Bubble Sort Recursively - sorting

I have searched Google and I cannot find anything for this. I was looking for various types of sorts (as you can see in a previous question of mine) and I was wondering if anyone knew of a recursive bubble sort code. To me, the idea sounds ridiculous, but I want to be prepared for things and I'm curious as to whether or not this can be done. I'm sure it can, as a professor of mine has asked this of his students in the past. I don't think he'll repeat questions, but I became curious and wanted to know if there was code for a bubble sort recursively.

It's certainly possible to do this, since any iterative algorithm can be converted to a recursive one and vice-versa.
Here's one way that we can do this. For simplicity, I'm using C++ and assuming the inputs are all integers.
void bubbleSort(std::vector<int>& list) {
/* Make one pass of swapping elements. If anything was swapped,
* repeat this process.
*/
if (swapPass(list)) {
bubbleSort(list);
}
}
/* Does a pass over the array, swapping adjacent elements if they're
* out of place. Returns true if anything was swapped and false
* otherwise.
*/
bool swapPass(std::vector<int>& list) {
return recSwapPass(list, 0, false);
}
/* Does a swap pass starting from index given information about
* whether a swap was made on the pass so far. Returns true if across
* the entire pass a swap was made and false otherwise.
*/
bool recSwapPass(std::vector<int>& list, unsigned index,
bool wasSwapped) {
/* Base case: If we're at the end of the array, then there's
* nothing to do and we didn't swap anything.
*/
if (index + 1 >= list.size()) return wasSwapped;
/* Compare the current element against the next one and see if
* they need to swap.
*/
if (list[index] > list[index + 1]) {
std::swap(list[index], list[index + 1]);
return recSwapPass(list, index + 1, true);
} else {
return recSwapPass(list, index + 1, wasSwapped);
}
}
Interestingly, every recursive function here is tail-recursive, so a good optimizing compiler should be able to generate non-recursive code. In other words, a good compiler should generate pretty much the same code as if we'd written this iteratively. If I get the time, I'll check out whether this actually happens. :-)

Related

How to implement floor() and ceil() operations for ternary search tries efficiently?

I have been studying TST's (ternary search tries) from Robert Sedgewick's book, here's a link to his implementation: http://algs4.cs.princeton.edu/52trie/TST.java.html
So, since TST's are a modification of BST's, I wonder how to efficiently implement floor and ceiling operations. (They are not implemented anywhere in his code). All the approaches I have thought about are messy and not very efficient.
Yes, you can efficiently implement these operations on a TST.
It might help for a minute to think of a TST as just a plain trie. We can work out how to perform predecessor and successor searches (what you're calling floor and ceiling) in a trie, then adapt those approaches to work in a TST. For simplicity I'm just going to talk about successor searches, though this can easily be adapted for precedessor searches as well.
Suppose you want to find the lexicographically first word that comes no later than some word w. Start by searching the trie for the word w. If you find that w is a word in the trie, you're done.
Otherwise, a few things can happen. First, you might find that you end up at some node in the trie corresponding to w that isn't a word. In that case, you know that w is a prefix of some word in the trie, so to find the successor you need to find the lexicographically first string that has w as a prefix. To do that, keep walking down the trie, always going as far to the left as possible, until you eventually hit a node that corresponds to a word.
Second, you might fall off the trie when trying to search for w. In that case, you'll have read some prefix of w along your path. In that case, you must have ended at some node where you were trying to read a character c, but there was no edge labeled c. In that case, look at the other edges from this node and find the first one with a character that comes after c. If one exists, take it, then find the lexicographically first word in that subtrie by always going as far to the left as possible. If not, back up one node in the trie and repeat this process.
To summarize, the recursive algorithm looks something like this:
function findSuccessor(root, remainingChars) {
/* If we walked off the trie, we need to back up. Return null
* to signal an error.
*/
if (root == null) return null;
/* If we're on the trie and out of characters, we're either done
* or we need to find the cheapest way to extend this path.
*/
if (remainingChars == "") {
if (root is a word) {
return root;
} else {
return goLeftUntilYouFindAWord(root);
}
}
/* Otherwise, keep walking down the trie. */
let nextLetter = remainingChars[0];
/* If there is a child for this letter, follow it and see
* what happens.
*/
if (root.hasChildFor(nextLetter)) {
let result = findSuccessor(root.child(nextLetter), nextLetter.substring(1));
/* If we found something, great! We're done. */
if (result != null) return result;
}
/* If we're here, we either (a) have no transition on this
* character or (b) we do, but the successor isn't there. In
* either case, figure out which child we have that comes right
* after nextLetter and go down there if possible.
*/
char letterAfter = node.firstChildAfter(nextLetter);
/* If no such child exists, there is no successor in this
* subtrie. Report failure.
*/
if (letterAfter == null) return null;
/* Otherwise, get the first word in that subtrie. */
return goLeftUntilYouFindAWord(node.child(letterAfter));
}
So how exactly does this translate into the TST case? Well, we need to be able to check if a child exists - that's something we can do with a regular BST lookup - and we also need to be able to find the first character that comes after the character at a particular level - which we can do with a successor search in the BST. We also need to be able to find the first word in a subtree, which we can do by always walking to the left in the BST of child pointers.
Overall, the runtime here will be O(L log |Σ|), where L is the length of the longest string in the trie and Σ is the set of allowed characters. The reason for this is that in the worst case we have to descend all the way down the TST to find the successor, and each time we do so we do a constant number of BST operations, each of which takes time O(log |Σ|) because there are at most |Σ| child pointers for each node.
If you'd like to see a concrete implementation of this, I have a C++ implementation of a TST that implements lower_bound and upper_bound, which are closely related to the operations you're describing.

