The following program (taken from a tutorial) prints the numbers in an array in order from lowest to highest. In this case, the result will be 2,4,5,13,31
My question relates to the paramaters "a" and "b" for the function compareNumbers. When the function is called in numArray.sort(compareNumbers) what numbers will be the parameters a and b for the function. Does it just move along the array. For example, start with a=13 and b=2? After that, does the function run again comparing a=2 and b=31? or would it next compare a=31 and b=4?
Can someone please explain how that part works and also how it manages to sort them from lowest to highest? I don`t see how the function manages to do the necessary calculations on the numbers in the array.
function compareNumbers(a,b) {
return a - b;
}
var numArray = [13,2,31,4,5];
alert(numArray.sort(compareNumbers));
The particular pairs that get passed in depend on the sorting algorithm being used. As the algorithm tries to go about sorting the range, it needs to be able to compare pairs of values to determine their ordering. Whenever this happens, it will call your function to get that comparison.
Because of this, without inside knowledge about how the sorting algorithm works, you cannot predict what pairs will get compared. The choice of algorithm will directly determine what elements get compared and in what order.
Interestingly, though, you can actually use the comparison function to visualize how the sort works or to reverse-engineer the sorting algorithm! The website sortviz.org has many visualizations of sorting algorithms generated by passing custom comparators into sorting functions that track the positions of each element. If you take a look, you can see how differently each algorithm moves its elements around.
Even more interestingly, you can use comparison functions as offensive weapons! Some sorting algorithms, namely quicksort, have particular inputs that can cause them to run much more slowly than usual. In "A Killer Adversary for Quicksort," the author details how to use a custom comparator to deliberate construct a bad input for a sorting algorithm.
Hope this helps!
The two parameters will be elements of your array. The system will compare enough pairs to be able to sort them correctly. Nothing else is guaranteed.
There are lots of things the sort method could be doing under the hood; see, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm for some of them. Most Javascript implementations probably use some variant of either quicksort or mergesort.
(Here are super-brief descriptions of those. Quicksort is: pick an element in the array, rearrange the array to put everything smaller than that in front of everything larger, then sort the "smaller" and "larger" bits. Mergesort is: sort the first half of the array, sort the second half of the array, and then merge the two sorted halves. In both cases you need to sort smaller arrays, which you do with the same algorithm until you get to arrays so small that sorting them is trivial. In both cases, good practical implementations do all sorts of clever things I haven't mentioned.)
It will be called for all pairs of a,b that sorting algorithm need to get all array sorted. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm for brief list of sorting algorithms.
When you pass a function to Array.sort(), it expects two parameters and returns a numerical value.
If you return a negative value, the first parameter will be placed before the second parameter in the array.
If you return a positive value, the first parameter will be placed after the second parameter in the array.
If you return 0, they will stay in their current position.
By doing return a - b;, you are returning a negative number if a is less than b (2 - 13 = -11), a positive number if b is less than a (13 - 2 = 11), and zero if they are even (13 - 13 = 0).
As far as which numbers are compared in what order, I believe that is up to the javascript engine to determine.
Check out the documentation on javascript array sorting at the MDC Doc Center for more detailed information.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/sort
(BTW, I always check the MDC Doc Center for any questions about how javascript works, they have the best information on the language AFAIK.)
Related
I have searched a bunch of other resources but have not been able to find a quality answer to this question.
JavaScript objects sort their integer keys in ascending order, not insertion order.
const lookup = {}
lookup['1'] = 1
lookup['3'] = 3
lookup['2'] = 2
console.log(Object.keys(lookup)) -> ['1', '2', '3']
That much is simple. But what is the big O notation of that internal sorting process? Some sort algorithm must be happening under the hood to sort those keys as they are inserted but I can't find out which one it is.
Array.sort() with a length of <= 10 is Insertion Sort and
Array.sort() with a length > 10 is Quick Sort
But Array.sort() is reordering an object's keys based off of the sorting of its values.
How does JavaScript under the hood sort its keys on insertion?
(V8 developer here.)
It depends, as so often.
