Which sorting programs might work for this...i have not much experience in sorters or arrays as of yet...thanks,,...

Almost every language has its own sorting routines which can be tailored to suit the data, and typically these sort routines are built into the language or system rather that being separate programs.  Exactly what and how they work depends on the data involved.

Here's an example in Perl:

Code:

# Sorting golf scores # Read the scores @scores = <DATA>; print "Original scores:\n",@scores,"\n\n"; # Sort and print the leaderboard @leaderboard = sort byscore @scores; print "Leader Board:\n",@leaderboard,"\n\n"; sub byscore {        # Calculate fields needed in sorting 2 records        @fa = split(/\s+/,$a);        @fb = split(/\s+/,$b);        $scorea = $fa[-1]+$fa[-2]+$fa[-3];        $scoreb = $fb[-1]+$fb[-2]+$fb[-3];        # Compare those records        $scorea <=> $scoreb or $fa[1] cmp $fb[1];        } __END__ Arjun Atwal (Ind) 77 67 64 Arron Oberholser 72 68 69 Brian Bateman 72 68 71 Dan Forsman 73 72 67 Dean Wilson 72 70 69 Frank Lickliter II 71 70 68 Hunter Haas 75 68 67 Joey Snyder III 71 69 71 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 69 69 Lucas Glover 74 67 69 Omar Uresti 71 74 67 Phil Mickelson 74 65 69 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 72 69 71 Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 70 71 70

Like many othe languages, Perl's built in sort routine can take an extra parameter which is the name of a piece of code that tells two records apart by returning a negative, zero or positive response when comparing them to see which is "less" than the other.

You'll find links to further (Perl) source code examples at http://www.wellho.net/resources/P211.html for Perl, at http://www.wellho.net/resources/Y111.html for Python and at http://www.wellho.net/resources/H999.html for PHP.

Here's the result of running the program (above) to test it:

Code:

earth-wind-and-fire:~/apr05 grahamellis$ perl gsc Original scores: Arjun Atwal (Ind) 77 67 64 Arron Oberholser 72 68 69 Brian Bateman 72 68 71 Dan Forsman 73 72 67 Dean Wilson 72 70 69 Frank Lickliter II 71 70 68 Hunter Haas 75 68 67 Joey Snyder III 71 69 71 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 69 69 Lucas Glover 74 67 69 Omar Uresti 71 74 67 Phil Mickelson 74 65 69 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 72 69 71 Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 70 71 70 Leader Board: Arjun Atwal (Ind) 77 67 64 Phil Mickelson 74 65 69 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 69 69 Frank Lickliter II 71 70 68 Arron Oberholser 72 68 69 Lucas Glover 74 67 69 Hunter Haas 75 68 67 Brian Bateman 72 68 71 Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 70 71 70 Joey Snyder III 71 69 71 Dean Wilson 72 70 69 Dan Forsman 73 72 67 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 72 69 71 Omar Uresti 71 74 67 earth-wind-and-fire:~/apr05 grahamellis$

Thank you..that was quite over my head...lol...but at least i have a general idea of how it fits into the overall picture. ...One more question....in order for files etc. to be entered into arrays...do they have to be sorted first?...forgive my ignorance but im only in my first few weeks of programming and logic. we have just begun the study of arrays and sorting methods.....Thanks  

Information can be put into arrays (or lists) in any order ... typically, you'll read a file or a result set from a user and put the information into the array in the order you read it.  You then sort it from the array or list and (depending on the language) the results will either be put back into the same array or returned to you as a new array.

Interesting..I had it backwards...Thanks

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