Counting Sort in PHP - php

Question

In a PHP project I have some data I want to sort using a linear time, simple counting sort:
$ar = array(7, 2, 0, 3, 8, 0, 12, 7, 6, 7);
$count = array();
foreach ($ar as $v)
$count[$v]++;
$sorted = array();
foreach ($count as $v => $c)
for ($i = 0; $i < $c; $i++)
$sorted[] = $v;
The problem is that the above obviously doesn't work. The php array works more like a hashmap than an array. The code can be made to work by inserting ksort($count) before the final loop, but ksort runs in O(nlogn) which destroys the entire point.
Is there any way to do a linear time sort in php? Perhaps using some paramter to array(), or some entirely different structure?

Answer 1

You didn't follow the algorithm correctly. This is O(n).
$ar = array(7, 2, 0, 3, 8, 0, 12, 7, 6, 7);
$count = array();
foreach ($ar as $v) {
$count[$v] = isset($count[$v]) ? $count[$v] + 1 : 1;
}
$sorted = array();
$min = min($ar);
$max = max($ar);
for ($i=$min; $i<=$max; $i++) {
if (isset($count[$i])) {
for ($j=0; $j<$count[$i]; $j++) {
$sorted[] = $i;
}
}
}
also, see array_count_values(), or alternatively compute the min and max inside the counting loop.

Answer 2

Approved answer is wrong. Correct:
$ar = array(7, 2, 0, 3, 8, 0, 12, 7, 6, 7);
$count = array();
foreach ($ar as $v) {
$count[$v] = isset($count[$v]) ? $count[$v] + 1 : 1;
}
$sorted = array();
$min = min($ar);
$max = max($ar);
for ($i=$min; $i <= $max; $i++) {
if (isset($count[$i])) {
for ($j=0; $j<$count[$i]; $j++) {
$sorted[] = $i;
}
}
}

Answer 3

If i understand your question AND comment correctly, just using sort($count) would work no?
$ar = array(7, 2, 0, 3, 8, 0, 12, 7, 6, 7);
$sorted = $ar;
sort($sorted);
var_dump($ar);
var_dump($sorted);
Result:
array(7,2,0,3,8,0,12,7,6,7);
array(0,0,2,3,6,7,7,7,8,12);
But i'm wondering what the foreach($ar as $v)$count[$v]++; does... doesn't really make sense...

Answer 4

Adding some comments to the code to show you why this doesn't do what you think it should do.
$ar = array(7, 2, 0, 3, 8, 0, 12, 7, 6, 7);
$count = array();
foreach ($ar as $v) {
// add each number in $ar to $count.
// the first number in $ar is 7, so 7 will be the first number in $count.
// because 7 is in $ar 3 times, $count[7] == 3.
$count[$v]++;
}
// the output of print_r will be very revealing:
print_r($count);
/*Array
(
[7] => 3
[2] => 1
[0] => 2
[3] => 1
[8] => 1
[12] => 1
[6] => 1
)*/
$sorted = array();
foreach ($count as $v => $c) {
// the first entry: $count[7] == 3
// so add 7 to $sorted 3 times.
// the second entry: $count[2] == 1
// so add 2 to $sorted 1 time.
// etc.
for ($i = 0; $i < $c; $i++) {
$sorted[] = $v;
}
}
This simply groups numbers together based on their location in the first array.

Answer 5

To get the sorted $ar in a variable of it's own ($sorted), it's pretty trivial:
$sorted = $ar;
sort($sorted);
Which makes me think that your question and comment is not giving the whole picture.
Edit: Now after you have clarified that you wanted to implement a specific algorithm (and you actually got an answer already that shows some points that were wrong implementing it first), I think it's worth to focus on another aspect of your question:
You're comparing the complexity of two (theoretical) algorithms, but you're leaving aside how the algorithms are implemented.
PHP's sort() - even based on "bad" quicksort, will outrun your own PHP usercode implementation of some other algorithm by numbers.
You just have compared the wrong parameters here. The complexity of a function does not says much when you compare a build-in PHP function with some function in your user-code.

Answer 6

$A = [1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 1, 2, 4, 5, 0, 0]; // example array
$m = max($A);
$count = array_fill(0, $m + 1, '0');
foreach ($A as $value) $count[$value] += 1;
// next step is print the numbers
$a = [];
foreach ($count as $key => $value) {
for ($i = 0; $i < $value;) {
array_push($a, $key);;
$i++;
}
}
var_dump($count); // print the sorted array
var_dump($a); // print the numbers (low to high)