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The document discusses the std::sort() function in C++ STL which is used to sort vectors or arrays. It explains how to use sort() to sort in ascending or descending order and how to use a custom comparator to sort in a particular order. The time and space complexity of std::sort() are also provided.

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17 views9 pages

PDF document-41964FCD5818-1

The document discusses the std::sort() function in C++ STL which is used to sort vectors or arrays. It explains how to use sort() to sort in ascending or descending order and how to use a custom comparator to sort in a particular order. The time and space complexity of std::sort() are also provided.

Uploaded by

Nahom Mekonnen
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© © All Rights Reserved
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std::sort() in C++ STL

Difficulty Level : EasyLast Updated : 21 Jan, 2022

We have discussed qsort() in C. C++ STL provides a similar function sort that
sorts a vector or array (items with random access).

It generally takes two parameters, the first one being the point of the
array/vector from where the sorting needs to begin and the second parameter
being the length up to which we want the array/vector to get sorted. The third
parameter is optional and can be used in cases such as if we want to sort the
elements lexicographically.

By default, the sort() function sorts the elements in ascending order.

Below is a simple program to show the working of sort().

CPP
:
// C++ program to demonstrate default behaviour of
// sort() in STL.
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int arr[] = { 1, 5, 8, 9, 6, 7, 3, 4, 2, 0 };
int n = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]);

/*Here we take two parameters, the beginning of the


array and the length n upto which we want the array to
be sorted*/
sort(arr, arr + n);

cout << "\nArray after sorting using "


"default sort is : \n";
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
cout << arr[i] << " ";

return 0;
}

Output :

Array after sorting using default sort is :


0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

How to sort in descending order?


sort() takes a third parameter that is used to specify the order in which elements
are to be sorted. We can pass the “greater()” function to sort in descending
order. This function does a comparison in a way that puts greater elements
before.

CPP
:
// C++ program to demonstrate descending order sort using
// greater<>().
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int arr[] = { 1, 5, 8, 9, 6, 7, 3, 4, 2, 0 };
int n = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]);

sort(arr, arr + n, greater<int>());

cout << "Array after sorting : \n";


for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
cout << arr[i] << " ";

return 0;
}

Output:

Array after sorting :


9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

How to sort in a particular order?


We can also write our own comparator function and pass it as a third parameter.
This “comparator” function returns a value; convertible to bool, which basically
tells us whether the passed “first” argument should be placed before the passed
“second” argument or not.
For eg: In the code below, suppose intervals {6,8} and {1,9} are passed as
arguments in the “compareInterval” function(comparator function). Now as
i1.first (=6) < i2.first (=1), so our function returns “false”, which tells us that
“first” argument should not be placed before “second” argument and so sorting
will be done in order like {1,9} first and then {6,8} as next.
:
CPP
// A C++ program to demonstrate
// STL sort() using
// our own comparator
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

// An interval has a start


// time and end time
struct Interval {
int start, end;
};

// Compares two intervals


// according to starting times.
bool compareInterval(Interval i1, Interval i2)
Data
{ Structures Algorithms Interview Preparation Topic-wise Practice C++ Java
return (i1.start < i2.start);
}

int main()
{
Interval arr[]
= { { 6, 8 }, { 1, 9 }, { 2, 4 }, { 4, 7 } };
int n = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]);

// sort the intervals in increasing order of


// start time
sort(arr, arr + n, compareInterval);

cout << "Intervals sorted by start time : \n";


for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
cout << "[" << arr[i].start << "," << arr[i].end
<< "] ";

return 0;
}

Output: ▲
:
StartIntervals sorted by start time :
Your[1,9] [2,4] [4,7] [6,8]
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Journey
The time complexity of std::sort() is:
Now!
1. Best Case – O(N log N)
2. Average Case – O(N log N)
3. Worst Case – O(N log N)

Space Complexity – It may use O( log N) auxiliary space.

?list=PLqM7alHXFySGg6GSRmE2INI4k8fPH5qVB

This article is contributed by Shubham Agrawal. Please write comments if you


find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic
discussed above
:
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Article Contributed By :

GeeksforGeeks

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Current difficulty : Easy

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Improved By : rahuku, AbhishekSharma5, praddyumn, ankitsinghrajput,


varshagumber28, tanmaynikam2002

Article Tags : cpp-algorithm-library, CPP-Library, STL, C Language, C++,


Sorting

Practice Tags : Sorting, STL, CPP

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