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Re: IDL sorting [message #56344 is a reply to message #56343]

Thu, 18 October 2007 13:43

wlandsman
Messages: 743
Registered: June 2000

Senior Member

On Oct 18, 2:30 pm, Karl Schultz <k...@io.frii.com> wrote:
> Because it is not a *stable* sort. Stable sorting algorithms preserve
> the order of equal keys.
>
>> IDL just uses the sort algorithm of the underlying OS. As far as I
>> am aware, the SORT function on Linux boxes *does* preserve the order
>> of equal values, but that on Mac and Windows machines does not. I
>> would be interested to hear if anyone finds any exceptions to this
>> rule.
>
> Are you using this SORT function from the command line? If so, you
> are using a shell function or a sort program in your PATH. Someone
> probably decided that a stable sort made more sense for people sorting
> things from the command line or from shell scripts. Reasonable.
>

I don't understand this paragraph. I am just using the IDL intrinisc
SORT command. On every Linux box I have ever been on, it appears
that the C lib sort algorithm used by IDL SORT() *is* stable, whereas
it is *not* stable on Windows or MacOS.

But I like the idea of adding a /STABLE keyword to SORT. Thanks, --
Wayne

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[Message index]

		Re: IDL sorting By: Karl Schultz on Thu, 18 October 2007 14:58
		Re: IDL sorting By: wlandsman on Thu, 18 October 2007 13:43
		Re: IDL sorting By: Karl Schultz on Thu, 18 October 2007 11:30
		Re: IDL sorting By: wlandsman on Thu, 18 October 2007 08:50
		Re: IDL sorting By: Wox on Thu, 18 October 2007 05:20
		Re: IDL sorting By: Loren Anderson on Wed, 17 October 2007 14:15
		Re: IDL sorting By: David Fanning on Wed, 17 October 2007 08:38
		Re: IDL sorting By: Loren Anderson on Wed, 17 October 2007 08:37
		Re: IDL sorting By: JD Smith on Thu, 01 November 2007 17:02

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