In this article, I discuss the analysis and sorting of data while saving computational resources. Problem It is extremely rare to need to find the median or another percentile of a large set of unordered numbers, especially when you do not know the minimum, maximum, or the distribution of values in the set. However, when such a situation arises, it can cause a lot of headaches since obtaining an element by index requires sorting the entire set. The situation worsens when there is a lot of data and not enough free memory. The time spent on sorting can also play a significant role. Simple Solution What can be done to retrieve any element from a sorted set without sorting the entire set? You can analyze the data to determine approximately where the element with the desired index is located, thus simplifying the task of finding the needed element. Typically, such an analysis involves dividing the overall range of numbers into an appropriate number of ranges, reading the...