Implementing Heap Sort in JavaScript
Michael Mitrakos
3 min read
Having worked across sites raking in over 50 billion website visits annually with Higglo Digital I write about tech topics and teach…
Implementing Heap Sort in JavaScript
Having worked across sites raking in over 50 billion website visits annually with Higglo Digital I write about tech topics and teach engineers to have solid foundations that will help them get ahead in their career. I also build awesome products for digital nomads — check it out!
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Heap sort is a comparison-based sorting algorithm that uses a binary heap data structure to sort an array in ascending or descending order. It is an in-place sorting algorithm, meaning that it does not require any additional space to sort the array.
The basic idea behind heap sort is to first create a heap from the input array, and then repeatedly remove the maximum (or minimum) element from the heap and add it to the sorted array. This process continues until the heap is empty, at which point the sorted array is returned.
There are two types of heaps: max heaps and min heaps. In a max heap, the value of each node is greater than or equal to the values of its children. In a min heap, the value of each node is less than or equal to the values of its children.
To create a heap from an array, we can start by inserting each element into the heap one at a time. For each element, we first add it to the end of the heap and then “heapify” it by swapping it with its parent until it is in the correct position.
Here is an example of how to create a max heap in JavaScript:
heapify(heap, i, heap.length);
}
return heap;
}
let left = 2 * i + 1;
let right = 2 * i + 2;
let largest = i;
if (left < heapSize && heap[left] > heap[largest]) {
if (right < heapSize && heap[right] > heap[largest]) {
if (largest !== i) {
}
}
let heap = createHeap(array);
Here is an example of how to perform heap sort in JavaScript:
let heap = createHeap(array);
let sortedArray = [];
while (heap.length > 0) {
}
return sortedArray;
}
let sortedArray = heapSort(array);
// sortedArray is now [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]Heap sort is an efficient sorting algorithm that is suitable for large data sets. It has a time complexity of O(n log n), making it faster than other comparison-based sorting algorithms such as bubble sort and insertion sort. However, it is not a stable sort.
JavaScript eBook
I’ve written an eBook on JavaScript that will take you from beginner to professional. Having been in your shoes moving to making over $200,000 per year in just a few years as a software engineer, I know exactly what it takes to get there. Check out the ebook now!
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