Counting inversions in an array

Question

I\'m designing an algorithm to do the following: Given array A[1... n], for every i < j, find all inversion pairs such that A[i] > A[j]

Answer 1

The number of inversions can be found by analyzing the merge process in merge sort :

When copying a element from the second array to the merge array (the 9 in this exemple), it keeps its place relatively to other elements. When copying a element from the first array to the merge array (the 5 here) it is inverted with all the elements staying in the second array (2 inversions with the 3 and the 4). So a little modification of merge sort can solve the problem in O(n ln n).
For exemple, just uncomment the two # lines in the mergesort python code below to have the count.

def merge(l1,l2):
    l = []
    # global count
    while l1 and l2:
        if l1[-1] <= l2[-1]:
            l.append(l2.pop())
        else:
            l.append(l1.pop())
            # count += len(l2)
    l.reverse()
    return l1 + l2 + l

def sort(l): 
    t = len(l) // 2
    return merge(sort(l[:t]), sort(l[t:])) if t > 0 else l

count=0
print(sort([5,1,2,4,9,3]), count)
# [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9] 6

EDIT 1

The same task can be achieved with a stable version of quick sort, known to be slightly faster :

def part(l):
    pivot=l[-1]
    small,big = [],[]
    count = big_count = 0
    for x in l:
        if x <= pivot:
            small.append(x)
            count += big_count
        else:
            big.append(x)
            big_count += 1
    return count,small,big

def quick_count(l):
    if len(l)<2 : return 0
    count,small,big = part(l)
    small.pop()
    return count + quick_count(small) + quick_count(big)

Choosing pivot as the last element, inversions are well counted, and execution time 40% better than merge one above.

EDIT 2

For performance in python, a numpy & numba version :

First the numpy part, which use argsort O (n ln n) :

def count_inversions(a):
    n = a.size
    counts = np.arange(n) & -np.arange(n)  # The BIT
    ags = a.argsort(kind='mergesort')    
    return  BIT(ags,counts,n)

And the numba part for the efficient BIT approach :

@numba.njit
def BIT(ags,counts,n):
    res = 0        
    for x in ags :
        i = x
        while i:
            res += counts[i]
            i -= i & -i
        i = x+1
        while i < n:
            counts[i] -= 1
            i += i & -i
    return  res  

Answer 2

Here is one possible solution with variation of binary tree. It adds a field called rightSubTreeSize to each tree node. Keep on inserting number into binary tree in the order they appear in the array. If number goes lhs of node the inversion count for that element would be (1 + rightSubTreeSize). Since all those elements are greater than current element and they would have appeared earlier in the array. If element goes to rhs of a node, just increase its rightSubTreeSize. Following is the code.

Node { 
    int data;
    Node* left, *right;
    int rightSubTreeSize;

    Node(int data) { 
        rightSubTreeSize = 0;
    }   
};

Node* root = null;
int totCnt = 0;
for(i = 0; i < n; ++i) { 
    Node* p = new Node(a[i]);
    if(root == null) { 
        root = p;
        continue;
    } 

    Node* q = root;
    int curCnt = 0;
    while(q) { 
        if(p->data <= q->data) { 
            curCnt += 1 + q->rightSubTreeSize;
            if(q->left) { 
                q = q->left;
            } else { 
                q->left = p;
                break;
            }
        } else { 
            q->rightSubTreeSize++;
            if(q->right) { 
                q = q->right;
            } else { 
                q->right = p;
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    totCnt += curCnt;
  }
  return totCnt;

Answer 3

In Python

# O(n log n)

def count_inversion(lst):
    return merge_count_inversion(lst)[1]

def merge_count_inversion(lst):
    if len(lst) <= 1:
        return lst, 0
    middle = int( len(lst) / 2 )
    left, a = merge_count_inversion(lst[:middle])
    right, b = merge_count_inversion(lst[middle:])
    result, c = merge_count_split_inversion(left, right)
    return result, (a + b + c)

def merge_count_split_inversion(left, right):
    result = []
    count = 0
    i, j = 0, 0
    left_len = len(left)
    while i < left_len and j < len(right):
        if left[i] <= right[j]:
            result.append(left[i])
            i += 1
        else:
            result.append(right[j])
            count += left_len - i
            j += 1
    result += left[i:]
    result += right[j:]
    return result, count        


