How to merge two sorted arrays into a sorted array?

Asked 2011-05-11T01:13:57.760

177

This was asked of me in an interview and this is the solution I provided:

public static int[] merge(int[] a, int[] b) {

    int[] answer = new int[a.length + b.length];
    int i = 0, j = 0, k = 0;
    while (i < a.length && j < b.length)
    {
        if (a[i] < b[j])
        {
            answer[k] = a[i];
            i++;
        }
        else
        {
            answer[k] = b[j];
            j++;
        }
        k++;
    }

    while (i < a.length)
    {
        answer[k] = a[i];
        i++;
        k++;
    }

    while (j < b.length)
    {
        answer[k] = b[j];
        j++;
        k++;
    }

    return answer;
}

Is there a more efficient way to do this?

Edit: Corrected length methods.

Edit Report

2 Answers

127

public static int[] merge(int[] a, int[] b) {

    int[] answer = new int[a.length + b.length];
    int i = 0, j = 0, k = 0;

    while (i < a.length && j < b.length)  
       answer[k++] = a[i] < b[j] ? a[i++] :  b[j++];

    while (i < a.length)  
        answer[k++] = a[i++];

    while (j < b.length)    
        answer[k++] = b[j++];

    return answer;
}

Is a little bit more compact but exactly the same!

answered 2012-01-20T23:59:25.443

    public class Merge {

    // stably merge a[lo .. mid] with a[mid+1 .. hi] using aux[lo .. hi]
    public static void merge(Comparable[] a, Comparable[] aux, int lo, int mid, int hi) {

        // precondition: a[lo .. mid] and a[mid+1 .. hi] are sorted subarrays
        assert isSorted(a, lo, mid);
        assert isSorted(a, mid+1, hi);

        // copy to aux[]
        for (int k = lo; k <= hi; k++) {
            aux[k] = a[k]; 
        }

        // merge back to a[]
        int i = lo, j = mid+1;
        for (int k = lo; k <= hi; k++) {
            if      (i > mid)              a[k] = aux[j++];
            else if (j > hi)               a[k] = aux[i++];
            else if (less(aux[j], aux[i])) a[k] = aux[j++];
            else                           a[k] = aux[i++];
        }

        // postcondition: a[lo .. hi] is sorted
        assert isSorted(a, lo, hi);
    }

    // mergesort a[lo..hi] using auxiliary array aux[lo..hi]
    private static void sort(Comparable[] a, Comparable[] aux, int lo, int hi) {
        if (hi <= lo) return;
        int mid = lo + (hi - lo) / 2;
        sort(a, aux, lo, mid);
        sort(a, aux, mid + 1, hi);
        merge(a, aux, lo, mid, hi);
    }

    public static void sort(Comparable[] a) {
        Comparable[] aux = new Comparable[a.length];
        sort(a, aux, 0, a.length-1);
        assert isSorted(a);
    }


   /***********************************************************************
    *  Helper sorting functions
    ***********************************************************************/

    // is v < w ?
    private static boolean less(Comparable v, Comparable w) {
        return (v.compareTo(w) < 0);
    }

    // exchange a[i] and a[j]
    private static void exch(Object[] a, int i, int j) {
        Object swap = a[i];
        a[i] = a[j];
        a[j] = swap;
    }


   /***********************************************************************
    *  Check if array is sorted -


                        
                        
                            answered 2012-11-18T22:33:23.413



        
        
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