Visualizers

Selection Sort Visualizer

Step-through animation of Selection Sort showing minimum search and swaps.

native (Canvas API) Client-side

Input Mode

Array Size (10-50)

Speed

Ready to visualize.

Execution Log

Comparisons: 0

Swaps: 0

Current Action:

Idle

Legend:

Unsorted

Active Search

Current Min

Sorted

Selection Sort Algorithm

Selection Sort is an in-place comparison sorting algorithm. It is simple but generally inefficient on large lists, running in $O(n^2)$ time.

How It Works

Find the minimum element in the unsorted part of the array.
Swap it with the first unsorted element.
Move the boundary between sorted and unsorted subarrays one element to the right.
Repeat until the entire array is sorted.

Implementation

function selectionSort(arr) {
  const n = arr.length;
  for (let i = 0; i < n - 1; i++) {
    let minIdx = i;
    for (let j = i + 1; j < n; j++) {
      if (arr[j] < arr[minIdx]) {
        minIdx = j;
      }
    }
    // Swap with minimum element
    const temp = arr[i];
    arr[i] = arr[minIdx];
    arr[minIdx] = temp;
  }
  return arr;
}

def selection_sort(arr):
    n = len(arr)
    for i in range(n - 1):
        min_idx = i
        for j in range(i + 1, n):
            if arr[j] < arr[min_idx]:
                min_idx = j
        # Swap with minimum element
        arr[i], arr[min_idx] = arr[min_idx], arr[i]
    return arr

public class SelectionSort {
    public static void selectionSort(int[] arr) {
        int n = arr.length;
        for (int i = 0; i < n - 1; i++) {
            int minIdx = i;
            for (int j = i + 1; j < n; j++) {
                if (arr[j] < arr[minIdx]) {
                    minIdx = j;
                }
            }
            // Swap with minimum element
            int temp = arr[i];
            arr[i] = arr[minIdx];
            arr[minIdx] = temp;
        }
    }
}

#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>

void selectionSort(std::vector<int>& arr) {
    int n = arr.size();
    for (int i = 0; i < n - 1; i++) {
        int minIdx = i;
        for (int j = i + 1; j < n; j++) {
            if (arr[j] < arr[minIdx]) {
                minIdx = j;
            }
        }
        // Swap with minimum element
        std::swap(arr[i], arr[minIdx]);
    }
}

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