visualearn

Lessons · Sorting

Sorting: putting things in order

Computers sort things all the time: your photos by date, a game's high scores, search results. Pick a way to sort and press play.

Press play to start.

Step
0 / 0
Compares
0
Moves
0
Guesses
–
  • Comparing
  • Moving
  • Held / smallest
  • Pivot
  • In final place

Try it offline · Bubble sort

The bubble line-up

  • You need
  • Time

    Think about it

    Count your compares

    Make a tally mark every time you compare two things. Then type the same numbers into the lesson and see if you match the computer.

    Prints just this card, on one page.

    Which one is fastest?

    Set Size to 64 and run each one. Watch the Compares counter. Computer scientists describe this with "Big O": it tells you how much more work there is when the list gets longer. n means how many numbers there are.

    AlgorithmBestAverageWorstExtra memoryStable

    Stable means equal numbers keep the order they started in. That matters when you sort a class by surname and want students with the same surname to stay sorted by first name.