#test code
input_array_1 = []  #0
input_array_2 = [1] #0
input_array_3 = [1, 5]  #0
input_array_4 = [4, 1] #1
input_array_5 = [4, 1, 2, 3, 9] #3
input_array_6 = [4, 1, 3, 2, 9, 5]  #5
input_array_7 = [4, 1, 3, 2, 9, 1]  #8

print count_inversion(input_array_1)
print count_inversion(input_array_2)
print count_inversion(input_array_3)
print count_inversion(input_array_4)
print count_inversion(input_array_5)
print count_inversion(input_array_6)
print count_inversion(input_array_7)

Answer 4

The primary purpose of this answer is to compare the speeds of the various Python versions found here, but I also have a few contributions of my own. (FWIW, I just discovered this question while performing a duplicate search).

The relative execution speeds of algorithms implemented in CPython may be different to what one would expect from a simple analysis of the algorithms, and from experience with other languages. That's because Python provides many powerful functions and methods implemented in C that can operate on lists and other collections at close to the speed one would get in a fully-compiled language, so those operations run much faster than equivalent algorithms implemented "manually" with Python code.

Code that takes advantage of these tools can often outperform theoretically superior algorithms that try to do everything with Python operations on individual items of the collection. Of course the actual quantity of data being processed has an impact on this too. But for moderate amounts of data, code that uses an O(n²) algorithm running at C speed can easily beat an O(n log n) algorithm that does the bulk of its work with individual Python operations.

Many of the posted answers to this inversion counting question use an algorithm based on mergesort. Theoretically, this is a good approach, unless the array size is very small. But Python's built-in TimSort (a hybrid stable sorting algorithm, derived from merge sort and insertion sort) runs at C speed, and a mergesort coded by hand in Python cannot hope to compete with it for speed.

One of the more intriguing solutions here, in the answer posted by Niklas B, uses the built-in sort to determine the ranking of array items, and a Binary Indexed Tree (aka Fenwick tree) to store the cumulative sums required to calculate the inversion count. In the process of trying to understand this data structure and Niklas's algorithm I wrote a few variations of my own (posted below). But I also discovered that for moderate list sizes it's actually faster to use Python's built-in sum function than the lovely Fenwick tree.

def count_inversions(a):
    total = 0
    counts = [0] * len(a)
    rank = {v: i for i, v in enumerate(sorted(a))}
    for u in reversed(a):
        i = rank[u]
        total += sum(counts[:i])
        counts[i] += 1
    return total

Eventually, when the list size gets around 500, the O(n²) aspect of calling sum inside that for loop rears its ugly head, and the performance starts to plummet.

Mergesort isn't the only O(nlogn) sort, and several others may be utilized to perform inversion counting. prasadvk's answer uses a binary tree sort, however his code appears to be in C++ or one of its derivatives. So I've added a Python version. I originally used a class to implement the tree nodes, but discovered that a dict is noticeably faster. I eventually used list, which is even faster, although it does make the code a little less readable.

One bonus of treesort is that it's a lot easier to implement iteratively than mergesort is. Python doesn't optimize recursion and it has a recursion depth limit (although that can be increased if you really need it). And of course Python function calls are relatively slow, so when you're trying to optimize for speed it's good to avoid function calls, when practical.

Another O(nlogn) sort is the venerable radix sort. It's big advantage is that it doesn't compare keys to each other. It's disadvantage is that it works best on contiguous sequences of integers, ideally a permutation of integers in range(b**m) where b is usually 2. I added a few versions based on radix sort after attempting to read Counting Inversions, Offline Orthogonal Range Counting, and Related Problems which is linked in calculating the number of “inversions” in a permutation.

