sort is a function in C++ Standard Library that takes two random-access iterators, the start and the end, as arguments and performs a comparison sort on the range of elements between the two iterators, front-inclusive and end-exclusive: '' para. 2〕 This was to allow the use of algorithms like (median-of-3) quicksort, which are fast in the average case, indeed significantly faster than other algorithms like heap sort with optimal worst-case complexity, and where the worst-case quadratic complexity rarely occurs.〔"(Generic Algorithms )", David Musser〕 The introduction of hybrid algorithms such as introsort allowed both fast average performance and optimal worst-case performance, and thus the complexity requirements were tightened in later standards. Different implementations use different algorithms. The GNU Standard C++ library, for example, uses a 3-part hybrid sorting algorithm: introsort is performed first (introsort itself being a hybrid of quicksort and heap sort), to a maximum depth given by 2×log2 ''n'', where ''n'' is the number of elements, followed by an insertion sort on the result.〔(libstdc++ Documentation: Sorting Algorithm )〕 ==Usage== The sort function is included from the algorithm header of the C++ Standard Library, and carries three arguments: RandomAccessIterator first, RandomAccessIterator last, Compare comp. The third argument has default value - the "less-than" (<) operator to compare elements. This code sample sorts a given array of integers (in ascending order) and prints it out. Pointers into the array serve as iterators. #include #include int main()
The same functionality using vector container: #include #include #include int main()