Summary: PREPRINT. The ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics.
Volume3, Article 7, 1998.
Implementing Radixsort
Arne Andersson
Lund University
and
Stefan Nilsson
Helsinki University of Technology
We present and evaluate several optimization and implementation techniques for string sorting.
In particular, we study a recently published radix sorting algorithm, Forward radixsort, that
has a provably good worst­case behavior. Our experimental results indicate that radix sorting
is considerably faster (often more than twice as fast) than comparison­based sorting methods.
This is true even for small input sequences. We also show that it is possible to implement a
radixsort with good worst­case running time without sacrificing average­case performance. Our
implementations are competitive with the best previously published string sorting programs.
Categories and Subject Descriptors: F.2.2 [Theory of Computation]: Nonnumerical Algorithms
and Problems
General Terms: Algorithms, Sorting
Additional Key Words and Phrases: String sorting, radix sorting, adaptive radixsort, forward
radixsort

Source: Andersson, Arne - Department of Information Technology, Uppsala Universitet

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences