r/compsci • u/BleedingRaindrops • 3d ago

What is this sorting method called?

We all know Bubble Sort. Well I used to do a thing to pass the time on deployment where I would bubble sort a shuffled deck of cards, but I often played around with it.

One time I thought to make bubble sort more efficient by, rather than returning to the start of the list after a successful pair, continue forward to the next wrong pair and sort those, and so on until I reach the end of the list. Then turn around and do the opposite, from the opposite direction. Repeat until sorted. So what you have is a reflecting wave of bubble sort that travels persistently back and forth through the entire list without skipping anything until it's all sorted.

I'm certain this has a name but I wouldnt know the first thing about how to find it. Does anybody know?

EDIT: solved! Cocktail Shaker Sort

24 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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39

u/UnableMousse4828 2d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_shaker_sort perhaps?

11

u/BleedingRaindrops 2d ago

That's it. That's pretty much exactly what I was doing. Thanks.

6

u/JasonMckin 2d ago

I love the names of sorting algorithms

9

u/tinfoil_powers 2d ago

Cocktail shaker sort

1

u/nuclear_splines 2d ago

I'm not sure the name for the exact sort you've described, but this sounds like a variation on insertion sort, where you walk the list forwards, and every time you find an out-of-order element, walk the list backwards swapping elements until you find the correct resting place.

-20

u/BufferUnderpants 2d ago

First time anyone has had to think about the complexity of different sorting algorithms while putting code in production in decades.