Sort stability: Difference between revisions

If we delete a key in normal inventory we miss the sort order. We can't delete keys in queue inventories, but we can drop from the last append a number of keys. Also Exist() function in queue inventories always find the last entry (for same keys), until that dropped, so with next use of Exist(pointer_to_inventory, key_case_sensitive$) we find the previous one. We can use keys as numbers, but they stored as strings.

 

Sort is not always stable. Ordering, which gives a list of indices such as to put the elements of the list in order, is stable. An example would be to sort the list (of lists) {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {5, 4, 3}, {9, 5, 1}}, and doing so by looking at the 2nd value of each list:

<lang Mathematica>mylist = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {5, 4, 3}, {9, 5, 1}};