Insertion Sort
Interactive lab
Try it: Insertion Sort
How insertion sort grows a sorted prefix by taking the next value and shifting larger ones right until it fits.
How it works
- The first value alone is a sorted prefix.
- Take the next value and compare it with the prefix from right to left.
- Shift every larger value one place right, then drop the value into the gap.
- Few steps on nearly sorted input; stable.
Default run (28 steps): Insertion sort, ascending: [8, 3, 5, 1, 9, 2]. … Sorted ascending: [1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9] — 12 comparisons, 9 shifts.
Simplified: Up to 12 numbers from 0 to 99. The comparison table runs all five algorithms on the same input. Python's own sort() uses Timsort.
Educational simulation
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