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Selection Algorithms
One interesting set of algorithms related to finding elements in an unordered list of items is selection algorithms. Given a list of elements, selection algorithms are used to find the kth smallest or largest element from the list. So given a list of data elements and a number (k), the aim is to find the kth smallest or largest element. The simplest case of selection algorithms is to find the minimum or maximum data element from the list. However, sometimes, we may need to find the kth smallest or largest element in the list. The simplest way is to first sort the list using any sorting algorithm, and then we can easily obtain the kth smallest (or largest) element. However, when the list is very large, then it is not efficient ...
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