Comparison Based vs Non Comparison Based Sorting in DSA Go - Build Both Approaches

Comparison Based vs Non Comparison Based Sorting

📖 Scenario: You are working with a list of numbers that need to be sorted. Sometimes, sorting is done by comparing numbers directly. Other times, sorting can be done without comparing numbers, using their properties like digits.

🎯 Goal: You will create a Go program that first sorts a list of numbers using a comparison-based method (Bubble Sort), then sorts the same list using a non-comparison-based method (Counting Sort). You will see how both methods work and their results.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a slice of integers with exact values

Create a variable for the maximum value in the slice

Implement Bubble Sort to sort the slice using comparisons

Implement Counting Sort to sort the slice without direct comparisons

Print the sorted slices after each sorting method

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Sorting is used everywhere: organizing data, searching faster, and making decisions. Knowing different sorting methods helps choose the best one for the task.

💼 Career

Software developers often need to sort data efficiently. Understanding comparison and non-comparison sorting helps in optimizing programs and solving problems faster.

1

Create the initial slice of integers

Create a slice called numbers with these exact integers: 4, 2, 7, 3, 8, 5, 1

DSA Go

# Create the slice called numbers with the given integers
# Your code here

Hint

Use numbers := []int{4, 2, 7, 3, 8, 5, 1} to create the slice.

2

Create a variable for the maximum value

Create a variable called maxVal and set it to 8, which is the maximum value in numbers

DSA Go

package main

func main() {
    numbers := []int{4, 2, 7, 3, 8, 5, 1}
    // Create maxVal variable and set it to 8
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use maxVal := 8 to store the maximum value.

3

Implement Bubble Sort (Comparison Based Sorting)

Write a nested for loop to perform Bubble Sort on numbers. Use variables i and j for loops. Swap elements if numbers[j] > numbers[j+1].

DSA Go

package main

func main() {
    numbers := []int{4, 2, 7, 3, 8, 5, 1}
    maxVal := 8

    // Implement Bubble Sort below
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use two loops with i and j. Swap adjacent elements if the left one is bigger.

4

Implement Counting Sort (Non Comparison Based Sorting) and print results

Create a slice called count of size maxVal + 1 initialized with zeros. Count occurrences of each number in numbers. Then overwrite numbers with sorted values using count. Finally, print numbers after Bubble Sort and after Counting Sort.

DSA Go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    numbers := []int{4, 2, 7, 3, 8, 5, 1}
    maxVal := 8

    for i := 0; i  numbers[j+1] {
                numbers[j], numbers[j+1] = numbers[j+1], numbers[j]
            }
        }
    }

    // Implement Counting Sort below and print results
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use a count slice to store counts. Then rebuild numbers in order. Use fmt.Println to print results.