
int end1 = begin1 + blockSize;
int begin2 = end1;
int end2 = begin2 + blockSize;
int bufferIndex = begin1;
while (begin1 < end1 && begin2 < end2)
{
if ( values_array[begin1] > times_array[begin2] )
{
times_buffer[bufferIndex] = times_array[begin2];
values_buffer[bufferIndex++] = values_array[begin2++];
}
else
{
times_buffer[bufferIndex] = times_array[begin1];
values_buffer[bufferIndex++] = values_array[begin1++];
}
}
while ( begin1 < end1 )
{
times_buffer[bufferIndex] = times_array[begin1];
values_buffer[bufferIndex++] = values_array[begin1++];
}
while ( begin2 < end2 )
{
times_buffer[bufferIndex] = times_array[begin2];
values_buffer[bufferIndex++] = values_array[begin2++];
}
for (int k = i; k < i + 2 * blockSize; ++k)
{
times_array[k] = times_buffer[k];
values_array[k] = values_buffer[k];
}
i += 2 * blockSize;
}
blockSize *= 2;
}
I wouldn't suggest writing your own sorting routine, as the sorting routines provided as part of the Java language are well optimized.
The way I'd solve this is to copy the code in the java.util.Arrays class into your own class i.e. org.mydomain.util.Arrays. And add some comments telling yourself not to use the class except when you must have the additional functionality that you're going to add. The Arrays class is quite stable so this is less, less ideal than it would seem, but it's still less than ideal. However, the methods you need to change are private, so you've no real choice.
You then want to create an interface along the lines of:
public static interface SwapHook {
void swap(int a, int b);
}
You then need to add this to the sort method you're going to use, and to every subordinate method called in the sorting procedure, which swaps elements in your primary array. You arrange for the hook to get called by your modified sorting routine, and you can then implement the SortHook interface to achieve the behaviour you want in any secondary (e.g. parallel) arrays.
HTH.