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Quickselect and the Dickman Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2002

HSIEN-KUEI HWANG
Affiliation:
Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan (e-mail: [email protected])
TSUNG-HSI TSAI
Affiliation:
Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan (e-mail: [email protected])

Abstract

We show that the limiting distribution of the number of comparisons used by Hoare's quickselect algorithm when given a random permutation of n elements for finding the mth-smallest element, where m = o(n), is the Dickman function. The limiting distribution of the number of exchanges is also derived.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2002 Cambridge University Press

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