To use radix sort effectively to count inversions in a general sequence seq of length n we can create a permutation of range(n) that has the same number of inversions as seq. We can do that in (at worst) O(nlogn) time via TimSort. The trick is to permute the indices of seq by sorting seq. It's easier to explain this with a small example.

seq = [15, 14, 11, 12, 10, 13]
b = [t[::-1] for t in enumerate(seq)]
print(b)
b.sort()
print(b)

output

[(15, 0), (14, 1), (11, 2), (12, 3), (10, 4), (13, 5)]
[(10, 4), (11, 2), (12, 3), (13, 5), (14, 1), (15, 0)]

By sorting the (value, index) pairs of seq we have permuted the indices of seq with the same number of swaps that are required to put seq into its original order from its sorted order. We can create that permutation by sorting range(n) with a suitable key function:

print(sorted(range(len(seq)), key=lambda k: seq[k]))

output

[4, 2, 3, 5, 1, 0]

We can avoid that lambda by using seq's .__getitem__ method:

sorted(range(len(seq)), key=seq.__getitem__)

This is only slightly faster, but we're looking for all the speed enhancements we can get. ;)

---

The code below performs timeit tests on all of the existing Python algorithms on this page, plus a few of my own: a couple of brute-force O(n²) versions, a few variations on Niklas B's algorithm, and of course one based on mergesort (which I wrote without referring to the existing answers). It also has my list-based treesort code roughly derived from prasadvk's code, and various functions based on radix sort, some using a similar strategy to the mergesort approaches, and some using sum or a Fenwick tree.

This program measures the execution time of each function on a series of random lists of integers; it can also verify that each function gives the same results as the others, and that it doesn't modify the input list.

Each timeit call gives a vector containing 3 results, which I sort. The main value to look at here is the minimum one, the other values merely give an indication of how reliable that minimum value is, as discussed in the Note in the timeit module docs.

Unfortunately, the output from this program is too large to include in this answer, so I'm posting it in its own (community wiki) answer.

The output is from 3 runs on my ancient 32 bit single core 2GHz machine running Python 3.6.0 on an old Debian-derivative distro. YMMV. During the tests I shut down my Web browser and disconnected from my router to minimize the impact of other tasks on the CPU.

The first run tests all the functions with list sizes from 5 to 320, with loop sizes from 4096 to 64 (as the list size doubles, the loop size is halved). The random pool used to construct each list is half the size of the list itself, so we are likely to get lots of duplicates. Some of the inversion counting algorithms are more sensitive to duplicates than others.

The second run uses larger lists: 640 to 10240, and a fixed loop size of 8. To save time it eliminates several of the slowest functions from the tests. My brute-force O(n²) functions are just way too slow at these sizes, and as mentioned earlier, my code that uses sum, which does so well on small to moderate lists, just can't keep up on big lists.

The final run covers list sizes from 20480 to 655360, and a fixed loop size of 4, with the 8 fastest functions. For list sizes under 40,000 or so Tim Babych's code is the clear winner. Well done Tim! Niklas B's code is a good all-round performer too, although it gets beaten on the smaller lists. The bisection-based code of "python" also does rather well, although it appears to be a little slower with huge lists with lots of duplicates, probably due to that linear while loop it uses to step over dupes.

However, for the very large list sizes, the bisection-based algorithms can't compete with the true O(nlogn) algorithms.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

''' Test speeds of various ways of counting inversions in a list

    The inversion count is a measure of how sorted an array is.
    A pair of items in a are inverted if i < j but a[j] > a[i]

    See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/337664/counting-inversions-in-an-array

    This program contains code by the following authors:
    mkso
    Niklas B
    B. M.
    Tim Babych
    python
    Zhe Hu
    prasadvk
    noman pouigt
    PM 2Ring

