Count inversions in a string using Julia

inversion_count.jl

# Julia program to count number of inversions in a string
# using properties of the MergeSort algorithm

global inversions = 0

function arrange(xs, ys)
    result = Int64[]
    while (length(xs) > 0) & (length(ys) > 0)
        if xs[1]<=ys[1]
            push!(result,shift!(xs))
        else
            push!(result,shift!(ys))
            global inversions+=length(xs)
        end
    end
    if length(xs) > 0
        append!(result, xs)
    else
        append!(result, ys)
    end 
    return result
end

function merge_sort(xs)
    len = length(xs)
    if len == 1
        return xs
    end
    half=int(floor(len/2))
    lhalf=xs[1:half]
    rhalf=xs[half+1:end]
    return arrange(merge_sort(lhalf), merge_sort(rhalf))
end

function second_highest(xs, is_last=true)
    len=length(xs)
    if len == 1
        return xs
    end
    half=int(floor(len/2))
    lhalf=xs[1:half]
    rhalf=xs[half+1:end]
    lval = second_highest(lhalf,false)
    rval = second_highest(rhalf,false)
    if is_last
        return min(lval,rval)
    else
        return max(lval,rval)
    end
end

in = readdlm("IntegerArray.txt",'\n')
# println(size(in))
# x=merge_sort(in)
# println(x)
# println([1,2,3,4,5])
# x= merge_sort([1,2,3,4,5])
# x= merge_sort([1,3,5,2,4,6])
# println(x)
# println(inversions)

println(second_highest([1,2,3,9,3,4,10,8,7,6]))