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std::sort

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
	(1)
template< class RandomIt > void sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt last );		(until C++20)
template< class RandomIt > constexpr void sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt last );		(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class RandomIt > void sort( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, RandomIt first, RandomIt last );	(2)	(since C++17)
	(3)
template< class RandomIt, class Compare > void sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt last, Compare comp );		(until C++20)
template< class RandomIt, class Compare > constexpr void sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt last, Compare comp );		(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class RandomIt, class Compare > void sort( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, RandomIt first, RandomIt last, Compare comp );	(4)	(since C++17)

Sorts the elements in the range [first, last) in non-descending order. The order of equal elements is not guaranteed to be preserved.

A sequence is sorted with respect to a comparator comp if for any iterator it pointing to the sequence and any non-negative integer n such that it + n is a valid iterator pointing to an element of the sequence, comp(*(it + n), *it) (or *(it + n) < *it) evaluates to false.

operator<

3) Elements are compared using the given binary comparison function comp.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy. These overloads do not participate in overload resolution unless

`std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>>` is `true`.	(until C++20)
`std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>>` is `true`.	(since C++20)

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to sort
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns `true` if the first argument is less than (i.e. is ordered before) the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following: `bool cmp(const Type1& a, const Type2& b);` While the signature does not need to have const&, the function must not modify the objects passed to it and must be able to accept all values of type (possibly const) `Type1` and `Type2` regardless of value category (thus, `Type1&` is not allowed, nor is `Type1` unless for `Type1` a move is equivalent to a copy (since C++11)). The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that an object of type RandomIt can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both of them.
Type requirements
-`RandomIt` must meet the requirements of ValueSwappable and LegacyRandomAccessIterator.
-The type of dereferenced `RandomIt` must meet the requirements of MoveAssignable and MoveConstructible.
-`Compare` must meet the requirements of Compare.

Return value

(none).

Complexity

O(N·log(N)) comparisons, where N is std::distance(first, last).

Exceptions

The overloads with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy report errors as follows:

If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Notes

Before LWG713, the complexity requirement allowed sort() to be implemented using only Quicksort, which may need O(N2
) comparisons in the worst case.

Introsort can handle all cases with O(N·log(N)) comparisons (without incurring additional overhead in the average case), and thus is usually used for implementing sort().

libc++ has not implemented the corrected time complexity requirement until LLVM 14.

Possible implementation

See also the implementations in libstdc++ and libc++.

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <array>
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <string_view>
 
int main()
{
    std::array<int, 10> s {5, 7, 4, 2, 8, 6, 1, 9, 0, 3};
 
    auto print = [&s](std::string_view const rem)
    {
        for (auto a : s)
            std::cout << a << ' ';
        std::cout << ": " << rem << '\n';
    };
 
    std::sort(s.begin(), s.end());
    print("sorted with the default operator<");
 
    std::sort(s.begin(), s.end(), std::greater<int>());
    print("sorted with the standard library compare function object");
 
    struct
    {
        bool operator()(int a, int b) const { return a < b; }
    }
    customLess;
 
    std::sort(s.begin(), s.end(), customLess);
    print("sorted with a custom function object");
 
    std::sort(s.begin(), s.end(), [](int a, int b)
                                  {
                                      return a > b;
                                  });
    print("sorted with a lambda expression");
}

Output:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : sorted with the default operator<
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 : sorted with the standard library compare function object
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : sorted with a custom function object
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 : sorted with a lambda expression

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 713	C++98	the O(N·log(N)) time complexity was only required on the average	it is required for the worst case

partial_sort	sorts the first N elements of a range (function template)
stable_sort	sorts a range of elements while preserving order between equal elements (function template)
ranges::sort (C++20)	sorts a range into ascending order (niebloid)