Merge sort algorithms

Merge sort algorithms

1. Pros and Cons

   • Cons
     • less efficient on short or sorted lists as it splits it down to the lowest list and does the whole process
     • it uses memory to store the new lists as new ones are created
   • pros
     • more efficient on larger lists than other search algorithms
     • has a consistent running time regardless of how the items are ordered

2. method

   • 1. split the list in half to two smaller lists
   • 2. keep splitting to smaller lists until all lists contain only one value
   • 3. merge the sub pairs and sort them doubling the list size until there is only one list