Question

What is the best sorting algorithm I can implement in C?

Answer 1

Depends on the data and the use of the sort.

Answer 2

Bubble sort is the simplest one but is the most expensive one. Expense won't matter if data size is small.

Answer 3

I want something better than the default qsort() :-P

Answer 4

Heapsort is a good one that also has nLOG(n) sort time. But, heap may not be the best structure to organize your data. Again, depends on the problem.

Answer 5

For numbers like zip codes, you can use Radix sort. It is N*M time where M is the number of digits.

Answer 6

BTW - quicksort() is on average nLOG(n) time, but really depends on the pivot you choose. Terrible pivots can make the algorithm just as bad as Bubble Sort.

Answer 7

How about timsort?

Answer 8

It is newer (after my time), but appears like a good one for data with many sorted elements already. Again, I suggest you evaluate these in the context of the data you are dealing with and the structure that is best needed to represent the data.

Answer 9

I want to sort characters in strings, where each string is a single english word.

Answer 10

If the string length is constrained (not arbitrarily large), Radix sort might work better. Review that one and see.

Answer 11

I will restrict it to 4-10 letter english words

Answer 12

or maybe just 4 :-P

Answer 13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_sort

Answer 14

If you are doing it for programming practice, I then would encourage you to do as many ways as you can. Gives you good practice and insight into each algorithm.

Answer 15

will this work?

char *sortedWord(const char *word, char *wbuf)
{
char *p1, *p2, *endwrd;
char t;
int swaps;

strcpy(wbuf, word);
endwrd = wbuf+strlen(wbuf);
do {
swaps = 0;
p1 = wbuf; p2 = endwrd-1;
while (p1<p2) {
if (*p2 > *p1) {
t = *p2; *p2 = *p1; *p1 = t;
swaps = 1;
}
p1++; p2--;
}
p1 = wbuf; p2 = p1+1;
while(p2 < endwrd) {
if (*p2 > *p1) {
t = *p2; *p2 = *p1; *p1 = t;
swaps = 1;
}
p1++; p2++;
}
} while (swaps);
return wbuf;
}

Answer 16

ONLY COME WHEN THIS QUESTIONS HAS BEEN ANSWERED
http://openstudy.com/?F486443823888OWAFDL=_#/updates/4ec93881e4b095539996a25a

Answer 17

Can you show an example with words so I understand what you are trying to achieve?