ShellSort is mainly a variation of Insertion Sort. In insertion sort, we move elements only one position ahead. When an element has to be moved far ahead, many movements are involved. The idea of shellSort is to allow exchange of far items. In shellSort, we make the array h-sorted for a large value of h. We keep reducing the value of h until it becomes 1. An array is said to be h-sorted if all sublists of every h’th element is sorted.
CODE:
# Python program for implementation of Shell Sort
def shellSort(arr):
# Start with a big gap, then reduce the gap
n = len(arr)
gap = n//2
# Do a gapped insertion sort for this gap size.
# The first gap elements a[0..gap-1] are already in gapped
# order keep adding one more element until the entire array
# is gap sorted
while gap > 0:
for i in range(gap,n):
# add a[i] to the elements that have been gap sorted
# save a[i] in temp and make a hole at position i
temp = arr[i]
# shift earlier gap-sorted elements up until the correct
# location for a[i] is found
j = i
while j >= gap and arr[j-gap] >temp:
arr[j] = arr[j-gap]
j -= gap
# put temp (the original a[i]) in its correct location
arr[j] = temp
gap //= 2
# Driver code to test above
arr = [ 12, 34, 54, 2, 3]
n = len(arr)
print ("Array before sorting:")
for i in range(n):
print(arr[i]),
shellSort(arr)
print ("\nArray after sorting:")
for i in range(n):
print(arr[i])
Output: Array before sorting:
12 34 54 2 3
Array after sorting:
2 3 12 34 54
Time Complexity : Time complexity of above implementation of shellsort is O(n2). In the above implementation gap is reduce by half in every iteration. There are many other ways to reduce gap which lead to better time complexity.
Python, Data structures, OOPS, Big O 
One thought on “Shell Sort”