Question

We are learning C++ at the moment and I don’t think this code requires us to use pointers yet.

So, for suggestion to the answer, please let me know if it can be done without pointer or not.

Question: How to compare an array of char so that you can sort them in ascend order?

Details:

Goal: Sort the name in ascending order as they are inserted

What we have here:

char name[1024]; // which is a part of a Struct 

The insertion works. Once it is inserted. I am trying to rearrange the order so that the names are in

ascending order.

I have:

if (RecordCollection[i].name > RecordCollection[i+1].name) // for comparing 

I think this might be where the problem is? Can C++ compare like that? Like, comparing John with Amy with

that one line?

After that if statement, I am using swapping the elements so they are in correct order. For example: 
If John[0] the current name is > than Amy[1], then copy John to a temporary. 
Then copy Amy to index[0]. 
Then copy John in temporary to index[1].

While typing this question, I think I need to compare the char one by one… J with A, if not the same then

sort. If same, move onto next char until it finds something different to sort. But then I don’t know how to

get the char 1 by 1.

Answer 1

If you are using strings, see strcmp.

man strcmp

A value greater than zero indicates that the first character that does not match has a greater value in str1 than in str2; a value less than zero indicates the opposite.

To sort your array, you can also use qsort from the standard C library.

#include <string.h>

int
cmp (const void *p, const void *q)
{
  return strcmp (p, q);
}

qsort (RecordName, nelems, 1024, cmp);