Thread: qsort help

Hey guys, I'm having trouble with qsort. I just want to sort 10 numbers in ascending order. I've even copied in the code from the examples on this and other sites. The problem is that when I enter the numbers from 1-10 in that order, it sorts fine. But
sometimes for no apparent reason(usually if I start with 10) it sorts the numbers and when I print them I get my numbers times 10 and even then it's not in order.

Here's an example of my running program and output:

Enter number 1: 10

Enter number 2: 9

Enter number 3: 8

Enter number 4: 7

Enter number 5: 6

Enter number 6: 5

Enter number 7: 4

Enter number 8: 3

Enter number 9: 2

Enter number 10: 1
1 - Ascending
2 - Descending
1
10
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
20
10

Post your code... lets see what's going on...

Here is my program...

Code:

/* Asks the operator to input 10 numbers and then presents a menu
   giving the option to sort in ascending or descending order */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define MAX 1000 // max size of input array

void mainMenu(void);  // show main menu 
void getNumber(char*); // get a char from keyboard
void convertToInt(char*, int*, int); // convert keyboard char to int
void sortTheNumberAsc(int *); // sort the number in ascending order
void sortTheNumberDes(int *); //sort the number in descending order
int comparison(const void *, const void *); // used for function qsort
int endProgram(void);


int main()
{
    char inputNumber[MAX] = {0}; // numbers from operator entered as chars
    int numbersToSort[MAX] = {0}; // numbers from operator after conversion to int
    int i, c, d; // i is for looping, c for character input, d for decision for asc/des
    int j = 1;  // for main program loop
    
    while (j == 1) 
    {
        mainMenu();
        for (i = 0; i < MAX; ++i) 
        {
            inputNumber[i] = 0;
            numbersToSort[i] = 0;
        }
        
        for (i = 0; i < 10; ++i) 
        {
            printf("\nEnter number %d: ", i + 1);
            getNumber(inputNumber);
            convertToInt(inputNumber, numbersToSort, i);
        }
        
        printf("1 - Ascending\n2 - Descending\n");
        while ((c=getchar()) && c != '\n' && c != EOF) 
            d = c;
        
        if (d == '1') 
            sortTheNumberAsc(numbersToSort);
        else    
            sortTheNumberDes(numbersToSort);

        j = endProgram();
    }

    
    
    
}


void mainMenu(void)
{
    printf("Enter numbers one at a time and then specify ascending sort or descending sort.\n");
}
void getNumber(char *inputNumber)
{
    int i, c;
    i = 0;
    while ((c= getchar()) && c != '\n' && c != EOF) 
    {
        inputNumber[i] = c;
        ++i;
    }
}
void convertToInt(char *inputNumber, int *numbersToSort, int i)
{
    numbersToSort[i] = atoi(inputNumber);
}
void sortTheNumberAsc(int *numbersToSort)
{
    int i;
    qsort(numbersToSort, sizeof(numbersToSort), sizeof(numbersToSort[0]), comparison);
    for (i = 0; i <10; ++i)
        printf("%d\n", numbersToSort[i]);
}
void sortTheNumberDes(int *numbersToSort)
{
    int i;
    qsort(numbersToSort, sizeof(numbersToSort), sizeof(numbersToSort[0]), comparison);
    for (i = 9; i >=0; --i)
        printf("%d\n", numbersToSort[i]);
}


int comparison ( const void *a, const void *b)
{
    
    return (*(int*)a - *(int*)b) ;
}
int endProgram(void)
{
    int d, c;
    printf("Try again? y/n: ");
    while ((c=getchar()) && c != '\n' && c != EOF) 
        d = c;
    if (d == 'y')
        return 1;
    else
        return 0;
}

I haven't used qsort in a while so I may stand to be corrected but you could try...

Code:

int comparison ( const void *a, const void *b)
{
    
    return (*((int*)a) - *((int*)b)) ;
}

or

Code:

int comparison ( const int *a, const int *b)
{
    
    return (*a - *b) ;
}

Originally Posted by CommonTater

I haven't used qsort in a while so I may stand to be corrected but you could try...

Code:

int comparison ( const void *a, const void *b)
{
    
    return (*((int*)a) - *((int*)b)) ;
}

or

Code:

int comparison ( const int *a, const int *b)
{
    
    return (*a - *b) ;
}

That did not solve the issue. I'm wondering if it could be somehow because of my conversion between a char array to an int array? After all, it seems that it works as long as I leave it with single digits. Of course, I have entered numbers in the hundreds and it sorts most of them but still screws up a few, so that may not be the problem either.

Hey,

You have two issues in your code.

1. Getting 10 times bigger numbers: You need to properly end user input with '\0' in getNumber function because atoi will look to it to determine the end of the string. Otherwise if you input a big number first(more than one digits) and then small numbers, you get garbage in the rest of the cells(meaning if you input 100 the first time you probably get 100 times bigger values afterwards).

2. Not sorting correctly: sizeof(numbersToSort) changed to 10 will work fine in your case. Evil sizeof...

Originally Posted by vincent01910

Hey,

You have two issues in your code.

1. Getting 10 times bigger numbers: You need to properly end user input with '\0' in getNumber function because atoi will look to it to determine the end of the string. Otherwise if you input a big number first(more than one digits) and then small numbers, you get garbage in the rest of the cells(meaning if you input 100 the first time you probably get 100 times bigger values afterwards).

2. Not sorting correctly: sizeof(numbersToSort) changed to 10 will work fine in your case. Evil sizeof...

Wow, thanks! Yes, I should have caught not adding the '\0'. I made the changed and now it works. I'm not understanding why sizeof didn't work though.

That's because sizeof() only knows the size of an array in the same context (set of braces) in which it was created. Outside of that context the name of the array decays to a pointer to the array and the compiler no longer knows how big it is... sizeof() will then return the size of the pointer, not the size of the array.