    Timing and verification code by PM 2Ring
    Collated 2017.12.16
    Updated 2017.12.21
'''

from timeit import Timer
from random import seed, randrange
from bisect import bisect, insort_left

seed('A random seed string')

# Merge sort version by mkso
def count_inversion_mkso(lst):
    return merge_count_inversion(lst)[1]

def merge_count_inversion(lst):
    if len(lst) <= 1:
        return lst, 0
    middle = len(lst) // 2
    left, a = merge_count_inversion(lst[:middle])
    right, b = merge_count_inversion(lst[middle:])
    result, c = merge_count_split_inversion(left, right)
    return result, (a + b + c)

def merge_count_split_inversion(left, right):
    result = []
    count = 0
    i, j = 0, 0
    left_len = len(left)
    while i < left_len and j < len(right):
        if left[i] <= right[j]:
            result.append(left[i])
            i += 1
        else:
            result.append(right[j])
            count += left_len - i
            j += 1
    result += left[i:]
    result += right[j:]
    return result, count

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
# Using a Binary Indexed Tree, aka a Fenwick tree, by Niklas B.
def count_inversions_NiklasB(a):
    res = 0
    counts = [0] * (len(a) + 1)
    rank = {v: i for i, v in enumerate(sorted(a), 1)}
    for x in reversed(a):
        i = rank[x] - 1
        while i:
            res += counts[i]
            i -= i & -i
        i = rank[x]
        while i <= len(a):
            counts[i] += 1
            i += i & -i
    return res

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
# Merge sort version by B.M
# Modified by PM 2Ring to deal with the global counter
bm_count = 0

def merge_count_BM(seq):
    global bm_count
    bm_count = 0
    sort_bm(seq)
    return bm_count

def merge_bm(l1,l2):
    global bm_count
    l = []
    while l1 and l2:
        if l1[-1] <= l2[-1]:
            l.append(l2.pop())
        else:
            l.append(l1.pop())
            bm_count += len(l2)
    l.reverse()
    return l1 + l2 + l

def sort_bm(l):
    t = len(l) // 2
    return merge_bm(sort_bm(l[:t]), sort_bm(l[t:])) if t > 0 else l

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
# Bisection based method by Tim Babych
def solution_TimBabych(A):
    sorted_left = []
    res = 0
    for i in range(1, len(A)):
        insort_left(sorted_left, A[i-1])
        # i is also the length of sorted_left
        res += (i - bisect(sorted_left, A[i]))
    return res

# Slightly faster, except for very small lists
def solutionE_TimBabych(A):
    res = 0
    sorted_left = []
    for i, u in enumerate(A):
        # i is also the length of sorted_left
        res += (i - bisect(sorted_left, u))
        insort_left(sorted_left, u)
    return res

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
# Bisection based method by "python"
def solution_python(A):
    B = list(A)
    B.sort()
    inversion_count = 0
    for i in range(len(A)):
        j = binarySearch_python(B, A[i])
        while B[j] == B[j - 1]:
            if j < 1:
                break
            j -= 1
        inversion_count += j
        B.pop(j)
    return inversion_count

def binarySearch_python(alist, item):
    first = 0
    last = len(alist) - 1
    found = False
    while first <= last and not found:
        midpoint = (first + last) // 2
        if alist[midpoint] == item:
            return midpoint
        else:
            if item < alist[midpoint]:
                last = midpoint - 1
            else:
                first = midpoint + 1

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
# Merge sort version by Zhe Hu
def inv_cnt_ZheHu(a):
    _, count = inv_cnt(a.copy())
    return count

def inv_cnt(a):
    n = len(a)
    if n==1:
        return a, 0
    left = a[0:n//2] # should be smaller
    left, cnt1 = inv_cnt(left)
    right = a[n//2:] # should be larger
    right, cnt2 = inv_cnt(right)

    cnt = 0
    i_left = i_right = i_a = 0
    while i_a < n:
        if (i_right>=len(right)) or (i_left < len(left)
            and left[i_left] <= right[i_right]):
            a[i_a] = left[i_left]
            i_left += 1
        else:
            a[i_a] = right[i_right]
            i_right += 1
            if i_left < len(left):
                cnt += len(left) - i_left
        i_a += 1
    return (a, cnt1 + cnt2 + cnt)

