This algorithm was invented by a British computer scientist working in Communist Russia, Tony Hoare, and works by repeatedly partitioning data about the pivot element in a divide-and-conquer approach.
The use of 'sentinels' can increase efficiency in this algorithm by avoiding unnecessary checks for overflow in its inner loop. Another efficiency method is the median-of-three technique which avoids worst cases such as large sets of (**) equal numbers or pre-ordered input. In this way a correct pivot selection avoids the O(n2) [big-oh en-squared] worst case for this algorithm. The (*) insertion method is often substituted at deep recursion levels. This algorithm was invented by a British computer scientist working in Communist Russia, Tony Hoare, and works by repeatedly partitioning data about the pivot element in a divide-and-conquer approach. For 10 points, name this algorithm that runs in average O(n log n) time, to perform a particular task with namesake speed.
The use of 'sentinels' can increase efficiency in this algorithm by avoiding unnecessary checks for overflow in its inner loop.
quicksort