JavaScript Merge Sort Algorithm Example

What is Merge Sort?

Merge sort is one of the most popular sorting algorithms today and it uses the concept of divide and conquer to sort a list of elements. Meaning, it will divide the bigger problem into smaller problems and then solve each of the small problems in order to solve the bigger problem that we started out with.

Implementation in JavaScript

function merge(left, right, compareFn) {
  let i = 0;
  let j = 0;
  const result = [];
  while (i < left.length && j < right.length) {
    result.push(compareFn(left[i], right[j]) === Compare.LESS_THAN ? left[i++] : right[j++]);
  }
  return result.concat(i < left.length ? left.slice(i) : right.slice(j));
}

function mergeSort(array, compareFn = defaultCompare) {
  if (array.length > 1) {
    const { length } = array;
    const middle = Math.floor(length / 2);
    const left = mergeSort(array.slice(0, middle), compareFn);
    const right = mergeSort(array.slice(middle, length), compareFn);
    array = merge(left, right, compareFn);
  }
  return array;
}

const Compare = {
  LESS_THAN: -1,
  BIGGER_THAN: 1,
  EQUALS: 0
};

function defaultCompare(a, b) {
  if (a === b) {
    return Compare.EQUALS;
  }
  return a < b ? Compare.LESS_THAN : Compare.BIGGER_THAN;
}

let array = [2,1,5,4,3,8,7,6];
array = mergeSort(array);
console.log(array);
Output:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

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