Anytime Sorting Algorithms (Extended Version)

TL;DR

This paper introduces new anytime sorting algorithms that provide progressively better estimates during execution, using Spearman's footrule to evaluate accuracy, and demonstrates their superior performance through simulations.

Contribution

It presents a general approach to make any sorting algorithm anytime and introduces two novel algorithms, multizip sort and Corsort, with improved performance.

Findings

Multizip sort maintains low global complexity.

Corsort provides intermediate estimates with better accuracy.

Simulations show superior performance over existing methods.

Abstract

This paper addresses the anytime sorting problem, aiming to develop algorithms providing tentative estimates of the sorted list at each execution step. Comparisons are treated as steps, and the Spearman's footrule metric evaluates estimation accuracy. We propose a general approach for making any sorting algorithm anytime and introduce two new algorithms: multizip sort and Corsort. Simulations showcase the superior performance of both algorithms compared to existing methods. Multizip sort keeps a low global complexity, while Corsort produces intermediate estimates surpassing previous algorithms.