Shell sort is a generalization of insertion sort that first sorts elements that are far apart, successively reducing the interval between elements sorted until all elements are sorted. It works by sorting elements at intervals based on a sequence like N/2, N/4, etc. until the interval reaches 1. The performance depends on the sequence used but it has a best case of O(nlogn) and worst case of O(n^2) time complexity.
Shell sort is a generalization of insertion sort that first sorts elements that are far apart, successively reducing the interval between elements sorted until all elements are sorted. It works by sorting elements at intervals based on a sequence like N/2, N/4, etc. until the interval reaches 1. The performance depends on the sequence used but it has a best case of O(nlogn) and worst case of O(n^2) time complexity.
Shell sort is a generalization of insertion sort that first sorts elements that are far apart, successively reducing the interval between elements sorted until all elements are sorted. It works by sorting elements at intervals based on a sequence like N/2, N/4, etc. until the interval reaches 1. The performance depends on the sequence used but it has a best case of O(nlogn) and worst case of O(n^2) time complexity.
Shell sort is a generalization of insertion sort that first sorts elements that are far apart, successively reducing the interval between elements sorted until all elements are sorted. It works by sorting elements at intervals based on a sequence like N/2, N/4, etc. until the interval reaches 1. The performance depends on the sequence used but it has a best case of O(nlogn) and worst case of O(n^2) time complexity.
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Shell Sort Algorithm
Shell sort is a generalized version of the insertion sort algorithm. It first sorts elements that are far apart from each other and successively reduces the interval between the elements to be sorted.
The interval between the elements is reduced based on the sequence used. Some of the optimal sequences that can be used in the shell sort algorithm are:
Shell's original sequence: N/2 , N/4 , …, 1
Knuth's increments: 1, 4, 13, …, (3k – 1) / 2
Note: The performance of the shell sort depends on the type of sequence used for a given input array.
Working of Shell Sort
1. Suppose, we need to sort the following array.
2. Initial array
3. We are using the shell's original sequence (N/2, N/4, ...1) as intervals in our algorithm.
In the first loop, if the array size is N = 8 then, the elements lying at the interval of N/2 = 4 are compared and swapped if they are not in order.
a. The 0th element is compared with the 4th element.
b. If the 0th element is greater than the 4th one then, the 4th element is first stored in temp variable and the 0th element (ie. greater element) is stored in the 4th position and the element stored in temp is stored in the 0th position.
Rearrange the elements at n/2 interval
This process goes on for all the remaining elements. Rearrange all the elements at n/2 interval
4. In the second loop, an interval of N/4 = 8/4 = 2 is taken and again the elements lying at these intervals are sorted.
Rearran ge the elements at n/4 interval
5. All the elements in the array lying at the current interval are compared. The elements at 4th and 2nd position are compared. The elements at 2nd and 0th position are also compared. All the elements in the array lying at the current interval are compared. 6. The same process goes on for remaining elements.
Rearran ge all the elements at n/4 interval
7. Finally, when the interval is N/8 = 8/8 =1 then the array elements lying at the interval of 1 are sorted. The array is now completely sorted. Rearran ge the elements at n/8 interval
Shell Sort Algorithm
shellSort(array, size)
for interval i <- size/2n down to 1
for each interval "i" in array
sort all the elements at interval "i"
end shellSort Shell Sort Code in C
// Shell Sort in C programming
#include <stdio.h>
// Shell sort
void shellSort(int array[], int n) {
// Rearrange elements at each n/2, n/4, n/8, ... intervals
for (int interval = n / 2; interval > 0; interval /= 2) {
int main() { int data[] = {9, 8, 3, 7, 5, 6, 4, 1};
int size = sizeof(data) / sizeof(data[0]);
shellSort(data, size);
printf("Sorted array: \n");
printArray(data, size);
Shell Sort Complexity
Time Complexity
Best O(nlog n)
Worst O(n2)
C Program to Implement Shell Sort(VERSION2):
This C program sorts a given array of integer numbers using Shell Sort technique.
Shellsort, also known as Shell sort or Shell’s method, is an in-place comparison sort. It can either be seen as a generalization of sorting by exchange (bubble sort) or sorting by insertion (insertion sort). The method starts by sorting elements far apart from each other and progressively reducing the gap between them. Starting with far apart elements can move some out-of-place elements into position faster than a simple nearest neighbor exchange. Worst case time complexity is O(n 2) and best case complexity is O(nlog(n)).
Here is the source code of the C program to sort integers using Shell Sort technique. The C program is successfully compiled and run on a Linux system. The program output is also shown below.
1. /*
2. * C Program to sort an array using Shell Sort technique
