Distributional convergence for the number of symbol comparisons used by QuickSelect

When the search algorithm QuickSelect compares keys during its execution in order to find a key of target rank, it must operate on the keys' representations or internal structures, which were ignored by the previous studies that quantified the execution cost for the algorithm in terms of the number of required key comparisons. In this paper, we analyze running costs for the algorithm that take into account not only the number of key comparisons but also the cost of each key comparison. We suppose that keys are represented as sequences of symbols generated by various probabilistic sources and that QuickSelect operates on individual symbols in order to find the target key. We identify limiting distributions for the costs and derive integral and series expressions for the expectations of the limiting distributions. These expressions are used to recapture previously obtained results on the number of key comparisons required by the algorithm.Comment: The first paragraph in the proof of Theorem 3.1 has been corrected in this revision, and references have been update

Sesquickselect: One and a half pivots for cache-efficient selection

Because of unmatched improvements in CPU performance, memory transfers have become a bottleneck of program execution. As discovered in recent years, this also affects sorting in internal memory. Since partitioning around several pivots reduces overall memory transfers, we have seen renewed interest in multiway Quicksort. Here, we analyze in how far multiway partitioning helps in Quickselect. We compute the expected number of comparisons and scanned elements (approximating memory transfers) for a generic class of (non-adaptive) multiway Quickselect and show that three or more pivots are not helpful, but two pivots are. Moreover, we consider "adaptive" variants which choose partitioning and pivot-selection methods in each recursive step from a finite set of alternatives depending on the current (relative) sought rank. We show that "Sesquickselect", a new Quickselect variant that uses either one or two pivots, makes better use of small samples w.r.t. memory transfers than other Quickselect variants

On a functional contraction method

In den letzten zwanzig Jahren hat sich die Kontraktionsmethode als ein wesentlicher Zugang zu Problemen der Konvergenz in Verteilung von Folgen von Zufallsvariablen, die additiven Rekurrenzen genügen, herausgestellt. Dabei beschränkten sich ihre Anwendungen zunächst auf reellwertige Zufallsvariablen, in den letzten Jahren wurde die Methode allerdings auch für komplexere Wertebereiche, wie etwa Hilberträume entwickelt. Basierend auf der Klasse der Zolotarev-Metriken, die in den siebziger Jahren eingeführt wurden, entwickeln wir die Methode im Rahmen von Banachräumen und präzisieren sie in den Fällen von stetigen resp. cadlag Funktionen auf dem Einheitsintervall. Wir formulieren ausreichende Bedingungen an die unter Betrachtung stehende Folge und deren möglichen Grenzwert, welcher eine stochastische Fixpunktgleichung erfüllt, die es erlauben, in Anwendungen funktionale Grenzwertsätze zu beweisen. Im Weiteren präsentieren wir als Anwendung zunächst einen neuen Beweis vom klassischen Invarianzprinzip nach Donsker, der auf additiven Rekursionen beruht. Außerdem wenden wir die Methode zur Analyse der Komplexität von partiellen Suchproblemen in zweidimensionalen Quadrantenbäumen und 2-d Bäumen an. Diese grundlegenden Datenstrukturen werden seit ihrer Einführung in den siebziger Jahren viel studiert. Unsere Ergebnisse liefern Antworten auf Fragen, die seit den Pionierarbeiten von Flajolet et al. in den achtziger und neunziger Jahren auf diesem Gebiet unbeantwortet blieben. Wir erwarten, dass die von uns entwickelte funktionale Kontraktionsmethode in den nächsten Jahren zur Lösung weiterer Fragen des asymptotischen Verhaltens von Zufallsgrößen, die additive Rekursionen erfüllen, beitragen wird.Within the last twenty years, the contraction method has turned out to be a fruitful approach to distributional convergence of sequences of random variables which obey additive recurrences. It was mainly invented for applications in the real-valued framework; however, in recent years, more complex state spaces such as Hilbert spaces have been under consideration. Based upon the family of Zolotarev metrics which were introduced in the late seventies, we develop the method in the context of Banach spaces and work it out in detail in the case of continuous resp. cadlag functions on the unit interval. We formulate sufficient conditions for both the sequence under consideration and its possible limit which satisfies a stochastic fixed-point equation, that allow to deduce functional limit theorems in applications. As a first application we present a new and considerably short proof of the classical invariance principle due to Donsker. It is based on a recursive decomposition. Moreover, we apply the method in the analysis of the complexity of partial match queries in two-dimensional search trees such as quadtrees and 2-d trees. These important data structures have been under heavy investigation since their invention in the seventies. Our results give answers to problems that have been left open in the pioneering work of Flajolet et al. in the eighties and nineties. We expect that the functional contraction method will significantly contribute to solutions for similar problems involving additive recursions in the following years

Exponential bounds for the running time of a selection algorithm

Hoare’s selection algorithm for finding the &h-largest element in a set of n elements is shown to use C comparisons where (i) E(P) < A,n ” for some constant A,> 0 and all p> 1; (ii) P(C/n) u) < (i)“(‘+“(‘) ’ asu-m. Exact values for the “A p ” and “o ( 1) ” terms are given. 1