(Following up on the suggestion of @HelloWorld to look into sorting networks.)
It seems that a 29-comparison/swap network is the fastest way to do a 10-input sort. I used the network discovered by Waksman in 1969 for this example in JavaScript, which should translate directly into C, as it’s just a list of if statements, comparisons and swaps.
function sortNet10(data) { // ten-input sorting network by Waksman, 1969
var swap;
if (data[0] > data[5]) { swap = data[0]; data[0] = data[5]; data[5] = swap; }
if (data[1] > data[6]) { swap = data[1]; data[1] = data[6]; data[6] = swap; }
if (data[2] > data[7]) { swap = data[2]; data[2] = data[7]; data[7] = swap; }
if (data[3] > data[8]) { swap = data[3]; data[3] = data[8]; data[8] = swap; }
if (data[4] > data[9]) { swap = data[4]; data[4] = data[9]; data[9] = swap; }
if (data[0] > data[3]) { swap = data[0]; data[0] = data[3]; data[3] = swap; }
if (data[5] > data[8]) { swap = data[5]; data[5] = data[8]; data[8] = swap; }
if (data[1] > data[4]) { swap = data[1]; data[1] = data[4]; data[4] = swap; }
if (data[6] > data[9]) { swap = data[6]; data[6] = data[9]; data[9] = swap; }
if (data[0] > data[2]) { swap = data[0]; data[0] = data[2]; data[2] = swap; }
if (data[3] > data[6]) { swap = data[3]; data[3] = data[6]; data[6] = swap; }
if (data[7] > data[9]) { swap = data[7]; data[7] = data[9]; data[9] = swap; }
if (data[0] > data[1]) { swap = data[0]; data[0] = data[1]; data[1] = swap; }
if (data[2] > data[4]) { swap = data[2]; data[2] = data[4]; data[4] = swap; }
if (data[5] > data[7]) { swap = data[5]; data[5] = data[7]; data[7] = swap; }
if (data[8] > data[9]) { swap = data[8]; data[8] = data[9]; data[9] = swap; }
if (data[1] > data[2]) { swap = data[1]; data[1] = data[2]; data[2] = swap; }
if (data[3] > data[5]) { swap = data[3]; data[3] = data[5]; data[5] = swap; }
if (data[4] > data[6]) { swap = data[4]; data[4] = data[6]; data[6] = swap; }
if (data[7] > data[8]) { swap = data[7]; data[7] = data[8]; data[8] = swap; }
if (data[1] > data[3]) { swap = data[1]; data[1] = data[3]; data[3] = swap; }
if (data[4] > data[7]) { swap = data[4]; data[4] = data[7]; data[7] = swap; }
if (data[2] > data[5]) { swap = data[2]; data[2] = data[5]; data[5] = swap; }
if (data[6] > data[8]) { swap = data[6]; data[6] = data[8]; data[8] = swap; }
if (data[2] > data[3]) { swap = data[2]; data[2] = data[3]; data[3] = swap; }
if (data[4] > data[5]) { swap = data[4]; data[4] = data[5]; data[5] = swap; }
if (data[6] > data[7]) { swap = data[6]; data[6] = data[7]; data[7] = swap; }
if (data[3] > data[4]) { swap = data[3]; data[3] = data[4]; data[4] = swap; }
if (data[5] > data[6]) { swap = data[5]; data[5] = data[6]; data[6] = swap; }
return(data);
}
document.write(sortNet10([5,7,1,8,4,3,6,9,2,0]));Here’s a graphical representation of the network, divided into independent phases.
To take advantage of parallel processing, the 5-4-3-4-4-4-3-2 grouping can be changed into a 4-4-4-4-4-4-3-2 grouping.
