Stooge sort

Inefficient recursive sorting algorithm

Stooge sort
Visualization of Stooge sort (only shows swaps).
Class	Sorting algorithm
Data structure	Array
Worst-case performance	$O(n^{\log 3/\log 1.5})$
Worst-case space complexity	$O(n)$

Stooge sort is a recursive sorting algorithm. It is notable for its exceptionally bad time complexity of $O(n^{\log 3/\log 1.5})$ = $O(n^{2.7095...})$ The running time of the algorithm is thus slower compared to reasonable sorting algorithms, and is slower than bubble sort, a canonical example of a fairly inefficient sort. It is however more efficient than Slowsort. The name comes from The Three Stooges.^[1]

The algorithm is defined as follows:

If the value at the start is larger than the value at the end, swap them.
If there are three or more elements in the list, then:
- Stooge sort the initial 2/3 of the list
- Stooge sort the final 2/3 of the list
- Stooge sort the initial 2/3 of the list again

It is important to get the integer sort size used in the recursive calls by rounding the 2/3 upwards, e.g. rounding 2/3 of 5 should give 4 rather than 3, as otherwise the sort can fail on certain data.

Implementation

Pseudocode

 function stoogesort(array L, i = 0, j = length(L)-1){
     if L[i] > L[j] then       // If the leftmost element is larger than the rightmost element
         swap(L[i],L[j])       // Then swap them
     if (j - i + 1) > 2 then   // If there are at least 3 elements in the array
         t = floor((j - i + 1) / 3)
         stoogesort(L, i, j-t) // Sort the first 2/3 of the array
         stoogesort(L, i+t, j) // Sort the last 2/3 of the array
         stoogesort(L, i, j-t) // Sort the first 2/3 of the array again
     return L
 }

Haskell

-- Not the best but equal to above 

stoogesort :: (Ord a) => [a] -> [a]
stoogesort [] = []
stoogesort src = innerStoogesort src 0 ((length src) - 1)

innerStoogesort :: (Ord a) => [a] -> Int -> Int -> [a]
innerStoogesort src i j 
    | (j - i + 1) > 2 = src''''
    | otherwise = src'
    where 
        src'    = swap src i j -- need every call
        t = floor (fromIntegral (j - i + 1) / 3.0)
        src''   = innerStoogesort src'   i      (j - t)
        src'''  = innerStoogesort src'' (i + t)  j
        src'''' = innerStoogesort src''' i      (j - t)

swap :: (Ord a) => [a] -> Int -> Int -> [a]
swap src i j 
    | a > b     =  replaceAt (replaceAt src j a) i b
    | otherwise = src
    where 
        a = src !! i
        b = src !! j

replaceAt :: [a] -> Int -> a -> [a]
replaceAt (x:xs) index value
    | index == 0 = value : xs
    | otherwise  =  x : replaceAt xs (index - 1) value

References

^ "CSE 373" (PDF). courses.cs.washington.edu. Retrieved 14 September 2020.

Sources

Black, Paul E. "stooge sort". Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
Cormen, Thomas H.; Leiserson, Charles E.; Rivest, Ronald L.; Stein, Clifford (2001) [1990]. "Problem 7-3". Introduction to Algorithms (2nd ed.). MIT Press and McGraw-Hill. pp. 161–162. ISBN 0-262-03293-7.