Question

For a homework assignment, I have to write an implementation of the QuickSort algorithm and use this to sort a list with 100k numbers in some random order.

In the first part of the assignment, I have to use the first item of the array as the pivot element. This indeed returns a sorted list. However, for the second part of the assignment I have to use the last item as the pivot, which results in a StackOverflowException. When I try it in a smaller collection of 8 records, it DOES work correctly. I’ve been looking at my code but I can’t figure out where I’m making a mistake. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My code is as follows:

public class QuickSort {

    private QuickSortStrategyEnum quickSortStrategy;

    public QuickSort(QuickSortStrategyEnum quickSortStrategy) {

        this.quickSortStrategy = quickSortStrategy;
    }

    public List<Integer> sortIntegerArray(List<Integer> arrayList, int left, int right) {

        if ( left >= right ) {
            return arrayList;
        }

        int i = partition(arrayList, left, right);

        if (i <= right) {

            int pivotNew = partition(arrayList, i, right);
            int pivotIndex = arrayList.indexOf(pivotNew);

            arrayList = sortIntegerArray(arrayList, left , pivotIndex - 1);
            arrayList = sortIntegerArray(arrayList, pivotIndex + 1, right);
        }

        return arrayList;
    }

    private int partition(List<Integer> arrayList, int left, int right) {

        int pivot = getPivot(arrayList, left, right);
        int i = left + 1;

        for (int j = i; j <= right; j++) {

            if (arrayList.get(j) < pivot) {

                Collections.swap(arrayList, j, i);
                i++;
            }
        }

        Collections.swap(arrayList, left, i - 1);
        return i;
    }

    private int getPivot(List<Integer> arrayList, int left, int right) {

        int pivot = 0;

        switch (quickSortStrategy) {

            case FIRST:
            pivot = arrayList.get(left);
            break;

            case LAST:
            pivot = arrayList.get(right);
            break;
        }
        return pivot;
    }

}

Answer 1

Along with the fact that David Harkness pointed out, there are problems with the partition logic. Try this out: (after removing things pointed by David Harkness)

private int partition(List<Integer> arrayList, int left, int right) {

    int pivot = getPivot(arrayList, left, right);
    int i = left - 1; 

    for (int j = left; j < right; j++) {
        if (arrayList.get(j) <= pivot) {
            i++;
            Collections.swap(arrayList, j, i);
        }
    }

    Collections.swap(arrayList, i+1, right);
    return i+1;
}

It will work for case when pivot is last element. Not for First element.

Read, understand the working on paper, dry run things out, write pseudo code and then say hello to Eclipse. Dont hurry to implement things.