Shellsort
Ordenamiento Shell (Shellsort)
- Date
- 1959 · confidence high
- Place
- Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
- Credited to
- Donald L. Shell
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
In his doctoral thesis, Shell proposed a sorting algorithm generalising insertion sort: it first compares and orders widely spaced elements, then progressively narrows that gap until the sequence is fully sorted.
Shell earned his PhD at the University of Cincinnati while working for General Electric; he published the algorithm in July 1959, the same month as his doctorate.
What it led to
- Numerous alternative gap sequences (Hibbard, Sedgewick, etc.)
- Use in embedded systems for its low memory footprint
- Component of hybrid algorithms such as introsort