xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdlib/radixsort.3 (revision 97759ccc715c4b365432c16d763c50eecfcb1100)
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28.Dd January 27, 1994
29.Dt RADIXSORT 3
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm radixsort , sradixsort
33.Nd radix sort
34.Sh LIBRARY
35.Lb libc
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In limits.h
38.In stdlib.h
39.Ft int
40.Fn radixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
41.Ft int
42.Fn sradixsort "const unsigned char **base" "int nmemb" "const unsigned char *table" "unsigned endbyte"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn radixsort
46and
47.Fn sradixsort
48functions
49are implementations of radix sort.
50.Pp
51These functions sort an array of pointers to byte strings, the initial
52member of which is referenced by
53.Fa base .
54The byte strings may contain any values; the end of each string
55is denoted by the user-specified value
56.Fa endbyte .
57.Pp
58Applications may specify a sort order by providing the
59.Fa table
60argument.
61If
62.Pf non- Dv NULL ,
63.Fa table
64must reference an array of
65.Dv UCHAR_MAX
66+ 1 bytes which contains the sort
67weight of each possible byte value.
68The end-of-string byte must have a sort weight of 0 or 255
69(for sorting in reverse order).
70More than one byte may have the same sort weight.
71The
72.Fa table
73argument
74is useful for applications which wish to sort different characters
75equally, for example, providing a table with the same weights
76for A-Z as for a-z will result in a case-insensitive sort.
77If
78.Fa table
79is NULL, the contents of the array are sorted in ascending order
80according to the
81.Tn ASCII
82order of the byte strings they reference and
83.Fa endbyte
84has a sorting weight of 0.
85.Pp
86The
87.Fn sradixsort
88function is stable, that is, if two elements compare as equal, their
89order in the sorted array is unchanged.
90The
91.Fn sradixsort
92function uses additional memory sufficient to hold
93.Fa nmemb
94pointers.
95.Pp
96The
97.Fn radixsort
98function is not stable, but uses no additional memory.
99.Pp
100These functions are variants of most-significant-byte radix sorting; in
101particular, see
102.An "D.E. Knuth" Ns 's
103.%T "Algorithm R"
104and section 5.2.5, exercise 10.
105They take linear time relative to the number of bytes in the strings.
106.Sh RETURN VALUES
107.Rv -std radixsort
108.Sh ERRORS
109.Bl -tag -width Er
110.It Bq Er EINVAL
111The value of the
112.Fa endbyte
113element of
114.Fa table
115is not 0 or 255.
116.El
117.Pp
118Additionally, the
119.Fn sradixsort
120function
121may fail and set
122.Va errno
123for any of the errors specified for the library routine
124.Xr malloc 3 .
125.Sh SEE ALSO
126.Xr sort 1 ,
127.Xr qsort 3
128.Pp
129.Rs
130.%A Knuth, D.E.
131.%D 1968
132.%B "The Art of Computer Programming"
133.%T "Sorting and Searching"
134.%V Vol. 3
135.%P pp. 170-178
136.Re
137.Rs
138.%A Paige, R.
139.%D 1987
140.%T "Three Partition Refinement Algorithms"
141.%J "SIAM J. Comput."
142.%V Vol. 16
143.%N No. 6
144.Re
145.Rs
146.%A McIlroy, P.
147.%D 1993
148.%B "Engineering Radix Sort"
149.%T "Computing Systems"
150.%V Vol. 6:1
151.%P pp. 5-27
152.Re
153.Sh HISTORY
154The
155.Fn radixsort
156function first appeared in
157.Bx 4.4 .
158