Cycle Sort vs Selection Sort
Same 110 values, same shuffle, same speed. Selection Sort finishes first and turns gold: 6,097 operations to 16,802.
The numbers
- Cycle operations
- 16,802
- Selection operations
- 6,097
- Cycle average
- n²
- Selection average
- n²
- Cycle worst
- n²
- Selection worst
- n²
Cycle Sort
Cycle Sort writes every value directly to its final position, using the fewest possible writes. More on Cycle Sort.
Selection Sort
Selection Sort finds the smallest remaining value and swaps it to the front, again and again. More on Selection Sort.
FAQ
Which is faster, Cycle Sort or Selection Sort?
On this shuffle of 110 values, Selection Sort needed 6,097 operations and Cycle Sort needed 16,802, about 2.8× as many. On average Cycle Sort is n² and Selection Sort is n².
Which one is stable?
Neither is stable.
How is the race fair?
Both algorithms start from the same shuffle and run the same number of operations per frame. Every comparison, swap and write counts as one operation, so the one that needs fewer operations finishes first.