Efficient Algorithm to find combination of numbers for an answer [duplicate]

I'm working on a homework problem that asks me this:
Tiven a finite set of numbers, and a target number, find if the set can be used to calculate the target number using basic math operations (add, sub, mult, div) and using each number in the set exactly once (so I need to exhaust the set). This has to be done with recursion.
So, for example, if I have the set
{1, 2, 3, 4}
and target 10, then I could get to it by using
((3 * 4) - 2)/1 = 10.
I'm trying to phrase the algorithm in pseudo-code, but so far haven't gotten too far. I'm thinking graphs are the way to go, but would definitely appreciate help on this. thanks.
This isn't meant to be the fastest solution, but rather an instructive one.
It recursively generates all equations in postfix notation
It also provides a translation from postfix to infix notation
There is no actual arithmetic calculation done, so you have to implement that on your own
Be careful about division by zero
With 4 operands, 4 possible operators, it generates all 7680 = 5 * 4! * 4^3
possible expressions.
5 is Catalan(3). Catalan(N) is the number of ways to paranthesize N+1 operands.
4! because the 4 operands are permutable
4^3 because the 3 operators each have 4 choice
This definitely does not scale well, as the number of expressions for N operands is [1, 8, 192, 7680, 430080, 30965760, 2724986880, ...].
In general, if you have n+1 operands, and must insert n operators chosen from k possibilities, then there are (2n)!/n! k^n possible equations.
Good luck!
import java.util.*;
public class Expressions {
static String operators = "+-/*";
static String translate(String postfix) {
Stack<String> expr = new Stack<String>();
Scanner sc = new Scanner(postfix);
while (sc.hasNext()) {
String t = sc.next();
if (operators.indexOf(t) == -1) {
expr.push(t);
} else {
expr.push("(" + expr.pop() + t + expr.pop() + ")");
}
}
return expr.pop();
}
static void brute(Integer[] numbers, int stackHeight, String eq) {
if (stackHeight >= 2) {
for (char op : operators.toCharArray()) {
brute(numbers, stackHeight - 1, eq + " " + op);
}
}
boolean allUsedUp = true;
for (int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {
if (numbers[i] != null) {
allUsedUp = false;
Integer n = numbers[i];
numbers[i] = null;
brute(numbers, stackHeight + 1, eq + " " + n);
numbers[i] = n;
}
}
if (allUsedUp && stackHeight == 1) {
System.out.println(eq + " === " + translate(eq));
}
}
static void expression(Integer... numbers) {
brute(numbers, 0, "");
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
expression(1, 2, 3, 4);
}
}
Before thinking about how to solve the problem (like with graphs), it really helps to just look at the problem. If you find yourself stuck and can't seem to come up with any pseudo-code, then most likely there is something that is holding you back; Some other question or concern that hasn't been addressed yet. An example 'sticky' question in this case might be, "What exactly is recursive about this problem?"
Before you read the next paragraph, try to answer this question first. If you knew what was recursive about the problem, then writing a recursive method to solve it might not be very difficult.
You want to know if some expression that uses a set of numbers (each number used only once) gives you a target value. There are four binary operations, each with an inverse. So, in other words, you want to know if the first number operated with some expression of the other numbers gives you the target. Well, in other words, you want to know if some expression of the 'other' numbers is [...]. If not, then using the first operation with the first number doesn't really give you what you need, so try the other ops. If they don't work, then maybe it just wasn't meant to be.
Edit: I thought of this for an infix expression of four operators without parenthesis, since a comment on the original question said that parenthesis were added for the sake of an example (for clarity?) and the use of parenthesis was not explicitly stated.
Well, you didn't mention efficiency so I'm going to post a really brute force solution and let you optimize it if you want to. Since you can have parantheses, it's easy to brute force it using Reverse Polish Notation:
First of all, if your set has n numbers, you must use exactly n - 1 operators. So your solution will be given by a sequence of 2n - 1 symbols from {{your given set}, {*, /, +, -}}
st = a stack of length 2n - 1
n = numbers in your set
a = your set, to which you add *, /, +, -
v[i] = 1 if the NUMBER i has been used before, 0 otherwise
void go(int k)
{
if ( k > 2n - 1 )
{
// eval st as described on Wikipedia.
// Careful though, it might not be valid, so you'll have to check that it is
// if it evals to your target value great, you can build your target from the given numbers. Otherwise, go on.
return;
}
for ( each symbol x in a )
if ( x isn't a number or x is a number but v[x] isn't 1 )
{
st[k] = x;