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
# Merge sort version by noman pouigt
# From https://stackoverflow.com/q/47830098
def reversePairs_nomanpouigt(nums):
    def merge(left, right):
        if not left or not right:
            return (0, left + right)
        #if everything in left is less than right
        if left[len(left)-1] < right[0]:
            return (0, left + right)
        else:
            left_idx, right_idx, count = 0, 0, 0
            merged_output = []

            # check for condition before we merge it
            while left_idx < len(left) and right_idx < len(right):
                #if left[left_idx] > 2 * right[right_idx]:
                if left[left_idx] > right[right_idx]:
                    count += len(left) - left_idx
                    right_idx += 1
                else:
                    left_idx += 1

            #merging the sorted list
            left_idx, right_idx = 0, 0
            while left_idx < len(left) and right_idx < len(right):
                if left[left_idx] > right[right_idx]:
                    merged_output += [right[right_idx]]
                    right_idx += 1
                else:
                    merged_output += [left[left_idx]]
                    left_idx += 1
            if left_idx == len(left):
                merged_output += right[right_idx:]
            else:
                merged_output += left[left_idx:]
        return (count, merged_output)

    def partition(nums):
        count = 0
        if len(nums) == 1 or not nums:
            return (0, nums)
        pivot = len(nums)//2
        left_count, l = partition(nums[:pivot])
        right_count, r = partition(nums[pivot:])
        temp_count, temp_list = merge(l, r)
        return (temp_count + left_count + right_count, temp_list)
    return partition(nums)[0]

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
# PM 2Ring
def merge_PM2R(seq):
    seq, count = merge_sort_count_PM2R(seq)
    return count

def merge_sort_count_PM2R(seq):
    mid = len(seq) // 2
    if mid == 0:
        return seq, 0
    left, left_total = merge_sort_count_PM2R(seq[:mid])
    right, right_total = merge_sort_count_PM2R(seq[mid:])
    total = left_total + right_total
    result = []
    i = j = 0
    left_len, right_len = len(left), len(right)
    while i < left_len and j < right_len:
        if left[i] <= right[j]:
            result.append(left[i])
            i += 1
        else:
            result.append(right[j])
            j += 1
            total += left_len - i
    result.extend(left[i:])
    result.extend(right[j:])
    return result, total

def rank_sum_PM2R(a):
    total = 0
    counts = [0] * len(a)
    rank = {v: i for i, v in enumerate(sorted(a))}
    for u in reversed(a):
        i = rank[u]
        total += sum(counts[:i])
        counts[i] += 1
    return total

# Fenwick tree functions adapted from C code on Wikipedia
def fen_sum(tree, i):
    ''' Return the sum of the first i elements, 0 through i-1 '''
    total = 0
    while i:
        total += tree[i-1]
        i -= i & -i
    return total

def fen_add(tree, delta, i):
    ''' Add delta to element i and thus 
        to fen_sum(tree, j) for all j > i 
    '''
    size = len(tree)
    while i < size:
        tree[i] += delta
        i += (i+1) & -(i+1)

def fenwick_PM2R(a):
    total = 0
    counts = [0] * len(a)
    rank = {v: i for i, v in enumerate(sorted(a))}
    for u in reversed(a):
        i = rank[u]
        total += fen_sum(counts, i)
        fen_add(counts, 1, i)
    return total

def fenwick_inline_PM2R(a):
    total = 0
    size = len(a)
    counts = [0] * size
    rank = {v: i for i, v in enumerate(sorted(a))}
    for u in reversed(a):
        i = rank[u]
        j = i + 1
        while i:
            total += counts[i]
            i -= i & -i
        while j < size:
            counts[j] += 1
            j += j & -j
    return total

def bruteforce_loops_PM2R(a):
    total = 0
    for i in range(1, len(a)):
        u = a[i]
        for j in range(i):
            if a[j] > u:
                total += 1
    return total

def bruteforce_sum_PM2R(a):
    return sum(1 for i in range(1, len(a)) for j in range(i) if a[j] > a[i])

# Using binary tree counting, derived from C++ code (?) by prasadvk
# https://stackoverflow.com/a/16056139
def ltree_count_PM2R(a):
    total, root = 0, None
    for u in a:
        # Store data in a list-based tree structure
        # [data, count, left_child, right_child]
        p = [u, 0, None, None]
        if root is None:
            root = p
            continue
        q = root
        while True:
            if p[0] < q[0]:
                total += 1 + q[1]
                child = 2
            else:
                q[1] += 1
                child = 3
            if q[child]:
                q = q[child]
            else:
                q[child] = p
                break
    return total

# Counting based on radix sort, recursive version
def radix_partition_rec(a, L):
    if len(a) < 2:
        return 0
    if len(a) == 2:
        return a[1] < a[0]
    left, right = [], []
    count = 0
    for u in a:
        if u & L:
            right.append(u)
        else:
            count += len(right)
            left.append(u)
    L >>= 1
    if L:
        count += radix_partition_rec(left, L) + radix_partition_rec(right, L)
    return count

# The following functions determine swaps using a permutation of 
# range(len(a)) that has the same inversion count as `a`. We can create
# this permutation with `sorted(range(len(a)), key=lambda k: a[k])`
# but `sorted(range(len(a)), key=a.__getitem__)` is a little faster.

# Counting based on radix sort, iterative version
def radix_partition_iter(seq, L):
    count = 0
    parts = [seq]
    while L and parts:
        newparts = []
        for a in parts:
            if len(a) < 2:
                continue
            if len(a) == 2:
                count += a[1] < a[0]
                continue
            left, right = [], []
            for u in a:
                if u & L:
                    right.append(u)
                else:
                    count += len(right)
                    left.append(u)
            if left:
                newparts.append(left)
            if right:
                newparts.append(right)
        parts = newparts
        L >>= 1
    return count

def perm_radixR_PM2R(a):
    size = len(a)
    b = sorted(range(size), key=a.__getitem__)
    n = size.bit_length() - 1
    return radix_partition_rec(b, 1 << n)

def perm_radixI_PM2R(a):
    size = len(a)
    b = sorted(range(size), key=a.__getitem__)
    n = size.bit_length() - 1
    return radix_partition_iter(b, 1 << n)

# Plain sum of the counts of the permutation
def perm_sum_PM2R(a):
    total = 0
    size = len(a)
    counts = [0] * size
    for i in reversed(sorted(range(size), key=a.__getitem__)):
        total += sum(counts[:i])
        counts[i] = 1
    return total

# Fenwick sum of the counts of the permutation
def perm_fenwick_PM2R(a):
    total = 0
    size = len(a)
    counts = [0] * size
    for i in reversed(sorted(range(size), key=a.__getitem__)):
        j = i + 1
        while i:
            total += counts[i]
            i -= i & -i
        while j < size:
            counts[j] += 1
            j += j & -j
    return total

# - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
# All the inversion-counting functions
funcs = (
    solution_TimBabych,
    solutionE_TimBabych,
    solution_python,
    count_inversion_mkso,
    count_inversions_NiklasB,
    merge_count_BM,
    inv_cnt_ZheHu,
    reversePairs_nomanpouigt,
    fenwick_PM2R,
    fenwick_inline_PM2R,
    merge_PM2R,
    rank_sum_PM2R,
    bruteforce_loops_PM2R,
    bruteforce_sum_PM2R,
    ltree_count_PM2R,
    perm_radixR_PM2R,
    perm_radixI_PM2R,
    perm_sum_PM2R,
    perm_fenwick_PM2R,
)

