std::sort

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
template< class RandomIt > void sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt last );	(1)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class RandomIt > void sort( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, RandomIt first, RandomIt last );	(2)	(since C++17)
template< class RandomIt, class Compare > void sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt last, Compare comp );	(3)
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 ascending order. The order of equal elements is not guaranteed to be preserved.

1) Elements are compared using 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

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); The signature does not need to have const &, but the function object must not modify the objects passed to it. 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 `RandomAccessIterator`.
- The type of dereferenced `RandomIt` must meet the requirements of `MoveAssignable` and `MoveConstructible`.
- `Compare` must meet the requirements of `Compare`.

[edit] Return value

(none)

[edit] Complexity

$O(N\cdotlog(N))$ , where N = std::distance(first, last) comparisons on average.	(until C++11)
$O(N\cdotlog(N))$ , where N = std::distance(first, last) comparisons.	(since C++11)

[edit] 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,

if policy is std::parallel_vector_execution_policy, std::terminate is called
if policy is std::sequential_execution_policy or std::parallel_execution_policy, the algorithm exits with an std::exception_list containing all uncaught exceptions. If there was only one uncaught exception, the algorithm may rethrow it without wrapping in std::exception_list. It is unspecified how much work the algorithm will perform before returning after the first exception was encountered.
if policy is some other type, the behavior is implementation-defined

If the algorithm fails to allocate memory (either for itself or to construct an std::exception_list when handling a user exception), std::bad_alloc is thrown.

[edit] Example

Run this code

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

Output:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

[edit] See also

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)
std::experimental::parallel::sort (parallelism TS)	parallelized version of `std::sort` (function template)

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