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What does "merge sort" mean in programming?
merge sort is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
A stable, comparison-based sorting algorithm that uses divide and conquer. It splits the array in half recursively until each piece has one element, then merges the sorted pieces. Always O(n log n) in best, average, and worst case, but requires O(n) extra memory.
Example
"Merge sort on [3, 1, 2]: split into [3] and [1, 2], sort each, merge into [1, 2, 3]."
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