if ( x is a number )
v[x] = 1;
go(k + 1);
}
}
Generally speaking, when you need to do something recursively it helps to start from the "bottom" and think your way up.
Consider: You have a set S of n numbers {a,b,c,...}, and a set of four operations {+,-,*,/}. Let's call your recursive function that operates on the set F(S)
If n is 1, then F(S) will just be that number.
If n is 2, F(S) can be eight things:
pick your left-hand number from S (2 choices)
then pick an operation to apply (4 choices)
your right-hand number will be whatever is left in the set
Now, you can generalize from the n=2 case:
Pick a number x from S to be the left-hand operand (n choices)
Pick an operation to apply
your right hand number will be F(S-x)
I'll let you take it from here. :)
edit: Mark poses a valid criticism; the above method won't get absolutely everything. To fix that problem, you need to think about it in a slightly different way:
At each step, you first pick an operation (4 choices), and then
partition S into two sets, for the left and right hand operands,
and recursively apply F to both partitions
Finding all partitions of a set into 2 parts isn't trivial itself, though.
Your best clue about how to approach this problem is the fact that your teacher/professor wants you to use recursion. That is, this isn't a math problem - it is a search problem.
Not to give too much away (it is homework after all), but you have to spawn a call to the recursive function using an operator, a number and a list containing the remaining numbers. The recursive function will extract a number from the list and, using the operation passed in, combine it with the number passed in (which is your running total). Take the running total and call yourself again with the remaining items on the list (you'll have to iterate the list within the call but the sequence of calls is depth-first). Do this once for each of the four operators unless Success has been achieved by a previous leg of the search.
I updated this to use a list instead of a stack
When the result of the operation is your target number and your list is empty, then you have successfully found the set of operations (those that traced the path to the successful leaf) - set the Success flag and unwind. Note that the operators aren't on a list nor are they in the call: the function itself always iterates over all four. Your mechanism for "unwinding" the operator sequence from the successful leaf to get the sequence is to return the current operator and number prepended to the value returned by recursive call (only one of which will be successful since you stop at success - that, obviously, is the one to use). If none are successful, then what you return isn't important anyhow.
Update This is much harder when you have to consider expressions like the one that Daniel posted. You have combinatorics on the numbers and the groupings (numbers due to the fact that / and - are order sensitive even without grouping and grouping because it changes precedence). Then, of course, you also have the combinatorics of the operations. It is harder to manage the differences between (4 + 3) * 2 and 4 + (3 * 2) because grouping doesn't recurse like operators or numbers (which you can just iterate over in a breadth-first manner while making your (depth-first) recursive calls).
Here's some Python code to get you started: it just prints all the possible expressions, without worrying too much about redundancy. You'd need to modify it to evaluate expressions and compare to the target number, rather than simply printing them.
The basic idea is: given a set S of numbers, partition S into two subsets left and right in all possible ways (where we don't care about the order or the elements in left and right), such that left and right are both nonempty. Now for each of these partitions, find all ways of combining the elements in left (recursively!), and similarly for right, and combine the two resulting values with all possible operators. The recursion bottoms out when a set has just one element, in which case there's only one value possible.
Even if you don't know Python, the expressions function should be reasonably easy to follow; the splittings function contains some Python oddities, but all it does is to find all the partitions of the list l into left and right pieces.
def splittings(l):
n = len(l)
for i in xrange(2**n):
left = [e for b, e in enumerate(l) if i & 2**b]
right = [e for b, e in enumerate(l) if not i & 2**b]
yield left, right
def expressions(l):
if len(l) == 1:
yield l[0]
else:
for left, right in splittings(l):
if not left or not right:
continue
for el in expressions(left):
for er in expressions(right):
for operator in '+-*/':
yield '(' + el + operator + er + ')'
for x in expressions('1234'):
print x
pusedo code:
Works(list, target)
for n in list
tmp=list.remove(n)
return Works(tmp,target+n) or Works(tmp,target-n) or Works(tmp, n-target) or ...
then you just have to put the base case in. I think I gave away to much.

