Why does a sorting algoritm require nested loops ?

thanks

If you can think of a more efficient way to sort without using nested loops, I'd be interested to hear it.

Also, you can avoid nested loops if you utilize recursion, but it just adds unnecessary complexity:

Code:

---

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int[] array = { 7, 2, 9, 8, 3, 4 };

            Sort(array);

            // Print the now sorted array
            for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; ++i)
                Console.Write("{0} ", array[i]);
            Console.WriteLine("");
        }

        private static void Sort(int[] array, int index = 0)
        {
            // Find the index (greater than or equal to the index passed in) with the smallest value
            int smallest = index;
            for (int i = index + 1; i < array.Length; ++i)
                if (array[i] < array[smallest])
                    smallest = i;

            // If the passed in index doesn't contain the smallest value, swap the values at the two indexes
            if (smallest != index)
            {
                int temp = array[smallest];
                array[smallest] = array[index];
                array[index] = temp;
            }

            // If we're not at the end of the array, sort the rest
            if (index < array.Length)
                Sort(array, index + 1);
        }
    }

---

Output...

Code:

---

2 3 4 7 8 9
Press any key to continue . . .

---