Sort is the process of arranging elements in ascending (or) descending order.
C language provides five sorting techniques, as follows-
Merge sort is a divide and conquer method. It splits the array in half, conquers and merges (combines) it recursively.
Let us consider an example given below -
Take an unsorted array and apply merge sort technique to sort the array.
38, 27, 43, 3, 9, 82, 10
Now, combine the arrays by sorting as shown below-
The following is a C program to sort elements using merge sort technique -
Real-time demonstration
#include <stdio.h> #define max 10 int a[11] = { 10, 14, 19, 26, 27, 31, 33, 35, 42, 44, 0 }; int b[10]; void merging(int low, int mid, int high) { int l1, l2, i; for(l1 = low, l2 = mid + 1, i = low; l1 <= mid && l2 <= high; i++) { if(a[l1] <= a[l2]) b[i] = a[l1++]; else b[i] = a[l2++]; } while(l1 <= mid) b[i++] = a[l1++]; while(l2 <= high) b[i++] = a[l2++]; for(i = low; i <= high; i++) a[i] = b[i]; } void sort(int low, int high) { int mid; if(low < high) { mid = (low + high) / 2; sort(low, mid); sort(mid+1, high); merging(low, mid, high); } else { return; } } int main() { int i; printf("List before sorting</p><p>"); for(i = 0; i <= max; i++) printf("%d ", a[i]); sort(0, max); printf("</p><p>List after sorting</p><p>"); for(i = 0; i <= max; i++) printf("%d ", a[i]); }
When executing the above program, the following output will be produced-
List before sorting 10 14 19 26 27 31 33 35 42 44 0 List after sorting 0 10 14 19 26 27 31 33 35 42 44
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