I am taking an algorithms course online through Coursera, and the first lecture discussed sorting algorithms and after some fighting with the merge code I was able to implement an iterative sorting algorithm (bubble sort) and a recursive sorting algorithm (merge sort). The purpose of the lecture was to build an appreciation for the variety of solutions possible to even a very simple problem like sorting as well as illustrate the variability in the efficiency of these solutions. Needless to say I was happy to see that my merge.sort function really was vastly faster than my bubble sort function. Below is the result of sorting 1000 six digit integers 10 times with each function.
x<-sample size="1000)<o:p">
system.time(replicate(10, bubble.sort(x)))
user system elapsed
38.633 0.065
38.856
system.time(replicate(10, merge.sort(x)))
user system elapsed
0.374 0.001 0.375
cheers
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