Sorting Algorithms Questions Medium
Bucket sort is a sorting algorithm that works by distributing the elements of an array into a number of buckets or bins. Each bucket is then sorted individually, either using a different sorting algorithm or recursively applying the bucket sort algorithm. Finally, the sorted elements from each bucket are concatenated to obtain the sorted array.
The bucket sort algorithm follows the following steps:
1. Create an array of empty buckets equal to the number of elements in the input array.
2. Iterate through the input array and distribute each element into its corresponding bucket based on a specific range or criteria. This distribution process can be done using a hashing function or by dividing the range of input values equally among the buckets.
3. Sort each individual bucket either using another sorting algorithm or recursively applying the bucket sort algorithm if the bucket contains more than one element.
4. Concatenate the sorted elements from each bucket in order to obtain the final sorted array.
Bucket sort has a time complexity of O(n+k), where n is the number of elements in the input array and k is the number of buckets. The performance of bucket sort heavily depends on the distribution of elements into the buckets. If the elements are evenly distributed, the algorithm can achieve linear time complexity. However, if the elements are unevenly distributed, the algorithm may degrade to quadratic time complexity.
Bucket sort is particularly useful when the input elements are uniformly distributed over a range. It is often used as a sub-routine in other sorting algorithms or when the range of input values is known in advance.