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From: ech@spuxll.UUCP (Ned Horvath)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Quicksort, bubble sort
Message-ID: <495@spuxll.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Jun-84 17:27:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: spuxll.495
Posted: Tue Jun 12 17:27:41 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jun-84 06:43:49 EDT
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A brief note on "quickersort" (see qsort(3)): it differs from quicksort
only in that it picks a "trial median" from the center of the list rather
than from one end.  It has n^2 behavior about as often as quicksort, but
it is much harder to find the right conditions "in real life."  In particular,
it runs REAL fast on a sorted list (precisely where quicksort blows up).

See Knuth v. 3 for more discussion about sorting than you thought was possible.

=Ned=