{ > Could someone please post some code on using a quick > sort to sort an array of strings? I can do even better than that. I can give you some code on a general qsort routine that works like in C (if you're familiar with that). I. e. you can sort any type of arrays, if only you supply the correct compare function. Here goes... } unit QSort; {********************************************************* * QSORT.PAS * * C-like QuickSort implementation * * Written 931118 by Bj”rn Felten @ 2:203/208 * * After an idea by Pontus Rydin * *********************************************************} interface type CompFunc = function(Item1, Item2 : word) : integer; procedure QuickSort( var Data; {An array. Must be [0..Count-1] and not [1..Count] or anything else! } Count, {Number of elements in the array} Size : word; {Size in bytes of a single element -- e.g. 2 for integers or words, 4 for longints, 256 for strings and so on } Compare : CompFunc); {The function that decides which element is "greater" or "less". Must return an integer that's < 0 if the first element is less, 0 if they're equal and > 0 if the first element is greater. A simple Compare for words can look like this: function WordCompare(Item1, Item2: word): integer; begin WordCompare := MyArray[Item1] - MyArray[Item2] end; NB. It's not the =indices= that shall be compared, it's the elements that the supplied indices points to! Very important to remember! Also note that the array may be sorted in descending order just by means of a simple swap of Item1 and Item2 in the example.} implementation procedure QuickSort; procedure Swap(Item1, Item2 : word); var P1, P2 : ^byte; I : word; begin if Item1 <> Item2 then begin I := Size; P1 := @Data; inc(P1, Item1 * Size); P2 := @Data; inc(P2, Item2 * Size); asm mov cx,I { Size } les di,P1 push ds lds si,P2 @L: mov ah,es:[di] lodsb mov [si-1],ah stosb loop @L pop ds end end end; procedure Sort(Left, Right: integer); var i, j, x, y : integer; begin i := Left; j := Right; x := (Left+Right) div 2; repeat while compare(i, x) < 0 do inc(i); while compare(x, j) < 0 do dec(j); if i <= j then begin swap(i, j); inc(i); dec(j) end until i > j; if Left < j then Sort(Left, j); if i < Right then Sort(i, Right) end; begin Sort(0, Count) end; end. { of unit } { A simple testprogram can look like this: } program QS_Test; {Test QuickSort   la C} uses qsort; var v: array[0..9999] of word; i: word; {$F+} {Must be compiled as FAR calls!} function cmpr(a, b: word): integer; begin cmpr := v[a] - v[b] end; function cmpr2(a, b: word): integer; begin cmpr2 := v[b] - v[a] end; {$F-} begin randomize; for i := 0 to 9999 do v[i] := random(20000); quicksort(v, 10000, 2, cmpr); {in order lo to hi} quicksort(v, 10000, 2, cmpr2); {we now have a sorted list, sort it in {reverse -- nasty for qsort!} quicksort(v, 10000, 2, cmpr); {and reverse again} quicksort(v, 10000, 2, cmpr); {sort a sorted list -- also not very popular} end.