You're not the first to ask the question (or to get it from the same source:
a class)
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...b95ec18b1007a2

Some other possible leads or at least interesting related reading (if you
consider reading about test results of various sort algorithms interesting)
http://www.standards.com/Sorting/Sor...scription.html
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/sorting.htm

So, young grasshopper, the question remains unanswered, a secret of the
universe to yet be discovered... wax on.... wax off....

If I had to GUESS, I'd put my bet on a variation of either a QuickSort or
Heap Sort. I base that guess on the ability of Excel's sort to give various
errors (as out of stack space and/or out of memory). You would not get that
behavior from a simple (and extremely inefficient) bubble sort unless the
amount of data was simply overwhelming. I don't think you'd get the
performance you see out of a bubble sort either - not for large numbers.

Now - did anyone think there might be two or more algorithms inside of the
Sort option? It's possible, since in some cases a bubble sort, for example,
can be more efficient than one of the others when used on a small number of
items to be sorted? Imagine a routine that determines the number of items to
be sorted and simply says, in effect, if # to sort is less than X, use
bubble, else use something fancier?

But regardless, the algorithm is customized to some degree - empty cells
always ending up at the bottom of the list rather than at the top (surely
emptiness is less than not-emptiness?). I believe there's a great
opportunity for a book: Zen and the Sort, or All Sorts of Zen, here somewhere.

"DNALESOR" wrote:

Yes, it may be irrelevant, but he just wants to know if we can figure it out
and I'm just trying to find the answer. But thanks for possibly knocking out
the bubble sort option.


"JLatham" wrote:

I don't know either, and I tend to agree with Jon Peltier on this one: it's
irrelevant. It may have actually changed over the years without our ever
knowing that it did. That's the beauty of 'black-box' construction: you do
not need to know how a thing works inside, only that it does work, and what
information you need to provide to it and what to expect from it.

I rather doubt that it is a bubble sort, though.

"DNALESOR" wrote:

I need to find out for my programming class and I haven't been able to find
the information anywhere.

"Bob Phillips" wrote:

I don't know, but I have to ask, how does it make any difference?

--
---
HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)



"DNALESOR" wrote in message
...
Does anyone happen to know which sorting technique is used in the sort
function of Excel? Is it bubble sort, shell sort, or interchange sort?