Sorting lists using mergesort

Author: Jean-Christophe Filliâtre (CNRS)

module Elt

  use export int.Int
  use export list.List
  use export list.Length
  use export list.Append
  use export list.Permut

  type elt
  val predicate le elt elt
  clone relations.TotalPreOrder
    with type t = elt, predicate rel = le, axiom .
  clone export list.Sorted with
    type t = elt, predicate le  = le, goal Transitive.Trans

end

recursive (and naive) merging of two sorted lists

module Merge (* : MergeSpec *)

  clone export Elt with axiom .

  let rec merge (l1 l2: list elt) : list elt
    requires { sorted l1 /\ sorted l2 }
    ensures  { sorted result }
    ensures  { permut result (l1 ++ l2) }
    variant  { length l1 + length l2 }
  = match l1, l2 with
    | Nil, _ -> l2
    | _, Nil -> l1
    | Cons x1 r1, Cons x2 r2 ->
       if le x1 x2 then Cons x1 (merge r1 l2) else Cons x2 (merge l1 r2)
    end

end

tail recursive implementation

module EfficientMerge (* : MergeSpec *)

  clone export Elt with axiom .
  use list.Mem
  use list.Reverse
  use list.RevAppend

  lemma sorted_reverse_cons:
    forall acc x1. sorted (reverse acc) ->
    (forall x. mem x acc -> le x x1) -> sorted (reverse (Cons x1 acc))

  let rec merge_aux (acc l1 l2: list elt) : list elt
    requires { sorted (reverse acc) /\ sorted l1 /\ sorted l2 }
    requires { forall x y: elt. mem x acc -> mem y l1 -> le x y }
    requires { forall x y: elt. mem x acc -> mem y l2 -> le x y }
    ensures  { sorted result }
    ensures  { permut result (acc ++ l1 ++ l2) }
    variant  { length l1 + length l2 }
  = match l1, l2 with
    | Nil, _ -> rev_append acc l2
    | _, Nil -> rev_append acc l1
    | Cons x1 r1, Cons x2 r2 ->
       if le x1 x2 then merge_aux (Cons x1 acc) r1 l2
                   else merge_aux (Cons x2 acc) l1 r2
    end

  let merge (l1 l2: list elt) : list elt
    requires { sorted l1 /\ sorted l2 }
    ensures  { sorted result /\ permut result (l1 ++ l2) }
  =
    merge_aux Nil l1 l2

end

Mergesort.

This implementation splits the input list in two according to even- and odd-order elements (see function split below). Thus it is not stable. For a stable implementation, see below module OCamlMergesort.

module Mergesort

  clone Merge (* or EfficientMerge *) with axiom .

  let split (l0: list 'a) : (list 'a, list 'a)
    requires { length l0 >= 2 }
    ensures  { let l1, l2 = result in
      1 <= length l1 /\ 1 <= length l2 /\ permut l0 (l1 ++ l2) }
  = let rec split_aux (l1 l2 l: list 'a) : (list 'a, list 'a)
      requires { length l2 = length l1 \/ length l2 = length l1 + 1 }
      ensures  { let r1, r2 = result in
        (length r2 = length r1 \/ length r2 = length r1 + 1) /\
        permut (r1 ++ r2) (l1 ++ (l2 ++ l)) }
      variant { length l }
    = match l with
      | Nil -> l1, l2
      | Cons x r -> split_aux l2 (Cons x l1) r
      end
    in
    split_aux Nil Nil l0

  let rec mergesort (l: list elt) : list elt
    ensures { sorted result /\ permut result l }
    variant { length l }
  = match l with
      | Nil | Cons _ Nil -> l
      | _ -> let l1, l2 = split l in merge (mergesort l1) (mergesort l2)
    end

end

OCaml's List.sort

There are several ideas here:

- instead of splitting the list in two, sort takes the length of the prefix to be sorted; hence there is nothing to do to get the first half and the second half is obtained with chop (which does not allocate at all)

- all functions are tail recursive. To avoid the extra cost of List.rev, sort is duplicated in two versions that respectively sort in order and in reverse order (sort and sort_rev) and merge is duplicated as well (rev_merge and rev_merge_rev).

Note: this is a stable sort, but stability is not proved here.

module OCamlMergesort

  clone export Elt with axiom .
  use list.Mem
  use list.Reverse
  use list.RevAppend

  lemma sorted_reverse_cons:
    forall acc x1. sorted (reverse acc) ->
    (forall x. mem x acc -> le x x1) -> sorted (reverse (Cons x1 acc))

  lemma sorted_rev_append: forall acc l: list elt.
    sorted (reverse acc) ->
    sorted l ->
    (forall x y. mem x acc -> mem y l -> le x y) ->
    sorted (reverse (rev_append l acc))

  let rec rev_merge (l1 l2 accu: list elt) : list elt
    requires { sorted (reverse accu) /\ sorted l1 /\ sorted l2 }
    requires { forall x y: elt. mem x accu -> mem y l1 -> le x y }
    requires { forall x y: elt. mem x accu -> mem y l2 -> le x y }
    ensures  { sorted (reverse result) }
    ensures  { permut result (accu ++ l1 ++ l2) }
    variant  { length l1 + length l2 }
  = match l1, l2 with
    | Nil, _ -> rev_append l2 accu
    | _, Nil -> rev_append l1 accu
    | Cons h1 t1, Cons h2 t2 ->
       if le h1 h2 then rev_merge t1 l2 (Cons h1 accu)
                   else rev_merge l1 t2 (Cons h2 accu)
    end