Lazy Shuffle Algorithms

I have a large list of elements that I want to iterate in random order. However, I cannot modify the list and I don't want to create a copy of it either, because 1) it is large and 2) it can be expected that the iteration is cancelled early.
List<T> data = ...;
Iterator<T> shuffled = shuffle(data);
while (shuffled.hasNext()) {
T t = shuffled.next();
if (System.console().readLine("Do you want %s?", t).startsWith("y")) {
return t;
}
}
System.out.println("That's all");
return t;
I am looking for an algorithm were the code above would run in O(n) (and preferably require only O(log n)space), so caching the elements that were produced earlier is not an option. I don't care if the algorithm is biased (as long as it's not obvious).
(I uses pseudo-Java in my question, but you can use other languages if you wish)
Here is the best I got so far.
Iterator<T> shuffle(final List<T> data) {
int p = data.size();
while ((data.size() % p) == 0) p = randomPrime();
return new Iterator<T>() {
final int prime = p;
int n = 0, i = 0;
public boolean hasNext() { return i < data.size(); }
public T next() {
i++; n += prime;
return data.get(n);
}
}
}
Iterating all elements in O(n), constant space, but obviously biased as it can produce only data.size() permutations.
The easiest shuffling approaches I know of work with indices. If the List is not an ArrayList, you may end up with a very inefficient algorithm if you try to use one of the below (a LinkedList does have a get by ID, but it's O(n), so you'll end up with O(n^2) time).
If O(n) space is fine, which I'm assuming it's not, I'd recommend the Fisher-Yates / Knuth shuffle, it's O(n) time and is easy to implement. You can optimise it so you only need to perform a single operation before being able to get the first element, but you'll need to keep track of the rest of the modified list as you go.
My solution:
Ok, so this is not very random at all, but I can't see a better way if you want less than O(n) space.
It takes O(1) space and O(n) time.
There may be a way to push it up the space usage a little and get more random results, but I haven't figured that out yet.
It has to do with relative primes. The idea is that, given 2 relative primes a (the generator) and b, when you loop through a % b, 2a % b, 3a % b, 4a % b, ..., you will see every integer 0, 1, 2, ..., b-2, b-1, and this will also happen before seeing any integer twice. Unfortunately I don't have a link to a proof (the wikipedia link may mention or imply it, I didn't check in too much detail).
I start off by increasing the length until we get a prime, since this implies that any other number will be a relative prime, which is a whole lot less limiting (and just skip any number greater than the original length), then generate a random number, and use this as the generator.
I'm iterating through and printing out all the values, but it should be easy enough to modify to generate the next one given the current one.
Note I'm skipping 1 and len-1 with my nextInt, since these will produce 1,2,3,... and ...,3,2,1 respectively, but you can include these, but probably not if the length is below a certain threshold.
You may also want to generate a random number to multiply the generator by (mod the length) to start from.
Java code:
static Random gen = new Random();
static void printShuffle(int len)
{
// get first prime >= len
int newLen = len-1;
boolean prime;
do
{
newLen++;
// prime check
prime = true;
for (int i = 2; prime && i < len; i++)
prime &= (newLen % i != 0);
}
while (!prime);
long val = gen.nextInt(len-3) + 2;
long oldVal = val;
do
{
if (val < len)
System.out.println(val);
val = (val + oldVal) % newLen;
}
while (oldVal != val);
