what is the mistake in this simple sorting array code?

Question

I'm a new student in the field of coding. I'm trying to understand the concept of array. I wrote a code for sort an array. I will attach my code with this. Please describe what is the mistake on it.

#include<stdio.h>

void main(){
    int a[5]={25,3,4,56,2};
    int i,j,temp;
    for(i=0;i<5-1;i++){
        for(j=1;j<5;j++){
            if(a[i]>a[j]){
                temp=a[i];
                a[i]=a[j];
                a[j]=temp;
            }
        }
    }
    for(i=0;i<5;i++){
        printf("%d ",a[i]);
    }
}

The output: 2,25,56,3,4 in this order.

This is not a sorting algorithm. Tracks what happen by printing swapped values and array content at each iteration, you'll understands. — user8849929
– user8849929, Commented May 18, 2022 at 9:40

Tom Karzes · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-18 09:31:33Z

1

The problem is with this line:

    for(j=1;j<5;j++){

Change it to:

    for(j=i+1;j<5;j++){

Otherwise it will swap previously sorted elements. The fixed version starts looking at the first element after the one being processed.

answered May 18, 2022 at 9:31

Tom Karzes

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2 Comments

Lundin Over a year ago

Alternatively, maybe do for(j=i;j<5-1;j++) if(a[j] > a[j+1]). Mostly a matter of style I guess.

Tom Karzes Over a year ago

@Lundin Either works. I figure doing an integer addition (by one) is cheaper than doing 2 array loads (of the same value) and a compare, although the addition does add an instruction to the code.

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