Sort::Radix 0.04

Sort::Radix is a Perl module with multiple passes distribution sort algorithm.

SYNOPSIS

use Sort::Radix;

@array = qw(flow loop pool Wolf root sort tour);
radix_sort(@array);
print "@arrayn";

This is an implementation based on Jarkkos Wolf book (Mastering Algorithms with Perl, pp. 145-147).

By definition: radix sort is a multiple pass distribution sort algorithm that distributes each item to a bucket according to part of the items key beginning with the least significant part of the key. After each pass, items are collected from the buckets, keeping the items in order, then redistribute according to the next most significant part of the key.

Radix sort is nice as it take N * M passes, where N is the length of the keys. It is very useful for sorting large volumes of keys of the same length, such as postal codes.

The algorithm will only works when the strings to be sorted are of the same length. Variable length strings therefore have to be padded with zeroes (x00) to equalize the length.