A sorting algorithm invented by John von Neumann (1903-1957) that follows a divide and conquer paradigm. It was developed in 1945.
Basic Algorithm
- Divide: Divide the unsorted list into two sub lists of about half the size
- Conquer: Sort each of the two sub lists recursively until we have list sizes of length 1, in which case the list itself is returned.
- Combine: Merge the two-sorted sub lists back into one sorted list