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JavaScript: DHTML Shell Sort

This page demonstrates the Shell Sort algorithm which appears to be the most efficient algorithm out of the four presented on this site.

That may be due to faults in the implementation of the Quick Sort algorithm (see related link on that page for details), but until that's confirmed you probably want to use the shell sort.

Working Demonstration

id colour random
1green317
2orange699
3yellow999
4blue243
5purple613
6orange888
7red879
8purple866
9green194
10green27
11orange967
12yellow861
13red544
14purple290
15red341
16red270
17orange908
18purple307
19yellow863
20red42

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 Insertion Sort, in theory, being a little bit faster:

// global variables var col = 0; var parent = null; var items = new Array(); var N = 0; function isort(m, k, desc) { for(var j=m+k; j < N; j+= k) { for(var i=j; i >= k && compare(get(i), get(i-k), desc); i-= k) { exchange(i, i-k); } } } 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; // shell sort if((k = Math.floor(N/5)) > 7) { for(var m=0; m < k; m++) isort(m, k, desc); } if((k = Math.floor(N/7)) > 7) { for(var m=0; m < k; m++) isort(m, k, desc); } for(k=7; k > 0; k -= 2) { for(var m=0; m < k; m++) isort(m, k, desc); } }

Interestingly, the Shell Sort algorithm actually makes use of the previously presented Insertion Sort algorithm.

New exchange function

Because the Shell Sort algorithm requires non-adjacent items to be swapped, we need to make some changes to the exchange function that was previously used for both the Bubble Sort and Insertion Sort. The get and compare functions remain unchanged.

function exchange(i, j) { if(i == j+1) { parent.insertBefore(items[i], items[j]); } else if(j == i+1) { parent.insertBefore(items[j], items[i]); } else { var tmpNode = parent.replaceChild(items[i], items[j]); if(typeof(items[i]) == "undefined") { parent.appendChild(tmpNode); } else { parent.insertBefore(tmpNode, items[i]); } } }

For an even more advanced sorting technique, see the Quick Sort demonstration.

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