def time_test(seq, loops, verify=False):
    orig = seq
    timings = []
    for func in funcs:
        seq = orig.copy()
        value = func(seq) if verify else None
        t = Timer(lambda: func(seq))
        result = sorted(t.repeat(3, loops))
        timings.append((result, func.__name__, value))
        assert seq==orig, 'Sequence altered by {}!'.format(func.__name__)
    first = timings[0][-1]
    timings.sort()
    for result, name, value in timings:
        result = ', '.join([format(u, '.5f') for u in result])
        print('{:24} : {}'.format(name, result))

    if verify:
        # Check that all results are identical
        bad = ['%s: %d' % (name, value)
            for _, name, value in timings if value != first]
        if bad:
            print('ERROR. Value: {}, bad: {}'.format(first, ', '.join(bad)))
        else:
            print('Value: {}'.format(first))
    print()

#Run the tests
size, loops = 5, 1 << 12
verify = True
for _ in range(7):
    hi = size // 2
    print('Size = {}, hi = {}, {} loops'.format(size, hi, loops))
    seq = [randrange(hi) for _ in range(size)]
    time_test(seq, loops, verify)
    loops >>= 1
    size <<= 1

#size, loops = 640, 8
#verify = False
#for _ in range(5):
    #hi = size // 2
    #print('Size = {}, hi = {}, {} loops'.format(size, hi, loops))
    #seq = [randrange(hi) for _ in range(size)]
    #time_test(seq, loops, verify)
    #size <<= 1

#size, loops = 163840, 4
#verify = False
#for _ in range(3):
    #hi = size // 2
    #print('Size = {}, hi = {}, {} loops'.format(size, hi, loops))
    #seq = [randrange(hi) for _ in range(size)]
    #time_test(seq, loops, verify)
    #size <<= 1

Please see here for the output

Answer 5

Implementation of counting inversions in an array with merge sort in Swift:

Note that the number of swaps is incremented by

nSwaps += mid + 1 - iL 

(which is the relative length of the left side of the array minus the index of the current element in the left side)

... because that is the number of elements which the element in the right side of the array had to skip over (# of inversions) to become sorted.

func merge(arr: inout [Int], arr2: inout [Int], low: Int, mid: Int, high: Int) -> Int {
    var nSwaps = 0;

    var i = low;
    var iL = low;
    var iR = mid + 1;

    while iL <= mid && iR <= high {
        if arr2[iL] <= arr2[iR] {
            arr[i] = arr2[iL]
            iL += 1
            i += 1
        } else {
            arr[i] = arr2[iR]
            nSwaps += mid + 1 - iL
            iR += 1
            i += 1
        }
    }

    while iL <= mid {
        arr[i] = arr2[iL]
        iL += 1
        i += 1
    }

    while iR <= high {
        arr[i] = arr2[iR]
        iR += 1
        i += 1
    }

    return nSwaps
}

func mergeSort(arr: inout [Int]) -> Int {
    var arr2 = arr
    let nSwaps = mergeSort(arr: &arr, arr2: &arr2, low: 0, high: arr.count-1)
    return nSwaps
}

func mergeSort(arr: inout [Int], arr2: inout [Int], low: Int, high: Int) -> Int {

    if low >= high {
        return 0
    }

    let mid = low + ((high - low) / 2)

    var nSwaps = 0;
    nSwaps += mergeSort(arr: &arr2, arr2: &arr, low: low, high: mid)
    nSwaps += mergeSort(arr: &arr2, arr2: &arr, low: mid+1, high: high)
    nSwaps += merge(arr: &arr, arr2: &arr2, low: low, mid: mid, high: high)

    return nSwaps
}

var arrayToSort: [Int] = [2, 1, 3, 1, 2]
let nSwaps = mergeSort(arr: &arrayToSort)

print(arrayToSort) // [1, 1, 2, 2, 3]
print(nSwaps) // 4

Answer 6

Use mergesort, in merge step incremeant counter if the number copied to output is from right array.