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qsort is a C standard library function that implements a polymorphic sorting algorithm for arrays of arbitrary objects according to a user-provided comparison function. It is named after the "quicker sort" algorithm (a quicksort variant due to R. S. Scowen), which was originally used to implement it in the Unix C library, although the C standard does not require it to implement quicksort.[1]
Implementations of the qsort function achieve polymorphism, the ability to sort different kinds of data, by taking a function pointer to a three-way comparison function, as well as a parameter that specifies the size of its individual input objects. The C standard requires the comparison function to implement a total order on the items in the input array.[2]
A qsort function was implemented by Lee McMahon in 1972.[3][1] It was in place in Version 3 Unix as a library function, but was then an assembler subroutine.[3]
A C version, with roughly the interface of the standard C version, was in-place in Version 6 Unix.[4] It was rewritten in 1983 for BSD.[1] The function was standardized in ANSI C (1989).
In 1991, Bell Labs employees observed that McMahon's and BSD versions of qsort would consume quadratic time for some simple inputs. Thus Jon Bentley and Douglas McIlroy engineered a new faster and more robust implementation.[1]
The following piece of C code shows how to sort a list of integers using qsort.
#include <stdlib.h>
/* Comparison function. Receives two generic (void) pointers to the items under comparison. */
int compare_ints(const void *p, const void *q) {
int x = *(const int *)p;
int y = *(const int *)q;
/* Avoid return x - y, which can cause undefined behaviour
because of signed integer overflow. */
if (x < y)
return -1; // Return -1 if you want ascending, 1 if you want descending order.
else if (x > y)
return 1; // Return 1 if you want ascending, -1 if you want descending order.
return 0;
// All the logic is often alternatively written:
return (x > y) - (x < y);
}
/* Sort an array of n integers, pointed to by a. */
void sort_ints(int *a, size_t n) {
qsort(a, n, sizeof(*a), compare_ints);
}
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By: Wikipedia.org
Edited: 2021-06-18 15:16:22
Source: Wikipedia.org