Java Array sort: Quick way to get a sorted list of indices of an array

Question

The problem: Consider the following floats[]:

d[i] =     1.7 -0.3  2.1  0.5

What I want is an array of int[] that represents the order of the original array with indices.

s[i] =       1    3    0    2
d[s[i]] = -0.3  0.5  1.7  2.1

Of course it could be done with a custom comparator, a sorted set of custom objects, or by simply sorting the array and then searching for the indices in the original array (shudder).

What I am in fact looking for is the equivalent for the second return argument of Matlab's sort function.

Is there an easy way to do that (<5 LOC)? May there be a solution that does not need to allocate a new object for each element?

---

Update:

Thanks for your responses. Unfortunately, none of what has been proposed so far resembles the simple and efficient solution I was hoping for. I therefore openened a thread in the JDK feedback forum, proposing the addition of a new class-library function to address the issue. Lets see what Sun/Oracle thinks about the issue.

http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=62657&tstart=0

Answer 1

I would tailor the quicksort algorithm to perform the exchange operation on multiple arrays at the same time: the index array and the value array. For example (based on this quicksort):

public static void quicksort(float[] main, int[] index) {
    quicksort(main, index, 0, index.length - 1);
}

// quicksort a[left] to a[right]
public static void quicksort(float[] a, int[] index, int left, int right) {
    if (right <= left) return;
    int i = partition(a, index, left, right);
    quicksort(a, index, left, i-1);
    quicksort(a, index, i+1, right);
}

// partition a[left] to a[right], assumes left < right
private static int partition(float[] a, int[] index, 
int left, int right) {
    int i = left - 1;
    int j = right;
    while (true) {
        while (less(a[++i], a[right]))      // find item on left to swap
            ;                               // a[right] acts as sentinel
        while (less(a[right], a[--j]))      // find item on right to swap
            if (j == left) break;           // don't go out-of-bounds
        if (i >= j) break;                  // check if pointers cross
        exch(a, index, i, j);               // swap two elements into place
    }
    exch(a, index, i, right);               // swap with partition element
    return i;
}

// is x < y ?
private static boolean less(float x, float y) {
    return (x < y);
}

// exchange a[i] and a[j]
private static void exch(float[] a, int[] index, int i, int j) {
    float swap = a[i];
    a[i] = a[j];
    a[j] = swap;
    int b = index[i];
    index[i] = index[j];
    index[j] = b;
}

Answer 2

Simple solution to create an indexer array: sort the indexer comparing the data values:

final Integer[] idx = { 0, 1, 2, 3 };
final float[] data = { 1.7f, -0.3f,  2.1f,  0.5f };

Arrays.sort(idx, new Comparator<Integer>() {
    @Override public int compare(final Integer o1, final Integer o2) {
        return Float.compare(data[o1], data[o2]);
    }
});

Answer 3

Create a TreeMap of values to indices

    float[] array = new float[]{};
    Map<Float, Integer> map = new TreeMap<Float, Integer>();
    for (int i = 0; i < array.length; ++i) {
        map.put(array[i], i);
    }
    Collection<Integer> indices = map.values();

indices will be the sorted by the floats they point to, the original array is untouched. Converting the Collection<Integer> to a int[] is left as an exercise if it's really necessary.

EDIT: As noted in the comments, this approach does not work if there are duplicate values in the float array. This can be addressed by making the Map<Float, Integer> into a Map<Float, List<Integer>> though this will complicate the inside of the for loop and the generation of the final collection slightly.

Answer 4

Using Java 8 features ( without extra library) , concise way of achieving it.

int[] a = {1,6,2,7,8}
int[] sortedIndices = IntStream.range(0, a.length)
                .boxed().sorted((i, j) -> a[i] - a[j])
                .mapToInt(ele -> ele).toArray();

Answer 5

With Functional Java:

import static fj.data.Array.array;
import static fj.pre.Ord.*;
import fj.P2;

array(d).toStream().zipIndex().sort(p2Ord(doubleOrd, intOrd))
  .map(P2.<Double, Integer>__2()).toArray();

Answer 6

The more general case of Jherico's answer that allows duplicate values would be this:

// Assuming you've got: float[] array; defined already

TreeMap<Float, List<Integer>> map = new TreeMap<Float, List<Integer>>();
for(int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
    List<Integer> ind = map.get(array[i]);
    if(ind == null){
        ind = new ArrayList<Integer>();
        map.put(array[i], ind);
    }
    ind.add(i);
}

// Now flatten the list
List<Integer> indices = new ArrayList<Integer>();
for(List<Integer> arr : map.values()) {
    indices.addAll(arr);
}

