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#1
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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? |
#2
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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? |
#3
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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? |
#4
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It's still irrelevant. What, did the teacher read something in PC World?
- Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions http://PeltierTech.com _______ "DNALESOR" wrote in message ... 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? |
#5
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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? |
#6
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I used to work with an engineer who was notorious for trying out things he
read in some magazine. He screwed up more projects that way than you can imagine. -- JoAnn Paules MVP Microsoft [Publisher] ~~~~~ How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375 "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... It's still irrelevant. What, did the teacher read something in PC World? - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions http://PeltierTech.com _______ "DNALESOR" wrote in message ... 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? |
#7
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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? |
#8
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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? |
#9
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My bet would be that there was some optimising logic in there.
-- --- HTH Bob (there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy) "JLatham" <HelpFrom @ Jlathamsite.com.(removethis) wrote in message ... 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? |
#10
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Thank you for your help JLatham. I really appreciate you're feedback and
information. "JLatham" wrote: 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? |
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