Selection Algorithms with Small Groups

Abstract: We revisit the selection problem, namely that of computing the $i$th order statistic of $n$ given elements, in particular the classic deterministic algorithm by grouping and partition due to Blum, Floyd, Pratt, Rivest, and Tarjan (1973). Whereas the original algorithm uses groups of odd size at least $5$ and runs in linear time, it has been perpetuated in the literature that using smaller group sizes will force the worst-case running time to become superlinear, namely $\Omega(n \log{n})$. We first point out that the usual arguments found in the literature justifying the superlinear worst-case running time fall short of proving this claim. We further prove that it is possible to use group size smaller than $5$ while maintaining the worst case linear running time. To this end we introduce three simple variants of the classic algorithm, the repeated step algorithm, the shifting target algorithm, and the hyperpair algorithm, all running in linear time.