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From: manning@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Evan Marshall Manning)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: qsort(), bsearch(), and rude comparison functions
Message-ID: <1990Oct9.231612.10881@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 9 Oct 90 23:16:12 GMT
References: <1990Oct6.013443.5364@twinsun.com> 	<1990Oct9.062455.21197@sq.sq.com> <Fex+yrm2@cs.psu.edu>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 17

flee@guardian.cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee) writes:

>A pathological comparison function might shuffle the array being
>sorted each time it's called, in which case qsort() may never
>terminate.  Is this prohibited?

I myself have used qsort with a comparison function which used
rand() to generate a positive or negative number.  I was prepared
for it to go on forever, but it terminated with the array fully
shuffled.

***************************************************************************
Your eyes are weary from staring at the CRT for so | Evan M. Manning
long.  You feel sleepy.  Notice how restful it is  |      is
to watch the cursor blink.  Close your eyes.  The  |manning@gap.cco.caltech.edu
opinions stated above are yours.  You cannot       | manning@mars.jpl.nasa.gov
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