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author | Theo de Raadt <deraadt@cvs.openbsd.org> | 1995-10-18 08:53:40 +0000 |
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committer | Theo de Raadt <deraadt@cvs.openbsd.org> | 1995-10-18 08:53:40 +0000 |
commit | d6583bb2a13f329cf0332ef2570eb8bb8fc0e39c (patch) | |
tree | ece253b876159b39c620e62b6c9b1174642e070e /lib/libc/stdlib/qsort.3 |
initial import of NetBSD tree
Diffstat (limited to 'lib/libc/stdlib/qsort.3')
-rw-r--r-- | lib/libc/stdlib/qsort.3 | 234 |
1 files changed, 234 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/lib/libc/stdlib/qsort.3 b/lib/libc/stdlib/qsort.3 new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..e16ddf3d40a --- /dev/null +++ b/lib/libc/stdlib/qsort.3 @@ -0,0 +1,234 @@ +.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 +.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. +.\" +.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by +.\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information +.\" Processing Systems. +.\" +.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without +.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions +.\" are met: +.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright +.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. +.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright +.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the +.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. +.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software +.\" must display the following acknowledgement: +.\" This product includes software developed by the University of +.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. +.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors +.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software +.\" without specific prior written permission. +.\" +.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND +.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE +.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE +.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE +.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL +.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS +.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) +.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT +.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY +.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF +.\" SUCH DAMAGE. +.\" +.\" from: @(#)qsort.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 +.\" $Id: qsort.3,v 1.1 1995/10/18 08:42:18 deraadt Exp $ +.\" +.Dd June 4, 1993 +.Dt QSORT 3 +.Os +.Sh NAME +.Nm qsort, heapsort, mergesort +.Nd sort functions +.Sh SYNOPSIS +.Fd #include <stdlib.h> +.Ft void +.Fn qsort "void *base" "size_t nmemb" "size_t size" "int (*compar)(const void *, const void *)" +.Ft int +.Fn heapsort "void *base" "size_t nmemb" "size_t size" "int (*compar)(const void *, const void *)" +.Ft int +.Fn mergesort "void *base" "size_t nmemb" "size_t size" "int (*compar)(const void *, const void *)" +.Sh DESCRIPTION +The +.Fn qsort +function is a modified partition-exchange sort, or quicksort. +The +.Fn heapsort +function is a modified selection sort. +The +.Fn mergesort +function is a modified merge sort with exponential search +intended for sorting data with pre-existing order. +.Pp +The +.Fn qsort +and +.Fn heapsort +functions sort an array of +.Fa nmemb +objects, the initial member of which is pointed to by +.Fa base . +The size of each object is specified by +.Fa size . +.Fn Mergesort +behaves similarly, but +.Em requires +that +.Fa size +be greater than +.Dq "sizeof(void *) / 2" . +.Pp +The contents of the array +.Fa base +are sorted in ascending order according to +a comparison function pointed to by +.Fa compar , +which requires two arguments pointing to the objects being +compared. +.Pp +The comparison function must return an integer less than, equal to, or +greater than zero if the first argument is considered to be respectively +less than, equal to, or greater than the second. +.Pp +The functions +.Fn qsort +and +.Fn heapsort +are +.Em not +stable, that is, if two members compare as equal, their order in +the sorted array is undefined. +The function +.Fn mergesort +is stable. +.Pp +The +.Fn qsort +function is an implementation of C.A.R. Hoare's ``quicksort'' algorithm, +a variant of partition-exchange sorting; in particular, see D.E. Knuth's +Algorithm Q. +.Fn Qsort +takes O N lg N average time. +This implementation uses median selection to avoid its +O N**2 worst-case behavior. +.Pp +The +.Fn heapsort +function is an implementation of J.W.J. William's ``heapsort'' algorithm, +a variant of selection sorting; in particular, see D.E. Knuth's Algorithm H. +.Fn Heapsort +takes O N lg N worst-case time. +Its +.Em only +advantage over +.Fn qsort +is that it uses almost no additional memory; while +.Fn qsort +does not allocate memory, it is implemented using recursion. +.Pp +The function +.Fn mergesort +requires additional memory of size +.Fa nmemb * +.Fa size +bytes; it should be used only when space is not at a premium. +.Fn Mergesort +is optimized for data with pre-existing order; its worst case +time is O N lg N; its best case is O N. +.Pp +Normally, +.Fn qsort +is faster than +.Fn mergesort +is faster than +.Fn heapsort . +Memory availability and pre-existing order in the data can make this +untrue. +.Sh RETURN VALUES +The +.Fn qsort +function +returns no value. +.Pp +Upon successful completion, +.Fn heapsort +and +.Fn mergesort +return 0. +Otherwise, they return \-1 and the global variable +.Va errno +is set to indicate the error. +.Sh ERRORS +The +.Fn heapsort +function succeeds unless: +.Bl -tag -width Er +.It Bq Er EINVAL +The +.Fa size +argument is zero, or, +the +.Fa size +argument to +.Fn mergesort +is less than +.Dq "sizeof(void *) / 2" . +.It Bq Er ENOMEM +.Fn Heapsort +or +.Fn mergesort +were unable to allocate memory. +.El +.Sh COMPATIBILITY +Previous versions of +.Fn qsort +did not permit the comparison routine itself to call +.Fn qsort 3 . +This is no longer true. +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Xr sort 1 , +.Xr radixsort 3 +.Rs +.%A Hoare, C.A.R. +.%D 1962 +.%T "Quicksort" +.%J "The Computer Journal" +.%V 5:1 +.%P pp. 10-15 +.Re +.Rs +.%A Williams, J.W.J +.%D 1964 +.%T "Heapsort" +.%J "Communications of the ACM" +.%V 7:1 +.%P pp. 347-348 +.Re +.Rs +.%A Knuth, D.E. +.%D 1968 +.%B "The Art of Computer Programming" +.%V Vol. 3 +.%T "Sorting and Searching" +.%P pp. 114-123, 145-149 +.Re +.Rs +.%A Mcilroy, P.M. +.%T "Optimistic Sorting and Information Theoretic Complexity" +.%J "Fourth Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms" +.%V January 1992 +.Re +.Rs +.%A Bentley, J.L. +.%T "Engineering a Sort Function" +.%J "bentley@research.att.com" +.%V January 1992 +.Re +.Sh STANDARDS +The +.Fn qsort +function +conforms to +.St -ansiC . |