Sorting is the process of arranging the elements either in ascending (or) descending order.
Types of sorting
C language provides five sorting techniques, which are as follows −
- Bubble sort (or) Exchange Sort
- Selection sort
- Insertion sort(or) Linear sort
- Quick sort (or) Partition exchange sort
- Merge Sort (or) External sort
Insertion Sort
The logic used to sort the elements by using the insertion sort technique is as follows −
for(i = 1; i <= n - 1; i++){ for(j = i; j > 0 && a[j - 1] > a[j]; j--){ t = a[j]; a[j] = a[j - 1]; a[j - 1] = t; } }
Explanation
Let us consider some elements which are in unsorted order −
Example
Following is the C program to sort the elements by using the insertion sort technique −
#include<stdio.h> int main() { int a[50], i,j,n,t; printf("enter the No: of elements in the list:\n"); scanf("%d", &n); printf("enter the elements:\n"); for(i=0; i<n; i++){ scanf ("%d", &a[i]); } for(i = 1; i <= n - 1; i++){ for(j=i; j > 0 && a[j - 1] > a[j]; j--){ t = a[j]; a[j] = a[j - 1]; a[j - 1] = t; } } printf ("after insertion sorting the elements are:\n"); for (i=0; i<n; i++) printf("%d\t", a[i]); return 0; }
Output
When the above program is executed, it produces the following output −
Enter the No: of elements in the list: 10 Enter the elements: 34 125 2 6 78 49 1 3 89 23 After insertion sorting the elements are: 1 2 3 6 23 34 49 78 89 125