If the integer-keyed properties are sufficiently dense, the object will use an array under the hood to store them. Compared to sorting algorithms, that'd be closest to "radix sort", with the notable difference that there is no explicit sorting step: the sort order arises as a "free" side effect of the way elements are stored. When lookup[2] = ... is executed, the value will be written into the respective slot of the array. If the array isn't big enough, a new array is allocated, and existing entries are copied over; since that doesn't happen too often, the cost of an insertion is still "O(1) amortized". When getting the list of integer-keyed properties, then the array is already in sorted order.
If the integer-keyed properties are too sparse, the object will switch to using a dictionary as the backing store. Hash-based dictionaries store entries in their own "random" order, so in that case Object.keys() and similar operations actually have to perform an explicit sorting step. Looks like we're currently relying on C++'s std::sort for that, but that's very much an implementation detail that could change (not just on V8's side, also how std::sort is implemented depends on the standard library that V8 is linked against).
Array.sort() with a length of <= 10 is Insertion Sort and Array.sort() with a length > 10 is Quick Sort
No, not any more. We switched to TimSort in 2018.
This is more a general question about the inner workings of the language. I was wondering how javascript gets the value of an index. For example when you write array[index] does it loop through the array till it finds it? or by some other means? the reason I ask is because I have written some code where I am looping through arrays to match values and find points on a grid, I am wondering if performance would be increased by creating and array like array[gridX][gridY] or if it will make a difference. what I am doing now is going through a flat array of objects with gridpoints as properties like this:
var array = [{x:1,y:3}];
then looping through and using those coordinates within the object properties to identify and use the values contained in the object.
my thought is that by implementing a multidimensional grid it would access them more directly as can specify a gridpoint by saying array[1][3] instead of looping through and doing:
for ( var a = 0; a < array.length; a += 1 ){
if( array[a].x === 1 && array[a].y === 3 ){
return array[a];
}
}
or something of the like.
any insight would be appreciated, thanks!
For example when you write array[index] does it loop through the array till it finds it? or by some other means?
This is implementation defined. Javascript can have both numeric and string keys and the very first Javascript implementations did do this slow looping to access things.
However, nowadays most browsers are more efficient and store arrays in two parts, a packed array for numeric indexes and a hash table for the rest. This means that accessing a numeric index (for dense arrays without holes) is O(1) and accessing string keys and sparse arrays is done via hash tables.
I am wondering if performance would be increased by creating and array like array[gridX][gridY] or if it will make a difference. what I am doing now is going through a flat array of objects with gridpoints as properties like this array[{x:1,y:3}]
Go with the 2 dimension array. Its a much simpler solution and is most likely going to be efficient enough for you.
Another reason to do this is that when you use an object as an array index what actually happens is that the object is converted to a string and then that string is used as a hash table key. So array[{x:1,y:3}] is actually array["[object Object]"]. If you really wanted, you could override the toString method so not all grid points serialize to the same value, but I don't think its worth the trouble.
Whether it's an array or an object, the underlying structure in any modern javascript engine is a hashtable. Need to prove it? Allocate an array of 1000000000 elements and notice the speed and lack of memory growth. Javascript arrays are a special case of Object that provides a length method and restricts the keys to integers, but it's sparse.
So, you are really chaining hashtables together. When you nest tables, as in a[x][y], you creating multiple hashtables, and it will require multiple visits to resolve an object.
But which is faster? Here is a jsperf testing the speed of allocation and access, respectively:
http://jsperf.com/hash-tables-2d-versus-1d
http://jsperf.com/hash-tables-2d-versus-1d/2
On my machines, the nested approach is faster.
Intuition is no match for the profiler.
Update: It was pointed out that in some limited instances, arrays really are arrays underneath. But since arrays are specialized objects, you'll find that in these same instances, objects are implemented as arrays as well (i.e., {0:'hello', 1:'world'} is internally implemented as an array. But this shouldn't frighten you from using arrays with trillions of elements, because that special case will be discarded once it no longer makes sense.
To answer your initial question, in JavaScript, arrays are nothing more than a specialized type of object. If you set up an new Array like this:
var someArray = new Array(1, 2, 3);
You end up with an Array object with a structure that looks more-or-less, like this (Note: this is strictly in regards to the data that it is storing . . . there is a LOT more to an Array object):
someArray = {
0: 1,
1: 2,
2: 3
}
What the Array object does add to the equation, though, is built in operations that allow you to interact with it in the [1, 2, 3] concept that you are used to. push() for example, will use the array's length property to figure out where the next value should be added, creates the value in that position, and increments the length property.
