29.3 Mergesort

We've covered mergesort in the past, but as a reminder, the algorithm is as follows:

  1. Split the items into half.

  2. Mergesort each half.

  3. Merge the two sorted halves to form the final result.

You can see a demo of the algorithm here.

Mergesort has a runtime of Θ(NlogN)\Theta(N \log N)-- we will not reanalyze the algorithm here but you may refer to this link if you'd like to remind yourself.

The auxiliary array used during the merge step requires Θ(N)\Theta(N) extra space. Note that in-place mergesort is possible; however it is very complex and the runtime suffers by a significant constant factor, so we will not cover it here.

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