NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/lang/pascal/7822

Text File | 1993-01-03 | 1.7 KB | 35 lines

Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
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From: [e-mail] (Albert Schmezer)
Subject: LARGE Sorts and such...
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Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 22:22:48 GMT
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    Hello all, again. I am in the midst of a large programming project,
and have come across an interesting stumbling block. I hope this isn't a FAQ.
If it is, could someone direct me to the source of the answer?

    Anyways, for the question: How does one go about, in TurboPascal,
sorting an array of IMMENSE proportions? What I mean is that I am making a
database-type program, and I have at least 10,000 items in the database. How
can I sort 10,000 items? They won't even fit into an array! If I can't sort
them, how can I at least index them? I really need the ability to sort these
LARGE amounts of information. If it were only 500 or even 1000 entries, it
wouldn't be a problem - I would use a Quicksort or Heapsort routine, but
10,000 or 100,000 presents a grave problem. Is there a way to make use of a
temporary file on the harddrive? How slow is this? How would I even go about
doing this? Can I stick groups of 100 or so into an array and integrate the
sorts? How would I do this?! Is this slow, too?

    Once again, if this is a FAQ, I apologize, and would like to be
referred to the source of the answer of this problem. It is a very important
problem to be solved, though, so I would appreciate any help at all in this.

    Thanx in advance!
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