---
title: "Comparing Search Algorithms Using Sorting and Hashing on Disk and in Memory"
authors:
  - "Richard E. Korf"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2016/93"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2016/0093.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 2016
pages: "610-615"
track: ""
keywords:
---

# Comparing Search Algorithms Using Sorting and Hashing on Disk and in Memory

Richard E. Korf

*Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 610-615.

## Abstract

We compare sorting and hashing for implicit graph search using disk storage. We first describe efficient pipelined implementations of both algorithms, which reduce disk I/O. We then compare the two algorithms and find that hashing is faster, but that sorting requires less disk storage. We also compare disk-based with in-memory search, and surprisingly find that there is little or no time overhead associated with disk-based search. We present experimental results on the sliding-tile puzzles, Rubik's Cube, and the 4-peg Towers of Hanoi.