Best algorithm for Sort ?

Question

Hi ,
My application involves the large amount of data that needs to be sorted often. Application interacts with the other environment who is
passing large amount of arithmetic results at run time that I need to sort and display on the screen.
Can anybody let me know, which sort algorithm will be best suited for me ? Will it be Bubble sort/Bidirectional Bubble sort/ Quick Sort ?
Thanks in advance.
Warm regards,

Answer 1

Radix sort is always good. Although an optimised radix sort can still only barely beat the quicksort in java.util.Array.sort. And it uses extra memory while suicksort is inmemory. However, if you want to use radix sort you can modify this piece of code to suite your type:
public class WHATEVER{
//rearranges the data in order
public void radixSort(int[] data, int nrData){//We use base 16
if(sorted) return;
//get highest value
int maxValue=0;
for(int i=0; i<nrData; i++) if(data>maxValue) maxValue=data[i];
//initial length about double the average spread
int[][] buckets=new int[16][((nrData>>3)>0?(nrData>>3):1)];
int length[]=new int[16];//A list with the lengths of the lists
int digits=1;//the max digit needed to be considered
while((1<<(digits<<2))<maxValue && digits<8) digits++;
for(int digit=0; digit<digits; digit++){
for(int i=0; i<16; i++) length[i]=0;
for(int i=0; i<nrData; i++){
int index=(data[i]>>(digit<<2))&15;//15 is a mask ...00001111
if(length[index]>=buckets[index].length){
buckets[index]=doubleVector(buckets[index]);
buckets[index][length[index]++]=data[i];
//link the lists back into data
int index=0;
for(int i=0; i<16; i++)
for(int j=0; j<length[i]; j++)
data[index++]=buckets[i][j];
protected int[] resizeVector(int[] vector, int newSize){
int[] newVector=new int[_newSize];
System.arraycopy(_vector,0,newVector,0,(_vector.length<_newSize ? vector.length : newSize));
return newVector;
protected int[] doubleVector(int[] _vector){
return resizeVector(_vector, _vector.length<<1);
Gil