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Asked: 2026-05-13T16:16:58+00:00

In Delphi / Pascal I would like to sort a TStringList alphabetically. But for

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In Delphi / Pascal I would like to sort a TStringList alphabetically. But for this purpose, I can only use the following two methods:

Move: Moves a string from one index position to another, shifting other strings around as appropriate.

Exchange: Swaps two strings in the list, as identified by their index positions.

How could I do this? I had the idea to go through all items with a loop and to something like this:

  1. lastFirstLetter := Copy(CurrentItem, 1, 1)
  2. go to next item
  3. currentFirstLetter := Copy(CurrentItem, 1, 1)
  4. if ord(currentFirstLetter) < ord(lastFirstLetter) then exchange(lastItem, currentItem)

What would be the fastest way to sort a StringList with these two methods? I can’t use the sort method and the sorted property by the way.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    move / exchange methods are all you need. However you’ve got a lot of algorithms to choose from! Have a look at this site (from a quick Google search) for animated comparisons: http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/

    I think that all these algorithms just use ‘move’, apart from heap and the quicksorts which only use ‘exchange’

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