Beginning Java Data Structures and Algorithms

Activity: Implementing Selection Sort in Java

Scenario

Selection sort is best understood by imagining that you have two lists, A and B. Initially, we have list A, containing all the unsorted elements, and list B is empty. The idea is to use B to store the sorted elements. The algorithm would work by finding the smallest element from A and moving it to the end of B. We keep on doing this until A is empty and B is full. Instead of using two separate lists, we can just use the same input array, but keeping a pointer to divide the array in two.

In real life, this can be explained by picturing how you would sort a deck of cards. Using a shuffled deck, you can go through the cards one by one until you find the lowest card. You set this aside as ...