我会这样做:

initialize empty doubly linked list l
for each element e in array
    if e larger than head(l)
        make e the new head of l
        if size(l) > k
            remove last element from l

the last element of l should now be the kth largest element

您可以简单地存储指向链表中第一个和最后一个元素的指针。它们只在更新列表时更改。

更新:

initialize empty sorted tree l
for each element e in array
    if e between head(l) and tail(l)
        insert e into l // O(log k)
        if size(l) > k
            remove last element from l

the last element of l should now be the kth largest element

下面是一个随机化快速选择的c++实现。这个想法是随机选择一个主元。为了实现随机分区，我们使用一个随机函数rand()来生成l和r之间的索引，将随机生成索引处的元素与最后一个元素交换，最后调用以最后一个元素为枢轴的标准分区过程。

#include<iostream>
#include<climits>
#include<cstdlib>
using namespace std;

int randomPartition(int arr[], int l, int r);

// This function returns k'th smallest element in arr[l..r] using
// QuickSort based method.  ASSUMPTION: ALL ELEMENTS IN ARR[] ARE DISTINCT
int kthSmallest(int arr[], int l, int r, int k)
{
    // If k is smaller than number of elements in array
    if (k > 0 && k <= r - l + 1)
    {
        // Partition the array around a random element and
        // get position of pivot element in sorted array
        int pos = randomPartition(arr, l, r);

        // If position is same as k
        if (pos-l == k-1)
            return arr[pos];
        if (pos-l > k-1)  // If position is more, recur for left subarray
            return kthSmallest(arr, l, pos-1, k);

        // Else recur for right subarray
        return kthSmallest(arr, pos+1, r, k-pos+l-1);
    }

    // If k is more than number of elements in array
    return INT_MAX;
}

void swap(int *a, int *b)
{
    int temp = *a;
    *a = *b;
    *b = temp;
}

// Standard partition process of QuickSort().  It considers the last
// element as pivot and moves all smaller element to left of it and
// greater elements to right. This function is used by randomPartition()
int partition(int arr[], int l, int r)
{
    int x = arr[r], i = l;
    for (int j = l; j <= r - 1; j++)
    {
        if (arr[j] <= x) //arr[i] is bigger than arr[j] so swap them
        {
            swap(&arr[i], &arr[j]);
            i++;
        }
    }
    swap(&arr[i], &arr[r]); // swap the pivot
    return i;
}

// Picks a random pivot element between l and r and partitions
// arr[l..r] around the randomly picked element using partition()
int randomPartition(int arr[], int l, int r)
{
    int n = r-l+1;
    int pivot = rand() % n;
    swap(&arr[l + pivot], &arr[r]);
    return partition(arr, l, r);
}

// Driver program to test above methods
int main()
{
    int arr[] = {12, 3, 5, 7, 4, 19, 26};
    int n = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]), k = 3;
    cout << "K'th smallest element is " << kthSmallest(arr, 0, n-1, k);
    return 0;
}

上述解的最坏情况时间复杂度仍为O(n2)。在最坏的情况下，随机函数可能总是选择一个角元素。上述随机化QuickSelect的期望时间复杂度为Θ(n)

还有Wirth的选择算法，它的实现比QuickSelect简单。Wirth的选择算法比QuickSelect慢，但经过一些改进，它变得更快。

更详细地说。使用Vladimir Zabrodsky的MODIFIND优化和3中位数的枢轴选择，并注意算法划分部分的最后步骤，我提出了以下算法(想象一下，命名为“LefSelect”):

#define F_SWAP(a,b) { float temp=(a);(a)=(b);(b)=temp; }

# Note: The code needs more than 2 elements to work
float lefselect(float a[], const int n, const int k) {
    int l=0, m = n-1, i=l, j=m;
    float x;

    while (l<m) {
        if( a[k] < a[i] ) F_SWAP(a[i],a[k]);
        if( a[j] < a[i] ) F_SWAP(a[i],a[j]);
        if( a[j] < a[k] ) F_SWAP(a[k],a[j]);

        x=a[k];
        while (j>k & i<k) {
            do i++; while (a[i]<x);
            do j--; while (a[j]>x);

