Who Knew? Better Code for Selection Sort

I have been using inferior code for the Selection Sort since 1979. Last night I found the more efficient pseudo code:

Data Structure and Algorithms Selection Sort – Tutorialspoint

Here is my old code for the Selection Sort in C#:

Old Code for the Algorithm

And my new code from the more efficient pseudo code found online:

New and Better Code
Common Swap Function (Procedure)

Both implementations require n * (n – 1) / 2 comparisons which for an array of length 15 is 15 * 14 /2 = 15 * 7 = 105. The second implementation requires typically fewer calls to the swap function.

Selection Sort Test 15-Element Random Array
Selection Sort Test 15-Element Reverse Ordered Array
Selection Sort Test 15-Element Sorted Array

The first number after the unsorted array is the number of comparisons which is always 105 in our 15-element test cases. The second number is the tally of the swap function calls.

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Author: jamespatewilliamsjr

My whole legal name is James Pate Williams, Jr. I was born in LaGrange, Georgia approximately 70 years ago. I barely graduated from LaGrange High School with low marks in June 1971. Later in June 1979, I graduated from LaGrange College with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry with a little over a 3 out 4 Grade Point Average (GPA). In the Spring Quarter of 1978, I taught myself how to program a Texas Instruments desktop programmable calculator and in the Summer Quarter of 1978 I taught myself Dayton BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) on LaGrange College's Data General Eclipse minicomputer. I took courses in BASIC in the Fall Quarter of 1978 and FORTRAN IV (Formula Translator IV) in the Winter Quarter of 1979. Professor Kenneth Cooper, a genius poly-scientist taught me a course in the Intel 8085 microprocessor architecture and assembly and machine language. We would hand assemble our programs and insert the resulting machine code into our crude wooden box computer which was designed and built by Professor Cooper. From 1990 to 1994 I earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from LaGrange College. I had a 4 out of 4 GPA in the period 1990 to 1994. I took courses in C, COBOL, and Pascal during my BS work. After graduating from LaGrange College a second time in May 1994, I taught myself C++. In December 1995, I started using the Internet and taught myself client-server programming. I created a website in 1997 which had C and C# implementations of algorithms from the "Handbook of Applied Cryptography" by Alfred J. Menezes, et. al., and some other cryptography and number theory textbooks and treatises.

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