Answer 7

The best solution would be along the lines of C's qsort, which allows you to specify functions for compare and swap, so qsort needn't be aware of the type or organization of the data being sorted. Here is one you can try. Since Java doesn't have functions, use the Array inner class to wrap the array or collection to be sorted. Then wrap that in an IndexArray and sort. The result of getIndex() on the IndexArray will be an array of indices as described in the JavaDoc.

public class QuickSortArray {

public interface Array {
    int cmp(int aindex, int bindex);
    void swap(int aindex, int bindex);
    int length();
}

public static void quicksort(Array a) {
    quicksort(a, 0, a.length() - 1);
}

public static void quicksort(Array a, int left, int right) {
    if (right <= left) return;
    int i = partition(a, left, right);
    quicksort(a, left, i-1);
    quicksort(a, i+1, right);
}

public static boolean isSorted(Array a) {
    for (int i = 1, n = a.length(); i < n; i++) {
        if (a.cmp(i-1, i) > 0)
            return false;
    }
    return true;
}

private static int mid(Array a, int left, int right) {
    // "sort" three elements and take the middle one
    int i = left;
    int j = (left + right) / 2;
    int k = right;
    // order the first two
    int cmp = a.cmp(i, j);
    if (cmp > 0) {
        int tmp = j;
        j = i;
        i = tmp;
    }
    // bubble the third down
    cmp = a.cmp(j, k);
    if (cmp > 0) {
        cmp = a.cmp(i, k);
        if (cmp > 0)
            return i;
        return k;
    }
    return j;
}

private static int partition(Array a, int left, int right) {
    int mid = mid(a, left, right);
    a.swap(right, mid);
    int i = left - 1;
    int j = right;

    while (true) {
        while (a.cmp(++i, right) < 0)
            ;
        while (a.cmp(right, --j) < 0)
            if (j == left) break;
        if (i >= j) break;
        a.swap(i, j);
    }
    a.swap(i, right);
    return i;
}

public static class IndexArray implements Array {
    int[] index;
    Array a;

    public IndexArray(Array a) {
        this.a = a;
        index = new int[a.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < a.length(); i++)
            index[i] = i;
    }

    /**
     * Return the index after the IndexArray is sorted.
     * The nested Array is unsorted. Assume the name of
     * its underlying array is a. The returned index array
     * is such that a[index[i-1]] <= a[index[i]] for all i
     * in 1..a.length-1.
     */
    public int[] index() {
        int i = 0;
        int j = index.length - 1;
        while (i < j) {
            int tmp = index[i];
            index[i++] = index[j];
            index[j--] = tmp;
        }
        int[] tmp = index;
        index = null;
        return tmp;
    }

    @Override
    public int cmp(int aindex, int bindex) {
        return a.cmp(index[aindex], index[bindex]);
    }

    @Override
    public void swap(int aindex, int bindex) {
        int tmp = index[aindex];
        index[aindex] = index[bindex];
        index[bindex] = tmp;
    }

    @Override
    public int length() {
        return a.length();
    }

}

Answer 8

public static int[] indexSort(final double[] v, boolean keepUnsorted) {
    final Integer[] II = new Integer[v.length];
    for (int i = 0; i < v.length; i++) II[i] = i;
    Arrays.sort(II, new Comparator<Integer>() {
        @Override
        public int compare(Integer o1, Integer o2) {
            return Double.compare(v[o1],v[o2]);
        }
    });
    int[] ii = new int[v.length];
    for (int i = 0; i < v.length; i++) ii[i] = II[i];
    if (!keepUnsorted) {
        double[] clon = v.clone();
        for (int i = 0; i < v.length; i++) v[i] = clon[II[i]];
    }
    return ii;
}

Answer 9

Convert the input to a pair class like the one below and then sort this using Arrays.sort(). Arrays.sort() ensures that original order is preserved for equal values like Matlab does. You then need to convert the sorted result back to the separate arrays.

class SortPair implements Comparable<SortPair>
{
  private int originalIndex;
  private double value;

  public SortPair(double value, int originalIndex)
  {
    this.value = value;
    this.originalIndex = originalIndex;
  }

  @Override public int compareTo(SortPair o)
  {
    return Double.compare(value, o.getValue());
  }

  public int getOriginalIndex()
  {
    return originalIndex;
  }

  public double getValue()
  {
    return value;
  }

}

Answer 10

Another non-simple solution. Here's a merge sort version which is stable and doesn't modify the source array, though the merge requires extra memory.

