Selection Sort - Code Breakdown
I’m going to give the code first, then we will explain it:
arr = [1, 4, 2, 7, 7, 6] # change this array to the array you want to sort for first_idx in range(len(arr)): min_idx = first_idx for second_idx in range(first_idx + 1, len(arr)): if arr[second_idx] < arr[min_idx]: min_idx = second_idx arr[first_idx], arr[min_idx] = arr[min_idx], arr[first_idx] print(arr)
Line 1 is the sample list.
Line 2 is going to loop through each element in the list and
first_idx is the index that will contain the smallest element after being swapped. This index increases with every iteration.Line 3 is going to store the minimum value (in
min_idx) as we loop through everything starting from first_idx +1 (not starting from first_idx because we know the element at first_idx can’t be smaller than itself).Line 4-6 is going to loop through each element starting from
first_idx +1 and locate the smallest element to be swapped with first_idx. This element’s index will be put in min_idx.Line 7 is going to use the tuple unpacking to swap the element at
first_idx with the element at min_idx (which contains the minimum element starting from first_idx).Copyright © 2021 Code 4 Tomorrow. All rights reserved.
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