Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C

From	Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C
Date	2019-10-30 15:39 +0000
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<87h83qnsqk.fsf@bsb.me.uk> (permalink)
References	(16 earlier) <C5_tF.1958$oK6.1034@fx07.am4> <53ee934f-fc36-46db-82e1-f669ec125f10@googlegroups.com> <6bca01ee-02e3-424f-9b43-09d50cea0a93@googlegroups.com> <87y2x3nqhd.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <a07666a8-1e1e-4920-9f0f-d8538b9c9437@googlegroups.com>

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already5chosen@yahoo.com writes:

> On Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 12:20:53 AM UTC+2, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>> already5chosen@yahoo.com writes:
>> 
>> > On Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at 7:03:35 PM UTC+2, Malcolm McLean wrote:
>> >> On Tuesday, 29 October 2019 16:50:54 UTC, Bart  wrote:
>> >> > On 29/10/2019 16:19, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>> >> > > Bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>> >> > 
>> >> > >> If that B-sort isn't bubble-sort (whatever that officially needs to
>> >> > >> comprise) and that I-sort isn't insertion-sort, then I must have
>> >> > >> invented my very own sort algorithms!
>> >> > > 
>> >> > > I don't think you are being serious now.  Look at what I wrote.
>> >> > > 
>> >> > > You started by championing a sort (which is not bubble sort despite) the
>> >> > > just tested ~n**2 times an swapped as needed.  You praised it's
>> >> > > memorability and it's locality in testing and swapping.  So I showed you
>> >> > > an insertion sort that is more efficient, just as memorable, and also
>> >> > > has locality of testing and swapping.  You've never discussed it because
>> >> > > it does not fit your narrative.
>> >> > > 
>> >> > > And when it became clear that insertion sort handles nearly sorted lists
>> >> > > "out of the box", you ditched the terrible sort you originally
>> >> > > championed and switched to actual bubble sort.
>> >> > 
>> >> > I consider the early exit flag an optional tweak.
>> >> > 
>> >> I'd regard it as crucial. With brute force swapping sort, you have to
>> >> realise that after N passes through the loop, the data must be sorted.
>> >> With bubblesort with the flag, you stop when there are no swaps left
>> >> and the data is sorted. So it's fundamentally different logic.
>> >
>> > I'd rather record the point of last swap. It's the same cost as
>> > setting the flag. On the next iteration I'd run an inner loop until
>> > the point of the last swap.  Intuitively it seems that such variant
>> > would be measurably faster when input array contains only few elements
>> > that are out of order. Esp. in the case where there is only one such
>> > element.
>> 
>> This is Knuth's "Algorithm B (Bubble sort)" in 5.2.2 of TACP.  In fact,
>> it's the only thing he calls Bubble sort.
>> 
>> I've done a few tests and it does not seem to make much difference
>> compared to the version that just decrements the inner loop upper bound
>> on each pass.  With one or two randomly out of order elements it is
>> sometimes faster and sometimes slower.
>> 
> That's results I wouldn't expect.

> What are you sorting? Are we still talking about arrays of pointers to
> relatively short strings (1-16 characters with ~5 as an average
> length) with strcasecmp() as comparison function? Or something else?
> And how long your arrays are?

Sorry, way too little thought went into my tests and I then gave too
little data about them!

My test harness sorts integers, but it can use an expensive compare
operation by converting them to strings.

For pretty much any length of almost-sorted array there is not much in
it when using the native integer >.  The Knuth version does, on average,
fewer comparisons, but the loop logic is slightly more complex and the
two often seem to balance out.  But with an expensive string compare of
the integers, the Knuth version is, indeed, always faster, and you can
make it faster by any amount you like by making the compare as expensive
as you like.

-- 
Ben.

Thread

Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-20 18:12 -0400
  Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Barry Schwarz <schwarzb@delq.com> - 2019-10-20 18:33 -0700
    Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-20 23:16 -0400
      Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-21 13:15 +0100
        Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-21 14:40 -0400
          Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-22 00:54 +0100
            Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-10-22 10:05 +0200
            Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2019-10-23 07:18 -0700
          Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Manfred <noname@invalid.add> - 2019-10-26 20:01 +0200
            Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-26 17:50 -0400
              Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Manfred <noname@add.invalid> - 2019-10-28 16:33 +0100
      Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Barry Schwarz <schwarzb@delq.com> - 2019-10-21 07:56 -0700
      Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-21 16:46 +0100
        Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-21 14:57 -0400
          Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-21 20:53 +0100
            Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-21 16:05 -0400
              Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-21 21:12 +0100
            Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-21 20:08 -0400
              Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-10-22 10:27 +0200
          Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-22 19:45 +0100
            Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-10-22 19:58 +0000
            Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-23 11:46 -0400
              Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-23 20:02 +0100
              Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-24 01:38 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-23 22:10 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ike Naar <ike@sdf.lonestar.org> - 2019-10-24 07:24 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-24 09:29 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2019-10-24 08:45 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-24 11:56 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-10-24 09:13 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-24 18:28 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-24 10:36 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-24 09:26 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-24 18:29 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-24 14:38 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-24 21:30 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-24 11:30 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-24 20:36 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-24 21:34 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-24 22:42 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-24 18:59 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-25 02:48 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-10-26 04:33 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-26 17:21 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-26 18:47 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-26 23:24 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-27 00:29 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-27 01:58 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-27 12:02 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 02:08 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2019-10-26 14:29 -0600
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2019-10-26 13:36 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-26 22:06 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-26 23:04 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-10-27 12:49 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-27 18:20 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-10-27 22:45 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 00:08 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-10-27 14:57 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 01:08 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-28 01:44 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 02:31 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-28 10:42 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-28 12:45 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 17:39 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-10-28 20:31 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 20:22 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-10-28 22:07 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 22:22 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-10-29 10:17 +0100
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-29 11:21 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C already5chosen@yahoo.com - 2019-10-28 11:05 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-28 19:26 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 21:08 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-28 21:57 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-28 23:59 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 00:53 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-29 01:09 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 01:32 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-28 22:44 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-10-29 03:05 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 11:12 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C already5chosen@yahoo.com - 2019-10-29 04:19 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 11:47 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-10-29 05:03 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 13:16 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-29 17:13 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 17:35 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ike Naar <ike@sdf.lonestar.org> - 2019-10-30 07:19 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-29 16:19 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 16:50 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-10-29 10:03 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-29 17:13 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C already5chosen@yahoo.com - 2019-10-29 10:23 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-29 22:20 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C already5chosen@yahoo.com - 2019-10-30 03:04 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-30 15:39 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-10-30 09:02 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-30 19:35 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C already5chosen@yahoo.com - 2019-10-30 14:11 -0700
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-10-31 03:34 +0000
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2019-11-04 17:02 -0800
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2019-10-26 12:30 -0400
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2019-10-26 12:03 -0500
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2019-10-26 14:25 -0600
                Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2019-10-24 18:06 -0700
        Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-21 22:44 +0100
          Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-21 19:00 -0400
  Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2019-10-21 10:20 +0800
    Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-10-21 12:44 +0100
  Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2019-10-21 10:24 +0800
    Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2019-10-20 23:05 -0400
      Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2019-10-21 11:32 +0800
  Re: Challenge for Feeb: dealing with large numbers in C Autist <autist69@gmail.com> - 2019-10-29 15:15 +0100

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