Selection Sort Visualization

Selection Sort

The sorting algorithms that we use every day in computer science have been heavily relied on for years, and they're built into nearly all programming languages. Whether you are a programmer or an engineer looking to sift through data, these tools will help you out!

What is Selection Sort?

Selection sort is an in-place comparison sorting algorithm that arranges the input list into two parts: a sorted sublist of items which are built up from left to right at the front (left) and a subpart of unsorted items. The first part, or "sublist," progresses through each item in order until it finds one that doesn't match its neighbors by position without shifting any other elements. Then, the next element becomes part of our new segmented indexable group with all previous matching segments. This process repeats on either side until there's nothing but ordered values remaining!

The algorithm repeatedly finds the smallest (or largest) element in unsorted sublists and exchanges it with the leftmost unsorted list, moving boundaries to the right. Our tool will help you understand the implementation clearly because this might be confusing without the visualization.

Selection sorting algorithm

Selection sort is a simple sorting algorithm. This sorting algorithm is an in-place comparison-based algorithm in which the list is divided into two parts, the sorted part at the left end and the unsorted part at the right end. Initially, the sorted part is empty and the unsorted part is the entire list.

In selection sort, the smallest value among the unsorted elements of the array is selected in every pass and inserted to its appropriate position into the array.

Selection sort loops over indices in the array; for each index, selection sort calls indexOfMinimum and swap. 

How efficient is it?

Selection Sort is an easy-to-understand sorting algorithm that falls behind other more complicated algorithms for large data sets. While it may not be the most efficient, Selection Sort does have a space advantage over some of these different models because it functions in place and requires no auxiliary memory. Insertion Sort is the best way to go for sorting, but it isn't a perfect solution. Selection Sort has an average time complexity of O(n^2), and its worst-case runtime can also be quadratic!