Insertion Sort

I wanted to write on Algorithms for a long time and here i got a chance to write on them; Today I am going to post on Insertion sort.

Insertion sort is a simple sorting algorithm, a comparison sort in which the sorted array (or list) is built one entry at a time. It is much less efficient on large lists than more advanced algorithms such as quicksort, heapsort, or merge sort

While implementing the insertion sort, we would try to main the following rules:

1. While we begin sorting we would sort from the second array position.

2. We keep traversing the array and take the next element in the array and position it such that it is in the sorted order.

The implementation of the insertion sort in C# language is as follows:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace Sorting
{
    class Sort
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<Int32> nums = new List<int>();
            nums.Add(30);
            nums.Add(10);
            nums.Add(20);
            nums.Add(40);
            nums.Add(5);
            nums.Add(8);
            nums.Add(3);
            Sort sort = new Sort();
            sort.DoInsertionSort(ref nums);
            foreach(int i in nums)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(i);
            }
        }

/// <summary>
        /// This is the function that does the insertion sort
        ///
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="numbersToBeSorted">
        /// The array of integers which needs to be sorted.
        /// </param>
        public void DoInsertionSort(ref List<Int32> numbersToBeSorted)
        {
            for (int j = 1; j < numbersToBeSorted.Count; j++)
            {
                //The key is the one which we would compare with each of
                //the element and insert it appropriately.
                int key = numbersToBeSorted[j];

                //We just need to compare it with the previous element.         
                int i = j - 1;
                //THE AWESOME TRICK:
                // Since our state is we would always have the previous
                //elements in sorted order, we would just traverse back
                //and insert the key where the its most appropriate.
                while (i > -1 && numbersToBeSorted[i] > key)
                {
                    numbersToBeSorted[i + 1] = numbersToBeSorted[i];
                    i = i - 1;
                }
                numbersToBeSorted[i + 1] = key;
            }
        }

        /*
         *
         *  Out put would be:
            3
            5
            8
            10
            20
            30
            40
            Press any key to continue . . .
         */

    }

}

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