Sorting

Template:EncyclopedicSorting is a way of arranging a group of things in a specified order. Normally, the order is a "natural order." Examples of natural orders are counting order or alphabetical order. In computing, time and memory usage are of concern when sorting. Some algorithms are very fast, but use a lot of memory, or vice versa. Usually, speed has higher priority. The speed of an algorithm is often determined by the number of compares and/or swaps required. This is denoted as its "order" and is shown in Big O notation. For example, a Quicksort is usually noted for being of "order n log n" (where n is the size of the group). This shown in Big O notation as "O(n log(n))." Sorting algorithms often have different orders depending on characteristics of the group. For example, the Quicksort will perform at O(n^2) when the group is already ordered.

For complete implementations of various sorting algorithms, see Category:Sorting Algorithms.

For examples of how to use sorting functionality provided by a language, see:

• Sort an array of composite structures
• Sorting an Array of Integers
• Sorting Using a Custom Comparator