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Cocktail Shaker Sort O(n²) Stable Comparison

Compares0

Swaps0

Pass0

Elapsed0.0s

Unsorted

Comparing

Swapping

Writing

Pivot

Sorted

Bars 30

Spd 30

🔊

select algorithm and press sort

What’s going on

Each bar is a number; taller bars are bigger numbers. A sorting algorithm is a recipe for putting them in order using only two moves: compare two bars, and swap or move them. The colors show what the algorithm is doing right now: pink bars are being compared, yellow are being swapped, blue written, orange is a pivot, and green are finished.

Every move also plays a note pitched to the bar’s height, so you can hear the difference: bubble sort’s endless ripples, quicksort’s confident splits, merge sort’s tidy rising runs, radix sort’s strange shuffles by digit.

Why so many?

They trade off differently. Some are simple but slow on big lists (bubble, insertion, selection take about n² steps). Some are fast but trickier (merge, quick and heap sort take about n log n). Some don’t compare at all (counting and radix sort). Some keep equal items in their original order (“stable”), which matters for real data. The badges under the menu show each one’s speed and stability.

The 20 algorithms

Bubble, Cocktail shaker, Selection, Insertion, Shell, Merge, Quick, Heap, Counting, Radix (LSD), Comb, Gnome, Cycle, Odd-even, Pancake, Bitonic, Tim, Strand, Bucket and 3-way quicksort. Choose one and press ℹ Info for how it works.

How to use it

Choose an algorithm at the top, then press ▶ Sort.

Data: ⇄ Shuffle mixes a smooth ramp, ⚡ Random makes random heights, ∿ Normal makes a bell curve. You can also bring your own numbers (⚙ → Import data: paste, a CSV link, or a Google Sheet).

⏭ Step pauses and moves one operation at a time.

🌈 Rainbow colors bars by value; ⚙ → Settings has color schemes, instruments, speed and bar count.

🎥 Rec films the sort with sound and titles, saves the video, and hands it to the share dialog.

⚙ → Run Stats keeps a table of every sort you run, so you can compare algorithms on the same data.

Sharing

Press the share button (top right). It makes a link-preview picture of the bars as they are now. Add a title if you like, then post to Facebook, copy the link, or send it another way. The share page’s button reopens the visualizer with the same algorithm, data, colors and instrument.

Videos: press 🎥 Rec and let the sort run (or press it again to stop). The video is saved to your device and also appears in the share dialog, where it can go on your share page or be posted as a Facebook reel.

Credits

The algorithms are classics of computer science. Bitonic sort is Ken Batcher’s (1968), Timsort Tim Peters’ (2002), Shell sort Donald Shell’s (1959); the rest are textbook staples.

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Made by Jason Buchheim for odd.place.

Sort Visualizer

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