A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

Partitioning

To partition an array is to take a random value from the array—which is then called the pivot—and make sure that every number that is less than the pivot ends up to the left of the pivot, and that every number greater than the pivot ends up to the right of the pivot. We accomplish partitioning through a simple algorithm that will be described in the following example.

Let’s say we have the following array:

For consistency’s sake, we’ll always select the rightmost value to be our pivot (although we can technically choose other values). In this case, the number 3 is our pivot. We indicate this by circling it:

We then assign “pointers”—one ...