Question

The quicksort is an example of a divide and conquer algorithm in that it divides the sorting problem into smaller problems by dividing the list of items to be sorted into smaller subsets. The pivot is the mechanism that is used to segment the list. Describe how the quicksort works including a discussion of the pivot, how it is selected, and why the pivot is important to the quicksort.

Answer 1

Answer:

The quicksort pivot is an arbitrary element within the collection that is being sorted.  Using the pivot point, the collection of elements is partitioned into two smaller lists of elements.  Using some logic, the smaller elements are placed left of the pivot point, and larger elements are placed to the right of the pivot point.  Ideally, you would prefer you pivot point to be a median of your dataset to optimize the creation of the two sublists into a balanced state.

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