xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3 (revision 0db87cb7)
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28.\"     @(#)radixsort.3	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/27/94
29.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3,v 1.12 2007/01/09 00:28:10 imp Exp $
30.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:26:46 dillon Exp $
31.\"
32.Dd January 27, 1994
33.Dt RADIXSORT 3
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm radixsort ,
37.Nm sradixsort
38.Nd radix sort
39.Sh LIBRARY
40.Lb libc
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In limits.h
43.In stdlib.h
44.Ft int
45.Fn radixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
46.Ft int
47.Fn sradixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Fn radixsort
51and
52.Fn sradixsort
53functions
54are implementations of radix sort.
55.Pp
56These functions sort an array of pointers to byte strings, the initial
57member of which is referenced by
58.Fa base .
59The byte strings may contain any values; the end of each string
60is denoted by the user-specified value
61.Fa endbyte .
62.Pp
63Applications may specify a sort order by providing the
64.Fa table
65argument.
66If
67.Pf non- Dv NULL ,
68.Fa table
69must reference an array of
70.Dv UCHAR_MAX
71+ 1 bytes which contains the sort
72weight of each possible byte value.
73The end-of-string byte must have a sort weight of 0 or 255
74(for sorting in reverse order).
75More than one byte may have the same sort weight.
76The
77.Fa table
78argument
79is useful for applications which wish to sort different characters
80equally, for example, providing a table with the same weights
81for A-Z as for a-z will result in a case-insensitive sort.
82If
83.Fa table
84is NULL, the contents of the array are sorted in ascending order
85according to the
86.Tn ASCII
87order of the byte strings they reference and
88.Fa endbyte
89has a sorting weight of 0.
90.Pp
91The
92.Fn sradixsort
93function is stable, that is, if two elements compare as equal, their
94order in the sorted array is unchanged.
95The
96.Fn sradixsort
97function uses additional memory sufficient to hold
98.Fa nmemb
99pointers.
100.Pp
101The
102.Fn radixsort
103function is not stable, but uses no additional memory.
104.Pp
105These functions are variants of most-significant-byte radix sorting; in
106particular, see
107.An "D.E. Knuth" Ns 's
108.%T "Algorithm R"
109and section 5.2.5, exercise 10.
110They take linear time relative to the number of bytes in the strings.
111.Sh RETURN VALUES
112.Rv -std radixsort
113.Sh ERRORS
114.Bl -tag -width Er
115.It Bq Er EINVAL
116The value of the
117.Fa endbyte
118element of
119.Fa table
120is not 0 or 255.
121.El
122.Pp
123Additionally, the
124.Fn sradixsort
125function
126may fail and set
127.Va errno
128for any of the errors specified for the library routine
129.Xr malloc 3 .
130.Sh SEE ALSO
131.Xr sort 1 ,
132.Xr qsort 3
133.Rs
134.%A Knuth, D.E.
135.%D 1968
136.%B "The Art of Computer Programming"
137.%T "Sorting and Searching"
138.%V Vol. 3
139.%P pp. 170-178
140.Re
141.Rs
142.%A Paige, R.
143.%D 1987
144.%T "Three Partition Refinement Algorithms"
145.%J "SIAM J. Comput."
146.%V Vol. 16
147.%N No. 6
148.Re
149.Rs
150.%A McIlroy, P.
151.%D 1993
152.%B "Engineering Radix Sort"
153.%T "Computing Systems"
154.%V Vol. 6:1
155.%P pp. 5-27
156.Re
157.Sh HISTORY
158The
159.Fn radixsort
160function first appeared in
161.Bx 4.4 .
162