Introduction and Survey; F.2.2 [Analysis of Algorithms and Problem Complexity]: Nonnumerical Algorithms and Problems --- Sorting and Searching; E.5 [Data]: Files --- Sorting/searching; G.3 [Mathematics of Computing]: Probability and Statistics --- Probabilistic algorithms; E.2 [Data Storage Representation]: Composite structures, linked representations. General Terms: Algorithms, Theory. Additional Key Words and Phrases: Adaptive sorting algorithms, Comparison trees, Measures of disorder, Nearly sorted sequences, Randomized algorithms. A Survey of Adaptive Sorting Algorithms 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I.1 Optimal adaptivity I.2 Measures of disorder I.3 Organization of the paper 1.WORST-CASE ADAPTIVE (INTERNAL) SORTING ALGORITHMS 1.1 Generic Sort 1.2 Cook--Kim division 1.3 Partition Sort 1.4 Exponential Search 1.5 Adaptive Merging 2.EXPECTED-CASE ADAPTIV

Given a simple n-vertex polygon, the triangulation problem is to partition the interior of the polygon into n-2 triangles by adding n-3 nonintersecting diagonals. We propose an O(n log logn)-time algorithm for this problem, improving on the previously best bound of O (n log n) and showing that triangulation is not as hard as sorting. Improved algorithms for several other computational geometry problems, including testing whether a polygon is simple, follow from our result.

Skip lists are a probabilistic data structure that seem likely to supplant balanced trees as the implementation method of choice for many applications. Skip list algorithms have the same asymptotic expected time bounds as balanced trees and are simpler, faster and use less space. The original paper on skip lists only presented algorithms for search, insertion and deletion. In this paper, we show that skip lists are as versatile as balanced trees. We describe and analyze algorithms to use search fingers, merge, split and concatenate skip lists, and implement linear list operations using skip lists. The skip list algorithms for these actions are faster and simpler than their balanced tree cousins. The merge algorithm for skip lists we describe has better asymptotic time complexity than any previously described merge algorithm for balanced trees.

The power of purely functional programming in the construction of data structures has received much attention, not only because functional languages have many desirable properties, but because structures built purely functionally are automatically fully persistent: any and all versions of a structure can coexist indefinitely. Recent results illustrate the surprising power of pure functionality. One such result was the development of a representation of double-ended queues with catenation that supports all operations, including catenation, in worst-case constant time [19].

We consider the problem of implementing finger search trees on the pointer machine, i.e., how to maintain a sorted list such that searching for an element x, starting the search at any arbitrary element f in the list, only requires logarithmic time in the distance between x and f in the list. We present the first pointer-based implementation of finger search trees allowing new elements to be inserted at any arbitrary position in the list in worst case constant time. Previously, the best known insertion time on the pointer machine was O(log n), where n is the total length of the list. On a unit-cost RAM, a constant insertion time has been achieved by Dietz and Raman by using standard techniques of packing small problem sizes into a constant number of machine words. Deletion of a list element is supported in O(log n) time, which matches the previous best bounds. Our data structure requires linear space. 1 Introduction A finger search tree is a data structure which stores a sorte...

In this paper, we study the design of fault tolerant networks for arrays and meshes by adding redundant nodes and edges. For a target graph G (linear array or mesh in this paper), a graph G # is called a k-fault-tolerant graph of G if when we remove any k nodes from G # , it still contains a subgraph isomorphic to G. The major quality measures for a fault-tolerant graph are the number of spare nodes it uses and the maximum degree it has. The degree is particularly important in practice as it poses constraints on the scalability of the system. In this paper, we aim at designing fault-tolerant graphs with both small degree and small number of spare nodes. The graphs we obtain have degree O(1) for arrays and O(log 3 k) for meshes. The number of spare nodes used are O(k log 2 k) and O(k 2 / log k), respectively. Compared to the previous results, the number of spare nodes used in our construction has one fewer linear factor in k. 1 1 Introduction In many parallel computer ...

We explore various techniques to compress a permutation π over n integers, taking advantage of ordered subsequences in π, while supporting its application π(i) and the application of its inverse π −1 (i) in small time. Our compression schemes yield several interesting byproducts, in many cases matching, improving or extending the best existing results on applications such as the encoding of a permutation in order to support iterated applications π k (i) of it, of integer functions, and of inverted lists and suffix arrays.

This paper explores the structure of red-black trees by solving an apparently simple problem: given an ascending sequence of elements, construct a red-black tree which contains the elements in symmetric order. Several extreme red-black tree shapes are characterized: trees of minimum and maximum height, trees with a minimal and with a maximal proportion of red nodes. These characterizations are obtained by relating tree shapes to various number systems. In addition, connections to left-complete trees, AVL trees, and half-balanced trees are highlighted. 1 Introduction Red-black trees are an elegant search-tree scheme that guarantees O(log n) worstcase running time of basic dynamic-set operations. Recently, C. Okasaki (1998; 1999) presented an impressively simple functional implementation of red-black trees. In this paper we plunge deeper into the structure of red-black trees by solving an apparently simple problem: given an ascending sequence of elements, construct a red-black tree whic...

We present priority queues that support the operations MakeQueue, FindMin, Insert and Meld in worst case time O(1) and Delete and DeleteMin in worst case time O(log n). They can be implemented on the pointer machine and require linear space. The time bounds are optimal for all implementations where Meld takes worst case time o(n).

We develop a new finger search tree with worst case constant update time in the Pointer Machine (PM) model of computation. This was a major problem in the field of Data Structures and was tantalizingly open for over twenty years, while many attempts by researchers were made to solve it. The result comes as a consequence of the innovative mechanism that guides the rebalancing operations, combined with incremental multiple splitting and fusion techniques over nodes.