Push_swap is a project that teaches you about sorting algorithms and how to optimize them. The project involves sorting a stack of integers using a limited set of operations (push, swap and rotate) and minimizing the number of moves.
At the beginning, you must have one stack, called stack a with all your numbers placed next to each other.
With the help of the operations below, at the very end, all the numbers in your stack a will have to be sorted.
To do this, you can have a second empty stack, called the stack b, on which you can temporarily send elements. Here are the operations you can use :
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sa (swap a): Swap the first 2 elements at the top of the stack a. Does nothing if there is only one or none. -
sb (swap b): Swap the first 2 elements at the top of the stack b. Does nothing if there is only one or none. -
ss: sa and sb at the same time. -
pa (push a): Takes the first element on top of b and puts it on a. Does nothing if b is empty. -
pb (push b): Takes the first element on top of a and puts it on b. Does nothing if a is empty. -
ra (rotate a): Shifts all the elements of the stack a up by one position. The first element becomes the last. -
rb (rotate b): Shifts all the elements of the stack b one position upwards. The first element becomes the last one. -
rr: ra and rb at the same time. -
rra(reverse rotate a): Shifts all elements of the stack down one position. the stack a. The last element becomes the first. -
rrb(reverse rotate b): Shifts all the elements of the stack b one position downwards. the stack b. The last element becomes the first. -
rrr: rra and rrb at the same time.
Push_swap is not a very difficult project in terms of code construction. You will see that it doesn't need many steps to finish it. The hardest part is to find a solution to the problem and to construct its algorithm..