Section 22.6 Bubble Sort

Have you ever needed to sort a pile of papers into alphabetical order? There are many different ways to do so and you yourself may have a preferred method. But could you teach that method to a computer? A sorting algorithm is just that: it is an algorithm that puts elements of a list in a certain order. Most of the time we’ll want to sort data numerically (from smallest to largest or from largest to smallest) or alphabetically. In order to sort small amounts of data efficiency isn’t really all that important, but when lists get long then it is important to pay attention to the efficiency of the algorithms. That’s why there are many different sorting algorithms that have been invented and we’ll just scratch the surface and study some of the simple (and not very efficient) ones.

Most sorting algorithms have names that somewhat refer to how they function. Some of the simple algorithms include the so-called Selection Sort and Insertion Sort, some more efficient algorithms include Quick Sort and Merge Sort. And then there is the Bubble Sort category which is very easy to implement and understand (and not all that efficient). We will learn about Bubble Sort first and then also implement Selection Sort and Insertion Sort in class.

The animation below might help you visualize how bubble sort functions.