QSORT(3)

NAME
qsort - sort an array

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdlib.h>

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

DESCRIPTION

qsort sorts an array (beginning at base) of nmemb objects. size describes the size of each element of the array.

You must supply a pointer to a comparison function, using the argument shown as compar. (This permits sorting objects of unknown properties.) Define the comparison function to accept two arguments, each a pointer to an element of the array starting at base. The result of (*compar) must be negative if the first argument is less than the second, zero if the two arguments match, and positive if the first argument is greater than the second (where ``less than'' and ``greater than'' refer to whatever arbitrary ordering is appropriate).

The array is sorted in place; that is, when qsort returns, the array elements beginning at base have been reordered.

RETURNS

qsort does not return a result.

PORTABILITY

qsort is required by ANSI (without specifying the sorting algorithm).

AUTHORS

Steve Chamberlain
    Author.

Roland Pesch
    Author.

Red Hat Support

Jeff Johnston
    Author.

COPYRIGHT

This file documents the ANSI C library.

Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994-2014 Red Hat, Inc.

libc includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.

libc includes software developed by Martin Jackson, Graham Haley and Steve Chamberlain of Tadpole Technology and released to Cygnus.

libc uses floating-point conversion software developed at AT&T, which includes this copyright information:

The author of this software is David M. Gay.

Copyright (c) 1991 by AT&T.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose without fee is hereby granted, provided that this entire notice is included in all copies of any software which is or includes a copy or modification of this software and in all copies of the supporting documentation for such software.

THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR AT&T MAKES ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, subject to the terms of the GNU General Public License, which includes the provision that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.