Learn Data Structures by Building the Merge Sort Algorithm - Step 18

Python
1

Tell us what’s happening:

I’ve tried various ways of copying a list and assigning it to array list such as

array = left_array.copy()
array.append(left_array)

or even simply

array = left_array

I’m not sure any other variations of this will work and can’t think of solutions outside of attempting to copy/add the left_array into array. I might be oversimplifying it, but I’d appreciate any guidance.

Your code so far

def merge_sort(array):
    
    middle_point = len(array) // 2
    left_part = array[:middle_point]
    right_part = array[middle_point:]

    merge_sort(left_part)
    merge_sort(right_part)

    left_array_index = 0
    right_array_index = 0
    sorted_index = 0

    while left_array_index < len(left_part) and right_array_index < len(right_part):
        if left_part[left_array_index] < right_part[right_array_index]:
            array[sorted_index] = left_part[left_array_index]
            left_array_index += 1
        else:
            array[sorted_index] = right_part[right_array_index]
            right_array_index += 1
        sorted_index += 1

# User Editable Region

while left_array_index < len(left_part):
    

# User Editable Region

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Challenge Information:

Learn Data Structures by Building the Merge Sort Algorithm - Step 18

2

The actual copying is not yet in this stop. This step requires just placing the new while loop. Keep in mind that new loop should be inside of the function.

3

Great catch. Thank you for taking a look at the code.

4

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