            F_SWAP(a[i],a[j]);
        }
        i++; j--;

        if (j<k) {
            while (a[i]<x) i++;
            l=i; j=m;
        }
        if (k<i) {
            while (x<a[j]) j--;
            m=j; i=l;
        }
    }
    return a[k];
}

在我这里做的基准测试中，LefSelect比QuickSelect快20-30%。

在线性时间内找到数组的中值，然后使用与快速排序完全相同的划分程序将数组分为两部分，中值左边的值小于(<)中值，右边的值大于(>)中值，这也可以在线性时间内完成，现在，找到数组中第k个元素所在的部分， 现在递归式变成: T(n) = T(n/2) + cn 得到O (n) /。

Haskell的解决方案:

kthElem index list = sort list !! index

withShape ~[]     []     = []
withShape ~(x:xs) (y:ys) = x : withShape xs ys

sort []     = []
sort (x:xs) = (sort ls `withShape` ls) ++ [x] ++ (sort rs `withShape` rs)
  where
   ls = filter (<  x)
   rs = filter (>= x)

这通过使用withShape方法来实现中值解的中值，从而发现分区的大小，而无需实际计算分区大小。

中位数中位数算法的解释可以在这里找到n中第k大的整数: http://cs.indstate.edu/~spitla/presentation.pdf

c++中的实现如下:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;

int findMedian(vector<int> vec){
//    Find median of a vector
    int median;
    size_t size = vec.size();
    median = vec[(size/2)];
    return median;
}

int findMedianOfMedians(vector<vector<int> > values){
    vector<int> medians;

    for (int i = 0; i < values.size(); i++) {
        int m = findMedian(values[i]);
        medians.push_back(m);
    }

    return findMedian(medians);
}

void selectionByMedianOfMedians(const vector<int> values, int k){
//    Divide the list into n/5 lists of 5 elements each
    vector<vector<int> > vec2D;

    int count = 0;
    while (count != values.size()) {
        int countRow = 0;
        vector<int> row;

        while ((countRow < 5) && (count < values.size())) {
            row.push_back(values[count]);
            count++;
            countRow++;
        }
        vec2D.push_back(row);
    }

    cout<<endl<<endl<<"Printing 2D vector : "<<endl;
    for (int i = 0; i < vec2D.size(); i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < vec2D[i].size(); j++) {
            cout<<vec2D[i][j]<<" ";
        }
        cout<<endl;
    }
    cout<<endl;

//    Calculating a new pivot for making splits
    int m = findMedianOfMedians(vec2D);
    cout<<"Median of medians is : "<<m<<endl;

//    Partition the list into unique elements larger than 'm' (call this sublist L1) and
//    those smaller them 'm' (call this sublist L2)
    vector<int> L1, L2;

    for (int i = 0; i < vec2D.size(); i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < vec2D[i].size(); j++) {
            if (vec2D[i][j] > m) {
                L1.push_back(vec2D[i][j]);
            }else if (vec2D[i][j] < m){
                L2.push_back(vec2D[i][j]);
            }
        }
    }

//    Checking the splits as per the new pivot 'm'
    cout<<endl<<"Printing L1 : "<<endl;
    for (int i = 0; i < L1.size(); i++) {
        cout<<L1[i]<<" ";
    }

    cout<<endl<<endl<<"Printing L2 : "<<endl;
    for (int i = 0; i < L2.size(); i++) {
        cout<<L2[i]<<" ";
    }

//    Recursive calls
    if ((k - 1) == L1.size()) {
        cout<<endl<<endl<<"Answer :"<<m;
    }else if (k <= L1.size()) {
        return selectionByMedianOfMedians(L1, k);
    }else if (k > (L1.size() + 1)){
        return selectionByMedianOfMedians(L2, k-((int)L1.size())-1);
    }

}

int main()
{
    int values[] = {2, 3, 5, 4, 1, 12, 11, 13, 16, 7, 8, 6, 10, 9, 17, 15, 19, 20, 18, 23, 21, 22, 25, 24, 14};

    vector<int> vec(values, values + 25);

    cout<<"The given array is : "<<endl;
    for (int i = 0; i < vec.size(); i++) {
        cout<<vec[i]<<" ";
    }

    selectionByMedianOfMedians(vec, 8);

    return 0;
}