Sorting efficiency

Computers and the tasks they perform are becoming increasingly important in medicine. It behooves medical personnel to become familiar with some computer functions so that they may be in a better position to demand and evaluate a given implementation. One very basic computer task is sorting information. Some general principles of computing efficiency are discussed, as well as the standard "O" notation. A simple sort, bubblesort, is discussed and analyzed. A second elementary sort, insertionsort, is considered in relation to its more sophisticated descendant, shellsort. The most efficient in-memory sort, quicksort (and its various descendants), is likewise examined, and the advantages and disadvantages of each variant are discussed in some detail, as well as methods that may enhance speed and resource utilization. Finally, mergesort, which is used in sorting large files resident in mass-storage devices, is discussed, along with its particular advantages.