[Numpy-discussion] String sort

[Francesc Altet]

A Thursday 14 February 2008, Charles R Harris escrigué:
> On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Francesc Altet <faltet at carabos.com> 
wrote:
> > Maybe I'd also be interested in trying insertion sort out.  During
> > the optimization process of an OPSI index, there is a need to sort
> > out a slice of data that is already made of smaller chunks that are
> > already sorted, so chances are that insertion sort could be
> > significantly faster than the merge sort (or even the quick sort)
> > in this scenario.
> >
> > But this is becoming an OT.  However, I'd be glad to further dicuss
> > this privately, if you like to.
>
> Well, I don't have much more to say. If you do decide that insertion
> sort will be useful you won't have to twist my arm much to get it,
> but I think it is most useful when the data never has to move far. In
> the case of quicksort and mergesort it is called to deal with small
> unsorted chunks, but the chunks themselves are already in the right
> place. Some kind of multi merge sort might be more appropriate to the
> OPSI index.

OK, thanks, I'll have you in mind ;)  And yes, multi-way merge seems 
very interesting for OPSI indeed.  Eventually, it might even be a good 
candidate for taking advantage of the several cores in modern CPU's;  
so it would be really interesting to check out this path.

Thanks for very insightful hints!

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