[ruby-talk:11163] Re: Array.insert_at

Well, I wrote a binary search in c, added to the array class, and rebuilt 
ruby.  I am surprised this was so easy.  As it turns out, the c version was 
only 2 seconds faster.  The pure Ruby version took 40 seconds to insert 10K 
rows into my btree (also pure ruby code).  The c version of the binary 
search took 38 seconds to insert the same 10K records.  Impressive, I 
think.

However, I was hoping to get a little better performance.  I notice that 
most of the time is spent in the bsearch code and I was hoping to improve 
it's performance.  I expected I/O to be the bottleneck.  My CPU is running 
at ful speed as the rows are being inserted.  I am running Red Hat 6.2 on a 
dual Pentium 233 processor with SCSI Ultra Wide HDs.

In case anyone is interested, here is the binary search code I used. 
 Please keep in mind that I need this function to return the index of the 
first element that is equal to or higher than "value".  That is why I 
called it bsearch2.  The reason for the extra loop (l.upto(h)) at the 
bottom is because it performs better for a small number of elements in the 
array.  In other words, the algorithm below performs faster than a pure 
binary search.  Actually numbers like "while(h-l>7)" perform even better 
when "value" is an integer.  I kept the number at 3 because I suspect the 
performance would be worse for other types of objects because cost of the 
compare will higher.

class Array
   def bsearch2(value) # return the index of value or the first element > 
value, assumes the array is sorted
      h = self.length-1
      l = 0
      while (h - l > 3) do
         m = (h+l)/2
         if (value <= self.at(m))
            h = m - 1
         else
            l = m + 1
         end
     end
      l.upto(h) {|m| return m if (value <= self.at(m))}   # find our place 
in this page
      return (h + 1) if (h < self.length-1)    # this catches the one case 
where we adjusted h from a value that could have worked
      return -1	# no element > than value
   end
end


Here is the C-code I added to array.c for both the search I needed and the 
a true Binary search (in case someone would like to integrate them into the 
language):


static VALUE
rb_ary_bsearch(ary, val)
    VALUE ary;
    VALUE val;
{
    long h, l, m;
    VALUE v;
    h = RARRAY(ary)->len - 1;
    l = 0;
    while (l <= h) {
       m = (l + h) / 2;
       if (FIXNUM_P(val) && FIXNUM_P(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m])) {
           v = val - RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m];
       }
       else if (TYPE(val) == T_STRING && TYPE(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]) == 
T_STRING) {
      	  v = rb_str_cmp(val, RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]);
       }
       else {
           v = rb_funcall(val, cmp, 1, RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]);
       }
   	 //printf ("\n   bsearch data - val=%d, ary[m]=%d, l=%ld, m=%ld, h=%ld, 
v=%d\n", FIX2INT(val), FIX2INT(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]), l, m, h, FIX2INT(v));
   	 if (FIX2INT(v) < 0) {
   	    h = m - 1;
   	    }
   	 else if (FIX2INT(v) > 0) {
   	    l = m + 1;
   	    }
   	 else {
   	   return INT2NUM(m);
   	   }
   	 }
    return Qnil;
}


static VALUE
rb_ary_bsearch2(ary, val)
    VALUE ary;
    VALUE val;
{
    long h, l, m;
    VALUE v;
    h = RARRAY(ary)->len - 1;
    l = 0;
    while (h - l > 2) {
       m = (l + h) / 2;
       if (FIXNUM_P(val) && FIXNUM_P(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m])) {
           v = (val - RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]);
       }
       else if (TYPE(val) == T_STRING && TYPE(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]) == 
T_STRING) {
      	  v = rb_str_cmp(val, RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]);
       }
       else {
           v = rb_funcall(val, cmp, 1, RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]);
       }
   	 //printf ("\n   bsearch2 data - val=%d, ary[m]=%d, l=%ld, m=%ld, 
h=%ld, v=%d\n", FIX2INT(val), FIX2INT(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[m]), l, m, h, 
FIX2INT(v));
   	 if (FIX2INT(v) <= 0) {
   	    h = m - 1;
   	    }
   	 else {
   	    l = m + 1;
   	    }
   	 }
    for (; l <= h; l++) {
       if (FIXNUM_P(val) && FIXNUM_P(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[l])) {
           v = (val - RARRAY(ary)->ptr[l]);
       }
       else if (TYPE(val) == T_STRING && TYPE(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[l]) == 
T_STRING) {
      	  v = rb_str_cmp(val, RARRAY(ary)->ptr[l]);
       }
       else {
           v = rb_funcall(val, cmp, 1, RARRAY(ary)->ptr[l]);
       }
   	 //printf ("\n   bsearch2 data2 - val=%d, ary[l]=%d, l=%ld, m=%ld, 
h=%ld, v=%d\n", FIX2INT(val), FIX2INT(RARRAY(ary)->ptr[l]), l, m, h, 
FIX2INT(v));
   	 if (FIX2INT(v) <= 0) {
   	    return INT2NUM(l);
   	    }
      }
    if (h < RARRAY(ary)->len - 1) {
       return INT2NUM(h + 1);
       }
    return INT2NUM(-1);
}



-----Original Message-----
From:	Michael Davis [SMTP:[e-mail]]
Sent:	Monday, February 19, 2001 11:36 PM
To:	'[e-mail]'
Subject:	RE: [ruby-talk:11154] Re: Array.insert_at

Thanks for the quick response.  Nice solution!  I am surprised that I 
overlooked this in the book.  Is there a binary search function for sorted 
arrays?  My attempts to create one are proving to be slow.

-----Original Message-----
From:	Yukihiro Matsumoto [SMTP:[e-mail]]
Sent:	Monday, February 19, 2001 10:29 PM
To:	ruby-talk ML
Subject:	[ruby-talk:11154] Re: Array.insert_at

Hi,

In message "[ruby-talk:11153] Array.insert_at"
    on 01/02/20, Michael Davis <[e-mail]> writes:

|Has anyone created a method called insert_at(index, value) for the Array
|class?  I would like this to expand the array and insert value at position 
|x.

a = [1,2,3,4,5]
a[2,0] = [12,13]

							matz.