Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Sort a List using Merge Sort

Write Merge sort routine for sorting linked list

/*
 * Merge Sort
 */
void MergeSort(nodeptr* headRef) {
    nodeptr head = *headRef;
    nodeptr a;
    nodeptr b;

    if ((head == NULL) || (head->next == NULL)) {
        return;
    }

    FrontBackSplit(head, &a, &b); // Split list into 'a' and 'b' sublists

    MergeSort(&a); // Recursively sort the sublists  'a' and 'b'
    MergeSort(&b);

    *headRef = SortedMerge(a, b); //merge the two sorted lists together
}

/*
 * Takes two lists sorted in increasing order, and splices their 
 * nodes together to make one big sorted list which is returned.
 */
nodeptr SortedMerge(nodeptr a, nodeptr b)
{
    nodeptr result = NULL;
    nodeptr* lastPtrRef = &result;

    while (1) {
        if (a == NULL) {
            *lastPtrRef = b;
            break;
        }
        else if (b == NULL) {
            *lastPtrRef = a;
            break;
        }
        if (a->data <= b->data) {
            MoveNode(lastPtrRef, &a);
        } else {
            MoveNode(lastPtrRef, &b);
        }
        lastPtrRef = &((*lastPtrRef)->next);
    }
   
    return(result);
}

/*
 * Split the nodes of the given list into front and back halves,
 * and return the two lists using the reference parameters.
 * If the length is odd, the extra node should go in the front list.
 */
void FrontBackSplit(nodeptr source, nodeptr* frontRef, nodeptr* backRef)
{
    nodeptr singlestep = NULL;
    nodeptr doublestep = NULL;
    if(source == NULL) {
        *frontRef = NULL;
        *backRef = NULL;
    } else {
        *frontRef = source;
        doublestep = source->next;
        singlestep = source;
        while(doublestep != NULL) {
            if(doublestep->next != NULL)
                doublestep = doublestep->next->next;
            else 
                break;
            singlestep = singlestep->next;
        }
        *backRef = singlestep->next;
        singlestep->next = NULL;
    }
}


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