Non-recursive merge sort with two nested loops - how?

Question

First question here, and yes this is a homework question. We are tasked with performing merge sort on an array (which I am familiar with), but in a way I am unsure of how to do.

Answer 1

Here is the Java Implementation

public static > void iterativeMergeSort(T[] seed) {

    for (int i = 1; i >  void inPlaceMerge(T[] collection, int low, int mid, int high) {
    int left = low;
    int right = mid + 1;

    if(collection[mid].equals(collection[right])) {
        return ;//Skip the merge if required
    }
    while (left <= mid && right <= high) {          
        // Select from left:  no change, just advance left
        if (collection[left].compareTo(collection[right]) <= 0) {
            left ++;
        } else { // Select from right:  rotate [left..right] and correct
            T tmp = collection[right]; // Will move to [left]
            rotateRight(collection, left, right - left);
            collection[left] = tmp;
            // EVERYTHING has moved up by one
            left ++; right ++; mid ++;
        }
    }       
}

Here is the Unit Test private Integer[] seed;

@Before
public void doBeforeEachTestCase() {
    this.seed = new Integer[]{4,2,3,1,5,8,7,6};
}
@Test
public void iterativeMergeSortFirstTest() {
    ArrayUtils.iterativeMergeSort(seed);
    Integer[] result = new Integer[]{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};
    assertThat(seed, equalTo(result));  
}