HEAPSORT

WHY STUDY HEAPSORT?

It is a well-known, traditional sorting

algorithm you will be expected to know
Heapsort is always O(n log n)
Quicksort is usually O(n log n) but in the worst
case slows to O(n2)
Quicksort is generally faster, but Heapsort is
better in time-critical applications
Heapsort is a really cool algorithm!
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WHAT IS A “HEAP”?
Definitions of heap:
1. A large area of memory from which the
programmer can allocate blocks as needed, and
deallocate them (or allow them to be garbage
collected) when no longer needed
2. A balanced, left-justified binary tree in which no
node has a value greater than the value in its
parent
These two definitions have little in common
Heapsort uses the second definition
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 BALANCED
Recall:
BINARY TREES
 The depth of a node is its distance from the root
 The depth of a tree is the depth of the deepest node

A binary tree of depth n is balanced if all the nodes at depths 0 through n-2
have two children

n-2
n-1
n
Balanced Balanced Not balanced

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SIFTUP
Given a node that does not have the heap property, you can
give it the heap property by exchanging its value with the
value of the larger child

12 14

8 14 8 12
Blue node does not have Blue node has heap
heap property property

This is sometimes called sifting up

Notice that the child may have lost the heap property
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CONSTRUCTING A HEAP I
A tree consisting of a single node is automatically a heap
We construct a heap by adding nodes one at a time:
 Add the node just to the right of the rightmost node in the deepest level
 If the deepest level is full, start a new level

Examples:

Add a new Add a new

node here node here

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CONSTRUCTING A HEAP II
Each time we add a node, we may destroy the heap property of its
parent node
To fix this, we sift up
But each time we sift up, the value of the topmost node in the sift may
increase, and this may destroy the heap property of its parent node
We repeat the sifting up process, moving up in the tree, until either
 We reach nodes whose values don’t need to be swapped (because the parent is still
larger than both children), or
 We reach the root

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 CONSTRUCTING A HEAP III
8 8 10 10

10 8 8 5

1 2 3

10 10 12

8 5 12 5 10 5

12 8 8
4

8
 OTHER CHILDREN ARE NOT AFFECTED
12 12 14

10 5 14 5 12 5

8 14 8 10 8 10

The node containing 8 is not affected because its parent gets larger, not smaller

The node containing 5 is not affected because its parent gets larger, not smaller
The node containing 8 is still not affected because, although its parent got
smaller, its parent is still greater than it was originally

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A SAMPLE HEAP
Here’s a sample binary tree after it has been heapified

25

22 17

19 22 14 15

18 14 21 3 9 11

Notice that heapified does not mean sorted

Heapifying does not change the shape of the binary tree; this
binary tree is balanced and left-justified because it started
out that way
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REMOVING THE ROOT (ANIMATED)
Notice that the largest number is now in the root
Suppose we discard the root:
11

22 17

19 22 14 15

18 14 21 3 9 11

How can we fix the binary tree so it is once again balanced

and left-justified?
Solution: remove the rightmost leaf at the deepest level and
use it for the new root
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THE REHEAP
Our tree METHOD I
is balanced and left-justified, but no longer a heap
However, only the root lacks the heap property
11

22 17

19 22 14 15

18 14 21 3 9

We can siftUp() the root

After doing this, one and only one of its children may have lost
the heap property
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THE REHEAP
Now the METHOD II
left child of the root (still the number 11) lacks the
heap property
22

11 17

19 22 14 15

18 14 21 3 9

We can siftUp() this node

After doing this, one and only one of its children may have lost
the heap property
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THE REHEAP
Now the METHOD III
right child of the left child of the root (still the number
11) lacks the heap property:

22

22 17

19 11 14 15

18 14 21 3 9

We can siftUp() this node

After doing this, one and only one of its children may have lost
the heap property —but it doesn’t, because it’s a leaf
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THE REHEAP
Our tree METHOD IV
is once again a heap, because every node in it has
the heap property
22

22 17

19 21 14 15

18 14 11 3 9

Once again, the largest (or a largest) value is in the root

We can repeat this process until the tree becomes empty
This produces a sequence of values in order largest to smallest
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 SORTING
What do heaps have to do with sorting an array?
Here’s the neat part:
 Because the binary tree is balanced and left justified, it can be represented as an array
 Danger Will Robinson: This representation works well only with balanced, left-justified binary trees
 All our operations on binary trees can be represented as operations on arrays
 To sort:
heapify the array;
while the array isn’t empty {
remove and replace the root;
reheap the new root node;
}

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MAPPING INTO AN ARRAY
25

22 17

19 22 14 15

18 14 21 3 9 11

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
25 22 17 19 22 14 15 18 14 21 3 9 11
Notice:
 The left child of index i is at index 2*i+1
 The right child of index i is at index 2*i+2
 Example: the children of node 3 (19) are 7 (18) and 8 (14)

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REMOVING AND REPLACING THE
The “root” is the first element in the array
ROOT
The “rightmost node at the deepest level” is the last element
Swap them...
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
25 22 17 19 22 14 15 18 14 21 3 9 11

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
11 22 17 19 22 14 15 18 14 21 3 9 25
...And pretend that the last element in the array no longer exists—
that is, the “last index” is 11 (containing the value 9)

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REHEAP AND REPEAT
Reheap the root node (index 0, containing 11)...
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
11 22 17 19 22 14 15 18 14 21 3 9 25

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
22 22 17 19 21 14 15 18 14 11 3 9 25

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
9 22 17 19 22 14 15 18 14 21 3 22 25

◼ ...And again, remove and replace the root node

Remember, though, that the “last” array index is changed

Repeat until the last becomes first, and the array is sorted! 19
ANALYSIS I
Here’s how the algorithm starts:
heapify the array;

Heapifying the array: we add each of n nodes

 Each node has to be sifted up, possibly as far as the root
 Since the binary tree is perfectly balanced, sifting up a single node takes O(log n) time
 Since we do this n times, heapifying takes n*O(log n) time, that is, O(n log n)
time

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