ShellSort is mainly a variation of Insertion Sort. In insertion sort, we move elements only one position ahead. When an element has to be moved far ahead, many movements are involved. The idea of shellSort is to allow exchange of far items. In shellSort, we make the array h-sorted for a large value of h. We keep reducing the value of h until it becomes 1. An array is said to be h-sorted if all sublists of every h’th element is sorted.
Following is the implementation of ShellSort.
C++
// C++ implementation of Shell Sort #include <iostream> using namespace std; /* function to sort arr using shellSort */int shellSort(int arr[], int n) { // Start with a big gap, then reduce the gap for (int gap = n/2; gap > 0; gap /= 2) { // Do a gapped insertion sort for this gap size. // The first gap elements a[0..gap-1] are already in gapped order // keep adding one more element until the entire array is // gap sorted for (int i = gap; i < n; i += 1) { // add a[i] to the elements that have been gap sorted // save a[i] in temp and make a hole at position i int temp = arr[i]; // shift earlier gap-sorted elements up until the correct // location for a[i] is found int j; for (j = i; j >= gap && arr[j - gap] > temp; j -= gap) arr[j] = arr[j - gap]; // put temp (the original a[i]) in its correct location arr[j] = temp; } } return 0; } void printArray(int arr[], int n) { for (int i=0; i<n; i++) cout << arr[i] << " "; } int main() { int arr[] = {12, 34, 54, 2, 3}, i; int n = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]); cout << "Array before sorting: \n"; printArray(arr, n); shellSort(arr, n); cout << "\nArray after sorting: \n"; printArray(arr, n); return 0; } |
Java
// Java implementation of ShellSort class ShellSort { /* An utility function to print array of size n*/ static void printArray(int arr[]) { int n = arr.length; for (int i=0; i<n; ++i) System.out.print(arr[i] + " "); System.out.println(); } /* function to sort arr using shellSort */ int sort(int arr[]) { int n = arr.length; // Start with a big gap, then reduce the gap for (int gap = n/2; gap > 0; gap /= 2) { // Do a gapped insertion sort for this gap size. // The first gap elements a[0..gap-1] are already // in gapped order keep adding one more element // until the entire array is gap sorted for (int i = gap; i < n; i += 1) { // add a[i] to the elements that have been gap // sorted save a[i] in temp and make a hole at // position i int temp = arr[i]; // shift earlier gap-sorted elements up until // the correct location for a[i] is found int j; for (j = i; j >= gap && arr[j - gap] > temp; j -= gap) arr[j] = arr[j - gap]; // put temp (the original a[i]) in its correct // location arr[j] = temp; } } return 0; } // Driver method public static void main(String args[]) { int arr[] = {12, 34, 54, 2, 3}; System.out.println("Array before sorting"); printArray(arr); ShellSort ob = new ShellSort(); ob.sort(arr); System.out.println("Array after sorting"); printArray(arr); } } /*This code is contributed by Rajat Mishra */ |
Python3
# Python3 program for implementation of Shell Sort def shellSort(arr): # Start with a big gap, then reduce the gap n = len(arr) gap = n//2 # Do a gapped insertion sort for this gap size. # The first gap elements a[0..gap-1] are already in gapped # order keep adding one more element until the entire array # is gap sorted while gap > 0: for i in range(gap,n): # add a[i] to the elements that have been gap sorted # save a[i] in temp and make a hole at position i temp = arr[i] # shift earlier gap-sorted elements up until the correct # location for a[i] is found j = i while j >= gap and arr[j-gap] >temp: arr[j] = arr[j-gap] j -= gap # put temp (the original a[i]) in its correct location arr[j] = temp gap //= 2 # Driver code to test above arr = [ 12, 34, 54, 2, 3] n = len(arr) print ("Array before sorting:") for i in range(n): print(arr[i]), shellSort(arr) print ("\nArray after sorting:") for i in range(n): print(arr[i]), # This code is contributed by Mohit Kumra |
C#
// C# implementation of ShellSort using System; class ShellSort { /* An utility function to print array of size n*/ static void printArray(int []arr) { int n = arr.Length; for (int i=0; i<n; ++i) Console.Write(arr[i] + " "); Console.WriteLine(); } /* function to sort arr using shellSort */ int sort(int []arr) { int n = arr.Length; // Start with a big gap, // then reduce the gap for (int gap = n/2; gap > 0; gap /= 2) { // Do a gapped insertion sort for this gap size. // The first gap elements a[0..gap-1] are already // in gapped order keep adding one more element // until the entire array is gap sorted for (int i = gap; i < n; i += 1) { // add a[i] to the elements that have // been gap sorted save a[i] in temp and // make a hole at position i int temp = arr[i]; // shift earlier gap-sorted elements up until // the correct location for a[i] is found int j; for (j = i; j >= gap && arr[j - gap] > temp; j -= gap) arr[j] = arr[j - gap]; // put temp (the original a[i]) // in its correct location arr[j] = temp; } } return 0; } // Driver method public static void Main() { int []arr = {12, 34, 54, 2, 3}; Console.Write("Array before sorting :\n"); printArray(arr); ShellSort ob = new ShellSort(); ob.sort(arr); Console.Write("Array after sorting :\n"); printArray(arr); } } // This code is contributed by nitin mittal. |
Output:
Array before sorting: 12 34 54 2 3 Array after sorting: 2 3 12 34 54
Time Complexity: Time complexity of above implementation of shellsort is O(n2). In the above implementation gap is reduce by half in every iteration. There are many other ways to reduce gap which lead to better time complexity. See this for more details.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGhazjsFW28
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellsort
Quiz on Shell Sort
Other Sorting Algorithms on GeeksforGeeks/GeeksQuiz:
- Selection Sort
- Bubble Sort
- Insertion Sort
- Merge Sort
- Heap Sort
- QuickSort
- Radix Sort
- Counting Sort
- Bucket Sort
- C++ Program for ShellSort
- Java Program for ShellSort
- Count pairs (i, j) from given array such that i < j and arr[i] > K * arr[j]
- Lexicographically largest string possible by reversing substrings having even number of 1s
- Selection Sort VS Bubble Sort
- Count maximum possible pairs from an array having sum K
- Print all array elements appearing more than N / K times
- Check if all K-length subset sums of first array greater than that of the second array
- K-th Smallest Element in an Unsorted Array using Priority Queue
- Sort M elements of given circular array starting from index K
- Count rotations required to sort given array in non-increasing order
- Largest element in the longest Subarray consisting of only Even or only Odd numbers
- Check if a string consists of two K-length non-overlapping substrings as anagrams
- Maximize count of persons receiving a chocolate
Coding practice for sorting.
Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above
Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the important DSA concepts with the DSA Self Paced Course at a student-friendly price and become industry ready.

Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.






