implementing merge sort in C++

To answer the question: Creating dynamically sized arrays at run-time is done using std::vector<T>. Ideally, you'd get your input using one of these. If not, it is easy to convert them. For example, you could create two arrays like this:

template <typename T>
void merge_sort(std::vector<T>& array) {
    if (1 < array.size()) {
        std::vector<T> array1(array.begin(), array.begin() + array.size() / 2);
        merge_sort(array1);
        std::vector<T> array2(array.begin() + array.size() / 2, array.end());
        merge_sort(array2);
        merge(array, array1, array2);
    }
}

However, allocating dynamic arrays is relatively slow and generally should be avoided when possible. For merge sort you can just sort subsequences of the original array and in-place merge them. It seems, std::inplace_merge() asks for bidirectional iterators.

Based on the code here: http://cplusplus.happycodings.com/algorithms/code17.html

// Merge Sort

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int a[50];
void merge(int,int,int);
void merge_sort(int low,int high)
{
 int mid;
 if(low<high)
 {
  mid = low + (high-low)/2; //This avoids overflow when low, high are too large
  merge_sort(low,mid);
  merge_sort(mid+1,high);
  merge(low,mid,high);
 }
}
void merge(int low,int mid,int high)
{
 int h,i,j,b[50],k;
 h=low;
 i=low;
 j=mid+1;

 while((h<=mid)&&(j<=high))
 {
  if(a[h]<=a[j])
  {
   b[i]=a[h];
   h++;
  }
  else
  {
   b[i]=a[j];
   j++;
  }
  i++;
 }
 if(h>mid)
 {
  for(k=j;k<=high;k++)
  {
   b[i]=a[k];
   i++;
  }
 }
 else
 {
  for(k=h;k<=mid;k++)
  {
   b[i]=a[k];
   i++;
  }
 }
 for(k=low;k<=high;k++) a[k]=b[k];
}
int main()
{
 int num,i;

cout<<"*******************************************************************
*************"<<endl;
 cout<<"                             MERGE SORT PROGRAM
"<<endl;

cout<<"*******************************************************************
*************"<<endl;
 cout<<endl<<endl;
 cout<<"Please Enter THE NUMBER OF ELEMENTS you want to sort [THEN 
PRESS
ENTER]:"<<endl;
 cin>>num;
 cout<<endl;
 cout<<"Now, Please Enter the ( "<< num <<" ) numbers (ELEMENTS) [THEN
PRESS ENTER]:"<<endl;
 for(i=1;i<=num;i++)
 {
  cin>>a[i] ;
 }
 merge_sort(1,num);
 cout<<endl;
 cout<<"So, the sorted list (using MERGE SORT) will be :"<<endl;
 cout<<endl<<endl;

 for(i=1;i<=num;i++)
 cout<<a[i]<<"  ";

 cout<<endl<<endl<<endl<<endl;
return 1;

}