}
This is an old thread, but in case anyone comes across this in future, a paper by Andrew Kensler describes a way to do this in constant time and constant space. Essentially, you create a reversible hash function, and then use it (and not an array) to index the list. Kensler describes a method for generating the necessary function, and discusses "cycle walking" as a way to deal with a domain that is not identical to the domain of the hash function. Afnan Enayet's summary of the paper is here: https://afnan.io/posts/2019-04-05-explaining-the-hashed-permutation/.
You may try using a buffer to do this. Iterate through a limited set of data and put it in a buffer. Extract random values from that buffer and send it to output (or wherever you need it). Iterate through the next set and keep overwriting this buffer. Repeat this step.
You'll end up with n + n operations, which is still O(n). Unfortunately, the result will not be actually random. It will be close to random if you choose your buffer size properly.
On a different note, check these two: Python - run through a loop in non linear fashion, random iteration in Python
Perhaps there's a more elegant algorithm to do this better. I'm not sure though. Looking forward to other replies in this thread.
This is not a perfect answer to your question, but perhaps it's useful.
The idea is to use a reversible random number generator and the usual array-based shuffling algorithm done lazily: to get the i'th shuffled item, swap a[i] with and a randomly chosen a[j] where j is in [i..n-1], then return a[i]. This can be done in the iterator.
After you are done iterating, reset the array to original order by "unswapping" using the reverse direction of the RNG.
The unshuffling reset will never take longer than the original iteration, so it doesn't change asymptotic cost. Iteration is still linear in the number of iterations.
How to build a reversible RNG? Just use an encryption algorithm. Encrypt the previously generated pseudo-random value to go forward, and decrypt to go backward. If you have a symmetric encryption algorithm, then you can add a "salt" value at each step forward to prevent a cycle of two and subtract it for each step backward. I mention this because RC4 is simple and fast and symmetric. I've used it before for tasks like this. Encrypting 4-byte values then computing mod to get them in the desired range will be quick indeed.
You can press this into the Java iterator pattern by extending Iterator to allow resets. See below. Usage will look like:
ShuffledList<Integer> lst = new SuffledList<>();
... build the list with the usual operations
ResetableInterator<Integer> i = lst.iterator();
while (i.hasNext()) {
int val = i.next();
... use the randomly selected value
if (anyConditinoAtAll) break;
}
i.reset(); // Unshuffle the array
I know this isn't perfect, but it will be fast and give a good shuffle. Note that if you don't reset, the next iterator will still be a new random shuffle, but the original order will be lost forever. If the loop body can generate an exception, you'd want the reset in a finally block.
class ShuffledList<T> extends ArrayList<T> implements Iterable<T> {
#Override
public Iterator<T> iterator() {
return null;
}
public interface ResetableInterator<T> extends Iterator<T> {
public void reset();
}
class ShufflingIterator<T> implements ResetableInterator<T> {
int mark = 0;
#Override
public boolean hasNext() {
return true;
}
#Override
public T next() {
return null;
}
#Override
public void remove() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported.");
}
#Override
public void reset() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported yet.");
}
}
}

