Program to find Median of two sorted arrays of equal size in C

Median of two sorted arrays of equal size in C

Here, in this page we will discuss the program to find median of two sorted arrays of equal size in C++ programming language. We are given with two arrays say arr1[] and arr2[] of the same size say n . We need to find the median after merging these arrays.

Median of two sorted arrays of equal size in C

Method 1:

  • Find the union of the given two arrays.
  • Sort both array 1 and array2.
  • Then the median element will be
    Median = (arr1[n-1]+arr2[0])/2
Run
#include <stdio.h>

int getMedian(int ar1[], int ar2[], int n)
{
    int j = 0;
    int i = n - 1;
    while (ar1[i] > ar2[j] && j < n && i > -1)
      {
            int temp = ar1[i];
            ar1[i] = ar2[j];
            ar2[j] = temp;
            i--;
            j++;
      }

    //sort ar1
    for(int i=0; i<n; i++){
        for(int j=i+1; j<n; j++){ if(ar1[i]>ar1[j]){
                int temp = ar1[i];
                ar1[i] = ar1[j];
                ar1[j] = temp;
            }
        }
    }
    
    //sort ar2
    for(int i=0; i<n; i++){
        for(int j=i+1; j<n; j++){ if(ar2[i]>ar2[j]){
                int temp = ar2[i];
                ar2[i] = ar2[j];
                ar2[j] = temp;
            }
        }
    }

    return (ar1[n - 1] + ar2[0]) / 2;
}

int main()
{
 
   int arr1[]={1, 12, 15, 26, 38}, arr2[]={2, 13, 17, 30, 45};
   int n = sizeof(arr1)/sizeof(arr1[0]);
   
   printf("%d",getMedian(arr1, arr2, n));

   return 0;
}

Output :

16

Method 2 :

  • Create variable count. Keep track of count while comparing elements of two arrays.
  • Run a loop that will terminate when count > n.
  • If count becomes n(For 2n elements), we have reached the median.
  • Take the average of the elements at indexes n-1 and n in the merged array.

Time and Space Complexities :

  • Time-Complexity :O(n)
  • Space-Complexity : O(1)
Run
#include <stdio.h>

int getMedian(int ar1[], int ar2[], int n)
{
    int i = 0;
    int j = 0; 
    int count;
    int m1 = -1, m2 = -1;

         for (count = 0; count <= n; count++){
              if (i == n){
                  m1 = m2;
                  m2 = ar2[0];
                  break;
              }
             else if (j == n){
                 m1 = m2;
                 m2 = ar1[0];
                 break;
             }
            if (ar1[i] <= ar2[j]){
              /* Store the prev median */
              m1 = m2;
              m2 = ar1[i];
              i++;
            }
            else{
             /* Store the prev median */
             m1 = m2;
             m2 = ar2[j];
             j++;
            }
         }
    return (m1 + m2)/2;
}

int main()
{
 
   int arr1[]={1, 12, 15, 26, 38}, arr2[]={2, 13, 17, 30, 45};
   int n = sizeof(arr1)/sizeof(arr1[0]);
   
   printf("%d",getMedian(arr1, arr2, n));

   return 0;
}

Output :

16

Method 3  :

  • Find the medians of the given two arrays and store them in variable say m1 and m2.
  • Now, if m1=m2, then that will be the required output.
  • If m1>m2, then we check in the subarrays, arr1[0 – middle element] and in arr2[middle element – last].
  • If m2>m1, then we check in the subarrays, arr1[middle element – last] and in arr2[0-middle element ].
  • This will be the recursive process and repeat this till size of both the arrays become 2.
  • As, when the size will be 2 , we can use the formula :

    Median = (max(ar1[0], ar2[0]) + min(ar1[1], ar2[1]))/2

Time and Space Complexities :

  • Time-Complexity :O(logn)
  • Space-Complexity : O(1)
Run
#include<stdio.h> 

int max(int a, int b){
    if(a>b)
        return a;
    return b;
}

int min(int a, int b){
    if(a>b)
        return b;
    return a;
}

/* Function to get median of a sorted array */
int median(int arr[], int n)
{
   if (n%2 == 0)
    return (arr[n/2] + arr[n/2-1])/2;
   else
    return arr[n/2];
}

int getMedian(int ar1[], int ar2[], int n)
{

    if (n == 1)
      return (ar1[0] + ar2[0])/2;
    if (n == 2)
      return (max(ar1[0], ar2[0]) + min(ar1[1], ar2[1])) / 2;

    int m1 = median(ar1, n); 
    int m2 = median(ar2, n); 

    if (m1 == m2)
     return m1;

    if (m1 < m2)
    {
       if (n % 2 == 0)
         return getMedian(ar1 + n/2 - 1, ar2, n - n/2 +1);
       return getMedian(ar1 + n/2, ar2, n - n/2);
    }

    if (n % 2 == 0)
      return getMedian(ar2 + n/2 - 1, ar1, n - n/2 + 1);
    return getMedian(ar2 + n/2, ar1, n - n/2);
}

int main()
{
 
   int arr1[]={1, 12, 15, 26, 38}, arr2[]={2, 13, 17, 30, 45};
   int n = sizeof(arr1)/sizeof(arr1[0]);
   
   printf("%d",getMedian(arr1, arr2, n));

   return 0;
}

Output :

16

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