However (getting back to the original question), there is nothing in the array structure that is any different when it comes to accessing the values that it stores than any other property. There is no inherent looping or anything like that . . . accessing someArray[0] is essentially the same as accessing someArray.length.
In fact, the only reason that you have to access standard array values using the someArray[N] format is that, the stored array values are number-indexed, and you cannot directly access object properties that begin with a number using the "dot" technique (i.e., someArray.0 is invalid, someArray[0] is not).
Now, admittedly, that is a pretty simplistic view of the Array object in JavaScript, but, for the purposes of your question, it should be enough. If you want to know more about the inner workings, there is TONS of information to be found here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array
single dimension hash table with direct access:
var array = {
x1y3: 999,
x10y100: 0
};
function getValue(x, y) {
return array['x' + x + 'y' + y];
}
Trying to plan out a function and I wanted to get some input. I am trying to find an efficient way to:
Double the frequency of numbers in an array
Randomize the location of the values in the array.
For example: Lets say I have an array. [0,1,2,3]
first I want to duplicate each number once in a new array. So now we would have something like this.
[0,0,1,1,2,2,3,3].
Lastly, I want to randomize these values so: [0,4,2,3,0,2,3,4]
Eventually, the algorithm I write will need to handle an initial array of 18 digits (so the final, randomized array will be of size 36)
My initial thoughts are to just have a simple while loop that:
Randomly selects a spot in the new array
Checks to see if it is full
-If it is full, then it will select a new spot and check again.
If it is not full, then it will place the value in the new array, and go to the next value.
I am leaving out some details, etc. but I want this algorithm to be fairly quick so that the user doesn't notice anything.
My concern is that when there is only one digit left to be placed, the algorithm will take forever to place it because there will be a 1/36 chance that it will select the empty space.
In general terms, how can I make a smarter and faster algorithm to accomplish what I want to do?
Many thanks!
first I want to duplicate each number once in a new array. So now we would have something like this. [0,0,1,1,2,2,3,3].
That would be rather complicated to accomplish. Since the positions are not relevant anyway, just build [0,1,2,3,0,1,2,3] by
var newArray = arr.concat(arr);
Lastly, I want to randomize these values so: [0,4,2,3,0,2,3,4]
Just use one of the recognized shuffle algorithms - see How to randomize (shuffle) a JavaScript array?. There are rather simple ones that run in linear time and do not suffer from the problem you described, because they don't need to randomly try.
Here is an alternative to the known methods with two arrays, I came up with. It gives relatively good randomization.
var array1=[]
var array=[0,1,2,3,0,1,2,3]
a=array.length;
b=a;
c=b;
function rand(){for (i=0;i<c;i++){
n=Math.floor(Math.random()*b);
array1[i]=array[n]; array.splice(n,1);b--;}
for (i1=0;i1<c;i1++){array[i1]=array1[i1]}
https://stackoverflow.com/a/11958496/379650 provides a very good function for calculating the Damerau–Levenshtein distance, however, I would like to be able to find the index of each of the differences given in terms of either the first or second string.
I am open to some other method better than Damerau–Levenshtein distance (if there is one), but it seemed like the most logical choice.
Example:
//Indices given in terms of the first string
ld('abc','abc');//[] no mistakes
ld('abc','abd');//[2]
ld('abc','aad');//[1,2]
ld('abc','ac');//[1]
I would like min() to choose the two smallest numbers in a list, is this possible and how should I do it?
actually, Math.min only gives you the single smallest of a list, so you need to simply sort them all and grab the quantity you need:
list = [7,4,5,4,2,23,4,6,4,6];
smalls = list.sort(function(a,b){return a-b}).slice(0,2);
alert(smalls); // shows "2, 4"
Sorting is a little inefficient as it takes up O(n log n) time. You could do the same thing with a single pass. Just keep to variables that are initialized to empty (or negative inifinity) or something.
For every element encountered, check against the two variables and update accordingly.
It is pretty simple but it takes up only linear time O(n).
Search for a documentation on "Math" (it is a javascript object with many useful math related functions and variables).
Hint.