radix exchange

views updated

radix exchange A form of sorting by exchanging. Instead of comparing two sortkeys, individual bits are compared, starting with the most significant bit. The file is then split into two subfiles, one with keys having 0 as first bit, the other with 1 as first bit. The process continues on the first subfile, comparing the second bits, and similarly on the second subfile, and so on until the file is sorted.