xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3 (revision 1a0a934547909744a6a2fa4cfd5b795ec6394f05)
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32.\"     @(#)radixsort.3	8.2 (Berkeley) 1/27/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd January 27, 1994
36.Dt RADIXSORT 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm radixsort , sradixsort
40.Nd radix sort
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In limits.h
45.In stdlib.h
46.Ft int
47.Fn radixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
48.Ft int
49.Fn sradixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Fn radixsort
53and
54.Fn sradixsort
55functions
56are implementations of radix sort.
57.Pp
58These functions sort an array of pointers to byte strings, the initial
59member of which is referenced by
60.Fa base .
61The byte strings may contain any values; the end of each string
62is denoted by the user-specified value
63.Fa endbyte .
64.Pp
65Applications may specify a sort order by providing the
66.Fa table
67argument.
68If
69.Pf non- Dv NULL ,
70.Fa table
71must reference an array of
72.Dv UCHAR_MAX
73+ 1 bytes which contains the sort
74weight of each possible byte value.
75The end-of-string byte must have a sort weight of 0 or 255
76(for sorting in reverse order).
77More than one byte may have the same sort weight.
78The
79.Fa table
80argument
81is useful for applications which wish to sort different characters
82equally, for example, providing a table with the same weights
83for A-Z as for a-z will result in a case-insensitive sort.
84If
85.Fa table
86is NULL, the contents of the array are sorted in ascending order
87according to the
88.Tn ASCII
89order of the byte strings they reference and
90.Fa endbyte
91has a sorting weight of 0.
92.Pp
93The
94.Fn sradixsort
95function is stable, that is, if two elements compare as equal, their
96order in the sorted array is unchanged.
97The
98.Fn sradixsort
99function uses additional memory sufficient to hold
100.Fa nmemb
101pointers.
102.Pp
103The
104.Fn radixsort
105function is not stable, but uses no additional memory.
106.Pp
107These functions are variants of most-significant-byte radix sorting; in
108particular, see
109.An "D.E. Knuth" Ns 's
110.%T "Algorithm R"
111and section 5.2.5, exercise 10.
112They take linear time relative to the number of bytes in the strings.
113.Sh RETURN VALUES
114.Rv -std radixsort
115.Sh ERRORS
116.Bl -tag -width Er
117.It Bq Er EINVAL
118The value of the
119.Fa endbyte
120element of
121.Fa table
122is not 0 or 255.
123.El
124.Pp
125Additionally, the
126.Fn sradixsort
127function
128may fail and set
129.Va errno
130for any of the errors specified for the library routine
131.Xr malloc 3 .
132.Sh SEE ALSO
133.Xr sort 1 ,
134.Xr qsort 3
135.Pp
136.Rs
137.%A Knuth, D.E.
138.%D 1968
139.%B "The Art of Computer Programming"
140.%T "Sorting and Searching"
141.%V Vol. 3
142.%P pp. 170-178
143.Re
144.Rs
145.%A Paige, R.
146.%D 1987
147.%T "Three Partition Refinement Algorithms"
148.%J "SIAM J. Comput."
149.%V Vol. 16
150.%N No. 6
151.Re
152.Rs
153.%A McIlroy, P.
154.%D 1993
155.%B "Engineering Radix Sort"
156.%T "Computing Systems"
157.%V Vol. 6:1
158.%P pp. 5-27
159.Re
160.Sh HISTORY
161The
162.Fn radixsort
163function first appeared in
164.Bx 4.4 .
165