[LTT]

I think the [Stable Sort] Option is not working correctly.

For example, the original text (Tab-separated):
z z
z y
a b
a a

In TSV mode:
No matter if the [Stable Sort] option is on or off, [Sort A to Z] (by the 1st column) always gives the Stable sort:
a b
a a
z z
z y

In normal mode:
No matter if the [Stable Sort] option is on or off, [Sort A to Z] always gives the Non-Stable sort:
a a
a b
z y
z z

[Yutaka Emura]

Hello LTT,

This is a correct behavior.

In normal mode, “a a” should come earlier than “a b”, so

a a
a b
z y
z z

is correct.

[LTT]

But how to do Non-Stable sort in TSV mode?
Or, How to use the [Stable Sort] option?

[Yutaka Emura]

Hi LTT,

You will have to change to Normal mode before you sort, and then change back to TSV mode. Does this answer your question?

[LTT]

Sorry but I still don’t know when to use the [Stable Sort] option in [Tools >> Customize >> Sort]. :-(

[Yutaka Emura]

Hi LTT,

If the Stable Sort is on, in TSV mode, and if the cursor is at the first column,

a b
a a
z z
z y

is correct. Only the first column is used to sort, and the second column order is unchanged. If the Stable Sort is off, the second column order can be changed (the behavior is undefined).

Stable Sort is useful if you want to maintain the order of more than one column where there are multiple columns.

[LTT]

If the Stable Sort is off, the second column order can be changed (the behavior is undefined).

Could you give an example that in TSV mode the Non-Stable sort result differs from the Stable one?

[Yutaka Emura]

You will need to use a large file to test this.

Please try this:

file deleted

and then you can sort with stable sort, without stable sort, and compare two. I found these differences:

stable sort:

10012 10012
10012 20012
10013 10013
10013 20013
10014 10014
10014 20014
10015 10015
10015 20015

non-stable sort:

10012 20012
10012 10012
10013 20013
10013 10013
10014 20014
10014 10014
10015 20015
10015 10015

The non-stable sort result may be different from yours since the behavior is undefined.

Thanks!

[LTT]

Thank you very much for the explanation and the example.

[Author]

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