C library function to perform sort

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Is there any library function available in C standard library to do sort?

8 Answers

I think you are looking for qsort.
qsort function is the implementation of quicksort algorithm found in stdlib.h in C/C++.

Here is the syntax to call qsort function:

void qsort(void *base, size_t nmemb, size_t size,int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));

List of arguments:

base: pointer to the first element or base address of the array
nmemb: number of elements in the array
size: size in bytes of each element
compar: a function that compares two elements

Here is a code example which uses qsort to sort an array:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int arr[] = { 33, 12, 6, 2, 76 };

// compare function, compares two elements
int compare (const void * num1, const void * num2) {
   if(*(int*)num1 > *(int*)num2)
    return 1;
   else
    return -1;
}

int main () {
   int i;

   printf("Before sorting the array: \n");
   for( i = 0 ; i < 5; i++ ) {
      printf("%d ", arr[i]);
   }
   // calling qsort
   qsort(arr, 5, sizeof(int), compare);

   printf("\nAfter sorting the array: \n");
   for( i = 0 ; i < 5; i++ ) {   
      printf("%d ", arr[i]);
   }
  
   return 0;
}

You can type man 3 qsort in Linux/Mac terminal to get a detailed info about qsort.
Link to qsort man page

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