Recursive Sort with only Array as Input

I've written a few short recursive programs, and am now doing sorting recursively. I've been using 2 inputs up to now, the array, and an index. Is there a recursive method for sorting that only needs an array as input? I was thinking Bubble Sort would work for this, but that also uses an index to keep track of position.
And in case anyone wants to know, I had a HW to make a recursive sort (which I already did, using an array and index), this is just to see if its possible to do it without the index.
I believe a recursive merge sort can be performed with only an array as a parameter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_sort
Edit:
I guess you could skip the index like this:
function bubble_sort(arr)
{
for (i=0 to arr.length-1)
{
if(arr[i] > arr[i+1])
{
swap(arr, i);
return bubble_sort(arr);
}
}
return arr;
}
This is not a perfect bubble-sort as the starting index is always zero. The complexity is still O(n^2). If you're willing to clone the array (and waste a lot of memory) then you can replace
return bubble_sort(arr);
With:
return combineArrays(arr.subArray(0, i), bubble_sort(arr.subArray(i, n)));
Then it's a valid, though wasteful, way of achieving a recursive bubble sort with only an array as the parameter.

How to find an element in a linked list of blocks (containing n elements) as fast as possible?

My data structure is a linked list of blocks. A block contains 31 elements of 4 byte and one 4 byte pointer to the next block or NULL(in summary 128 bytes per block). I add elements from time to time. If the last block is full, I add another block via pointer.
One objective is to use as less memory (= blocks) as possible and having no free space between two elements in a block.
This setting is fix. All code runs on a 32-bit ARM Cortex-A8 CPU with NEON pipeline.
Question:
How to find a specific element in that data structure as quickly as possible?
Approach (right now):
I use sorted blocks and binary search to check for an element (9 bit of the 4 byte are the search criteria). If the desired element is not in the current block I jump to the next block. If the element is not in the last block and the last block is not yet full, I use the result of the binary search to insert the new element (if necessary I make space using memmove within this block). Thus all blocks are always sorted.
Do you have an idea to make that faster?
This is how I search right now: (q->getPosition() is an inline function that just extracts the 9-bit position from the element via "& bitmask")
do
{
// binary search algorithm (bsearch)
// from http://www.google.com/codesearch/
// p?hl=en#qoCVjtE_vOw/gcc4/trunk/gcc-
// 4.4.3/libiberty/bsearch.c&q=bsearch&sa=N&cd=2&ct=rc
base = &(block->points[0]);
if (block->next == NULL)
{
pointsInBlock = pointsInLastBlock;
stop = true;
}
else
{
block = block->next;
}
for (lim = pointsInBlock; lim != 0; lim >>= 1)
{
q = base + (lim >> 1);
cmp = quantizedPosition - q->getPosition();
if (cmp > 0)
{
// quantizedPosition > q: move right
base = q + 1;
lim--;
}
else if (cmp == 0)
{
// We found the QuantPoint
*outQuantPoint = q;
return true;
}
// else move left
}
}
while (!stop);
Since the bulk of the time is spent in the within-block search, that needs to be as fast as possible. Since the number of elements is fixed, you can completely unroll that loop, as in:
if (key < a[16]){
if (key < a[8]){
...
}
else { // key >= a[8] && key < a[16]
...
}
}
else { // key >= a[16]
if (key < a[24]){
...
}
else { // key >= a[24]
...
}
}
Study the generated assembly language and single-step it in a debugger, to make sure the compiler's giving you good code.
You might want to write a little program to print out the above code, as it will be hard to write by hand, or possibly generate it with macros.
ADDED: Just noticed your 9-bit search criterion. In that case, just pre-allocate an array of 512 4-byte words, and index it directly. That's the fastest, and the least code.
ALSO ADDED: If you need to keep your block structure, there's another way to do the unrolled binary search. It's the Jon Bentley method:
i = 0;
if (key >= a[i+16]) i += 16;
if (key >= a[i+ 8]) i += 8;
if (key >= a[i+ 4]) i += 4;
if (key >= a[i+ 2]) i += 2;
if (i < 30 && key >= a[i+ 1]) i += 1; // this excludes 31
if (key == a[i]) // then key is found
That's slower than the if-tree above, because of manipulating i, but could be substantially less code.
Let the number of elements in each block be m and the total number of blocks currently in the list be n. Then the current time complexity of you algorithm is O(n log m).
If you cannot move elements once they are added to a block, then I don't think you can do better in terms of time complexity than what you are already doing. (You could keep track of the maximum and minimum elements in a block, and skip the blocks if the element does not lie in this range. But this is not going to give you much gain. This will also waste space keeping track of the minimum and maximum for each block)
If you can afford to spend time while inserting the element and can move elements from one block to another, then here is a scheme that has time complexity O(log (mn)).
Basically, you keep all elements in sorted order. When a new element has to be inserted, binary search across block boundaries and insert it in its correct location, shifting elements to create space. This will lead to O(nm) time while inserting elements but O(log (mn)) when finding an element.
if this search criterion for an element is fixed, you had better to move the searching into a separate index structure, because the maximal number of elements you distinguish by your search criterion is only 2^9 = 512 indexes, so the maximal size of the search index would be (2 + 4)*512 = 3072, but you could surely use other that static one if you needed, saving some memory. Right now, imagine it as a field of 512 pairs <9-bit index, direct address>, that should be very fast (only one NULL-check and dereference call respectively).
Generally the answer on your question also depend on what other operations you want to perform on your structure and how frequently each of them (including the search ability). If all you want is search(9 bits)->add/modify/read, the your block structure would be useless.
You could write them here and maybe add what language you'r using.
Edit 3:
I just noticed you can't change the blocks' size. But is your search for efficiency reasons only, or do you need the elements of list to be unique (by those 9 bits)?

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