Electronic Data Sorting

Abstract

This paper presents results of a study of the fundamentals of sorting. Emphasis is placed on understanding sorting and on minimizing the time required to sort with electronic equipment of reasonable cost. Sorting is viewed as a combination of information gathering and item moving activities. Shannon's communication theory measure of information is applied to assess the difficulty of various sorting problems. Bounds on the number of comparisons required to sort are developed, and optimal or near-optimal sorting schemes are described and investigated. Three abstract sorting models based on cyclic, linear, and randomaccess memories are defined. Optimal or near-optimal sorting methods are developed for the models and their parallel-register extensions. A brief review of the origin of the work and some of its hypotheses is also presented.