Ask Slashdot: How Do You Sort? 195
camperdave writes "I was recently going through a pile of receipts and other papers to put them into order by date. Lacking one of those fancy sorting sticks they have at the office, I wound up with all sorts of piles and I was getting confused as to which pile was for what. Finally, it struck me: Why don't I use one of the many sorting algorithms I learned back in my computer science classes? So I swept all the papers back into the box and did a radix sort on them. It worked like a charm. Since then, I've had occasion to try quicksorts and merge sorts. So, when you have to physically sort things, what algorithm (if any) do you use?"
Bubble sort (Score:3, Insightful)
Given that your pile was probably pretty well sorted to begin with, a bubble sort could actually have been the best solution. After all, the pile probably grew in chronological order.