skip navigation

JavaScript: DHTML Quick Sort

This page demonstrates the Quick Sort algorithm. This is the most advanced algorithm of the four presented, but has some problems w.r.t. speed and the fact that it is not a 'stable' sort (see link at bottom of page for details). At this stage we've found the Shell Sort algorithm to be more efficient with web data.

idcolourrandom
1orange30
2blue122
3purple1000
4blue916
5red360
6purple435
7blue819
8yellow224
9orange429
10yellow85
11red8
12orange902
13green262
14orange548
15green83
16green376
17red661
18orange36
19orange509
20orange517
Sort by DESC?

[add rows to TABLE]

How does it work?

For a more detailed discussion on the sorting process, you can refer to the Bubble Sort page. The only difference between the two is the actual sorting algorithm, with the Quick Sort, in theory, being much faster:

// global variables var col = 0; var parent = null; var items = new Array(); var N = 0; function quicksort(m, n, desc) { if(n <= m+1) return; if((n - m) == 2) { if(compare(get(n-1), get(m), desc)) exchange(n-1, m); return; } i = m + 1; j = n - 1; if(compare(get(m), get(i), desc)) exchange(i, m); if(compare(get(j), get(m), desc)) exchange(m, j); if(compare(get(m), get(i), desc)) exchange(i, m); pivot = get(m); while(true) { j--; while(compare(pivot, get(j), desc)) j--; i++; while(compare(get(i), pivot, desc)) i++; if(j <= i) break; exchange(i, j); } exchange(m, j); if((j-m) < (n-j)) { quicksort(m, j, desc); quicksort(j+1, n, desc); } else { quicksort(j+1, n, desc); quicksort(m, j, desc); } } function sortTable(tableid, n, desc) { parent = document.getElementById(tableid); col = n; if(parent.nodeName != "TBODY") parent = parent.getElementsByTagName("TBODY")[0]; if(parent.nodeName != "TBODY") return false; items = parent.getElementsByTagName("TR"); N = items.length; // quick sort quicksort(0, N, desc); }

expand code box

This algorithm makes use of the get and compare function presented previously in the Bubble Sort demonstration, and the exchange function introduced in the Shell Sort demonstration.

The sorting functions presented so far have all been quite inefficient because they first have to read the DOM and then apply the various algorithms. To get around this limitation, each of the sorting algorithms has also been implemented using object-oriented (OOP) techniques.

All four methods (using OOP) are now available as external javascript files on the related page: DHTML Sorting Using OOP.

Related Articles

Other Sorting Algorithms

Advanced Code

References

[Back to JavaScript]


Send Feedback

Send Your Feedback (will not be published) (optional) CAPTCHA refresh copy the digits from the image into this box

[top]