NIST

introspective sort

(algorithm)

Definition: A variant of quicksort which switches to heapsort for pathological inputs, that is, when execution time is becoming quadratic.

Also known as introsort.

Author: PEB

More information

David R. Musser, Introspective Sorting and Selection Algorithms, Software-Practice and Experience, 8:983-993, 1997.


Go to the Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures home page.

If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.

Entry modified 12 October 2010.
HTML page formatted Mon Feb 2 13:10:39 2015.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "introspective sort", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 12 October 2010. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/introspectiveSort.html