Wicked Cool Ruby Scripts

Shell Sort

Shell Sort

shellSort.rb

Shell sort is an insertion sorting algorithm: A value is stored to a temporary value, then inserted into its appropriate place. One difference between this algorithm and the traditional insertion sort is that a shell sort compares two elements that are separated by a gap of several positions—in essence, making bigger jumps. This slight change results in greater efficiency in the worst-case scenario. Remember, worst-case scenarios are when a list of elements are in complete disarray and cannot be disordered any more than they currently are.

The Code

 require 'benchmark'

 def shell_sort(a)
     i = 0
     j = 0
     size = a.length
     increment = size / 2
     temp = 0

     while increment > 0
         i = increment
         while i<size
             j = i
 temp = a[i]  ...