Data Structures - Divide and
Conquer
Bhabani Shankar Pradhan
To understand the divide and conquer design strategy of algorithms, let us use a
simple real world example. Consider an instance where we need to brush a type C
curly hair and remove all the knots from it. To do that, the first step is to section the
hair in smaller strands to make the combing easier than combing the hair altogether.
The same technique is applied on algorithms.
Divide and conquer approach breaks down a problem into multiple sub-problems
recursively until it cannot be divided further. These sub-problems are solved first and
the solutions are merged together to form the final solution.
The common procedure for the divide and conquer design technique is as follows −
Divide − We divide the original problem into multiple sub-problems until they
cannot be divided further.
Conquer − Then these subproblems are solved separately with the help of
recursion
Combine − Once solved, all the subproblems are merged/combined together
to form the final solution of the original problem.
There are several ways to give input to the divide and conquer algorithm design
pattern. Two major data structures used are − arrays and linked lists. Their usage
is explained as
Arrays as Input
There are various ways in which various algorithms can take input such that they can
be solved using the divide and conquer technique. Arrays are one of them. In
algorithms that require input to be in the form of a list, like various sorting algorithms,
array data structures are most commonly used.
In the input for a sorting algorithm below, the array input is divided into subproblems
until they cannot be divided further.
Then, the subproblems are sorted (the conquer step) and are merged to form the
solution of the original array back (the combine step).
Since arrays are indexed and linear data structures, sorting algorithms most
popularly use array data structures to receive input.
Linked Lists as Input
Another data structure that can be used to take input for divide and conquer
algorithms is a linked list (for example, merge sort using linked lists). Like arrays,
linked lists are also linear data structures that store data sequentially.
Consider the merge sort algorithm on linked list; following the very popular tortoise
and hare algorithm, the list is divided until it cannot be divided further.
Then, the nodes in the list are sorted (conquered). These nodes are then combined
(or merged) in recursively until the final solution is achieved.
Various searching algorithms can also be performed on the linked list data structures
with a slightly different technique as linked lists are not indexed linear data
structures. They must be handled using the pointers available in the nodes of the list.
Examples
The following computer algorithms are based on divide-and-conquer programming
approach −
Merge Sort
Quick Sort
Binary Search
Strassen's Matrix Multiplication
Closest Pair
There are various ways available to solve any computer problem, but the mentioned
are a good example of divide and conquer approach.
