Sorting Algorithms

Sorting is the process of taking data and arranging it into either ascending or descending order. It is a very common process that is utilized often in computer programming. There are two categories of sorting, internal sorts or external sorts. An internal sort requires that the entire collection of data fits inside the computers main memory. An external sort requires that the data would have to be stored in secondary memory. The memory of a computer is divided into either the primary memory or secondary memory. Secondary memory would be held on the hard drive, while the primary memory is on the CPU itself. Internal sorts are able to be performed at a quicker rate than the external sort. Through the next several posts I will be looking at specific sorting algorithms and how each is implemented. There are certain assumptions that need to be made in order to understand the algorithm. The algorithm will be passed an array n elements of type int, and those will be sorted into ascending order.