Standard C Library Functions qsort(3C)
NAME
qsort - quick sort
SYNOPSIS
#include
void qsort(void *base, sizet nel, sizet width,
int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));
DESCRIPTION
The qsort() function is an implementation of the quick-sort
algorithm. It sorts a table of data in place. The contents
of the table are sorted in ascending order according to the
user-supplied comparison function.
The base argument points to the element at the base of the
table. The nel argument is the number of elements in the
table. The width argument specifies the size of each ele-
ment in bytes. The compar argument is the name of the com-
parison function, which is called with two arguments that
point to the elements being compared.
The function must return an integer less than, equal to, or
greater than zero to indicate if the first argument is to be
considered less than, equal to, or greater than the second
argument.
The contents of the table are sorted in ascending order
according to the user supplied comparison function.
USAGE
The qsort() function safely allows concurrent access by
multiple threads to disjoint data, such as overlapping sub-
trees or tables.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Program sorts.
The following program sorts a simple array:
#include
#include
static int
intcompare(const void *p1, const void *p2)
{
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Standard C Library Functions qsort(3C)
int i = *((int *)p1);
int j = *((int *)p2);
if (i > j)
return (1);
if (i < j)
return (-1);
return (0);
}
int
main()
{
int i;
int a[10] = { 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 };
sizet nelems = sizeof (a) / sizeof (int);
qsort((void *)a, nelems, sizeof (int), intcompare);
for (i = 0; i < nelems; i]) {
(void) printf("%d ", a[i]);
}
(void) printf("\n");
return (0);
}
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Interface Stability Standard
MT-Level MT-Safe
SEE ALSO
sort(1), bsearch(3C), lsearch(3C), string(3C), attri-
butes(5), standards(5)
NOTES
The comparison function need not compare every byte, so
arbitrary data may be contained in the elements in addition
to the values being compared.
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Standard C Library Functions qsort(3C)
The relative order in the output of two items that compare
as equal is unpredictable.
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