public static int[] sortedIndices(double[] x) {
    int[] ix = new int[x.length];
    int[] scratch = new int[x.length];
    for (int i = 0; i < ix.length; i++) {
        ix[i] = i;
    }
    mergeSortIndexed(x, ix, scratch, 0, x.length - 1);
    return ix;
}

private static void mergeSortIndexed(double[] x, int[] ix, int[] scratch, int lo, int hi) {
    if (lo == hi)
        return;
    int mid = (lo + hi + 1) / 2;
    mergeSortIndexed(x, ix, scratch, lo, mid - 1);
    mergeSortIndexed(x, ix, scratch, mid, hi);
    mergeIndexed(x, ix, scratch, lo, mid - 1, mid, hi);
}

private static void mergeIndexed(double[] x, int[] ix, int[] scratch, int lo1, int hi1, int lo2, int hi2) {
    int i = 0;
    int i1 = lo1;
    int i2 = lo2;
    int n1 = hi1 - lo1 + 1;
    while (i1 <= hi1 && i2 <= hi2) {
        if (x[ix[i1]] <= x[ix[i2]])
            scratch[i++] = ix[i1++];
        else
            scratch[i++] = ix[i2++];
    }
    while (i1 <= hi1)
        scratch[i++] = ix[i1++];
    while (i2 <= hi2)
        scratch[i++] = ix[i2++];
    for (int j = lo1; j <= hi1; j++)
        ix[j] = scratch[j - lo1];
    for (int j = lo2; j <= hi2; j++)
        ix[j] = scratch[(j - lo2 + n1)];
}

Answer 11

//Here index array(of length equal to length of d array) contains the numbers from 0 to length of d array   
      public static Integer [] SortWithIndex(float[] data, Integer [] index)
    {
    int len = data.length;
    float temp1[] = new float[len];
    int temp2[] = new int[len];



         for (int i = 0; i <len; i++) {


                for (int j = i + 1; j < len; j++) {


                  if(data[i]>data[j])
                  {
                    temp1[i] = data[i];
                    data[i] = data[j];
                    data[j] = temp1[i];



                    temp2[i] = index[i];
                    index[i] = index[j];
                    index[j] = temp2[i];

                    }
                  }

        }

        return index;

    }

Answer 12

I would do something like this:

public class SortedArray<T extends Comparable<T>> {
    private final T[] tArray;
    private final ArrayList<Entry> entries;

    public class Entry implements Comparable<Entry> {
        public int index;

        public Entry(int index) {
            super();
            this.index = index;
        }

        @Override
        public int compareTo(Entry o) {
            return tArray[index].compareTo(tArray[o.index]);
        }
    }

    public SortedArray(T[] array) {
        tArray = array;
        entries = new ArrayList<Entry>(array.length);
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            entries.add(new Entry(i));
        }
        Collections.sort(entries);
    }

    public T getSorted(int i) {
        return tArray[entries.get(i).index];

    }

    public T get(int i) {
        return tArray[i];
    }
}

Answer 13

Below is a method based on Insertion Sort

public static int[] insertionSort(float[] arr){
    int[] indices = new int[arr.length];
        indices[0] = 0;
        for(int i=1;i<arr.length;i++){
            int j=i;
            for(;j>=1 && arr[j]<arr[j-1];j--){
                    float temp = arr[j];
                    arr[j] = arr[j-1];
                    indices[j]=indices[j-1];
                    arr[j-1] = temp;
            }
            indices[j]=i;
        }
        return indices;//indices of sorted elements
 }

Answer 14

I'd like to use this because it is very fast.But I use it for int,you can change it to float.

private static void mergeSort(int[]array,int[] indexes,int start,int end){
    if(start>=end)return;
    int middle = (end-start)/2+start;
    mergeSort(array,indexes,start,middle);
    mergeSort(array,indexes,middle+1,end);
    merge(array,indexes,start,middle,end);
}
private static void merge(int[]array,int[] indexes,int start,int middle,int end){
    int len1 = middle-start+1;
    int len2 = end - middle;
    int leftArray[] = new int[len1];
    int leftIndex[] = new int[len1];
    int rightArray[] = new int[len2];
    int rightIndex[] = new int[len2];
    for(int i=0;i<len1;++i)leftArray[i] = array[i+start];
    for(int i=0;i<len1;++i)leftIndex[i] = indexes[i+start];
    for(int i=0;i<len2;++i)rightArray[i] = array[i+middle+1];
    for(int i=0;i<len2;++i)rightIndex[i] = indexes[i+middle+1];
    //merge
    int i=0,j=0,k=start;
    while(i<len1&&j<len2){
        if(leftArray[i]<rightArray[j]){
            array[k] = leftArray[i];
            indexes[k] = leftIndex[i];
            ++i;
        }
        else{
            array[k] = rightArray[j];
            indexes[k] = rightIndex[j];
            ++j;
        }
        ++k;
    }
    while(i<len1){
        array[k] = leftArray[i];
        indexes[k] = leftIndex[i];
        ++i;++k;
    }
    while(j<len2){
        array[k] = rightArray[j];
        indexes[k] = rightIndex[j];
        ++j;++k;
    }
}

Answer 15

I guess the easiest way to do it is to index the array as it is created. You would need key,value pairs. If the index is a separate structure, then i cant see how you could do it without other objects (interested in seeing it though)