insertion sort

insertion sort

(algorithm)

A sorting algorithm that inserts each item in the proper place into an initially empty list by comparing it with each item in the list until it finds the new element's successor or the end of the list.

Compare bubble sort.

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insertion sort

A simple sorting technique that scans the sorted list, starting at the beginning, for the correct insertion point for each of the items from the unsorted list. Similar to the way people manually sort items, an insertion sort is not efficient for large lists, but is relatively fast for adding a small number of new items periodically. See sort algorithm.

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