divide-and-conquer

break the problem into several subproblems that are similar to the original problem but smaller in size, solve the subproblems recursively, and then combine these solutions to create a solution to the original problem.

there are three steps when divide-and-conquer is used:

DIVIDE>>>>>>>>CONQUER>>>>>>>>>COMBINE

the C codes below:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#define NUM 10

int main(void)
{
	int a[NUM] = { 2,4,8,23,37,-23,1,2,10,54};
	int begin = 2, mid = 4, end = 8, k;
	void merge(int *arr, int begin, int mid, int end);
	merge(a, begin, mid, end);
	for( k = 0; k <= NUM-1; k++)
	{
		printf("%d ",a[k]);
	}
}
	
void merge(int *arr, int begin, int mid, int end)
{
	int i = begin, j = mid + 1, k=0,h;
	int *ptr = (int*)malloc((end - begin + 1) * sizeof(int));
	int *ptrHead = ptr;
	while( i <= mid && j <= end)
	{
		if( arr[i] < arr[j] )
		{
			ptr[k++] = arr[i++];
		}
		else
		{
			ptr[k++] = arr[j++];
		}
	}
	if( j > end )
	{
		for( h = i; h <= mid; h++)
		{
			ptr[k++] = arr[h];
		}
	}
	else
	{
		for( h = j; h <= end; h++)
		{
			ptr[k++] = arr[h];
		}
	}
	for( k = 0; k <= end - begin; k++)
	{
		arr[k + begin] = ptr[k];
	}
	free(ptrHead);
}