in the simple version of quicksortperformance is only ( for already-sorted (or inversely sorteddata in more advanced version of quicksortthe pivot can be the median of the firstlastand center items in the subarray this is called median-of-three partitioning median-of-three partitioning effectively eliminates the problem of ( performance for already-sorted data in median-of-three partitioningthe leftcenterand right items are sorted at the same time the median is determined this sort eliminates the need for the end-of-array tests in the inner while loops in the partitioning algorithm quicksort operates in ( *log ntime (except when the simpler version is applied to already-sorted datasubarrays smaller than certain size (the cutoffcan be sorted by method other than quicksort the insertion sort is commonly used to sort subarrays smaller than the cutoff the insertion sort can also be applied to the entire arrayafter it has been sorted down to cutoff point by quicksort the radix sort is about as fast as quicksort but uses twice as much memory questions these questions are intended as self-test for readers answers may be found in appendix the shellsort works by partitioning the array swapping adjacent elements dealing with widely separated elements starting with the normal insertion sort if an array has elementsthen knuth' algorithm would start with an interval of