What does the word "key" really mean ? In the given link: http://www.jimloy.com/computer/radix.htm
if you scroll to the bottom, in the last paragraph it says "for any given length of key". I am trying to understand what does "key" refer to. Does it mean an individual member of an array, for example 51 in the above link? Or does it mean "the binary representation" of 51 which is 110011? Also, is the length of the key 6 in this case as the number of bits is 6? thank u!

Question

What does the word "key" really mean ?  In the given link: http://www.jimloy.com/computer/radix.htm
if you scroll to the bottom, in the last paragraph it says "for any given length of key". I am trying to understand what does "key" refer to. Does it mean an individual member of an array, for example 51 in the above link? Or does it mean "the binary representation" of 51 which is 110011? Also, is the length of the key 6 in this case as the number of bits is 6? thank u!

espex · Answer

The term "key", in this context, means the item in which is being sorted, in this example it is the binary representation.If this were a wordlist sort, the key would be the particular "word" being sorted.

anonymous · Answer

got it. thank you ! :)