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Posted to issues@arrow.apache.org by "Liya Fan (Jira)" <ji...@apache.org> on 2019/08/21 12:19:00 UTC

[jira] [Created] (ARROW-6306) [Java] Support stable sort by stable comparators

Liya Fan created ARROW-6306:
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             Summary: [Java] Support stable sort by stable comparators
                 Key: ARROW-6306
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-6306
             Project: Apache Arrow
          Issue Type: New Feature
          Components: Java
            Reporter: Liya Fan
            Assignee: Liya Fan


Stable sort is desirable in many scenarios. It means equal elements preserve their relative order after sorting.

There are stable sort algorithms. However, in practice, the best sort algorithm is quick sort and quick sort is not stable. 

To make the best of both worlds, we support stable sort by stable comparators. It differs from an ordinary comparator in that it breaks ties by comparing the value indices.

With the stable comparator, the quick sort algorithm becomes a stable algorithm.



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