Question

We’re looking at different methods to sort the objects/elements in an array, the thing that doesn’t make sense to me is how the actual sorting is done. I guess the big point of confusion is how can the “sort” method be effective if it only compares one object against another?

If there are values a, g, b, d, z, s, h in the array im not getting how the algorithm is getting this list into say alphabetical order by looking at two values at a time.

Any illumination would be great.

Answer 1

Here’s short visualization of quick sort algorithm: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Sorting_quicksort_anim.gif

Other than that you can read about sorting algorithms and their inner workings on the internetz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorting_algorithm