Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!dan
From: dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Sorting Containers (HyperTalk Script)
Message-ID: <32656@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 24 Jun 89 17:15:22 GMT
Distribution: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 38

Several people have wanted a routine to sort lines of a field or
variable (containers).  Here is a HyperTalk script that uses the
selection sort method of sorting.  Selection sorting is an algorithm of
order n squared, however, for the average random cases where n < 1000,
selection sorting often performs closer to n log n, so it is not bad for
small sort jobs.  Quicksort or Heapsort would be better for large n, but
this is so simple...

This script is a function.  For example, if you wanted to sort field 1
of the current card, you could say:

	put sortContainer(field 1) into field 1

Here is the actual script:

function sortContainer anyContainer -- selection sort
  get anyContainer
  put the number of lines of it into numLines
  repeat with i = 1 to numLines - 1
    put i into k
    put line i of it into x
    repeat with j = i+1 to numLines
      if line j of it < x then
        put j into k
        put line j of it into x
      end if
    end repeat
    put line i of it into line k of it
    put x into line i of it
  end repeat
  return it
end sortContainer

Enjoy!

Dan Allen
HyperCard Team
Apple Computer