  lemma sorted_reverse_mem:
    forall x l. sorted (reverse (Cons x l)) -> forall y. mem y l -> le y x

  lemma sorted_reverse_cons2:
    forall x l. sorted (reverse (Cons x l)) -> sorted (reverse l)

  let rec rev_merge_rev (l1 l2 accu: list elt) : list elt
    requires { sorted accu /\ sorted (reverse l1) /\ sorted (reverse l2) }
    requires { forall x y: elt. mem x accu -> mem y l1 -> le y x }
    requires { forall x y: elt. mem x accu -> mem y l2 -> le y x }
    ensures  { sorted result }
    ensures  { permut result (accu ++ l1 ++ l2) }
    variant  { length l1 + length l2 }
  = match l1, l2 with
    | Nil, _ -> rev_append l2 accu
    | _, Nil -> rev_append l1 accu
    | Cons h1 t1, Cons h2 t2 ->
       if not (le h1 h2) then rev_merge_rev t1 l2 (Cons h1 accu)
                         else rev_merge_rev l1 t2 (Cons h2 accu)
    end

  function prefix int (list 'a) : list 'a

  axiom prefix_def1:
    forall l: list 'a. prefix 0 l = Nil
  axiom prefix_def2:
    forall n: int, x: 'a, l: list 'a. n > 0 ->
    prefix n (Cons x l) = Cons x (prefix (n-1) l)

  let rec lemma prefix_length (n: int) (l: list 'a)
    requires { 0 <= n <= length l } ensures { length (prefix n l) = n }
    variant { n } =
    if n > 0 then match l with Nil -> () | Cons _ r -> prefix_length (n-1) r end

  let rec lemma prefix_append (n: int) (l1 l2: list 'a)
    requires { length l1 <= n <= length l1 + length l2 }
    ensures  { prefix n (l1 ++ l2) =
               prefix (length l1) l1 ++ prefix (n - length l1) l2 }
    variant  { l1 }
  = match l1 with Nil -> () | Cons _ t -> prefix_append (n-1) t l2 end

  let rec chop (n: int) (l: list 'a) : list 'a
    requires { 0 <= n <= length l }
    ensures  { l = prefix n l ++ result }
    variant  { n }
  =
    if n = 0 then l else
    match l with
      | Cons _ t -> chop (n-1) t
      | Nil -> absurd
    end

sort n l sorts prefix n l and rev_sort n l sorts prefix n l in reverse order.

  use mach.int.Int

  let rec sort (n: int) (l: list elt) : list elt
    requires { 2 <= n <= length l }
    ensures  { sorted result }
    ensures  { permut result (prefix n l) }
    variant  { n }
  =
    if n = 2 then match l with
      | Cons x1 (Cons x2 _) ->
          if le x1 x2 then Cons x1 (Cons x2 Nil) else Cons x2 (Cons x1 Nil)
      | _ -> absurd
    end else if n = 3 then match l with
      | Cons x1 (Cons x2 (Cons x3 _)) ->
           if le x1 x2 then
             if le x2 x3 then Cons x1 (Cons x2 (Cons x3 Nil))
             else if le x1 x3 then Cons x1 (Cons x3 (Cons x2 Nil))
             else Cons x3 (Cons x1 (Cons x2 Nil))
           else
             if le x1 x3 then Cons x2 (Cons x1 (Cons x3 Nil))
             else if le x2 x3 then Cons x2 (Cons x3 (Cons x1 Nil))
             else Cons x3 (Cons x2 (Cons x1 Nil))
       | _ -> absurd
    end else begin
      let n1 = n / 2 in
      let n2 = n - n1 in
      let l2 = chop n1 l in
      assert { prefix n1 l ++ prefix n2 l2 = prefix n l };
      let s1 = rev_sort n1 l in
      let s2 = rev_sort n2 l2 in
      rev_merge_rev s1 s2 Nil
   end

  with rev_sort (n: int) (l: list elt) : list elt
    requires { 2 <= n <= length l }
    ensures  { sorted (reverse result) }
    ensures  { permut result (prefix n l) }
    variant  { n }
  =
    if n = 2 then match l with
      | Cons x1 (Cons x2 _) ->
          if not (le x1 x2) then Cons x1 (Cons x2 Nil)
          else Cons x2 (Cons x1 Nil)
      | _ -> absurd
    end else if n = 3 then match l with
      | Cons x1 (Cons x2 (Cons x3 _)) ->
           if not (le x1 x2) then
             if not (le x2 x3) then Cons x1 (Cons x2 (Cons x3 Nil))
             else if not (le x1 x3) then Cons x1 (Cons x3 (Cons x2 Nil))
             else Cons x3 (Cons x1 (Cons x2 Nil))
           else
             if not (le x1 x3) then Cons x2 (Cons x1 (Cons x3 Nil))
             else if not (le x2 x3) then Cons x2 (Cons x3 (Cons x1 Nil))
             else Cons x3 (Cons x2 (Cons x1 Nil))
       | _ -> absurd
    end else begin
      let n1 = n / 2 in
      let n2 = n - n1 in
      let l2 = chop n1 l in
      assert { prefix n1 l ++ prefix n2 l2 = prefix n l };
      let s1 = sort n1 l in
      let s2 = sort n2 l2 in
      rev_merge s1 s2 Nil
    end

  lemma permut_prefix: forall l: list elt. permut (prefix (length l) l) l

  let mergesort (l: list elt) : list elt
    ensures { sorted result /\ permut result l }
  =
    let n = length l in
    if n < 2 then begin
      assert { sorted l by match l with
               Nil | Cons _ Nil -> sorted l | _ -> false end }; l end
    else sort n l

end