xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3 (revision 2cd2d2b5)
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32.\"     @(#)radixsort.3	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/27/94
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3,v 1.5.2.4 2001/12/14 18:33:58 ru Exp $
34.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:26:46 dillon Exp $
35.\"
36.Dd January 27, 1994
37.Dt RADIXSORT 3
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm radixsort
41.Nd radix sort
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In limits.h
46.In stdlib.h
47.Ft int
48.Fn radixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
49.Ft int
50.Fn sradixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Fn radixsort
54and
55.Fn sradixsort
56functions
57are implementations of radix sort.
58.Pp
59These functions sort an array of pointers to byte strings, the initial
60member of which is referenced by
61.Fa base .
62The byte strings may contain any values; the end of each string
63is denoted by the user-specified value
64.Fa endbyte .
65.Pp
66Applications may specify a sort order by providing the
67.Fa table
68argument.
69If
70.Pf non- Dv NULL ,
71.Fa table
72must reference an array of
73.Dv UCHAR_MAX
74+ 1 bytes which contains the sort
75weight of each possible byte value.
76The end-of-string byte must have a sort weight of 0 or 255
77(for sorting in reverse order).
78More than one byte may have the same sort weight.
79The
80.Fa table
81argument
82is useful for applications which wish to sort different characters
83equally, for example, providing a table with the same weights
84for A-Z as for a-z will result in a case-insensitive sort.
85If
86.Fa table
87is NULL, the contents of the array are sorted in ascending order
88according to the
89.Tn ASCII
90order of the byte strings they reference and
91.Fa endbyte
92has a sorting weight of 0.
93.Pp
94The
95.Fn sradixsort
96function is stable, that is, if two elements compare as equal, their
97order in the sorted array is unchanged.
98The
99.Fn sradixsort
100function uses additional memory sufficient to hold
101.Fa nmemb
102pointers.
103.Pp
104The
105.Fn radixsort
106function is not stable, but uses no additional memory.
107.Pp
108These functions are variants of most-significant-byte radix sorting; in
109particular, see D.E. Knuth's Algorithm R and 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.Pp
134.Rs
135.%A Knuth, D.E.
136.%D 1968
137.%B "The Art of Computer Programming"
138.%T "Sorting and Searching"
139.%V Vol. 3
140.%P pp. 170-178
141.Re
142.Rs
143.%A Paige, R.
144.%D 1987
145.%T "Three Partition Refinement Algorithms"
146.%J "SIAM J. Comput."
147.%V Vol. 16
148.%N No. 6
149.Re
150.Rs
151.%A McIlroy, P.
152.%D 1993
153.%B "Engineering Radix Sort"
154.%T "Computing Systems"
155.%V Vol. 6:1
156.%P pp. 5-27
157.Re
158.Sh HISTORY
159The
160.Fn radixsort
161function first appeared in
162.Bx 4.4 .
163