NAME |LIBRARY |SYNOPSIS |DESCRIPTION |RETURN VALUE |ATTRIBUTES |STANDARDS |HISTORY |NOTES |EXAMPLES |SEE ALSO |COLOPHON | |
qsort(3) Library Functions Manualqsort(3)qsort, qsort_r - sort an array
Standard C library (libc,-lc)
#include <stdlib.h>void qsort(size_t n, size_t size;voidbase[n*size], size_tn, size_tsize,typeof(int (const void [size], const void [size]))*compar);void qsort_r(size_t n, size_t size;voidbase[n*size], size_tn, size_tsize,typeof(int (const void [size], const void [size], void *))*compar,void *arg); Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (seefeature_test_macros(7)):qsort_r(): _GNU_SOURCE
Theqsort() function sorts an array withn elements of sizesize. Thebase argument points to the start of the array. The contents of the array are sorted in ascending order according to a comparison function pointed to bycompar, which is called with two arguments that point to the objects being compared. The comparison function must return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if the first argument is considered to be respectively less than, equal to, or greater than the second. If two members compare as equal, their order in the sorted array is undefined. Theqsort_r() function is identical toqsort() except that the comparison functioncompar takes a third argument. A pointer is passed to the comparison function viaarg. In this way, the comparison function does not need to use global variables to pass through arbitrary arguments, and is therefore reentrant and safe to use in threads.
Theqsort() andqsort_r() functions return no value.
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, seeattributes(7). ┌──────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐ │Interface│Attribute│Value│ ├──────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤ │qsort(),qsort_r() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │ └──────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
qsort() C11, POSIX.1-2008.
qsort() POSIX.1-2001, C89, SVr4, 4.3BSD.qsort_r() glibc 2.8.
To compare C strings, the comparison function can callstrcmp(3), as shown in the example below.
For one example of use, see the example underbsearch(3). Another example is the following program, which sorts the strings given in its command-line arguments: #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> static int cmpstringp(const void *p1, const void *p2) { /* The actual arguments to this function are "pointers to pointers to char", but strcmp(3) arguments are "pointers to char", hence the following cast plus dereference. */ return strcmp(*(const char **) p1, *(const char **) p2); } int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { if (argc < 2) { fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <string>...\n", argv[0]); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } qsort(&argv[1], argc - 1, sizeof(char *), cmpstringp); for (size_t j = 1; j < argc; j++) puts(argv[j]); exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); }sort(1),alphasort(3),strcmp(3),versionsort(3)
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