xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3 (revision 6e23b9dc)
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30.Dd $Mdocdate: August 4 2022 $
31.Dt RADIXSORT 3
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm radixsort ,
35.Nm sradixsort
36.Nd radix sort
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.In limits.h
39.In stdlib.h
40.Ft int
41.Fn radixsort "const u_char **base" "int nmemb" "const u_char *table" "u_int endbyte"
42.Ft int
43.Fn sradixsort "const u_char **base" "int nmemb" "const u_char *table" "u_int endbyte"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Fn radixsort
47and
48.Fn sradixsort
49functions are implementations of radix sort.
50.Pp
51These functions sort an array of
52.Fa nmemb
53pointers to byte strings.
54The initial member is referenced by
55.Fa base .
56The byte strings may contain any values; the end of each string
57is denoted by the user-specified value
58.Fa endbyte .
59.Pp
60Applications may specify a sort order by providing the
61.Fa table
62argument.
63If non-null,
64.Fa table
65must reference an array of
66.Dv UCHAR_MAX
67+ 1 bytes which contains the sort weight of each possible byte value.
68The end-of-string byte must have a sort weight of 0 or 255
69(for sorting in reverse order).
70More than one byte may have the same sort weight.
71The
72.Fa table
73argument is useful for applications which wish to sort different characters
74equally; for example, providing a table with the same weights
75for A\-Z as for a\-z will result in a case-insensitive sort.
76If
77.Fa table
78is
79.Dv NULL ,
80the contents of the array are sorted in ascending order according to the
81ASCII order of the byte strings they reference and
82.Fa endbyte
83has a sorting weight of 0.
84.Pp
85The
86.Fn sradixsort
87function is stable; that is, if two elements compare as equal, their
88order in the sorted array is unchanged.
89The
90.Fn sradixsort
91function uses additional memory sufficient to hold
92.Fa nmemb
93pointers.
94.Pp
95The
96.Fn radixsort
97function is not stable, but uses no additional memory.
98.Pp
99These functions are variants of most-significant-byte radix sorting; in
100particular, see D.E. Knuth's Algorithm R and section 5.2.5, exercise 10.
101They take linear time relative to the number of bytes in the strings.
102.Sh RETURN VALUES
103.Rv -std
104.Sh ERRORS
105.Bl -tag -width Er
106.It Bq Er EINVAL
107The value of the
108.Fa endbyte
109element of
110.Fa table
111is not 0 or 255.
112.El
113.Pp
114Additionally, the
115.Fn sradixsort
116function may fail and set
117.Va errno
118for any of the errors specified for the library routine
119.Xr malloc 3 .
120.Sh SEE ALSO
121.Xr sort 1 ,
122.Xr qsort 3
123.Rs
124.%A Knuth, D.E.
125.%D 1968
126.%B "The Art of Computer Programming"
127.%T "Sorting and Searching"
128.%V Vol. 3
129.%P pp. 170-178
130.Re
131.Rs
132.%A Paige, R.
133.%D 1987
134.%T "Three Partition Refinement Algorithms"
135.%J "SIAM J. Comput."
136.%V Vol. 16
137.%N No. 6
138.Re
139.Rs
140.%A McIlroy, P.
141.%D 1993
142.%B "Engineering Radix Sort"
143.%T "Computing Systems"
144.%V Vol. 6:1
145.%P pp. 5-27
146.Re
147.Sh HISTORY
148The
149.Fn radixsort
150function first appeared in
151.Bx 4.3 Net/2 .
152