QSORT(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						  QSORT(3)

NAME

     qsort, qsort_b, qsort_r, heapsort, heapsort_b, mergesort, mergesort_b -- sort functions

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <stdlib.h>

     void
     qsort(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));

     void
     qsort_b(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, int (^compar)(const void *, const void *));

     void
     qsort_r(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, void *thunk, int (*compar)(void *, const void *, const void *));

     int
     heapsort(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));

     int
     heapsort_b(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, int (^compar)(const void *, const void *));

     int
     mergesort(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));

     int
     mergesort_b(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, int (^compar)(const void *, const void *));

DESCRIPTION

     The qsort() function is a modified partition-exchange sort, or quicksort.	The heapsort() function is a modified selection sort.  The
     mergesort() function is a modified merge sort with exponential search intended for sorting data with pre-existing order.

     The qsort() and heapsort() functions sort an array of nmemb objects, the initial member of which is pointed to by base.  The size of each
     object is specified by size.  The mergesort() function behaves similarly, but requires that size be greater than ``sizeof(void *) / 2''.

     The contents of the array base are sorted in ascending order according to a comparison function pointed to by compar, which requires two
     arguments pointing to the objects being compared.

     The comparison function must return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if the first argument is considered to be respec-
     tively less than, equal to, or greater than the second.

     The qsort_r() function behaves identically to qsort(), except that it takes an additional argument, thunk, which is passed unchanged as the
     first argument to function pointed to compar.  This allows the comparison function to access additional data without using global variables,
     and thus qsort_r() is suitable for use in functions which must be reentrant.  The qsort_b() function behaves identically to qsort(), except
     that it takes a block, rather than a function pointer.

     The algorithms implemented by qsort(), qsort_r(), and heapsort() are not stable, that is, if two members compare as equal, their order in the
     sorted array is undefined.  The heapsort_b() function behaves identically to heapsort(), except that it takes a block, rather than a function
     pointer.  The mergesort() algorithm is stable.  The mergesort_b() function behaves identically to mergesort(), except that it takes a block,
     rather than a function pointer.

     The qsort() and qsort_r() functions are an implementation of C.A.R.  Hoare's ``quicksort'' algorithm, a variant of partition-exchange sort-
     ing; in particular, see D.E. Knuth's Algorithm Q.	Quicksort takes O N lg N average time.	This implementation uses median selection to avoid
     its O N**2 worst-case behavior.

     The heapsort() function is an implementation of J.W.J. William's ``heapsort'' algorithm, a variant of selection sorting; in particular, see
     D.E. Knuth's Algorithm H.	Heapsort takes O N lg N worst-case time.  Its only advantage over qsort() is that it uses almost no additional
     memory; while qsort() does not allocate memory, it is implemented using recursion.

     The function mergesort() requires additional memory of size nmemb * size bytes; it should be used only when space is not at a premium.  The
     mergesort() function is optimized for data with pre-existing order; its worst case time is O N lg N; its best case is O N.

     Normally, qsort() is faster than mergesort() is faster than heapsort().  Memory availability and pre-existing order in the data can make this
     untrue.

RETURN VALUES

     The qsort() and qsort_r() functions return no value.

     The heapsort() and mergesort() functions return the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno
     is set to indicate the error.

EXAMPLES

     A sample program that sorts an array of int values in place using qsort(), and then prints the sorted array to standard output is:

     #include <stdio.h>
     #include <stdlib.h>

     /*
      * Custom comparison function that can compare 'int' values through pointers
      * passed by qsort(3).
      */
     static int
     int_compare(const void *p1, const void *p2)
     {
	     int left = *(const int *)p1;
	     int right = *(const int *)p2;

	     return ((left > right) - (left < right));
     }

     /*
      * Sort an array of 'int' values and print it to standard output.
      */
     int
     main(void)
     {
	    int int_array[] = { 4, 5, 9, 3, 0, 1, 7, 2, 8, 6 };
	    const size_t array_size = sizeof(int_array) / sizeof(int_array[0]);
	    size_t k;

	    qsort(&int_array, array_size, sizeof(int_array[0]), int_compare);
	    for (k = 0; k < array_size; k++)
		     printf(" %d", int_array[k]);
	     puts("");
	     return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
     }

COMPATIBILITY

     Previous versions of qsort() did not permit the comparison routine itself to call qsort(3).  This is no longer true.

ERRORS

     The heapsort() and mergesort() functions succeed unless:

     [EINVAL]		The size argument is zero, or, the size argument to mergesort() is less than ``sizeof(void *) / 2''.

     [ENOMEM]		The heapsort() or mergesort() functions were unable to allocate memory.

SEE ALSO

     sort(1), radixsort(3)

     Hoare, C.A.R., "Quicksort", The Computer Journal, 5:1, pp. 10-15, 1962.

     Williams, J.W.J, "Heapsort", Communications of the ACM, 7:1, pp. 347-348, 1964.

     Knuth, D.E., "Sorting and Searching", The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 3, pp. 114-123, 145-149, 1968.

     McIlroy, P.M., "Optimistic Sorting and Information Theoretic Complexity", Fourth Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, January
     1992.

     Bentley, J.L.  and McIlroy, M.D., "Engineering a Sort Function", Software--Practice and Experience, Vol. 23(11), pp. 1249-1265,
     November 1993.

STANDARDS

     The qsort() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (``ISO C90'').

HISTORY

     The variants of these functions that take blocks as arguments first appeared in Mac OS X.	This implementation was created by David Chisnall.

BSD
								 February 20, 2013							       BSD